Carrot Harvest

[Old_Geezer]

The gist of this question is:

Can carrots be overwintered in a garage and replanted next year, like potatoes can ?

 

Background:

This is the 2nd time I've tried to grow carrots in buckets. The last time, 2 or 3 years ago, I got a lot of small carrots, laughably small, but shrugged my shoulders and we cooked & ate what we could. This time things went a little differently.

 

One of the buckets (not both ?!) suffered from being waterlogged. Maybe because I planted that bucket first and just used the existing soil from last time, whereas when I came to the second bucket I regretted not topping the first up with new compost so I added some to the top of the second. (Neither have drain holes, but that hadn't been an issue last time. Ideally I didn't really want to lose the bucket function afterwards.)

 

The waterlogged one had few carrots come up, and all but 2 were still surviving this morning when, the sight of wilting foliage encouraged me to harvest. Those 2 have a vanishingly small tap root but they do have other roots clinging to sopping wet soil. The other bucket held a range of carrot sizes, none fantastic, but I have tried to group them into 'culinary' if big enough, and the rest 'short but wide', 'long but narrow', and two groups of different 'ridiculous size'.

 

I suspect although I had tried to put one seed into each location there must have been multiple which were never thinned out. I found little groups of intertwined carrots. Usually one long thin warped shape one, and a number of small ones that it had wrapped around.

 

Regarding these ones too small to want to cook, will they keep in a cold garage for retrying, or are they doomed and may as well go into the pot anyway ?

 

Cheers.

[ferlew]

MrF used to store them overwinter in layers in dry sand. They kept a treat.

[Old_Geezer]

Thanks. That's encouraging.

[netherfield]

Carrots want free draining sandy soil ideally. No stones or they might fork . I could never grow them here.

[Canary42]

My soil (heavy clay) seems unsuitable and I had a lot of forking trouble.

[douglas9401]

Are these carrots so small as to have pailed into insignificance?

[ferlew]

Sorry, I read your post wrongly, I though you were after storage for the ones you had ALREADY harvested. The sand thing MrF did after he had dug up the carrots, to keep them fresh through the winter.

[Old_Geezer]

Yes I'm enquiring whether those I harvested this morning can be stored to plant next year, or whether I need to give up and just cook them anyway.

[douglas9401]

https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/how-to-grow-carrots/

[Old_Geezer]

Thanks all for the advice.

I've put the carrots into sand in a tray in the garage. Just have to see if they stay dormant or rot.