Catching up: Carrots

My carrots were slow to mature--I mean, even for carrots.  About half of them matured at a decent speed.  But the other half took much longer.

This picture of a carrot seedling was taken in mid-late June, two weeks after I had sown the seeds, apparently.  I figure, because it had warmed up by then, germination sped up (compared to when the first carrots were sown in May).

I think the biggest factor for their slow progress was the repeated nibblings by local wildlife.  In early summer, it was common to come home from work and chase a rabbit out of the bed.

I had purchased three types of carrot: Nutri Red, Scarlet Nantes, and Sweetness.  The packages said these carrots would grow to approx 15cm (Nutri Red's length was unlisted), but mine grew only to about 10 cm.  (Again, this may be entirely due to wildlife).

Comparison Table

	Days	Shape	Notes
Nutri Red	76	Tapered (danvers) (unlisted length)	Were the first to produce seed leaves. Taste:  DELICIOUS.  Sweet.  Crisp.  Red colour looks otherworldly when pulled out of garden!
Scarlet Nantes	68	Nantes (cylindrical) 15-18 cm	Taste:  So-so.  We had some bitter carrots, and I think they were Scarlet Nantes.
Sweetness	55	Nantes (cylindrical) 15-20 cm	Taste:  DELICIOUS, VERY SWEET.  Crunchy!  I'm in LOVE with these carrots!!

Below:  Pesky pests nibbling on carrot tops.  At one point I even had a swallowtail caterpillar take up residence in this bed.  I moved him several times to the parsley, but he always moved back to the carrots.

Put little tinfoil windmills to try to scare off birds and rabbits.  Not much success.  Ended up getting a toy frog that croaks when it detects a change in light.  Seemed to help, until it ran out of batteries ;).

Nutri-Red carrot freshly pulled from the garden.  Since this was my first time growing carrots, I didn't know what to look for in a matured carrot, so I would pull one out every week or so after the respective number of days had passed.  Photo from 20 Aug:

 

On 29 Oct, after a few light frosts, I pulled out the carrots that looked ready.  A few of them deceived me!

The rest, who were too small to bother pulling out, I decided to leave in.  Carrots are biennial, so I thought I'd try leaving them in the ground.  At worst, they're not strong enough to survive, and I throw them out in the spring anyway.  At best, they're still alive and I can have carrots in early spring!

Sadly, we've had barely any snow--and it's already mid-December!  Snow insulates the soil and protects it from drastic temperature change, which can damage roots.  (Here's a handy article on soil temperature written by Paul Bullock of the Department of Soil Science at the University of Manitoba!)

Also, because I was lazy preoccupied with work and school, I didn't have time to rake up leaves onto the carrot bed to provide insulation.

We'll see how it goes come Spring!

---