Medwyn Williams sows seed for long carrots

Once they’re growing well, thin out to two seedlings in each station in case one fails

Isowed my long carrots on Good Friday morning, April 14, with four to five seeds in each station, with three stations cored out in each pipe. I stagger the holes in the pipe in a domino fashion to ensure that as much equal light as possible gets around to each carrot plant. I now have 60 carrots coming through, some of which I hope to stage on my display at Malvern in September.

Once the carrots are evenly through the compost I’ll leave them to grow to 2.5-5cm (1-2in) or so before thinning them down to leave two in each bore hole.

The best way to thin them out without disturbing the others is to use a pair of sharp-pointed scissors and cut them off just below compost level. Doing it this way makes sure that none of the other roots growing away will be disturbed as you try to pull them out of the compost.

Leaving two to grow on for a further few days will ensure you will, in the end, have a single, strong plant left in each station. In the past I’ve made the mistake of thinning each station to a single seedling only to find that a couple of these collapse later. There’s nothing I hate more than having a sowing station left with no carrot in it. I’ve tried to re-sow these empty stations in the past but they never seem to do much good as the first sowing will eventually outgrow them.

Be very careful with the young seedlings for a couple of weeks as they’ll keel over when watering unless you’re very careful. That’s why I don’t use the hosepipe and lance at this stage but rather a fine-rose watering can to moisten around them.

In a couple of weeks the long carrot will be well established and you can safely use the hose and lance from then on.