Carrots
Everyone loves carrots either raw or cooked. How many times have you sneaked into the garden to pull up a young carrot, wash it and eat it all in the name of “seeing if they are ready yet”.
The popular carrot is very palatable and is used for so many different dishes all year round. Raw with salads, young and tender for family feasts, grated in various combinations or used as a main vegetable in those long winter months. They are high in Vitamin A.
You get a great crop from a relatively small area so return on investment is good.
Carrots originally began as yellow, purple or white and today we see seeds offered of multiple coloured carrots. The orange carrots we see today are a relatively recent thing. These were descended from four Dutch cultivars from the 17th Century - Long Orange Dutch, Early Scarlet horn, Half Long Horn and Late Half Horn.
The secret to success in growing carrots is the soil and its cultivation. Carrots need a deep friable well drained root run. Do not apply compost to the place where carrots will be growing. This will cause the carrot root to fork. Compost should have been applied the previous year. Volcanic soils in Oamaru and Ohakune provide those conditions for commercial growing of carrots. Recently carrot growing at Rakaia (south of Christchurch) has begun to produce those little succulent carrots for processing and the export market. Carrots would prefer the soil to be a little sandy in the home garden to ensure deep rooting.
Thorough preparation of the ground is followed by seed sowing. There are several ways you might like to try.
The traditional method is to set the plot out in rows about 35cm apart. Seed is sown in drills 1cm deep and covered with the same soil and tamped firmly with the back of a rake. Grouping together three rows about 20 cm apart and leaving a larger space between the next three rows saves room in the garden.
Others prepare an area say 15 to 20 cm wide and broadcast the seed in that area. This creates a seedbed with carrots growing up at any point in the bed.
Carrots are a great all year round crop. In spring (August & September) start by sowing stump rooted varieties eg Early Horn. These are faster growing and will produce nice early crops as well as excellent carrots for Christmas. Succession planting of these can continue through until late October. eg Chantaney, Egmont Gold, Manchester Table, Topweight, Touchen. If your garden is susceptible to Carrot fly rust then choose a F1 Hybrid that states it is resistant to this pest. (see below).
November and December should see main crop carrots sown.
When carrots germinate they need thinning out. Always sow a little more seed than necessary. Remove all the weak plants and those growing to close together. If you want to cheat a little do a light thinning and follow this up with another several weeks later, but this time use the larger thinnings as a sweet vegetable.
Make sure the carrots are kept weed free for rapid growth. A regular water supply is essential. Sometimes when carrots are dug they are split. This is caused by excessive soil moisture variation. Over watering, by man or nature, forces the carrots to absorb water faster than the carrot can grow and the root will split.
When harvesting always use a fork to slightly loosen the ground. This allows you to easily pull the carrots out. Generally in New Zealand we do not have to store carrots in pits the way it is done in colder climates especially Europe and England. However if you need to store them in a pit dig a large hole in a cool place and lay the carrots in them and cover the pit with soil or an old sack to keep the frost off them and the carrots away from the light to prevent them turning green.
Pests
The main pest is Carrot Fly Rust. This is a small black and yellow fly that lays eggs on the tops of carrots. Maggots which hatch from the eggs crawl down and eat the carrot root leaving rusty brown tunnels in the flesh making the carrots worthless. Prevention is the best cure. Sow carrots in ground that has not been used for two years for carrots. When thinning do not leave the thinnings sitting on the soil surface to rot and attract the flies and make sure that the ground is weed free thus removing a habitat for the flies.
The popular carrot is very palatable and is used for so many different dishes all year round. Raw with salads, young and tender for family feasts, grated in various combinations or used as a main vegetable in those long winter months. They are high in Vitamin A.
You get a great crop from a relatively small area so return on investment is good.
Carrots originally began as yellow, purple or white and today we see seeds offered of multiple coloured carrots. The orange carrots we see today are a relatively recent thing. These were descended from four Dutch cultivars from the 17th Century - Long Orange Dutch, Early Scarlet horn, Half Long Horn and Late Half Horn.
The secret to success in growing carrots is the soil and its cultivation. Carrots need a deep friable well drained root run. Do not apply compost to the place where carrots will be growing. This will cause the carrot root to fork. Compost should have been applied the previous year. Volcanic soils in Oamaru and Ohakune provide those conditions for commercial growing of carrots. Recently carrot growing at Rakaia (south of Christchurch) has begun to produce those little succulent carrots for processing and the export market. Carrots would prefer the soil to be a little sandy in the home garden to ensure deep rooting.
Thorough preparation of the ground is followed by seed sowing. There are several ways you might like to try.
The traditional method is to set the plot out in rows about 35cm apart. Seed is sown in drills 1cm deep and covered with the same soil and tamped firmly with the back of a rake. Grouping together three rows about 20 cm apart and leaving a larger space between the next three rows saves room in the garden.
Others prepare an area say 15 to 20 cm wide and broadcast the seed in that area. This creates a seedbed with carrots growing up at any point in the bed.
Carrots are a great all year round crop. In spring (August & September) start by sowing stump rooted varieties eg Early Horn. These are faster growing and will produce nice early crops as well as excellent carrots for Christmas. Succession planting of these can continue through until late October. eg Chantaney, Egmont Gold, Manchester Table, Topweight, Touchen. If your garden is susceptible to Carrot fly rust then choose a F1 Hybrid that states it is resistant to this pest. (see below).
November and December should see main crop carrots sown.
When carrots germinate they need thinning out. Always sow a little more seed than necessary. Remove all the weak plants and those growing to close together. If you want to cheat a little do a light thinning and follow this up with another several weeks later, but this time use the larger thinnings as a sweet vegetable.
Make sure the carrots are kept weed free for rapid growth. A regular water supply is essential. Sometimes when carrots are dug they are split. This is caused by excessive soil moisture variation. Over watering, by man or nature, forces the carrots to absorb water faster than the carrot can grow and the root will split.
When harvesting always use a fork to slightly loosen the ground. This allows you to easily pull the carrots out. Generally in New Zealand we do not have to store carrots in pits the way it is done in colder climates especially Europe and England. However if you need to store them in a pit dig a large hole in a cool place and lay the carrots in them and cover the pit with soil or an old sack to keep the frost off them and the carrots away from the light to prevent them turning green.
Pests
The main pest is Carrot Fly Rust. This is a small black and yellow fly that lays eggs on the tops of carrots. Maggots which hatch from the eggs crawl down and eat the carrot root leaving rusty brown tunnels in the flesh making the carrots worthless. Prevention is the best cure. Sow carrots in ground that has not been used for two years for carrots. When thinning do not leave the thinnings sitting on the soil surface to rot and attract the flies and make sure that the ground is weed free thus removing a habitat for the flies.