yumoOo
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Long flourishing stems on my carrots but....

when I brush the soil off the top of the carrot. I find that theres no carrot but the leafs on top are really long and healthy looking. and on one of the carrots theres only a small little top of a correct. They've been in the ground for almost two months.

Sammiches
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What's your soil consistancy? Carrots need soil that isn't too dense/clayish so they can move the soil and extend downward. Rocks getting in the way can hinder growth as well. Also, too much nitrogen in the soil (ie heavy fertilizing with substances such as chicken manure) can cause more green leafy growth than root growth, which happened to my potatoes. The plant part of the potato is massive but I get itty bitty potatoes.

yumoOo
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I do have rocks in my soil but I don't think I have so many rocks that this would hinder the carrots from growing. But maybe I do because my beets failed as well but I thought it was because I planted them to close to winter.

Anyways I don't use any fertilizer. And I think I dug too deep when I planted the carrots because one side of the ground is higher then the other and when it rains or I water them , it becomes sort of like a trench but the ones on higher ground seemed to grow the fastest at first. If it is a rock problem, does that mean I should did deeper when I turn the soil next time and try to get rid of the rocks?

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rainbowgardener
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It sounds like your drainage problem with the trench effect may have drowned your carrot roots out. Carrots like loose, well drained soil. For those of us who have dense clay-ey soils, it helps to grow short varieties:
Easy Grow, 5 star baby, mini round, short & sweet, thumbelina are examples.

If you use good quality compost you shouldn't need other fertilizer, but of course they do need some nutrients. If you aren't adding lots of compost (before planting, once they are planted you don't want to disturb those roots) then you need to be feeding them somehow.

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nes
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I had the same problem :). Check with all suggestions above first, but everyone just told me to be patient and my carrots are already much larger then they were 2 weeks ago.

I guess they grew from the top first and are now concentrating on expanding their bottoms :D.

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jal_ut
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I think that you need to give it more time. First they gorw tops then roots. Mine have been in 3 months and just now getting some nice carrots.

BTW, I like to plant the Royal Chantenay variety. They do not get too long and do well in clay based soils.

yumoOo
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jal_ut wrote:I think that you need to give it more time. First they gorw tops then roots. Mine have been in 3 months and just now getting some nice carrots.

BTW, I like to plant the Royal Chantenay variety. They do not get too long and do well in clay based soils.
thanks . I think will give it more time.

&

thank you rainbow and nes for your comments and help :)

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Gary350
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Put a lot of compost on your root crops it makes them grow much better.

I put a lot of peat moss in my garden. I buy 4 of the 3.8 cu ft bales every year. I can not make enough compost to do my whole garden but I try. I collect grass clipping from all the neighbors that don't spray poison on their yard. Neighbors put there grass on the street for the city to pick up so I get it. I have a pretty large compost but after is composts down it is basically only a few 5 gallon buckets of compost. Not enough for a 20 ft x 40 ft garden. My compost is used only on the plants that really need it, carrots, potatoes, onions, garlic and it is never enough. I would need a compost pile the size of my whole garden to supply my garden with all the compost it really needs.

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SP8
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Make some use of that lush foliage!

Young carrot top growth is fantastic cooked tempura style.

LumpyLungwort
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nes wrote:I had the same problem :). Check with all suggestions above first, but everyone just told me to be patient and my carrots are already much larger then they were 2 weeks ago.

I guess they grew from the top first and are now concentrating on expanding their bottoms :D.
Had the same problem with mine, huge leaves and if I scraped around the top they looked tiny after 8 weeks :(

I planted mine 11 weeks ago or so and pulled some the biggist looking ones up last week "early nantes" and got to say they are far tastier than any supermarket can provide.

Hang in there 2 months isn't that long a time :)



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