My carrots were one of the very first things I planted when I started the London Vegetable Garden back at the beginning of April. The humble carrot is a perennial feature of the traditional English vegetable garden, so needless to say, my enthusiasm got the better of me and I planted these seeds with real relish.
Fast forward three and a half months to today, and although my enthusiasm for growing carrots hasn't dampened, reality has set in. One of the main things I've learnt about growing your own vegetables over the last few months (hindsight is a wonderful thing!), is that they key to successful planting in small spaces is planting thinly.
I planted a large number of carrot seeds into a pot back in April and since then, a mountain of green shoots have sprung up. Over the last month however, growth has come to a real standstill and today I took the decision to end the carrot-growing part of the London Vegetable Garden project. The carrot plants got to the stage where they were so tightly packed together, that they didn't have enough room to grow on. As you can see from the photo below, much of the shoots simply stopped growing at a certain stage:
Nevertheless, this attempt wasn't completely in vain! I did manage to pull out a few, albeit very small, carrots from the pot – as Darwin would argue, these do indeed indicate the 'survival of the fittest'. Whilst I'm the first to admit that this has overall been an unsuccessful attempt to grow carrots, the purpose of the London Vegetable Garden has always been to educate and to see just what is possible. Growing carrots is possible – but be prepared to sow thinly and ideally in a very large and deep pot.
Better than my first attempt. Last year mine were just "nothing stumps of something green" when I pulled them out! :0( Hoping for more success this year though.
ReplyDeleteI love garden art and the way you have shown them it is our biggest passion.
ReplyDeleteDon't give up Callum, next time try a much bigger container and look out for carrot seeds especially for patio growing, like 'amsterdam 2-amice' if you can get some they can be sown until end of July, I got some in 'Wilkinson's' 99p. It's not too late to sow other varieties now by the way.
ReplyDeletegood luck for next time.
Thanks for the comments! I may try another batch in a much larger pot - are you sure it's not too late Maureen?
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know how many days it takes from sowing to harvesting for wilko amsterdam 2 amice carrots ? I have planted some seeds from the packet on 22nd June 2009 and now have around 7 inches of carrot top greenery.I have planted them in a 15 litre black pot. The packet does not indicate how many days for expected harvest.This is the first year I have ever grown anything so have no previous experience to call on. would anyone have any idea as a good general growing time guideline for carrots grown in pots please ? Many thanks, Teresa.
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