Carrots - Tough As Heck

[interele]

We have been trying to grow carrots again this year

When they are tiny they are crispy and delicious but
as soon as they get bigger than a large marble they
suddenly get tasteless and really chewy

Has any one any suggestions as to what we are doing wrong

Ta

Mal

[Peaspeculiars]

Hi interele - what variety have you been planting?

[interele]

Carrot Rondo - does that mean something ?

It says idea for shallow soil. The picture on the packet
shows round carrots about the size of a small golf ball.

By the time ours get to even close to that size it's like
trying to eat a stick !

[shoota]

//Carrots are very sensitive to soil moisture levels. When the soil isn’t moist enough, the main root develops many small feeder roots so it can soak up any available moisture more efficiently. At the same time, it forms extra tissue to carry the water, so it becomes tough. //

http://gardening.yardener.com/Problems-Of-Carrots

[Peaspeculiars]

^^ Bingo, shoota beat me to it whilst I was googling - I agree, your carrots are probably not getting enough water - I couldn't find any other reasons for it on the web....

[alavahalf]

You say .."We have been trying to grow carrots again this year" .. when did you start them, as it seems a bit early to be eating carrots that have been grown in the UK ?
We live in the South East ( we can start thing off earlier than most) and mine are still seedlings.

[interele]

This is only our second year at trying to grow any thing other than weeds ( which we were extremely good at )
It said on the packet sow any time from March so we did.
We have some more that are still only seedlings so we will see what happens with them .


Many thanks to everyone

Mal