First Decent Carrot Crop

Finally, finally, finally......carrot success! While I've successfully grown carrots elsewhere (in NJ in sandy soil), I haven't had the pleasure here on my homestead farm. But here they are.........

This variety is Danvers Half Long. I opted for a short variety on purpose because these were grown in a 10" deep cardboard box, inside one of the mini greenhouses. So they were up off the ground and protected from slugs. For soil, I mixed half Promix potting soil (recycled) and half compost enhanced garden soil. The garden soil had been sifted through 1/8th inch hardware cloth. 

Using fine potting soil stopped one of the main problems I've had with carrots in the past -- deformed roots. In the batch shown above, I got only 3 deformed carrots. Not bad, eh? In my previous carrot attempts out in my standard garden areas, just about all the roots were either deformed or tiny. 

I harvested these at 75 days post germination. I think I could have left them grow for another week or two. So next time I'll try 90 days post germination....an easy number to remember. 

Growing them in the mini greenhouse, they needed to be watered frequently compared to growing out in the ground. I watered them lightly practically every day. 

I'm just tickled to see that this experiment worked. Now I plan to sow a bit of carrots every 2 weeks so that there will be a steady supply of fresh carrots to harvest.