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  • From: road's end farm <organic101 AT linkny.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Carrot question
  • Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 23:03:36 -0400


On Jun 25, 2006, at 8:09 AM, Pat Meadows wrote:

I've given up on carrots completely. I've tried them year
after year in different conditions: nope. No luck.
I've tried growing them in Pro Mix in a container, even.
Nope. Piddly little things, not worth having.

I think it's a myth that carrots ever grow well

Sometimes these things are just strange. I can't grow leeks. Tried for years; they wouldn't size up at all; finally one year one variety got to reasonable size; I thought, aha! finally! leeks! They were terrible, tough as an old boot (not that I've ever tried to eat an old boot. Or a new one.)

I can (and do) grow great garlic; excellent shallots; very nice pungent onions (forget sweet onions, they all come out pungent grown here; luckily that's what I like anyway). But not leeks. I gave up; somebody else can grow the leeks.

Can't grow Yukon Gold potato, either. Carola does fine. This complaint I've heard from other people. But here's one I haven't: fingerlings don't usually produce much for me. One year I tried Russian Banana (fingerling potato). Fantastic crop, best return in weight harvested for weight planted I've ever had. But they tasted terrible. Other potatoes I grew the same year, in the same field, tasted fine. Other people I knew who grew Russian Banana that same year, in the same general area, said it tasted great. Go figure. I gave up on fingerlings, too.

Carrots I can grow, in clay loam soil with rocks. They aren't always pretty, as some of them grow around the rocks in weird shapes; but they taste fine, and produce well enough if the deer don't graze the tops off. But Bolero etc. don't do well for me. Purple Dragon, Red Cored Chantenay, Scarlet Keeper are the reliables. Only I need a reliable seed source for Scarlet Keeper, it's very hard to find.

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale



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