Sow carrot seed
You don’t need a lot of room to grow them – a 10-litre pot is big enough for a decent crop
I’ve been busy sowing more carrots, this time the small, round variety called ‘Paris Market Atlas’. It’s not perfectly round, but the way I stage them on a half-circle of dry oasis sitting on a basket, they do appear it.
I sow these in 10 litre pots filled with Humax Original multi-purpose compost, topped up with 5cm (2in) or so of Levington F2S. I’ll sow 12 stations per pot, and they’ll be left on the bench in my heated greenhouse and eventually moved to the polytunnel when the weather warms a little in March.
I’m also growing ‘Speedo’, ‘Sweet Candle’, ‘Golden Nugget’, ‘Short N Sweet’ and ‘Purple Sun’. I’ve selected them for a range of colour as well as shape and sizes. I sow these short carrots in 30 litre buckets, two thirds filled with Levington M3 and topped up with Levington F2S. The idea is that the seed will be spaced out and sown on top of the fine grade F2S without making any bore holes, with eight stations in each bucket. As the seeds germinate and grow on, the roots will eventually work their way down into the M3.
These are grown in our Titan bud box, which is positioned at one end of my large polytunnel. It’s made from tubular steel with black and white tough plastic sheeting fitting over the structure. This is well made with plenty of openings built into the design so that you can zip up or down various openings all around it. There’s a 3kw fan heater at one end as well as two extractor fans to get rid of excess moisture, keeping the walls of the plastic dry. Finally, I have 18 lights there that are set to be on during the nighttime when temperatures are at their lowest. Last year this worked well and the quality of the carrots was superb, but sadly, as we all know, Chelsea and all other shows were cancelled. ■ Why not follow me on Twitter throughout the season as I grow vegetables for my show displays – @medwynsofangles.