# success sort of!!



## smaj100 (Oct 17, 2012)

Well we harvested our carrotts tonight. While we are very excited to have finally gotten them to grow finally in the raised bed, they didn't grow very big. We had some big pretty green tops, tall and firm, but the carrots themselves 1/2 were decent thumb size or bigger and the rest were pinky sized. 

We used very loose, dark earth that has been sitting in a pile near the compost pile for years. Any suggestions as to what to do the soil to make next years carrots better? Fertilizer now and let it set for winter, add more from the compost and let it sit for the winter, and other additives that carrots need and love? We want some big ol monster carrots.


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

smaj100 said:


> Well we harvested our carrotts tonight. While we are very excited to have finally gotten them to grow finally in the raised bed, they didn't grow very big. We had some big pretty green tops, tall and firm, but the carrots themselves 1/2 were decent thumb size or bigger and the rest were pinky sized.
> 
> We used very loose, dark earth that has been sitting in a pile near the compost pile for years. Any suggestions as to what to do the soil to make next years carrots better? Fertilizer now and let it set for winter, add more from the compost and let it sit for the winter, and other additives that carrots need and love? We want some big ol monster carrots.


I have a plot in a community garden. One gardener always has beautiful and large carrots. She told me that she added lots of sand to the bed where she grows her carrots. We have clay soil here. Several of us have talked about no matter how much we amend our soil, the clay just keeps taking over.


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## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

weedygarden said:


> I have a plot in a community garden. One gardener always has beautiful and large carrots. She told me that she added lots of sand to the bed where she grows her carrots. We have clay soil here. Several of us have talked about no matter how much we amend our soil, the clay just keeps taking over.


 WeedyG, Maybe try to some builders sand or childs sandbox play sand. My daughter live in red clay georgia and she mixed her containers with 1/3 builders sand. Crops doing great.

We grew carrots in raised beds and sometimes its the seeds. Use a couple different kinds of seeds and see if one comes our better. :wave:


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

Meerkat said:


> WeedyG, Maybe try to builders sand or childs snadbox play sand. My daughter live in red clay georgia and she mixed her containers with 1/3 builders sand. Crops doing great.
> 
> We grew carrots in raised beds and sometimes its the seeds. Use a couple different kinds of seeds and see if one comes our better. :wave:


Thank you for that tip. I had decided that I would select a section of my raised beds and add sand for growing carrots.

I know that many people have a difficult time growing carrots, myself included.

A friend of mine has a garden plot in a different community garden than mine. These gardens have been around for a few decades. There are several raised beds in her garden that are 30 inches high, built by the gardeners. She changed plots to one such plot that had been gardened by the same man since anyone can remember. He was in his 90s and died. She planted carrots in two of the beds. In one bed, the carrots were beautiful and did very well. In the other bed, her carrots never did well. She told me the soil is a little different in them. The lesson I took from that is that if you have a successful location for carrots, make that your carrot bed. I know rotation of crops is important.


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## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

weedygarden said:


> Thank you for that tip. I had decided that I would select a section of my raised beds and add sand for growing carrots.
> 
> I know that many people have a difficult time growing carrots, myself included.
> 
> A friend of mine has a garden plot in a different community garden than mine. These gardens have been around for a few decades. There are several raised beds in her garden that are 30 inches high, built by the gardeners. She changed plots to one such plot that had been gardened by the same man since anyone can remember. He was in his 90s and died. She planted carrots in two of the beds. In one bed, the carrots were beautiful and did very well. In the other bed, her carrots never did well. She told me the soil is a little different in them. The lesson I took from that is that if you have a successful location for carrots, make that your carrot bed. I know rotation of crops is important.


 Sometimes carrots just don't like the n-hood. So we have to move them. :dunno:

This year our greenhouse and garden are runnign late. We didn't make enough compost for raiound only.ydros this go rsed beds so it will be container or h. SEE THIS CRAPOLA! This is whatI deal with typing my replies. 

Not enough compost for raised beds this year. THERE!:wave:


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## terri9630 (Jun 2, 2016)

Compost works better than sand. Sand can make the problem worse for the roots. The roots will "bind up" in a pocket of sand instead of spreading out into the clay. You need more organic material to break up the clay.


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## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

terri9630 said:


> Compost works better than sand. Sand can make the problem worse for the roots. The roots will "bind up" in a pocket of sand instead of spreading out into the clay. You need more organic material to break up the clay.


 Sometimes we don't have compost, she, my daughter never does,. I forgot she is using raised beds, .

Ga. Clay is like glue but it is full of good ions. In containers they won't charge like in the ground. I'm using containers too now and use perlite.

I'll be more careful now with the sand when I use it though,thanks for info.:wave:


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## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

Meerkat, some grocery stores will give you the bad produce and trimmings that they can't sell. Just go in and talk to the produce guy. Some stores are worried about being sued if you feed your livestock so you may have to talk your way into it. You have all winter for this compost to rot so you might have something useable next year. If not certainly the spring after.


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## Saffer (Aug 3, 2012)

Quoted from the following website: http://www.thegardenhelper.com/fertilizer.html



> The first number in a fertilizer formula is the nitrogen content.....
> Nitrogen is used by plants for producing leaf growth and greener, lusher leaves.
> The second number in a fertilizer formula is the phosphorus content.....
> Phosphorus is used by plant to increase fruit development and to produce a strong root system.
> ...


Compost is usually rich in nitrogen, hence the lush leaves. Try some fertilizer that will supplement the phosphorous in your beds.


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## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

Caribou said:


> Meerkat, some grocery stores will give you the bad produce and trimmings that they can't sell. Just go in and talk to the produce guy. Some stores are worried about being sued if you feed your livestock so you may have to talk your way into it. You have all winter for this compost to rot so you might have something useable next year. If not certainly the spring after.


 Thanks Caribou but peopel here already got tabs on that. 



Saffer said:


> Quoted from the following website: http://www.thegardenhelper.com/fertilizer.html
> 
> Compost is usually rich in nitrogen, hence the lush leaves. Try some fertilizer that will supplement the phosphorous in your beds.


 I watched a guy on Ted Talks say all we really need is fallen leaves. I hope to be raking them up this fall for sure. Last year I didn't get many.


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