aaardvark
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Pea, Carrot, and Squash questions below

I have a few questions I hope some more experienced gardeners can answer.

1) My pea sprouts (about 6 inches tall each) appear to have broken 95% of the stalks and collapsed over. I have since helped them back up onto a trellis. However, they are still green and looking alive, but just not growing any bigger. They have looked like this for about 2 weeks. The stalks are still slightly connected, as noted, but I really don't think they are getting any bigger.

2) There are ants constantly hanging out around my zucchini. Are ants ever a pest for squash?

3) With an extra seed packet of carrot seeds, I put the whole thing in a big container. It seems everyone has sprouted!!! What's going to happen if I DO NOT thin these? It's probably 50 carrot starts about a half inch apart.

Any help?

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Gary350
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Ants are your friend especially near squash they will find all bug eggs an eat them before they hatch. Ants do no damage to plants.

When carrots get a bit larger pull a few eat tops & tiny carrot in salads. Let the other carrots grow larger.

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TomatoNut95
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1) Can you post a photo of the the peas, please?
2) @Gary's right, the ants shouldn't go nibbling on your squash.
3) @Gary's right again, you will need to thin those carrots apart as they grow. If you do not thin them you will get scrawny, puny plants and itty bitty roots. Sometimes even when I thin my carrots I still get it bitty roots....carrots don't like me.

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applestar
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Carrots — If you want to be diligent, start by pulling every-other seedling. Even tiniest can be used like alfalfa sprouts in sandwiches or add to omelettes, soups, or salad. When these leaves start touching each other, pull every-other one of those.

‘Every-other’ in a container can be evenly spaced all around or spiraling single row with double the spacing between the overlapping row.

What variety carrots are these and how deep is the container? This will determine ultimate spacing.

aaardvark
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I don't recall the variety of carrot, but the container is over 12 inches deep. Maybe 16 inches or so.

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applestar
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Every so often, one of us posts this link for reference :wink:
:arrow: ROOT DEVELOPMENT OF VEGETABLE CROPS

...carrot is chapter xxii

—as you will see, carrots grow roots down to significantly deeper depths than the harvested portion. I believe as a rule of thumb, you want growing depth that is at least x2.5 — So For 4 inch mini carrots like “minicore” you will want a 11~12 inch deep container with Actual soil depth of 10 inches minimum.

Vanisle_BC
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applestar wrote:
Fri May 22, 2020 7:56 am

—as you will see, carrots grow roots down to significantly deeper depths than the harvested portion. I believe as a rule of thumb, you want growing depth that is at least x2.5 — So For 4 inch mini carrots like “minicore” you will want a 11~12 inch deep container with Actual soil depth of 10 inches minimum.
I'd question some of that, applestar. No quarrel with 10 and more inches for carrots, but I've not seen the root depths of my own various crops reach anything near the depths indicated in research reports. (Maybe they're a bit like the horsepower claimed by automakers - only possible in unrealistically ideal setups.) Anyway I'm sure my carrots don't have roots 2.5 times as deep as the edible part.

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applestar
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It would be interesting to carefully remove the soil by digging a trench alongside, etc. and rinsing dirt off the hair-roots. Normally, the fine roots just break off as you pull the carrots from what I understand. ...I keep thinking it, but have never been curious enough to try Haha. :roll:

...OK found a couple of harvest photos from last year They came out of the loose potting mix-filled SIP’s (sub-irrigated planters) and VGA which is an approx. 18” H raised bed ...what do you think?

Subject: Applestar’s 2019 Garden
applestar wrote:
Wed Jun 05, 2019 5:08 pm
Recent harvest photo collage

Image
...peas are almost done...raspberries are starting to come in :D
...the biggest baby carrots are Mokum F1 from VGA (sown as pre-germinated seeds on April 9)
...slender baby carrots are Yaya F1 from VG.SIP (sown as pre-germinated seeds on April 5)
Subject: Applestar’s 2019 Garden
applestar wrote:
Sat Jun 08, 2019 2:37 pm
Carrot thinnings are getting bigger ...and first gumball-sized baby Tonda di Parigi carrot :D

Image

ETA — DD2 said it has STRONG carrot flavor ...couldn’t tell if it was sweet because of the strong flavor ... but “It’s good... I guess it’s sweet” (comparing to Mokum and Yaya)

Vanisle_BC
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applestar wrote:
Fri May 22, 2020 3:08 pm
...OK found a couple of harvest photos from last year ...what do you think?
Haha! I think I need to be more observant when I harvest my carrots. That little ball shaped one was going a loooong way down.



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