"Jonathan Campbell" wrote in message
...
Gordon H wrote:
In message , June Hughes
writes
I have never been successful in growing carrots. They either got carrot
fly, were thin and weedy or were eaten by beasties before I harvested
them. This year, I put some in a plastic tub and have just harvested
around 3 pounds, so am delighted. It may not be much to all you
gardeners who are better than me but to me it is brilliant. Like the
potatoes, I shall put them in the ground next year and hope for the
best. I am very pleased

I grew a few Early Nantes in a tub this year, and they were the
straightest carrots I've grown, though smallish.
The only way I avoided bifurcated and distorted carrots in open ground
was by dibbing a tapering hole and filling it with sand and compost.

I have always had poor success with carrots. However, this year, following
Geoffrey Smith's suggestion in "Mr. Smith's Vegetable Garden", I planted a
row in a 2" to 3" deep drill filled with builders' sand (late March). Very
successful.

I persisted with some normal soil planting; they seemed to grow slowly,
and to no size and were misshapen. Also these were attacked by carrot fly;
but that may have been due to the proximity of overhanging trees.


We sow our first carrots in large pots which then stay on top of the compost
bays until harvesting. The main crop were, on the advice on the seed packet,
not sown until late May. They're doing very nicely, no sign of the fly, and
we're just starting to pull them as needed.

I'm wondering whether a similar strategy may work to avoid leek moth next
year.

Steve