What an F2S-ing doddle!

I managed to get my long carrots sown yesterday and I have to say how much easier the task was than usual. This was because I adopted Ian Simpson's simple mix which is 4 gallons of F2S and 3oz of calcified seaweed. I believe this was originally a Graeme Watson mix, but it was much easier than measuring out several little lots of superphosphates, sulphate of potash, lime, Q4, rat's blood, spider's testacles and minced bat wings. I couldn't actually get any F2S and my compost stockist advised me that the Levington rep had secretly told him it would be cheaper to mix your own, simply adding silver sand to some F2, such was the crazy mark-up they put on F2S. I couldn't find out what the ratio was, so I guessed and went with 4:1 which looked about right, nice and open so that it crunched when you squeezed a handful. I must say also that there isn't a great deal of waste when you sieve F2, I was hardly throwing anything away and it did look like very good stuff.



However, this year I'm not growing many long carrots as I'm treating it as an experimental season trying to get back on track with them. Therefore I will only have these 3 drums of 7, and if I get a decent set out of it for Harrogate and/or Malvern it will be a bonus. If I don't I won't beat myself up over it, as I would rather concentrate on parsnips which I think I can grow well enough to stage to National standard. I didn't empty these drums out because quite simply I couldn't be arsed, so I was pleased that it didn't take an awful lot more effort than usual coring out a plug of sand then finishing off by boring with an 8' crowbar. I had expected the sand to be compacted like concrete.

I'm also growing 28 pipes of long carrots in the greenhouse as a trial to see if it's feasible to grow them this way in future, as the thought of emptying and refilling drums forever more is starting to weigh heavy on my mind. 21 pipes are filled with a mix of old spud peat and silver sand with added Tev04 and calcified seaweed. The 7 front pipes are the Ian Simpson mix with vermiculite added. Like I say, all experimental and the key will undoubtedly be down to the watering. This method is ok to a point, in that it can be done in the dry and doesn't involve shifting untold tonnes of heavy sand during the cold days of January and February, but it does take 5 times more mix to fill a pipe than it does a bore hole. You pays your money and you takes your choice I guess.

Next weekend I will be turning my attention to stump carrots, and I'm hoping to grow more than usual as I really did have some corkers last season. Checking back in my diary I realised that my best ones by far last season, (and those I staged at Llangollen were among them) , came from the 50% 'tight' holes that I'd bored complete. They were straighter and more uniform and required less pullings to get a matching set, whereas the 50% in the same bed that I'd 'cored' were a bit of a mixed bag I have to say. Therefore the plastic downpipe will be put back into storage for another year and I'll be getting my metal bar going again. It doesn't take that long as you're only boring about 2' of sand at knee height (yes, even for me!!!) so I can quickly rattle off a bed of 50. The biggest problem is making sure the hole you've just done doesn't collapse as I do grow them quite close, about 8" centre to centre. I bore all the holes first rather than boring one then filling. By going slowly at first I find you can get 3" diameter at the top without too much disturbance to neighbouring holes. Any that do get a little distorted can quickly get another rotation with the crowbar, and this way I can ensure all holes are nice and straight with no kinks that will transfer as a kinked carrot come harvest time.


I'm going to be mainly growing Sweet Candle in two beds but I have decided to try Caradec in a 3rd bed having grown some of this variety in pipes in the greenhouse last season. Because of this it went a little long and 'corksrewed' slightly as it went in search of mositure but the skin finish was superb and the stump ends were excellent. We all need to keep trying different methods and different varieties to freshen things up, and you never know but I might hit on something that will take over the mantle from Sweet Candle. Who knows, someone may even be daft enough one day to try some carrot seed that they bought off some backstreet Mustapha on their holidays in say, oh I dunno, Turkey for instance? Too much booze in the sun does strange things to the mind!


Meanwhile in deepest, darkest Yorkshire strange colours in the sky have been keeping the local rednecks amused.