First year growing carrots

[Gardeneer]

Beautiful pictures, Hudson and Rockman.
Down here we have a flat land stretching in all direction. The creeks and rivers hardly flow. No hills, no valleys, no mountains.

My newly made garden
grdn-nov14-2.jpg

No tractor ,no plow ! A shovel is all I have so far
No gyms around here either . I gotta get my exercise.

[GrowingCoastal]

Originally Posted by bower

Hudson, it sounds like your growing season is identical to ours.
My area and property is more wooded, so the moose and snowshoe hare do consider it their own. But slugs are still our worst enemy in the garden.
Your soil looks fantastic!

Since you mention them, Bower, which kind of slugs do yo have on your coast? I think we have every type there is, at least five sorts.


Great images of wonderful places and gardens in the posts above. Thks for sharing.

[MuddyToes]

I planted baby Parisian pickling carrots in a 3 gallon grow bag at the start of the summer just because I had an empty grow bag and didn't know what else to do with it. We had an unusually long hot summer and the carrots hardly grew at all. I just watered them now and then and tried to keep them out of the scorching sun. I don't like carrots much, but my dog does. So every once in awhile I would pull one up to see how they were doing and taste it and throw it to the dog. In the fall, after the first frost, around Halloween, they started perking up. I tasted another one, and it was better but I still fed it to the dog. Around Christmas, I noticed that the carrots were about the only thing left in the garden that looked like they had not been obliterated by frost. So I harvested the rest and figured the dog would be so happy. But after I tasted how sweet and juicy they were, I ended up eating most of them standing at the kitchen sink. ::p:

Thanks for all the beautiful pictures!

[Hudson_WY]

That's a beautiful stream Rockman! Our's is seasonal stream because it is diverted for irrigation. So we do use our stream for water in the form of an underground sprinkling system with 100 lbs of pressure. I irritate our field, yard and garden with 4" gravity fed irrigation pipe. I buried the pipe in our yard and garden so it would be out of site and convenient. This photo is of our yard but we water the garden the same way. I just pop the rain birds in the coupler where I want them like on a golf course. I have enough pressure to run 15 heads at a time if I want to. I can also water with a hose but the plants do well here with overhead watering because we have cool temps here in Wyoming with few insects. You have the perfect setup for your Aermotor!! I am jealous!!!

Nice garden Gardeneer - looks like you have lots of room for expansion!! Who needs a tractor when you have Gardeneer around - haha. It won't be long before your garden will be all raised beds with lots of plants, foliage and produce! We've seen your garden in the PNW!!

[Gardeneer]

Thanks Hudson. Yeah. I can expand as much as I can handle. But right now I am in an uncharted territory , about soil and climate. The native soil is about 90% sand/loam. I have located some top soil around the property (under the trees ) with lots of organic matter.
I think I have about 500 sq-ft to work with right now.

Back to Carrots:
About 2 weeks ago I sowed some carrots , in a small area ( ~ 15 sq-ft) along with some cilantro. I see something is germinating. I am not sure if it is the carrots or the cilantro.
The weather has been unusually warm . Even my parsley seeds ( sown on 12/30/2016) are germinating. Though parsley is a cool crop , it takes long time and some warm soil to germinate.
All right. I have a few cool crop going now. I almost forgot about scallions and chives. They are also popping.

I grew some rainbow carrots last year and nearly all of them went to seed long before they were big enough to eat. the seed was pelleted from Ferry Morse- I won't buy them again. I have great luck with carrots in a bed that was supposed to be a strawberry pyramid- the soil is very deep in the upper tiers and carrots grow as long as I want.

[loulac]

Big thanks to Hudson WY for the wonderful collection of pictures he gave us. I knew that Wyoming was a picturesque place, often shown in films, but reality looks better than fiction. I’m quite interested too by the blend of professional gardening together with small amateur plots scattered on a lawn, I can imagine the high number of working hours that are required. A silly question : why use a non-reversible plough in a big field ?

I’ve just discovered the thread so I’ll try to catch up with everybody.
It took me time to choose the right variety for the right place. Finding the right seed that germinates easily may take some time.
Some don’t germinate because ants take them away. I kill ants !
My foolproof technique to have a good germination : I cover the seeded plot with old wheat bags and keep them wet for a week. I must check the plot regularly to take the bags away as soon as the seeds sprout. I can use fern leaves as well if they don’t grow too far from my home, they let through enough light to allow a good germination but need regular watering.
My worst enemy : a small fly that lays eggs on the leaves in summer, then a worm buries itself against the root and eats it in autumn-winter. Traps with hormone capsules are disappointing, yellow sticky paper is better but doesn’t catch all the flies. Any suggestion will be welcome.

All the best

[PhilaGardener]

Originally Posted by Hudson_WY

That's a beautiful stream Rockman! Our's is seasonal stream because it is diverted for irrigation. So we do use our stream for water in the form of an underground sprinkling system with 100 lbs of pressure. I irritate our field, yard and garden with 4" gravity fed irrigation pipe. I buried the pipe in our yard and garden so it would be out of site and convenient.

What sort of head do you need for 100 lbs static pressure, or do you drive that with a pump? Great set up!

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by PhilaGardener

What sort of head do you need for 100 lbs static pressure, or do you drive that with a pump? Great set up!

Most of these big plastic heads have and operating pressure range of 100 psi.
The recommend operating range is up to 50 psi.
That static pressure drops when the valve open and becomes residual pressure.
From the misting in the photo I can see that the pressure could be reduced for better use of the water.
This can be done with a flow control valve cutting back on the residual pressure as it is flowing.
Worth

[bower]

Hi Loulac,
The bug you describe is called "carrot rust fly" - we have it here too and it is a nightmare pest for carrots. I only know two strategies that can work:
(1) If you know when the rust fly are finished their cycle, it's possible to plant carrots just after they finish and harvest later in the fall. My Dad and I tried this and it worked great. We planted in mid July. I don't know how my Dad knew when to plant, but I suspect it had to do with the flowering cycle of weeds in the area which are hosts.
(2) Row cover is a standard technique now to keep the flies off carrots at my friend's farm. You have to rotate your crop because otherwise there may be some in the ground, then you will have them trapped inside. There is a lightweight row cover available that doesn't trap heat but it does improve germination by keeping the ground moist. Only problem with the cover is that you have to take it off to thin them or weed them, which can let the flies in if they are active at the time.

Originally Posted by loulac

Big thanks to Hudson WY for the wonderful collection of pictures he gave us. I knew that Wyoming was a picturesque place, often shown in films, but reality looks better than fiction. I’m quite interested too by the blend of professional gardening together with small amateur plots scattered on a lawn, I can imagine the high number of working hours that are required. A silly question : why use a non-reversible plough in a big field ?

I’ve just discovered the thread so I’ll try to catch up with everybody.
It took me time to choose the right variety for the right place. Finding the right seed that germinates easily may take some time.
Some don’t germinate because ants take them away. I kill ants !
My foolproof technique to have a good germination : I cover the seeded plot with old wheat bags and keep them wet for a week. I must check the plot regularly to take the bags away as soon as the seeds sprout. I can use fern leaves as well if they don’t grow too far from my home, they let through enough light to allow a good germination but need regular watering.
My worst enemy : a small fly that lays eggs on the leaves in summer, then a worm buries itself against the root and eats it in autumn-winter. Traps with hormone capsules are disappointing, yellow sticky paper is better but doesn’t catch all the flies. Any suggestion will be welcome.

All the best

[bower]

Originally Posted by GrowingCoastal

Since you mention them, Bower, which kind of slugs do yo have on your coast? I think we have every type there is, at least five sorts.


Great images of wonderful places and gardens in the posts above. Thks for sharing.

Our common garden slug is a brown one, not too big maybe inch and a half long, but there are lots of them especially if it rains much, and they love the cool weather leafy crops. We also have the big leopard slug and I have seen enormous black ones, usually in the woods not the garden thank goodness. Snails and carpenters are in the garden too, doing the same kind of damage.

I tried that slug bait stuff, Slug B Gone or whatever it is, when slugs got in the greenhouse eating the tomatoes, but it didn't seem to work. What do you do about yours?

[Gardeneer]

In PNW slugs were number one early pest in the garden , eating just about anything.
I found the most effective way combating them by hunting them after the dark, during an overcast drizzling day. Get a bamboo skew and just pierce thru one after another. You will end up with something like shrimp on the skew.
Along with that, use slug bait during mostly dry weather, cover yoy plants with nylon tulle.
By above strategy I managed to reduce the population significantly. In 2016 there were few of them around the garden. But again, hunting them is the most effective way, I found out. Also find their hiding places so you can hunt them during the day too.

[GrowingCoastal]

Same slugs, coast and coast, seems like.

How do I survive the slugs?
I try to keep my yard garter snake friendly. That includes leaving a dish of water out on the ground for them during dry spells. A friend tried that one summer and we found a snake swallowing a black slug not far from the water when we viewed her garden. That garden is plagued with huge black slugs and she grows her tomatoes in a little greenhouse which helps keep them at bay. She has way more slugs in her country setting than I do in town.

Last week I noticed a hole in the ground under a bin I moved away in the compost area. I think it is a snake hole and I will leave it undisturbed. Glad I dug it out last fall before they went to sleep for the winter. One year I saw a baby snake back there so I think they like the dryness of that spot for hibernating.
They also eat wood bugs, apparently, so that's another plus for the wee legless ones.


You could try leaving a board down and gather slugs up from under it in the morning.
Or give them some beer to drink and they will die happy.
They will go for melon rinds that you can use for bait but you have to go out, check and remove.

Friend also cleared and put down black cloth (weed barrier) all around her greenhouse to discourage them from going toward it.

An endless battle when a garden has slugs.
I remember using slug bait in the past but haven't had a need to in years. And, no, my garden is not crawling with snakes. If I see one once a week that's lots. They usually go the other way.

One drought year while being overwhelmed with rats I went out one summer night to listen and see if I could hear any rodent activity. What I did hear was not rats, it was a sound I had to figure out because it couldn't be seen. Pretty sure it was the sound of a snake(s) moving,( feeding, I hope) under the mulch I keep down on the soil of the hedges - chopped bits of branches and leaves. Eerie it was, in the dead of night.

[rockman]

Yes GrowingCostal Iv'e used a wet board or cardboard in my strawberry patch. The beer in a shallow can buried ground level works good also. Have you ever sprinkled table salt on one? Instant goo!

[greenthumbomaha]

Originally Posted by GrowingCoastal

Same slugs, coast and coast, seems like.


Friend also cleared and put down black cloth (weed barrier) all around her greenhouse to discourage them from going toward it.

Does the weed barrier keep deer and other critters away too? I have three raised beds surrounded by a plastic weed barrier. I was wondering why my raised beds were never bothered by animals.

- Lisa