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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Carrot question

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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: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 18:44:46 -0400


On Jun 25, 2006, at 8:30 AM, Willie McKemie wrote:

Seems like I have heard of spraying kerosene or diesel over the top of
carrots for weed control. Another of those barely believable cultural
practices, like salting asparagus. I have tried neither.

Both almost certainly a bad idea. You don't want oils or salt winding up in your ground water. People did all kinds of things before the hazards of them were well understood.

If you're not organic, I'm sure there's something labeled for weed control in carrots. If you are organic, try a flame weeder, or a stale seedbed. Some people do a "blind" cultivation over the row right before the carrots come up; this requires figuring out when that will be, potentially tricky. I mix radish with carrot seed in the planter; the radish come up fast and mark the row, then you can see where the row is long before the carrots are up and cultivate in close; also the radishes keep the soil from crusting over solid in the meantime, and tend to crowd out the weeds, though not perfectly here. Harvest the radishes for sale when they're ready, or just let them grow until carrots are well up and pull the radishes to help with thinning.

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



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