Harvesting: Carrots

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

A quarter of the carrots harvested
Approximately one quarter of the planted carrots

We're not really into carrots around these parts. But growing them from seed certainly increases my likelihood of eating them. In fact, I just had half the carrots above as part of my breakfast.

Snow on radish & carrot seed
May 9, 2020: Hail!

I used the wood board for carrots germination trick from Roots and Refuge Farm and it worked very well. I have a lot of carrots, and had to do a little bit of thinning when the seedlings appeared. Carrots take a long time to germinate (like, 2 weeks) and they very much despise being transplanted, but this method of the boards seemed to work well.

Carrots getting their true leaves along with soem radishes
June 9, 2020

I planted them in two batches on May 3 and May 10, and one month later they had their true leaves coming in! They, like the radishes grown in this box grew much slower than expected. When I attempted to harvest around their suggested harvest date of ~70 days, I was met with some tiny carrots:

Tiny purple carrot - not time to harvest yet!
June 30, 2020

Of course, I get some tiny carrots, even when letting them grow an extra 20 days:

Danvers 126 & Cosmic Purple Carrots

These are Cosmic Purple Carrots, which have an orange inside and some Danvers 126 orange carrots. Next year, I'll amend the cart with some organic matter and hope for bigger roots! Alternatively, I could grow them again this fall, harvesting in the winter for a sweeter taste!

Planted first row of carrot seed
Planted first row, May 3, 2020
Planted second row of carrots
Second row planted May 10, 2020
Radish growth in the carrot bed
Radishes coming in by June 9, 2020
Carrot Seed Growth
June 30, 2020: Good carrot growth (post-radish harvesting)
Carrot seed growth
~20 days past recommended harvest date on August 9, 2020.

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