Your comments and tips

14 Apr 11, Paul (Australia - temperate climate)

on this site it says to avoid sowing carrots and parsnips together?

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02 Dec 11, Nathan (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

I suspect you would plant parsnips at the start of the season, then sows carrots once the parsnips are done. giving you 2 crops from the same piece of soil, pulling the parsnips would make turning the soil easier before planting the carrots. (Unless this is considered a no-no as well?)

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05 Jan 11, Michael Mitchell (Australia - temperate climate)

Our group looks after the vegetable garden for our company - a disability service. We manage to grow successfully, - lettuce, shallots, silver beet, spinach, tomatoes and cucumbers. However our carrots fail dismally - they are short and stumpy and grossly misshapen. Can you suggest what is wrong?

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19 Apr 11, Ben (Australia - temperate climate)

Possibly because your soil is to hard I've heard that if they can't grow down they come out looking like short stubby midgets

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26 Feb 11, Joe (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

It sounds very much like too much fertiliser, also carrots prefer open type soils if you have heavy clay soils add about a good handful of gypsum or hydrated lime (same stuff) per square meter and hopefully you should see and grow better carrots

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06 Jan 11, Chris (Australia - cool/mountain climate)

I'm interested in the answer to this, too. I get exactly the same problem!

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06 Jan 11, Liz (New Zealand - sub-tropical climate)

Carrots prefer light, sandy soil, mulched to keep cool and moist. Light soils give them a chance to grow long roots. If your soil is heavy clay, it is best to grow stump-rooted or chantenay types. A raised bed might be the answer.

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27 Feb 14, Colleen (Australia - tropical climate)

Or dig a narrow trench by inserting the straight spade in and wriggling it. Then fill with sand leaving a 2cm gap to the ground level and then put a light layer of soil, place the seeds, cover with a light layer of soil then water, protect from birds, heat etc.

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05 Dec 10, Michael (Australia - temperate climate)

Hi there, I planted some dutch carrots about 4 months ago and whilst it is producing carrot the plant is now nearly 2 meters tall and flowering. Is this normal? The couple of carrots I pulled out were short and slightly disfigured so I figured I needed to let them develop more but it appears as though the only thing developing is the height of the plant and the flowering which has developed rapidly with the warmer weather. Should I let it go or pull them out?

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09 Oct 10, Tony Morales (Australia - temperate climate)

I have fertilized my carrots with a bit of super-phosphate and had no more "forking" than usual (maybe 5 - 8%?)

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