Container carrots

[~gd]

LOL 2 dream
I hear ya on roasting, sautee etc. I sure go thru veggies like crazy also


ya know, other than a carrot cake, I can't think of other ways to make a carrot a focus. hmmm....maybe it is meant to be a 'veggie in the group' type root HAHA


I never heard of a 'stuffed carrot' or anything like that. (I am now off to google carrot recipes and see if they are used as a main focus in anything LOL)

THEY may not be the main focus but they are used in a bunch of recipes for eye appeal, chrispness and sweetness.
I really want to post is this: NC red clay is usually short on the trace minerals containing Boron. I had mine determined by a special soil test after seeing very good growth where I had used boric acid for ant control. the Ag agent recommended borax as a source since the red clay is usually on the acid side. I'm convinced that it really helped all my root vegatables but before I used it I had never had any luck with carrots and beets. Since the compost I used was all local stuff it was lacking in boron too. I don't know if it is considered ORGANIC or not, and I don't care. I used 1 Tablespoon of off the shelf Borax [Laundry section of supermarket] in each 4'x8' section of my raised beds. Guess who won blue ribbons at the County fair! of course there was nobody entered against me in Carrots and Beets.
DO NOT OVER USE only trace amounts are needed and it is toxic to worms and insects [ants] which is how I learned in the first place.~gd

 

[Wannabefree]

Try carrot cake recipes. My recipe uses 3 cups of grated carrots, and we love it. Also carrots are really good candied like candied sweet potatoes.

 

[moolie]

I tryed growing carrots for the first time last year....
in a quite deep raised bed...
not much luck though
planted purple haze and rainbow...
got No Purple haze and only scrawny rainbows...
the parsnips didn;t do well either....
the soil was mainly composted...
so maybe that had something to do with it...

Compost wouldn't be your problem, unless you had some weird plant disease in there. Garden veggies love compost

What did you plant them next to? Some plants cause poor growth in their neighbors.

How was your water situation? Carrots don't like irregular watering, and they don't like it too wet.

Did you thin them? Skinny root carrots are usually the result of not giving carrots enough space to grow.

 

[~gd]

I tryed growing carrots for the first time last year....
in a quite deep raised bed...
not much luck though
planted purple haze and rainbow...
got No Purple haze and only scrawny rainbows...
the parsnips didn;t do well either....
the soil was mainly composted...
so maybe that had something to do with it...

Compost wouldn't be your problem, unless you had some weird plant disease in there. Garden veggies love compost I think this was a reference to my suggestion that you need micro minerals and to the fact that if your area soil in general lacks these micro minerals the plants that make up the compost are NOT going to add the missing micro mineral. So if your soil is good, yes veggies love compost if it is missing you might as well try to grow on pure beach sand What did you plant them next to? Some plants cause poor growth in their neighbors.

How was your water situation? Carrots don't like irregular watering, and they don't like it too wet.

Did you thin them? Skinny root carrots are usually the result of not giving carrots enough space to grow.

 

[BrandedX]

I grew up in Grants, NM, formerly The Carrot Capitol of the US (now it's The Uranium Capitol... *shudder*).

The 'secret' was our mostly sandy and volcanic natural soil mixed with a heavy compost (appr. 1/3 semi-acidic sand mixed with 2/3 compost and cattle manure blend). A hippie friend of mine would grind up some of the local lava coral and mix it 2 to 3 parts playground sand and then just mix a 1:3 ration mix with his grass/chicken manure compost for 8"deep container/raised beds. I'm sure there are more 'modernized' means of achieving the mild acidity, but his way produced some amazing carrots. I think mainly though the added sand was key to maintaining a good drainage to moisture retention ratio.

I've tried a crop of danver's long myself but used very old seed. Out of probally 100+ seeds sown, I sprouted only 1 seed! Temp was maybe a factor but everything else sprouted...??

 

[Joel_BC]

The 'secret' was our mostly sandy and volcanic natural soil mixed with a heavy compost (appr. 1/3 semi-acidic sand mixed with 2/3 compost and cattle manure blend). A hippie friend of mine would grind up some of the local lava coral and mix it 2 to 3 parts playground sand and then just mix a 1:3 ration mix with his grass/chicken manure compost for 8"deep container/raised beds. I'm sure there are more 'modernized' means of achieving the mild acidity, but his way produced some amazing carrots. I think mainly though the added sand was key to maintaining a good drainage to moisture retention ratio.

I'm not so sure that the acidity provided by the ground "lava coral" was the main factor. There seem to be other factors for plant health and growth in at least some volcanic stones/minerals. By the way, how did your friend grind the rock?

Anyhow, about the growth factors... I was able to source a sample of some "paramagnetic" rock powder from the Victoria, BC-based company. They do not have the rock powder in production, as yet. But my own small, informal trials display the value of using the powder.

Back in the spring 2011, I was starting several kinds of plants using a bagged potting soil my wife and I bought. I used that soil unamended, in sets of matched starter trays - that is, unamended except for those trays in which Id added about 15% of this volcanic rock powder to the mixture. All the seedlings were started under grow lights. (I didn't take pictures of the results, at that time.)

In the summer, though, I again used starting trays (six packs) and matched the basic growing medium, the watering regime, and the lighting on the experimental and control trays. However, in the summer time I made up my own starter medium as follows: 50% sphagnum peat moss; 30% worm castings; 20% perlite well stirred. This, in itself, was a pretty rich mix because of the worm castings. One of the trays shown below contains this mixture as such. The other has this mixture with about 12% volcanic rock powder stirred into it. I made up only two trays, and identified each one to be able to interpret my results.

With each of the six packs, I filled each of the cells as close to the same level as I could. I planted each cell with two radish seeds from the same packet. I kept the trays on a bench in our greenhouse. Then I was careful to keep the watering and the light exposure the same. Seed germination took about 48 hours, on average and the germination rate was pretty much the same, comparing the two six packs.

The picture, taken eight days after planting the seeds, pretty much tells the story. The seedlings (on the left) with the volcanic powder in their growing medium were clearly doing better. Id estimate the difference in vitality and growth to be maybe 20%, at the early stage photographed.

With my spring-time experiment, the difference seemed more impressive probably because the commercial growing medium was very basic and not high in nutrients (such as those the worm castings provided to the second mixture). With the spring experiments, the seedlings growing in the medium that included the volcanic rock powder did twice as well, in my assessment, in terms of vitality and size. But I judged that difference not after eight days, but after a month or so.

 

[BrandedX]

Wow! The proof is self-evident!

As for the grinding, his method was primitive. He fold-up some heavy canvas and pretty much make a taco and take a sledge hammer to it. To save some wear on his canvas he'd slip old streetsigns and other sheet metal scraps. He'd then shift out the powder. In a hour or so he'd get enough fine grit to fill a coffee can which would be enough for about a 2x8x6 bed.

I agree that it is probably more the mineral content more than the acid level that is the true 'helper' but I can't help but harbor a suspicion that it helps a bit. I also think the sandier soil made for better root growth too.

I should mention though, that he harvested his rock legally because he lived on the reservation. Many of the lava coral beds were off-limits to non-natives. Of course this was 20+ yrs ago. I'd be skeptical about using any of that stuff they use in some fireplaces or sold commercially as landscape material. Who knows what they do to it.