Potted carrots

Always willing to try something different and running out of space I decided to stick a pot on the wall and plant some carrots. Should also help to keep off the dreaded carrot fly being higher up. So far looking good. I know, not a big crop but one good sized carrot does us two for one meal.

 

looking good capney, ive done a similar thing in my garden, got a massive plant pot with about 7 carrots in (from a pack of about 500 :dh but at any rate it should be a good haul for a meal or so as you say.

the only thing thats concerning me is that im not entire sure what to look for to determine whether theyre done or not!

yaco

 

Yacobian, have a scrape around the neck of your carrot with a finger.
If they look big enough for you have them out.
If not then just cover the tops up again and leave them for a while.

Hi Capney, I'm sure you'll get a few good carrots. They do well in pots for me. I never bother planting them in the ground , they just get ruined with carrot fly.

 

Planted mine in pots this year for the first time. Looking good for the moment ie, swelling nicely at the surface. Must try picking soon.
John

 

Ah of course, the answers are always so simple.
thanks a lot!
yaco

 

I tried carrots in pots too. No carrot fly I have pulled some and they were beautifully sweet and fresh. Not many though obviously.

 

Last year we did both, baby carrots in pots and Nantes in the ground. The baby carrots were the best carrots we have ever ever tasted. The Nantes – smelt great and looked wonderful but actually tasted of nothing - literally nothing. It was very wierd.

So this year we've ditched the big boys and gone babies all the way. You get loads in a pot - we've got three pots on the go at the moment and all looking great.

 

I tugged all mine out the other day, aside from one "regular" one i had about 6 crazy tri-carrots that looked like the aliens hand from district 9...

is there any reason why the ones i grew were mostly bumpish and rumply?, i used some softish soil and let them grow unimpeded for the mostpart.

or do carrots grow all knobbly all the time and my city-brain just hasnt seen them before?

cheers :thmb:

 

Harvested another one of my pots of carrots this morning.
Highly delighted with what I got.

 

They look pretty good. What variety are they?

 

They are Mr Fothergills Autumn King 2
Growing in the pots at high level is something I shall do more of next year.

 

now thats an idea I had not considered.
I will a go at growing carrots. I have plenty of pots and they can easily go on top of my spare patio table.

 

"now thats an idea I had not considered. "

We grow Carrots in pots too. We have heavy clay, and I just find it easier / more reliable TBH.

I take some old multi-purpose compost (left over from something else, you don't want it to have much richness, and I mix it 1/3rd sharp sand (not builder's sand) and 2/3rd knackered :D compost in pots that are about 12" diameter, and then just sow some seed periodically - we have 6 pots that we use in rotation. I cover with a sheet of glass until they ahve germinated, and then once its a bit of a forest we harvest the baby thinnings to leave about 1"-2" between the plants and leave them to mature, then harvest on-demand.

I'm trying T & M Nantes Frubund this Autumn as it is supposed to overwinter and be "really earlier" in the Spring but other people have had very mixed results. Mine will be in a cold greenhouse, but even so I'm not sure how well it will work ...

 

I grew Sutton's Maestro this year; it's an F1 hybrid carrot which claims to have carrot fly resistance. Absolutely terrific, good flavour, good colour and ....no carrot fly! But that might be just luck, of course!

 

It is most likely that the compost you used was too rich or, unlikely in pots, there were a lost of stones in the compost.