Planted your veg yet?

[Cab]

The instructions that I've got for carrots says that they should be thinned out to about 2" inches apart. Try radishes. They grow very, very easily and very fast. Great if you have to keep a kid's interest up.

Agreed, but the little carrot varieties like Paris market, paris garden and parmex are so small, fast growing and sweet flavoured that they're also good for kids. Not as fast as radish, but so tasty!

 

[Chuffy]

Naah, don't worry about the season being late, its merely later than the last few which were all early It'll be fine, later sown seedlings will catch up right as rain.

It's our first year actually! The old boy who owns the garden next to ours (it's a weird layout) is an ex-pro farm labourer, so we look at his fecund plot with more than a hint of envy...
The seeds are all in the cold frame but I reckon the later sown stuff will probably be stronger than the early. So long as the ants don't chomp it all...

 

[Fnaar]

How many carrots in a 10" pot all depends on how deep it is and what variety of carrots. Thin them out, thats for sure, but without knowing depth and variety I can't say exactly how far... So what kind of carrots, how deep is it?

erm...erm...erm... orange ones? will have to check!

 

[Night Train]

I have it easy, my Dad can make almost anything grow. The Spinich has just sprouted, we are in for another bumper crop of figs and tomatoes and we should have apples and plums this year too.

 

[Cab]

erm...erm...erm... orange ones? will have to check!

As a rough guide, if its something like 'early nantes' then give them an inch apart, even less, if its 'parmex' or 'paris market' or similar they can be a little closer, if its 'sugarsnax' then they can be maybe an inch, if they're 'autumn king giganta' then they want four inches apart and a good couple of feet down to grow... Carrot varieties are very variable, and some of my favourites aren't even orange...

 

[Cab]

It's our first year actually! The old boy who owns the garden next to ours (it's a weird layout) is an ex-pro farm labourer, so we look at his fecund plot with more than a hint of envy...
The seeds are all in the cold frame but I reckon the later sown stuff will probably be stronger than the early. So long as the ants don't chomp it all...

This ants thing... They don't really directly trouble plants for the most part. What have you got ants on? Have a close look at them, any aphids there? I'll wager that if ants are crawling all over something then what they're doing is milking and protecting aphids on the plants, which is a complete pain in the arse because you not only have to deal with the aphids but if you don't at least inconvenience the ants then they immediately find fresh aphids to replace them. Clever things, ants

Spotted an ant on a broad bean yesterday. Immediately took the tops of every broad bean in the row, because I know there will be blackfly being seeded onto the tips by ants very soon, and I know that the damage will be huge. So its either spray with a systemic insecticide or do it the old fashioned (and cheaper!) way.

 

[Chuffy]

erm...erm...erm... orange ones? will have to check!

My kind of gardener!
I suspect that the carrots you have will be pretty standard. The types that Cab was referring to are either dwarf varieties or round. The key thing is that they don't need the deep, loose, soil that traditional varieties do. Your pot is probably too shallow for most traditional types.
Go on, try radishes. You'll be crunching them inside a month.

 

[Chuffy]

This ants thing... They don't really directly trouble plants for the most part. What have you got ants on?

Sweetcorn seedlings. They were grown in peat pots in the cold frame and I'd noticed a few ants in there and some sections cut out of a few leaves. Now that I've planted the seedlings out the little buggers have snipped a few of them off at gound level and shredded the others. There definitely aren't any aphids on the seedlings and we're crawling with ladybirds this year, so hopefully we won't be troubles by them on anything else. I've also got the sweetcorn plot well covered with pea sticks to keep the birds off, so I know it's not them

 

[Cab]

My kind of gardener!
I suspect that the carrots you have will be pretty standard. The types that Cab was referring to are either dwarf varieties or round. The key thing is that they don't need the deep, loose, soil that traditional varieties do. Your pot is probably too shallow for most traditional types.
Go on, try radishes. You'll be crunching them inside a month.

Or they could be a Nantes type, which you often encounter sees for, and they'll do passably well in a pot.

 

[summerdays]

Agreed, but the little carrot varieties like Paris market, paris garden and parmex are so small, fast growing and sweet flavoured that they're also good for kids. Not as fast as radish, but so tasty!

Thanks for the variety tip ... I may add to our varieties that we grew last year; Royal Chantenay and Samurai

Your pot is probably too shallow for most traditional types.

We grew our first lot of carrots in a 10 pot last year - about 8 or so ... the children loved emptying out the pot and then ceromoniously going in and cooking them ... left them wanting more obviously, but I think it was the first thing other than lettuce that we had grown and then eatten whch made it special.

 

[Cab]

Sweetcorn seedlings. They were grown in peat pots in the cold frame and I'd noticed a few ants in there and some sections cut out of a few leaves. Now that I've planted the seedlings out the little buggers have snipped a few of them off at gound level and shredded the others. There definitely aren't any aphids on the seedlings and we're crawling with ladybirds this year, so hopefully we won't be troubles by them on anything else. I've also got the sweetcorn plot well covered with pea sticks to keep the birds off, so I know it's not them

Never heard of ants going for sweetcorn. Seems more likely that you have another creepy crawley. I'd be tempted to re-sow and apply derris to the seedlings.

 

[Chuffy]

Or they could be a Nantes type, which you often encounter sees for, and they'll do passably well in a pot.

& Summerdays.

You'll notice that I left myself plenty of wiggle room in the advice I gave!

 

[Cab]

Thanks for the variety tip ... I may add to our varieties that we grew last year; Royal Chantenay and Samurai

Both good.

Might I also reccomend nelson f1 (very tasty), danvers half long (also very tasty), sugarsnax (sweetest I've ever grown), purple dragon (purple... cool!), and kinbi f1 (yellow rather than orange, very carroty carrots).

We grew our first lot of carrots in a 10 pot last year - about 8 or so ... the children loved emptying out the pot and then ceromoniously going in and cooking them ... left them wanting more obviously, but I think it was the first thing other than lettuce that we had grown and then eatten whch made it special.

Neat Theres something extra special about home grown carrots, they're astonishingly good compared with shop bought, they're so much sweeter.

Still eating the last of last years carrots (autumn king and danvers half long are all I've got left), but the first little round ones (Paris garden) should be ready soonish, followed by some other earlies (sugarsnax should be first). Will be sowing successionally for a few more weeks.

 

[summerdays]

When you sow successionally - how long do you leave it between each sowing? I'm still waiting for the first lot to come up, currently about 3 per row and they were planted back in March I think ... not sure if the slug has been eatting well.

 

[dan_bo]

Spotted an ant on a broad bean yesterday. Immediately took the tops of every broad bean in the row, because I know there will be blackfly being seeded onto the tips by ants very soon, and I know that the damage will be huge. So its either spray with a systemic insecticide or do it the old fashioned (and cheaper!) way.

tip of the week there lad!