I hope my carrots will taste better than the pottery gnome variety. Gonsenheimer have not been grown in my garden before but as they are promoted as crack resistant I thought I would give them a go. The blurb says ‘a bunching variety producing heavy crops of smooth skinned, good flavoures bright orange roots.’  Just about what you need from a packet of Carrot seed. Sown now they can be harvested from end July until December.

Autumn King Improved Carrots are my maincrop (and main picture) variety ready in August- October from May sowing. I will sow the seed thinly half inch deep and only thin if they are really close together. The other varieties picture are Amsterdam Forcing and Nantes but what ever you grow i hope you have juicy tender Carrots to show for your efforts.

Tips to Avoid Carrot Fly

• Sow in February or early March or waiting until Mid June will help as the Carrot fly is not laying its eggs at that time and it is the egg larvae that do the damage.
• Covering new sowings with horticultural fleece is the best prevention.
• Mulching with grass clippings can create a barrier for flies and also reduces green tops on the carrots but beware of slugs and snails under the mulch.
• Carrot fly are attracted by the smell of carrots which is strongest when leaves are bruised or damaged. Thin out and pick carrots late in the day when there is little wind
• Grow Carrots in 2 foot high raised beds as most Flies are ground hugging.

Odd Carrot Facts

• The World Carrot Museum has a variety of Carrot name for every letter of the alphabet
• Most carrots are orange but they can also be white, yellow, red, and purple.
• One carrot provides enough vitamin A for one day – the deeper the orange the more beta carotene and healthy impact they produce.
• About half of the worlds carrots are Chinese