Tales from a garden in Westchester County

[davefromwestchester]

Hi all,

Experiencing a terrific summer so far. No major disaster except for a bit of leaf fungus on some cuke plants which we've stabilized.

Yesterday, my wife went out into the garden, fenced in, about 50' by 20', and she heard a rustling near the squash plants and lo and behold, a deer had some how stormed thru the fencing and was rummaging. He (or she) bolted through the deer netting and leaped the wire fence, leaving the wife a tad freaked out. It's been hot here and pretty dry so I think the critters are getting aggressive. I'm breaking out my bow and arrow and planning on venison for the bar-b-que some time soon.

Also, I learned the lesson, "Read the labels of green pepper plants" before you buy and plant them. I plucked off what I thought was your standard sweet green pepper and took a huge bite only to discover it was some kind of hot pepper. Now I have to dig up some recipes for hot peppers!

My only question today is about carrots. How much to water them. I've got a bed of about 150 carrots, all growing well, the stalks are over 9", real green, but I've harvested a few and the carrot is around 2-4 inches max and kind of runty looking. A couple tasted real good. My question is how often to water and should I wait until like late Sept to harvest? Will they grow that much more by then? This is my first time with carrots.

Thanks!

DR from Hastings on Hudson

[rainbowgardener]

Congratulations on great garden!

Yes, keep watering the carrots, especially if it is hot and dry where you are. They need at least an inch of water a week (including rainfall), maybe more if it is really hot. But water very deeply, which encourages the roots to grow down farther and not real often. Let the top part of the soil dry out a bit between waterings. The carrots do not want to stay wet.

Yes, they will keep growing until frost. Once they are baby carrot size, you can pull them anytime, whatever size you want, but they are sweetest if you leave them in the ground until just after the first frost.

For next year, be sure the bed for the carrots is very loose soil at least 9 inches down, maybe a foot. They get stunted trying to push through hard clay soil. Since hard clay soil is what I have, I only grow the short, rounder varieties.

[davefromwestchester]

Rainbow Gardner

Thanks so much for the great advice! Will go right out and water! Thanks again.

DR

[gixxerific]

Good advice RBG but if he is having weather anything like us I doubt the ground could stay wet for over, well, 5 min.

And thanks for the bit about grwoing till frost. I have been wondering that. I pretty much though that was the case but not sure. I have carrots still in the ground and have been thinning/picking them at intervals.

[TheWaterbug]

For next year, be sure the bed for the carrots is very loose soil at least 9 inches down, maybe a foot. They get stunted trying to push through hard clay soil. Since hard clay soil is what I have, I only grow the short, rounder varieties.

I'll take this opportunity to endorse this [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=213328#213328]hideously expensive broadfork[/url] that I bought. There are others for less money, but for really hard clay, this is a great tool.

After a pass with the broadfork and a "stabbing" pass with a spade to break up the bigger clods, the soil is loose down to about 16", and it will absorb a ton of water.

[digitS']

Variety makes some difference in growth rate and maturity.

I like to grow those that mature early and have enjoyed harvesting some of the small ones lately. They are just now becoming nicely colored and sweet.

My garden soil is very porous with only a little clay. Even soil moisture is very important but getting them out sooner than later dodges some of the risk that they may ssspppllliiit !

Steve