Grow carrots in tubes?

[Vanisle_BC]

I've often wondered about growing carrots or other long-root crops in lengths of PVC pipe filled with very fine soil then buried (upright) in the garden. Anyone tried this?

[TomatoNut95]

This year I'm growing mine in a kiddie pool with drainage holes drilled in it because my raised bed is so bad.

[digitS']

VanIsle, that is sure going the extra mile.

These are about 9 - 10 inches. ! Let's see -- that's 23 - 25 cm and you are going the extra 1.6 kilometre!

I say that my soil is 50% rocks and the origin is glacial till. It might be true! If I have any trouble with the peeler, scrubbing them hard does well enuf.

Steve

[TomatoNut95]

Those are nice, what kind are they? I can only grow short kinds. I planted Short N' Sweet.

[dveg]

Why would you want to grow carrots in PVC tubes? I don't see any advantage. If anything, the tubes would just restrict access to soil. I guess if you grow them in a tube, you're pretty sure there isn't a rock in the way, but there are lots of good ways to make sure there are no rocks in the way.

[applestar]

If you have the amount of potting mix/soil needed, one method I have been reading about for daikon and gobo/burdock is to cut top and bottom from potting mix bag, then setup the bottomless bags and fill with fertilizer fortified/amended mix. Bundle several together and tie together with stakes to support to keep from falling over.

Apparently another proven method this gardener has been using is to lay down corrugated roof panels at a shallow slant — looks like 30° or less — in a raised bed so one end is twice as deep, and there is good drainage. This has worked for gobo and long mountain potatoes. He has not mentioned carrots. He might have mentioned the exact angle, but I can’t remember atm.

[digitS']

Those are Sugarsax, TomatoNut95.

In another garden where the gravel was more pea gravel type, Sugarsax were almost as crooked. In yet another place, where sand was dominant, they grew nice, straight and smooth. We only had that ground for a couple of years but DW must have been spoiled by how nice they were.

My own preference is to grow one of the shorter Nantes types. They are every bit as tasty and sweet. They are also earlier and much easier to clean. I have grown both types most seasons.

Steve

[imafan26]

Carrots were easier to grow by raising the bed or in a open bottomed box to increase the soil depth. I have used tubes to plant Gobo. Gobo roots can get to be over 3 feet long. Only one Gobo per tube. I use the concrete form paper tubes or a 32 gallon garbage can.

Planting carrots in a tube should work just as well but you would plant one seed in a 2 inch tube. Carrots in my garden preferred more sandy than silty soil. I get more forking in my clay soil. Carrots are relatively cheap and difficult for me to grow so I usually buy them instead. They are probably easier to grow in your colder climates. I have a very short season for carrots because they get bitter and woody in the heat.

[TomatoNut95]

My soil is concrete clay which is why I must grow short type carrots only, and in containers. If my carrots bomb out again, I'm going to give up on carrots, just like I gave up on growing broccoli. I can't grow broccoli from seed, and six-packs of transplants from Bonnie are 3.58 each. And filling my bed full of broccoli plants would be WAY more expensive than walking in a store and buying bags of Picsweet frozen broccoli. And as much as I eat broccoli, a few florets from what would fit in my dinky garden would not last a couple of months and therefore wouldn't be worth the price of the expensive 6-packs. Unless of course, all frozen broccoli was recalled due to salmonella or E.Coli poisoning.......I just gave myself my next nightmare.....

[rainbowgardener]

Why can't you grow broccoli from seed? I just planted broccoli seed in a raised bed, Oct 17 and it (and the cabbage seed I also planted) sprouted in three days. Growing well now. I note you are in TX. You may have to think carefully about when to plant. Broccoli is a cool weather plant. It needs cool moist soil to sprout. I had to plant so late because our summer heat and drought lasted until the beginning of October. (I'm in zone 7b). I would have had to water twice a day to keep them alive at that point. But now we have fall, cooler weather, and the rains came back. The broccoli will go dormant at some point, after enough freezes, and then just sit there and over winter. In late winter when it warms up just a little, it will start growing again. Broccoli is extremely cold hardy. I will probably plant broccoli seed again in February (maybe even January, depending on what the weather does).

I'm still learning how to adapt to TN and climate change and have to rethink when everything is planted. We have been here four growing seasons now and two of them have had extended periods of record breaking heat and drought.

[TomatoNut95]

When I tried broccoli from seed the little plants were puny. And Texas weather is unpredictable. It can be warm one day and cold the next, probably doing more harm than good to cool weather crops. The next time I tried growing broccoli was buying transplants. I actually got a few florets that time, but the broccoli didn't do well after being frosted and snowed on. Therefore, in my opinion it's easier for me to buy frozen broccoli than to grow it, especially as much as I eat it.

[rainbowgardener]

I don't know. But broccoli is exceptionally cold hardy. I used to over winter it when I lived in Cincinnati, in zone 6a. It would sit under snow and ice for weeks and I didn't even cover it. Once the worst of winter was over it would start growing again and be fine. Spinach is the same way.

[TomatoNut95]

How strange...what kind of broccoli did you do? The transplants I had that died in the snow were some kind of hybrid....the name escpaes me. I'd have to do some hunting.

[Vanisle_BC]

Why would you want to grow carrots in PVC tubes? I don't see any advantage. If anything, the tubes would just restrict access to soil. I guess if you grow them in a tube, you're pretty sure there isn't a rock in the way, but there are lots of good ways to make sure there are no rocks in the way.

The question was 'Has anyone tried this?' I guess not, although I feel I've read of it elsewhere.

The potential advantage, obvious to me at least, is the ability to easily control the texture and other properties of the soil in which the root is growing. I have an active curiosity and I'm interested in experimenting. Whether there are other ways of avoiding rocks doesn't bother me.