Carrots

Bitterness in carrots

Bitterness, or poor flavor generally, is usually the result of stress to the plants, that is anything that slows or checks growth. The most common stress is insufficient moisture in the soil. Poor or off-flavors can also suggest that the soil needs to be limed, or supplied with greater amounts of humus and potash.

Prepare the soil for carrots by raking in a light dusting of dolomite lime if the soil is acid, along with a balanced fertilizer and a little wood ashes or kelp meal for extra potash. For increased humus, dig compost into the site.

Bitterness in carrots will follow damage from pests such as the carrot rust fly and wireworm. A harsh flavor can also be connected to the variety, and the time of harvesting. Bitter terpenoids present in carrots apparently develop earlier than sugars. In some varieties, experiencing their full, sweet flavor is just a matter of waiting for the sugars to develop.

It's a good idea to grow several varieties to find the ones that develop the sweetest roots in your garden's conditions. Each year, repeat the previous year's best and add one or two new carrot varieties to try. Mokum is one of the best carrots I've grown. It's listed in the Territorial Seed catalogue listed in this Web site's Marketplace.

Forked Roots

Carrots will form forked roots if the tap root encounters clods it cannot penetrate, or zones of high nitrogen concentration such as blood meal or manure. With carrots it's essential to mix fertilizers thoroughly with the soil to distribute them evenly, and to pulverize well any compost or composted manures used so there won't be any clumps of these materials in the seed bed.

It's actually ideal to add these amendments to the carrot site the previous fall, so that everything is well aged and melded with the soil after several mixings by planting time. Early thinning is also important for avoiding forking and twining of the roots.

The long Imperator type carrots may be more vulnerable to forking than most. They require deep soils to develop nicely shaped roots.

Carrot Coloring

Many gardeners on the west coast have a problem with carrot rust fly. When the carrot rust fly strikes, the entire carrot crop can quickly become infested. As more gardeners become reluctant to use pesticides, it's important to know there are non-toxic ways to grow beautiful, undamaged carrots.

Some gardeners tell me they successfully repel the rust fly using coffee grounds, tea leaves, and wood ashes. They use these materials scattered thinly in the seed furrow, and also overtop the seeded area. When the plants are up some gardeners add a little more of their chosen carrot fly deterrent alongside the rows. Onions interplanted with carrots help to mask the fly-drawing odor of the carrots.

In my experience these methods work in gardens where carrot fly is a minimal problem. Where infestations tend to be heavy, the only sure control is to place some kind of a barrier between the fly and the carrot planting.

Reemay tucked securely into the soil around a newly seeded carrot bed, with enough slack left to allow for the carrots' growth, is effective. If you are not familiar with this material, it is a lightweight floating plant cover that allows light, air and water in to the planting while barring entry to insects. It is available at garden centres.

Similar covers can be made from wire mesh folded at the corners to form a box barrier over a carrot planting. I use a board enclosure 18 inches (45 cm) high, with fibreglass screening on wood frames fitting closely over the board enclosure tops. I've also seen enclosures that use wire mesh screening on wood frames as the side panels as well as the top cover.

Here's a couple of things to do for fun. You'll need a carrot. It can be a big old carrot that's been hanging around for a while.

For the first project all you will need is the top of the carrot. Ask an adult to help you with cutting it.

Leave about a half inch (12 mm) of the orange part, and the same amount of green stems if the carrot has started to sprout from its top. Then press the carrot piece into damp sand or soil in a saucer or bowl. If you don't have sand or soil, just put a little water in the dish.

Soon, leaves will appear and you'll have a pretty plant to keep at a window in bright light.

Here's another thing to do with a carrot.

Cut the stems off in the same way, but remove only about two inches (five cm) from the tip of the carrot itself.

Next, hollow out the carrot. You may need some help with this and with the next part, which gets the carrot ready for hanging upside down. Three strong pins stuck into the carrot bottom can be used to attach strings. Join the three strings so that you can hang the carrot from where they are tied together.