Carrot test results

Saturday morning was the first time my thermometer had fallen below 0°C this autumn. It was only just below as it fell to -0.1°C. It remained dull and cloudy for most of the day with just a hint of some sunshine in the early afternoon. Sunday morning much the same down to -0.2°C and remaining dull and cold all day with the thermometer not managing to make it to 4°C.

The last time we visited the plot I dug up some Autumn King carrots. I've now lifted some of all four varieties that we've grown this year. Regular followers will be aware that after a complete crop failure in 2011 we tried everything we could this year to produce a decent crop of carrots which we consider an essential part of our winter root vegetables. There’s information here about the methods used to grow our four different varieties this year.

From a growing perspective all the varieties have performed well producing good size carrots. Protection from seed sowing until September with environmesh has been extremely effect at keeping the dreaded carrot fly at bay and so far all the roots have been unaffected. One of my main concerns was that using weed control fabric would provide a breeding ground for slugs and snails resulting in lots of damaged roots. This doesn't seem to have happened and considering all the rain this summer, conditions must have been ideal for hose pesky molluscs. There has been a little slug damage mostly to the Early Nantes roots, the remaining varieties that have been lifted damage free so far.

As for taste the only disappointing variety has been Flakkee with not such an intense carroty flavour as the other three varieties. I will probably grow four varieties again next year introducing another variety to replace Flakkee.

Copyright: Original post from Copyright: Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrettt