real gardening

[johhnyco15]

today i started a week behind tg however its been very frosty  and only having a cold greenhouse i had to wait anyway today i started with some amsterdam forcing carrots  spring is here

[johhnyco15]

[RobinOfTheHood]

Is that barrel full of compost Johnny, or is the bottom filled with something else? And will you be leaving it in the greenhouse?

I ask as I've never had any luck with carrots.

[markfield rover]

Does it have to be forcing carrots?

[johhnyco15]

Is that barrel full of compost Johnny, or is the bottom filled with something else? And will you be leaving it in the greenhouse?

I ask as I've never had any luck with carrots.

its like a half barrel around 100 liters of compost  mixed through with ffb ill leave them in the green house until  late march then take it out once it warms up then when i harvest them as finger carrots i turn it out into another half barrel so the bottom compost becomes the top and  then sow some main crop carrots in it which can be left outside all summer long dont have to cover the crop because its too high for the carrot fly to reach  and markfield rover no any early carrot nantes type variety will do its just that i got them free  hope this helps

[Robert_Brenchley]

I picked up some black-skinned carrots in the market yesterday, which I plan to plant up later and grow for seed. I tried last year and they rotted, but last winter was extremely wet, and I'm starting them a lot later this year as well. Hopefully it'll work this time!

[markfield rover]

Thanks johhnyco15, will give it a go.

[saddad]

I'll be starting some in a tub in the big greenhouse (unheated) this weekend too...

[johhnyco15]

i put some Charlotte  potatoes in 8 ltr bags today in the greenhouse  should give me an early crop in around 10/12 weeks however forgot to take a pic so here's one of my banana  shallots  instead that i sowed tues

[Beersmith]

i put some Charlotte  potatoes in 8 ltr bags today in the greenhouse  should give me an early crop in around 10/12 weeks however forgot to take a pic so here's one of my banana  shallots  instead that i sowed tues

Good afternoon,

A few years ago, I would have regarded growing shallots from seed as something unusual. Now it is my standard method.

But I am interested in other people's experiences. Because in my experience grown from seed they seem to keep far better than shallots grown from sets. Now I try to take a scientific approach to things, so I am unsure if this is just chance and or if others see the same thing. Shallots keep well generally but over the past few seasons I have definitely lost a bigger proportion of the set grown.

Has anyone else noticed a difference?