Carrots for overwintering

Carrots for overwintering

Last year I tried for the first time to sow carrots for overwintering in a manure bank. A summer variety was sown on 17 October, after which the 12th. December a fairly fine emergence could be observed. And it was not so good - it turned out later. As spring progressed, approx. 1/4 of the plants for flowering. It turned into tall, beautiful flower screens, which carrots quite normally do 2 years after a winter.

In my ignorance I had sown in a too hot soil, which therefore gave a premature germination - which then again meant that the small plants had developed too much root when the winter frost hit. And therefore the plants thought they were in the process of 2nd year growth when it became spring. Since then I have become wiser: the carrots for overwintering should only be sown when the soil temperature has fallen below 5 °. The seeds simply lie in the ground and absorb moisture without germinating - and then wake up to deeds when it becomes spring.

Today the temperature has dropped to 4 ° without the prospect of it rising quite a bit for the time being, so the variety Amsterdam Forcing has been sown (some of the earliest, but most summer varieties can probably be used). The windows have been laid on the bench so that the ground does not get wetter than it already is - but it is kept open so that it does not get too hot in the bench if the accident should be out and suddenly there is a lot of sun

Written by Peter Norris, on 8.11.2017