Article submitted by Anne

If, like me, you live in an area where there is heavy clay or where the soil in the garden is very full of stones, you will know how difficult it is to grow straight carrots.  By digging a trench where the carrots are to grow and filling it with sand before sowing the seeds, you stand a much better chance of ending up with straight carrots: this is very important if you intend entering the local flower and produce show!  Remember that the sand may mean that your soil dries out more quickly than you are used to but it will never become as hard ar the clay did si even pulling the carrots will be a lot easier.

Another problem that can be encountered by a carrot grower is the problem of producing split carrots.  Too rich a soil may be the cause of this problem - and what a pain they are for the lady of the house who has to prepare them for cooking!  One way of trying to avoid this problem is to make sure that you are not too kind to your carrots; make sure you are not pampering to your carrots by treating them to too rich a foil.  Avoid filling the carrot trench with manure of any kind (local stables are a good sourch of free manure for those veg that do like a rich soil)  The ease of finding nutrients, particularly if the nitrogen levels are too high, in the soil stops the carrots from growing downwards in search of these nutrients.  Instead, they end up as short stubby divided, forked root vegetables - but never the less extremely tasty.

One other thing to try if you really are in to 'showing' your carrots is to grow them in a pipe, such as a drain pipe, which has been filled with stone free light well drained sandy loamy soil.  Make sure the diameter of the pipe is large enough for the carrots you hope to produce.  It is tempting to try to grow more carrots than we have room for - be ruthless when thinning out.

If heavy stony badly drained soil is a problem in your growing area a raised bed can be the answer as in a raised bed you have full control of the soil you are providing for your plants.  If you have an old zinc bath, drill a few holes in its base and fill it with carrot-friendly soil and have a go in that; the results could surprise you!