Carrots like to be grown in very light, deep soils and will tend to split if grown in heavy or sticky clay soils. If you don’t have the right type of soil, it’s quite easy to remedy the situation. We’ve got a few suggestions for you…
- Decide where you will be planting your carrots now and dig it over, adding plenty of compost or well-rotted manure. Do this in the next week or so though to allow time for any compost or manure to fully break down before you plant the carrots later in the spring. At this time of year you shouldn’t add fresh manure to a carrot patch – they don’t like it at all!
- Use a nice, big planter that is around 20-30cm deep. Fill it with good quality, organic compost (which is naturally light in texture) and be sure to add a handful of worm cast fertiliser when you plant the carrots. The worm cast will slowly release nutrients, keeping the carrots well fed over several months as they grow, giving you a better crop.
- Dig in some horticultural sand (you can buy this from most big garden centres.) This will improve the texture of your soil and help with drainage too.
- Dig a trench in the ground measuring about 30cm deep and 20cm wide. Fill the trench with a mixture of top soil or good quality compost and horticultural sand.