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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

>  Anybody else had success or better luck?

I've held back because I haven't grown carrots in many years, but  
when I did, they were abundant and good. Should I attempt a repeat I  
will not be surprised to find that I have lost the knowledge.

What I mostly recall is that I brought in a lot of clean sand and  
mixed that with my clayey soil. I dedicated that bed to carrots,  
which was my first upset, that rotation was lost. My second recall is  
that of interrupting my daily work with the need to go sprinkle the  
carrot bed so it stayed moist. My other primary recall is hours of  
sitting on the ground pulling tiny weeds and thinning tiny carrot  
plants. My last upset was finding that my substantial crop did not  
last the winter in the root cellar, buried in sand on a dirt floor,  
never frozen. That scheme is part of my Wisconsin indoctrination.  
Today, in southern Missouri, I would try leaving them in the ground  
covered by dry grass and leaves.

My mother grows a small bed of carrots each year, even here in  
Arizona. I admired them a couple weeks ago. She eats them small. She  
also grows parsnips, which she favors. She grows only a size crop  
that can be consumed fresh.

If the sky falls I will grow carrots. Otherwise I will buy them as  
desired.