Improving soil for carrots?

Hi all, I've dug my deep bed for the carrots - which was fu when I hit banks of solid clay! I'm going to sieve the soil to extract what's useful to fill the bed, and add some compost - what can I do to make it more suitable for carot growing? I know they like a loose, sandy soil, can I add something to the soil to make it more like this?

 

you could add manure to generally help with drainage, and they like sand then try sharp sand. Builders sharp sand though can contain lime.

 

Hello
I'm a beginner gardener too, but I've always read you shouldn't manure your root veg bed. I think it makes the soil too lumpy so will cause forking in your carrots.
My soil isn't great so i grow dwarf carrots. I made a small trench in the bed which i filled with compost and sowed the seeds in that. very successful last year.

 

Beanie. What causes the forking is too heavy a soil, not manure. NewbieGreen is quite right. Add sand if your carrots are forking.

 

I`m actually going to disagree with you there, John. You don`t use manure on your root crop bed, because the richness of the manure causes the roots to fork.

 

Thanks for the help guys - I'll look for some sand to improve the soil.

 

Hi
I have two separate beds for carrots, parsnips etc. and plant them year about in each.

Some years ago a friend gave me a ton bag of coarse sand, which he did not need after a building job was finished! I spread the sand over both and mixed well in. Also I add compost on one of them the year I do not plant the carrots etc into it!

But don't add fresh manure or compost the season you want to grow them in!

The soil is actually now very gritty to the touch, yet some carrots fork, and the parsnips do not actually always make a proper root, short and stubby.

It does however grow wonderful Iceberg lettuce and Dwarf French Beans.

Try it this year as the soil is, you may be lucky!

Good Luck!

 

would i be correct in thinking that forked root stock is caused by nutriants to high up .
id say keep a reasonable soil up top not to rich but get your good stuff well deep so the the roots have to work there way down to the good stuff.
make the boggers work for there food

 

As above also stony ground / clay pan can also casuse forking.

The show groweres mostly seem to use old cut down dustbins with a 50/50 sand and sived topsoil mix, water and feed from bellow thus drawing down the root.

 

Dont use manure, make the soil as fine as possible and add loads of sharp sand. I mix mine in a wheelbarrow and then fill big fat 18 inch tall pipe sections with it and grow the carrots in them. Station sow the carrots on top and cover the seed in a small amount of sharp sand.

 

The directions on my seed warn against manuring because it causes forking so the seed producers agree with you David.

 

Makka-Bakka, your problem with your carrots could be caused by the fact that you used builders sand. The salts in this are no good for vegetable gardening. You should only use horticultural sand.

 

Right!

But I could not refuse a bargain like that.

Cherrio!

 

I had a bad year growing carrots last year and almost gave up. I decided this year to grow them in raised beds, I used a mixture of sharp sand and all purpose compost mixed in with the soil and hey presto all my seeds are up. I kept off the manure as I've been told they they do fork.

 

Slight problem! The bed is dug ready to be filled in with my soil / sand mix, but it rained a couple of days ago - and the hole is still half full! There is some serious clay in the soil and once it gets in the hole, it takes forever to drain out. Am I fighting a losing battle trying to plant in it? Should I just construct a raised bed instead (I had hoped to avoid this as we can't afford topsoilt o fill them or transport enough wood in our tiny corsa to build them)!