Chantenary Red-Cored for Fall-How to really do it!

[gardenbean]

Hi All,
This is a shout out to Jal, as we all know is the "King of the carrots"so here goes.

As I haven't been as successful as I would have like to been with the spring carrot crop, my family decided that maybe we ought to try for fall. I live in zone 6. And for fun my daughter has selected Chantenay Red-Cored because our soil here is heavy and clay like.

So Jal can you provide me with the basic stuff about growing carrots. I believe our biggest mistake is spacing the seeds. How do you do yours so that the seeds don't blow away or that the birds don't get them once you plant them. (Both problems we had) And how do you weed a carrot patch another problem I faced.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge about carrots!

[jal_ut]

I plant carrots in April and let them grow until September. That is why they get so big. The Chantenay carrots are a good choice for heavy ground. Of course I am pulling some all summer. I plant with a drill. Even then they are a a bit too thick and need some thinning. I put them 1/4 inch deep. The wind doesn't blow them away and the birds don't eat them.

The problem you are going to have planting carrot seed in the warm weather is keeping them damp while they germinate. I suggest planting them 1/4 inch deep and cover with some cardboard to hold the moisture. Check daily after 3 days and remove the cardboard as soon as you see emerging carrots. In April it takes 3 weeks for germination, but they will come much faster in warm weather. Try not to get them too thick.

The drill:
[img]https://donce.lofthouse.com/jamaica/planting/plant_5.jpg[/img]

[gardenbean]

Thanks Jal for the information. Nice drill you got there Jal. And from the looks of things you have a much larger plot than I(wow)!!

This time around I promise to take my time and do it the right way.