![]() ![]() But in my opinion this is too early, because often the soil is not warm enough and those bright days are often quickly followed by some very cold weather. When to sow outside depends on the weather many gardeners get itchy fingers early in March when we get those first few sunny days of spring. Both varieties will quickly produce juicy finger carrots, but Adelaide is the earliest to mature and you will often be pulling carrots by late spring to early summer. I have found the best varieties are RHS AGM winning variety Adelaide F1 or Amsterdam Forcing. If you sow under a coldframe you must choose a variety that is suitable for forcing. ![]() The soil will be warmer inside the frame especially if you have kept it closed all winter, so it warms up and stopped the soil from getting saturated from the winter rain. If you are lucky enough to have a cold frame you can make your first sowings from late February to mid March. Sowing and Harvesting Carrots throughout the seasons February / March If you want longer roots, to impress the neighbours with or for exhibition, you can always punch holes into the soil with a crowbar and fill with compost, or take out deeper trenches to sow long rooted varieties like James scarlet intermediate or St Valery. I can then sow short rooted types like Chantenary red Cored, Early Nantes or Eskimo straight into the compost, and I get some superb clean straight roots. To over come the problem of heavy soils or even very stony ones, I find that digging out a shallow trench about 15cm (6in) deep and filling it with old compost or Growbag material helps. If your garden is heavy, it is more likely to stay cooler and wetter for longer. On light soils you can simply draw out a shallow drill with a swan neck hoe about 1/2in deep and sow your seeds thinly along the drill. If your vegetable garden is on light sandy soil, sowing and growing carrot seeds is easy compared to those of us who garden on heavier clay soils. Then early in the year pull the soil down so it changes into a fine and crumbly structure and then lightly rake in some Growmore fertiliser at 2oz per square yard (60gm per sq meter). Provided your vegetable plot has been dug through the winter and the area you wish to grow carrots on has had no manure added to it for at least 12 months you should be able to grow good carrots. It’s not difficult to grow your own carrots from seed, if you chose the correct sowing times and the right varieties, you can have young succulent carrots ready to harvest throughout the year, as well as some larger roots to store though the winter. An experience equal to winning the lottery (not that I have) and certainly one you won’t get if you pick your carrots each week from the supermarket shelf. I don’t think there is anything better than pulling a carrot straight from the garden, rubbing the dirt off on your trousers, then taking a bite, and enjoying that fresh sweet juicy flavour. Have you ever wished you could have fresh carrots to pull from early spring right through to Christmas? Well it isn’t difficult, all you need is a little planning, and you can! This traditional vegetable, is full of flavour, and are a culinary delight in the kitchen either cooked added to stews or eaten raw in salads, as well as making a delicious carrot cake. I don’t think there is a vegetable gardener in the country that won’t be growing a row or two of carrots. ![]()
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