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Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2019 12:35:14 GMT -5
This question if for Martin or anyone who remembers:
A year or so back Martin mentioned a variety of carrot that would grow shoulder-to-shoulder in a feed tub of compost (actually, I think Martin said "aged horse manure" but I am going to do as Bess Truman said and call it "compost".)
What variety of carrot was that? I have the tub and some "aged compost".
Gee, not even New Year's Day yet and I am catching green fever. My new raised beds are waiting and my little tractor is hitched to its tiller. Seed catalogues are coming in the mail.....COME ON, SPRINGTIME!!!!!
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Post by paquebot on Dec 29, 2019 22:12:35 GMT -5
Your memory is good. I grow my carrots in pots at least 15" deep and old horse manure for a medium. Sometimes can't pull them as they grow to the bottom and turn 90º. Thus can get an 18" carrot in a 15" pot. You can't get that in any garden soil.
Varieties are any which do not have shoulders. My favorites are Candysnax, Rainbow, and Sugarsnax. They do not have shoulders and thus can grow very tight together. I sow the seeds as if I were sowing grass. They emerge way too thick but they self-thin.
They are a good example of showing how organic matter is recycled. I may start out with 7 gallons of manure which is so old that it looks just like soil. After growing nearly solid carrots, there may be only 3½ gallons of medium left. The carrots will have consumed the other 3½.
For 2020, I can not get that real old manure but just aged stuff that hasn't broken down yet. Pots are already set up with 50/50 mix of the new with the used stuff from last season. Also have some deeper pots that are 18" deep. Predicting a great carrot year.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2019 20:32:34 GMT -5
Thanks, Martin!!!!! I tried last year but had no good medium, only rocky soil. I got some wonderfully crooked and forked carrots.
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Post by paquebot on Dec 30, 2019 21:22:51 GMT -5
Most of my carrot pots are already filled and may settle a bit during he winter. That will also give the fresher manure time to break down a little more. They began totally full in October and expect them to settle about an inch.. I will sow on top of that and cover with a mix of Jiffy Mix and No Damp Off. Still need to fill a shallower pot as I bought a packet of Adelaide which is early and about 4". I had Short 'n Sweet for several years in a 7-gallon pot and had carrots in July.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2019 10:50:45 GMT -5
Martin; do you bury those pots in the ground to the rim or set them on the surface? Seems to me that I recall your saying that they were buried. I did not bury mine and the outside carrots did not do well.
I have plenty of time yet to fill and settle mine I think. I'll get on that Thurs. or Friday. I am going to start with Sugarsnax.
COME ON, SPRING TIME!
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Post by paquebot on Dec 31, 2019 11:32:54 GMT -5
The pots are set in just an inch or so. That's so the drain holes will always be damp. Even had carrots grow out through the holes. The holes may not seem important but all of the carrots used them for getting water from the ground. May be not much thicker than a thread but that's sufficient for the plant to get water.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 1, 2020 20:10:31 GMT -5
thanks again Martin; If I cannot make sugarsnax grow now I've no business gardening.
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reubent
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Post by reubent on Jan 2, 2020 14:32:57 GMT -5
By the way, as far as I know plants do not pick up carbon from the soil, soil carbon serves the purpose of holding all the other nutrients as if it were the soil mineral bank the plants can draw from. And providing ideal growing environment, the microbial population and the fungal life which loves and multiplies in the high carbon environment digests the minerals and help feed plant roots. But all plant carbon comes from the CO2 in the air. And so reduction of carbon in the dirt will be due to carbon oxidation into the air which it will do above a certain soil temperature, in the 70's F. But as the CO2 leaves the soil carbon it has to rise past the plant leaves which capture some of it. But all the other minerals the plant does take from the soil and will reduce it's weight accordingly. Ideally we should prevent the carbon from oxidizing which biochar helps with. But biochar by itself takes a lot of time and adding of stuff to get it charged with nutrients, it starts out as an empty bank. So mixing biochar with compost is good. I will try that this year, plus adding a full range of minerals. And carrots is one thing i want to experiment with a lot more, try to see how fast I can get them to grow and how sweet I can get them to get.
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Post by paquebot on Jan 2, 2020 23:39:56 GMT -5
Carbon, either abundance or lack, is not a factor in this case. That is why the carrot plants are about to consume the medium as they grow. Horse manure would have barely a trace of carbon. If any manure were not entirely recyclable, the Earth would have been covered with "dino dung" long before mammals evolved.
I like to champion the sun for our carbon source as it fits right into the middle of the cycle. And once it is here it stays a long time. Leaves abed wood break down to carbon humus. In that form it last undress or thousands of years. In my garden soil, the first 12" is at least 50% carbon but my carrot pots are zero.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2020 17:17:52 GMT -5
Paquebot, how long are carrot seeds normally good for? I have some older seed, maybe just try sowing it anyways?
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Post by paulf on Jan 3, 2020 17:30:18 GMT -5
Here is our carrot tub. Seven foot diameter by three feet tall. Oak logs at the bottom window screen to hold the growing medium which is a foot and a half of compost (all from stuff I threw in like leaves, grass, hay and excess dirt) and about a foot of soilless mix. Fertilized with 10-10-10. We grew Nantes Long carrots and had the best crop of extra sweet carrots ever for us. We froze a bunch and have been adding them to soups and stews this winter.
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Post by paquebot on Jan 3, 2020 19:26:59 GMT -5
Paquebot, how long are carrot seeds normally good for? I have some older seed, maybe just try sowing it anyways? Some charts may show only 2 or 3 years but they generally apply to legal germination rates. I usually figure 5 years for carrots. What one does not know is how fresh the seed was when packed or how they were stored. When was getting carrot packets from Germany, they were in aluminum foil packets and good for 5 years. I was still getting decent germination with Lobbericher almost 10 years later. Martin The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by paquebot on Jan 3, 2020 19:42:27 GMT -5
Paul's mix sound great for long carrots. Almost a shame to waste it on Nantes! I've tried them before and they don't self-thin like narrower varieties. I do love them for canning as they are coreless. I may give them a 7S pot which is only about a foot deep as I have the seeds.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 12, 2020 15:32:35 GMT -5
Martin: I came on here this afternoon to ask you about Scarlet Nantes. I was at Home D. this PM picking up a package of Early Girl tomato and I saw Scarlet Nantes with "Container Variety" on the package. How about Tendersweet?
I will have to grow container carrots---my ground is full of rocks, big and small, and carrots turn up forked, crooked and hairy. Luckily the ground is deep, sixty feet or so to bed rock, and I constantly pick up and remove the bigger rocks I turn up. In three generations or so the ground might grow carrots.
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Post by paquebot on Jan 12, 2020 21:16:48 GMT -5
Nantes have been around a day less than forever and never disappoint. They only get about 6" long but 1½" wide. They do well in any soil. i have not tried them in pots but would only need 12" depth.
Had to check to see if I had any Tendersweet seed left but already have more than enough for this year. That one is a long one, 10" or more. That's another candidate for deep pots.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 13, 2020 20:13:20 GMT -5
Martin; I now have seed for Sugarsnax, Scarlet Nantes and Tendersweet. Nantes may go in the garden if I can find a "soft spot".
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Post by paquebot on Jan 13, 2020 22:59:38 GMT -5
Ox, you WILL be happy with those selections. After all of this discussion, I'll probably set up a couple more pots just for carrots. Had only planned on real long and real short types. Have to have one of Nantes in there.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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reubent
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Post by reubent on Feb 8, 2020 21:47:01 GMT -5
Well. ordered some fresh carrot seed of nantes, (along with a bunch of other irresistibles) gonna try for some sweet carrots again. Probably make up several good size beds to grow them in and go for a lot of em. I just have to get that fence built. last time I tried they were doing good till the deer mowed them off.
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Post by paquebot on Feb 9, 2020 0:37:57 GMT -5
reubent, if you want sweet and early, check out a Burpee display for Short 'n Sweet. I've grown a lot of shorties and that's the best of that type. There's a 7-gallon pot all set up right now for that one again. Martin The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2020 10:22:14 GMT -5
Martin: From the pictures, those "shortie" carrots all look more like radished than carrots. Is this right?
How eould those work in rocky ground? I have not had much success in Arkansas with carrots but they grew well in OK where I did not eve OWN a rock.
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Post by paquebot on Feb 9, 2020 18:59:16 GMT -5
Short 'n Sweet are 4 or 5 inches long. There are some even shorter which do look like round radishes. I've grown them before and little more than a novelty to me. Jung's has Adelaide which is only 3 or 4 inches but normal shape. Guess what my latest seed purchase was, Adelaide! I'll try a pot of each.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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