Allotment Diary Jan 27th : Preparing the Exhibition Show Carrot Growing Mixture

vue - Allotment Diary Jan 27th : Preparing the Exhibition Show Carrot Growing Mixture

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One job that needs doing is the riddling and sieving of hundreds of litres of compost if I have any chance of growing any decent Show Carrots this year. I made my self a big riddle/sieve out of some 6mm mesh which means that I can do big batches at a time instead of taking hours to do it using a small sieve. This sieved compost is then mixed in a cement mixer with simply 5 oz of Calcified seaweed powder containing lots of trace elements and Magnesium and hopefully this should grow some good carrots later in the year. This is the mix to use if growing in bore holes or containers as the carrot won't hit any lumps which can make them fork. It is,I admit a faff,but the work is worth it if all goes well and you are pulling perfect specimens out later in the year. http://www.allotment-diary.co.uk

Commentaires

soon as the mixer goes on the "Brickies Smile" come out.

Are those giant carrot and onions good for eating or just for show?

carrot fly just like any other fly, only way to keep them off is a very fine mesh, but if you got carrot fly , then dont grow carrots in the same bed for a year, because the eggs will lay in the soil ,thats my experience of the carrot fly, i always have my carrot beds coverd with a fine mesh netting, and seem to have won the battle

Thats a beautiful compost. Congrats

from what i have read unless you have a huge worm population and mircrobe population in your soil then things like rockdust are a waist of time for you unless you adding seaweed as a alternative your going to have fresh but low mineral content in your food please correct me if i am wrong i am always learning new things.

Fantastic!!! It has driven me and a friend to compete in a "whose is the biggest" battle. But!! I have been looking for The magical Levingtons F2+S all over the South East (Hastings and surrounding) and it would appear that the area is a bastion for John Innes and J Arthur Bower! So please can you tell me if there would be suitable comparative? I appeal to every ones mercy in the face of certain defeat and an expensive dinner!! Plus he would never ever ever ever let me forget the lose. Thanks

Well I suppose that's one way of using a concrete mixer. That soil looks fantastic. Hope your carrots grown really well this year. Personally I like wonky carrots, but then they're just for us and not for show.

Well said. People seem to have a need for magic ingredients in gardening, and rock dust is the hot item right now. If your soil contains all the common micronutrients, Rock dust is a waste. If you need one micronutrient, then paying for rock dust is a waste. The guy I've seen pushing rock dust the hardest on Youtube is a vegan who's against using animal manure.

I grow on sandy soil and the one crop that really benefits is carrots. Thankfully I don't have to do this level of preparation first!

Hi Tim, yeah I'm a big fan of John's - he's very inspirational,- he's where I got the rock dust idea from, although he lives where it's sunny all the time, lucky bugger LOL! I've ordered 2 bags of rock dust so will no doubt be mentioning it in future videos.

Thanks for the tips, I might have a dabble then :o) I heard a tip for the carrot fly from an allotment neighbor. Apparently if you grow the carrots on a platform more than about 3 to 4ft above the ground - they can't fly high enough to reach them. Not sure how true that is but this is what I was told. Might be worth a Google search. Have ordered 2x 20kg bags of rock dust, will experiment this year in the raise beds :o)

Dan have you tried worm casting?

This is great! Now I know how to avoid forking carrots!... :) Excellent vid here! Best of luck to you!

Hi Rick, There's a guy here in the states "growingyourgreens" that swears by Rock dust, he has a few videos on it. I have been trying to read up on it to see if it's something I want to do. Tim

Amazing carrots in the picture. I don't think Scotts has that fertilizer here in the states or at least I have not seen it. Plan to google it. Nice little set-up, you need to make a chute to pour the compost into so it can slide into your mixer :-)

I only grow carrots for eating so I dont go to that trouble but I can see how it would be helpful for carrots grown for competition.

I have loads of Rock Dust. I haven't seen a difference but the old boys on the site who I gave a few bags to swear by it. Am going to give it another go this year.

Cheers.

Wow that's some pretty impressive looking soil, something to aspire to once I've spent a few years getting my allotment basics figured out. Curious - have you ever dabbled with rock dust? Seems to be all the rage at the moment for mineral replenishment in soil. I might get a bag of it this year and have a play. Good luck with the show carrots!

Would you do the same for parsnips?