a tale of three carrots
Sometime last year I planted carrot seeds.
From a packet of heritage seeds.
Carrots in four colours.
Orange, yellow, white, purple.
In vain I waited for them to grow.
Sometime later last year I planted some more carrot seeds.
In vain I waited for them to grow.
I took the rest of the seeds out to the pots and dumped them all in together.
They grew.
But they were all bunched up together and not doing well.
I prepared a new pot of potting soil, and transplanted the carrot seedlings, oh-so-carefully.
Most of them promptly died.
Three survived and even grew.
As is often the case with transplanted carrots, they didn't grow straight and true.
The tops grew large and feathery, giving no hint of the craziness happening below the soil surface.
The carrots grew fat, but stunted. Short and twisted.
One orange, one yellow, one white.
I pulled them out today.
I'm giving up on the vegetables and putting in flowers.
Maybe.
Maybe I'll leave the pots empty.
I took photos of the twisted, stunted carrots, but blogger won't upload them.
So you'll have to use your imaginations to see how they may have looked.
I'll try again at some later stage, (next week, next month, next year), maybe blogger will have a change of heart.
The carrots weren't edible, peeling them would have been impossible anyway.
From a packet of heritage seeds.
Carrots in four colours.
Orange, yellow, white, purple.
In vain I waited for them to grow.
Sometime later last year I planted some more carrot seeds.
In vain I waited for them to grow.
I took the rest of the seeds out to the pots and dumped them all in together.
They grew.
But they were all bunched up together and not doing well.
I prepared a new pot of potting soil, and transplanted the carrot seedlings, oh-so-carefully.
Most of them promptly died.
Three survived and even grew.
As is often the case with transplanted carrots, they didn't grow straight and true.
The tops grew large and feathery, giving no hint of the craziness happening below the soil surface.
The carrots grew fat, but stunted. Short and twisted.
One orange, one yellow, one white.
I pulled them out today.
I'm giving up on the vegetables and putting in flowers.
Maybe.
Maybe I'll leave the pots empty.
I took photos of the twisted, stunted carrots, but blogger won't upload them.
So you'll have to use your imaginations to see how they may have looked.
I'll try again at some later stage, (next week, next month, next year), maybe blogger will have a change of heart.
The carrots weren't edible, peeling them would have been impossible anyway.
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Carrots are tricky sods to grow. They need superfine soil, and lots of water and lots of food. I am sorry that blogger refused to let you show them to us though.
ReplyDeleteI can help!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI saw a video a week or so ago from a blogger friend who made seed tape from TP for his carrot seeds. So easy and so practical.
http://bitsouttheback.blogspot.com/2011/03/compost-teas-seeds.html
It's the video about seed tape.
Elephant's Child; I've read that carrots don't like feeding much, although they do need lots of water.
ReplyDeleteFrogdancer; I've read about that too, just never tried it because it's fiddly and I'm lazy. I'll try it though next time I'm ready to plant. I'm going to try the drinking straw method for other seeds too. You've heard of this? Mark a drinking straw in half centimetre lengths, insert it into the soil to the correct depth for the seed you are planting, then drop a seed through the straw.
My Aunty Kath could grow anything - she had a fabulous garden of vegetables on a big double block (now housing I see when I snooped on Google Earth - though I see when I looked at my old house that my agapanthus are doing really well! Isn't Google Earth a great thing?).
ReplyDeleteBut as usual, I digress... anyway, Aunty Kath, who could give Peter Cundall's Veggie patch a run for its money, could never grow carrots. They all came out chunky, deformed and woody. We used to feed them to the horses. So don't give up on other veggies just because the carrots wouldn't play nicely. And don't you hate it when you carefully nurture something and it ups its toes and snuffs it. I take that sort of thing quite personally.
Bummer about Blogger and photos. I use an old prehistoric method of my own invention to upload so I haven't noticed it being a pain. I hope it behaves better for you later.
Marie; thanks. I used to have a lovely big shadehouse with defined garden beds that grew heaps of vegetables. Hubby tore it down the second year because he was convinced people were going to dob him in for growing marijuana in it. (we weren't)Since then I haven't grown much more than a few beans and tomatoes. everything else turns over and dies.
ReplyDeleteI'll give blogger a second chance tomorrow.
Get some seed raising mix for sowing carrots, potting mix is too coarse. You can transplant the seedlings when they get sturdy enough. They need deep soil anyway or they'll grow deformed. And get good seeds. Yates are good. Obscure hippy brands are a waste of effort.
ReplyDeleteDon't stop growing vegetables, just give them the best chance: plenty of sun, and compost mixed with the soil. Never throw away fruit and veg peelings, turn it into compost. Good heavens, you'll get failures, some things are just hard to grow, they need the right conditions.
Same happened to my sister's carrots. One looked like a cow's udder. I looked up why it happens but I forget now.
ReplyDeletewhat a great blog! you are so inspirational! :) if you get the chance could you check out my blog and tell me what you think? i would love your opinions! :)
ReplyDeletefollow me?
www.so--hi.blogspot.com
R.H. I started them off in seed raising mix, then transplanted into a good potting mix/compost mixture. Not sure what went wrong from there. None of my plantings came to much good this year. Next year should be better.
ReplyDeleteAndrew; blogger seems to be behaving, so I'll have another go at putting the pictures up.
Rachel; welcome to drifting. I've never thought of myself as inspirational, so thank you. i'll check your blog.