GA: Planted half the potatoes, and sowed carrots

First planting day today!  (Yesterday the staking happened but I didn't plant anything yesterday.)

The potatoes planted today are in bed 1B.  All are Superior, bought from Ritchie's, which I cut in half several days ago and left in the basement.  (Basement worked -- they look good, not all rotty like last year when I started with them upstairs in the hot big room.)  Gave each hole a sprinkle of mrp, az, alfalfa, and kelp, then placed the potato, then watered it, then filled the hole.  Then put leaves over top of all.  Then immediately covered with the good cover.

Carrots are all bolero.  First I sprinkled az, mrp, and kelp (no alfalfa).  Then I hand-dug those in while feeling for / breaking up clumps of soil.  Then watered it to find low spots.  Then spread leftover GA compost from last year.  Then watered again to find low spots.  Then sprinkled the seeds free-style.  Then spread more GA compost form last year to cover the seeds.  Then placed burlap.  Then watered over the burlap.  Here's hoping that this method will be a one and done!!!!   This bed, which is 3 feet by ~5 feet, used almost all one bucket of the last-year compost, and I really should have used it all bec the base layer wasn't thick enough as after I watered it I could see a lot of the original soil come through.

GA: Carrot haul!!

WOW, what a carrot haul!!!  Between the first/main bed, the second/smaller bed near the north end, and the third/smaller/late-planted bed along the west edge, today's harvest consisted of the following:

- ~3/4 blue bucket

- overflowing white rectangle bin

- blue bin

- and a flimsy berry basket for the late-planted bed, which had some decent-sized carrots but also a lot that were too small (this bed was sowed on August 4th and suffered from poor soil and little water since it was very dry and I didn't water very often).

When I got home, most of them I just rubbed off soil and spread them out to dry, on the 3-level metal rack (with a mix of towel / newspaper underneath each layer), as well as on newspaper on the table.  

For a sizable batch, which I'll donate to food banks, I removed most of the soil very easily by dumping them in a bucket of water and swooshing them around.

GA: Harvested the rest of the carrots, beets, and celery. So, all done for this year at GA.

And WOW, what a carrot haul!!!  See other post.

GA: Fall carrots sown

I put these into the space recently vacated by the second downed zucchini -- i.e. along the west edge, northern part.

All I did is I removed obvious weeds, then hand-trowelled to loosen, then sprinkled kelp, mrp, and az, then mixed it in, then set aside some soil to cover them up, then flattened the area, sprinkled the seeds, sprinkled to cover with the set-aside soil, placed the burlap, then watered over the burlap.

Let's see how it goes!

GA: FOY carrots!!! They look great!

Woo hoo!  So exciting!  Nice and long, they look very good.  That's 68 days to maturity -- in line with the 75 days google says.

GA: Another carrot patch sowed today using basic method (no gel, no holes)

Here's what I did for this patch (the northmost patch, close to the roadway):

- No prep to the seeds.

- A few days ago loosed the soil and added the free compost.

- Day of scattered random amounts of kelp, mrp, and az.  (No alfalfa)  Used hand to gently mix them in with the soil.

- Added fresh thin layer of the free compost.

- Scattered carrot seeds randomly over the area.

- Covered with a fresh thin layer of the free compost.

- Placed burlap over the area.

- Watered.

Here's hoping this easy peasy method will work.  The first patch with the vermiculite seems to have decent germination too but could be better.

Yard carrots a total flop -- won't do another round, will just put something else there

Wow, despite all my effort with the vermiculite under/over and the corn starch gel, and covering with burlap, the yard carrots were a complete and total flop.  Not a single carrot.  So, for the first time in many, many years, I'm just not going to grow carrots in the yard.  GA will be the carrot place this year.

I'll theorize that the corn starch gel was too think and the carrots couldn't break through.  (It was a different batch of gel than the GA carrot sowing.)

GA: Carrots, beets, and popcorn update

Will preface this by saying there has been tons of rain/showers, and when there hasn't been I've gone to water, so I'm pretty sure no seeds have dried out.

Carrots:  See earlier post for sowing method.  Have been under burlap until today.  Today I fully removed the burlap because I think I see some carrot seedlings.  However, I'm not seeing a lot of carrot seedlings......  So I'll probably have to go back and fill in gaps.  My theory is that the corn starch gel was too thick and they got stuck inside.

Beets:  Quite a few have appeared, so removed the burlap.  Hopeful it will be a good showing.

Corn:  No sign of the popcorn yet.  (Haven't sowed the sweet corn yet.)

Yard carrots a FLOP. Re-sowed today

Ouch, the carrots sowed in the yard on May 4th were a total flop.  Well, not total, as two did sprout, but, yeah.  So after doing the GA carrots, I came home and used the identical technique in the yard.  Fingers crossed.

GA: Planted Carrots (readme for technique used), beets, rest of the red onions

CARROTS!  After the utter flop in my backyard from the May 4th sowing that yielded TWO seedlings, I changed my method.  Here's what I did:

- The usual breaking up of the soil.

- Raked it flatish.

- Used hand to break up little chunks on the surface.

- Used spacing square tool, used its orange "stick" to mark out 16 holes per square foot.

- Used finger to deepen/widen the holes.  (At first used the dowel, but it compressed the soil too much so I stopped and used finger instead.)

- Sprinkled amendments into each hole:  A mix of ~3 parts mrp, ~2 parts kelp, and ~1 part azomite (zero alfalfa).

- Put some vermiculite into each hole to leave a shorter hole and provide an easy-to-grow-through medium.

- Used corn starch gel method to place a few seeds in each hole.  I really liked this -- with a nice small cut in the bag and a nice firm gel it was easy to control the amount.

- Covered up with more vermiculite.

- COVERED WITH BURLAP (one layer) before watering.  Used bricks/rocks to hold down the burlap.

- After covering with burlap, then watered.  Do not water without the burlap because then soil ends up covering over the vermiculite which ruins the whole thing.  (I did it that way for the first bit at the east end of the bed before realizing it works way better with burlap on top before watering.)

That's it.  I used only one layer of burlap because (a) the forecast is very cloudy and rainy so not much sun to dry things up and (b) I didn't have a lot of burlap on hand.

So here's hoping this works!!!!  A one-and-done for carrot sowing is my goal!

BEETS:  This is another challenge for germination in recent years, so I used almost the same carrow-sowing technique noted above.  The exception is I didn't have the beet seeds in the gel (also didn't pre-soak them because they become annoyingly hard to handle when wet).  For some of them I put a dollop of plain gel and then put the seed on or in the gel; for others I didn't.  But for all I used vermiculate under and over.

And today I put in the rest of the red onions to fill out the east part of the leek bed.

Carrots started via corn starch gel method and burlap

Here's what I did:

- Soaked the seeds in water for a few hours.

- Made the gel by adding ~2 Tbsp corn starch to 2 cups cold water; simmering/whisking until it gels.

- Let the gel cool for several hours.

- Put the cool gel into a baggie; stirred in the carrot seeds.

- After loosening the soil, used a finger to draw troughs.

- Squeezed the carrot seed gel into the troughs. -- Pretty sure there are some longish stretches of no seeds in the gel --- consider using less gel with more carrot seeds.

- Pinched the soil over top.

- Mist-watered.

- Covered with double-layer of burlap.

- Watered the burlap.

GA: Final carrot harvest -- TONS AND TONS!!!

Wow, I had no idea how many carrots there were!  Will definitely be donating a good chunk of them!

The original sowing, of Bolero, whose greens always looked wimpy so I thought there wasn't much carrotness underground, actually were great!  Tons and tons!

The ones sown July 17th -- "Red Cored Chantenay" -- their fronds always looked strong and sure enough, a great harvest there, too.  These ones were broad at the top with a quick taper, a shorter carrot overall.  Definitely a different shape than the narrow Bolero.

Did a taste test -- at first I thought Bolero were sweeter, but really actually I think they all taste the same!  (yum)

GA: Carrots (Red Cored Chantenay) for fall sown today, using corn starch gel method

I simmered 1 cup water with 2 Tbsps corn starch.  It quickly gelled.  Removed it from heat and let it sit overnight.

Meanwhile, soaked some of the carrot seeds in water overnight.

Then this morning I mixed the pre-soaked seeds into the gel, and sowed it into a few rows at GA, in the front of the plot newly vacated by buckwheat. 

Watered them in, then covered with a double-layer of burlap and watered that.

These seeds are Red Cored Chantenay, bought from the store recently.  Haven't tried these before but thought they might be a good choice as the package says they're good for denser soils.

Results of carrot experiment = [EDIT: FLOP!!!!! README] success! (and no freezing needed) -- and part b of round 2 carrots started

EDITED ON MAY 20TH 2024:  Actually, this was a total flop -- although they germinated beautifully on the plate, it looks like none have "taken" in the garden.  I've repeated this several times in recent days and so far all a flop.  I won't do this again -- too bad, because they germinate sooooo quickly this way.  Next year it will be burlap method all the way!  Though  maybe I'll try an experiment with doing 48 hours of plate, then when they go into the garden, covering with burlap.... Hmm....  worth a try!

Here was my original note when I wrote this on May 15th:

~~~

Wow!  The carrots I "sowed" on plates which went into baggies indoors 5 days ago germinated!  I'm sure they mostly germinated yesterday even (given the length of several of them already), but I hadn't checked.

The plate that had spent 24 hours in the freezer was about a day behind the plate that never went into the freezer.  I'm convinced that the freezer step serves no purpose and just wastes a day.

Today I put them all into the carrot bed, NOT by carefully transplanting one by one, but by sort of gently dispersing them around (after I re-loosed the soil).

Didn't have enough to cover the whole area, so started more in the same way today, but without the freezing of course.

Carrots -- round 2 -- new method, and, an experiment

Well, next year I'll for sure use the burlap or cardboard method.  But the problem is this year, though germination was spotty, there are a decent amount growing -- so I don't want to throw all that away.  So, how to fill in the gaps?

I'm trying out the method in this video:

- Sprinkle soil (I used soil from the garden) over a plate (I used my real plates, not paper plates).

- Moisten the soil.

- Sprinkle carrot seeds generously over top.

- Don't cover the seeds -- just press them firmly down.

- I then misted the seeds to make sure they're moist (but the video doesn't do that).

- Place the plate of seeds into a large ziplog bag, and seal the bag.

- The video says to then put the plate in the freezer for 24 hours. EXPERIMENT:  I did two plates -- one went into the freezer, the other didn't.

- After 24 hours, remove from the freezer.

- Place bagged plate in indirect sunlight (either inside or outside).

- Monitor until they germinate.

- Once they're popping up, sprinkle the soil with the seeds into the garden.  She doesn't "transplant" them one by one or anything like that -- she just brushes them around the area.

- Done.

So, today I got round 2 carrots started using the above method, with the experiment noted above (one plate went into the freezer, the other didn't).

Where are the beets!? Carrots are appearing

The carrots sowed a few weeks ago started appearing a few days ago.  

The beets on the other hand are very few and very far between!

The beds look so compacted.

I hadn't covered with anything -- no cardboard, no burlap, no plastic, etc.

Next year I realllllllly need to use an alternate approach and cover them with something.  I think the multi-times-a-day of watering them really compacts the soil.  And, if I miss out and they dry out, wah-wah.

Carrot experiment: lazy sowing under leaves

I lazily sowed some carrots in the following way, to see if it works.  My guess is it will work.

After planting the broccoli/kale/green onions into their same bed in the central bed (all under one double-layer of tulle), along the west and south sides of this I spade-dug the soil, flattened it down, sprinkled some carrot seeds, watered them with the little green watering can, and loosely placed some leaves over top.

That's it.  I'm not going to baby them or anything -- no daily watering, etc.  

Que sera sera!

Carrots and beets sowed

Beets:

- The home-collected seeds from a few years ago.

- Presoaked in a bowl for ~24 hours.

- Covered with a mix of vermiculite and garden soil.

Carrots:

- Bolero.

- Straight into the ground as dry seeds, with 2 or more per "hole".

- Covered with a mix of vermiculite and garden soil.

All into the ground, none in containers.

Last carrots and beets harvested (have been several heavy frosts)

There have been several heavy frosts in recent weeks, so I harvested the rest of the carrots and beets.

I tried a carrot and can't say it seems any sweeter than the ones harvested through the summer.  Haven't had one of these beets yet.

But anyway, a very decent harvest of carrots and beets, though ~15% of the carrots seem to have had some kind of insect damage, so I'll have those carrots first.

Some carrot tops had the carrot weevil, but not many

At least I assume it's the carrot weevil which I had confirmed last year.  The tops of the affected carrots are damaged, but the rest of the carrot is fine.

Otherwise carrot harvesting is going well -- lots are a nice good size.