On Mon, 2 Jun 2003 23:16:45 +0100, "Howard Neil" hneil@REMOVE TO
REPLY.co.uk wrote:

~ Carrots can take a long time to germinate. We waited ages for ours to
~ show this year, then when the weather turned warmer in the last few
~ days, they all started to show. Give yours a little more time before you
~ give up on them.
~ --
~ Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.
~
~Thanks for the thought but when I say I have given up this year, I mean I
~have not sown any at all. Last year I sowed four different varieties from
~two different seed producers. One carrot germinated but stayed very small.
~Otherwise, nothing.

I had all of six last year! Out of *four* packets. I asked at the national
veg soc stall at the BBC GW show what was going on and the old chap manning
it said it was mainly conditions of last spring and he had heard of a LOT
of folk with this problem. I got a bit bloody-minded this year and sowed a
pot inside of Amsterdam forcing in January (!) just so I had some... (just
mature now - sweet,straight and no carrot fly!!

This year I did what the old chap had suggested - trod the rows down after
planting and together with our slightly better spring I have tiny plants
again. But to reinforce the other advice given by John Pearce, I sowed a
row of Flyaway into a cm of compost, covering them up with a mix of compost
and my quite-light soil. They came up like rockets, and have the added
bonus that there are fewer weeds in that row. And the ones I do have are
easier to pull out!
I've now got Autumn King pelleted, Early Nantes and Flyaway. I am expecting
the sacrifice-crop Nantes to be munched in preference to the Flyaway,
though may do the old net curtain trick and cover them all soon.

Anyone know how big a carrot is when the fly attacks? I'd say when the
roots begin to swell, but I've never seen it mentioned...

~
~I will wait till I have new ideas as to what is causing the failure before I
~waste any more time and money on carrot seeds (as much as I like carrots).
~
~Howard Neil
~
Good luck!


--
jane

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain

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