A successful crop of chantenay of carrots

 

Proudly clutching my crop for the year, all that time, two tiny handfuls

I love growing carrots.  They make so little fuss, so un-needy.  Just sow some seed, water, and then ignore for several months.  And then, as if by magic little orange nuggets form under the soil perfect for eating.  The only problem is I don't have the right soil for carrots.  My soil is heavy heavy clay, so heavy in fact our house is actually situated on the brickyard used to create all the bricks of the other houses built around here.  So thats basically pure clay.

Therefore my carrot crop is somewhat limited.  I would grow row upon row, but I am instead reduced to just two pots.  Obviously I could have chosen as many pots as I wanted, but despite half-filling another pot with sandy compost I never actually got around to sowing anymore carrot.

The Paris Market Atlas mini golfballs.  These are fun but not exactly hunger-killing carrots, especially the tiddly ones

I have not been growing carrots long, my first attempt being last year due to the aforementioned difficulty.  I can't say I was overwhelmed with carrots, with my final crop being tiny in size rather than number, but I may have got them sown a bit late in the year. My carrot of choice was Paris Market Atlas because its round like golf balls rather than the usual long root, and the packet said they were great for kids.  I find myself drawn to these kinds of things, although less so now, because I feel that seeds singled out for kids come with a higher chance of success.

This year I thought I would have another go seeing as they take so little effort, and expand into two varieties.  The second being Chantenay Red Cored 2 which again is not a big carrot, but should form delightful orange wedges.

Dirty carrots look all appealing but took me about half an hour to scrub

Sowing carrots has to be the simplest activity ever.  I merely mix shop bought compost with horticultural sand and then sprinkle the seed on top.  And then leave for about five months.  Obviously they need watering and the trick is to not disturb the carrot tops too much or you attract carrot fly, which can result in the pots being moved about the garden a fair bit If I think I have got too handsy with my plants.  I feel like the threat of carrot fly looms over every interaction I have with them.
I may have thinned the sowings a bit, but thinking back, I don't think I did, preferring instead to just let them jostle for position although this clearly isn't the way your meant to do it.

Sometime in June I had a little poke about amongst the frondy carrot tops and spotted a few orange flashes shouldering their way clear of the soil.  We had carrots! I waited and waited, keeping an eye on the protusions hoping they would get bigger but I don't remember that they did particularly, and then finally at the start of September I pulled them.

Chantenay Red Cored 2 are slightly more substantial, and I find the wedge shape particularly pleasing

Paris Market Atlas had performed better than last year, but with a clear split between sizeable golf balls and tiddlers. I don't understand why some are huge and others are tiny, it certainly made no rhyme or reason when I was pulling them up.

My prize carrot, he was perfect in every way

But the biggest success were the Chantenay Red Cored 2, which is quite some name for such a squat little carrot, including one absolutely prize specimen.  He was perfect in every way.  The rest were a decent size, producing far more actual edible vegetable than Paris, so for next year I think I would drop Paris - which is fun but not exactly overly productive - and grow a couple of pots of this one.  One carrot had grown legs, which is random as its a sure sign you have stony soil, which doesn't make sense in my perfect compost and sand mix, but there we are!

In comparison to this little freaky specimen which decided, despite perfect
soil, to grow a set of dodgy appendages 

But this may not be the end of the road for Paris.  I was flicking through a seed catalogue the other day and it said Paris was perfect for clay soils where you wouldn't dare try carrots, so maybe next year I will try a couple of rows in some of my better soil and see how we do.  Could be exciting!