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Post by castanea on Oct 28, 2011 19:18:29 GMT -5
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Post by canadamike on Oct 28, 2011 21:24:02 GMT -5
The link does not bring me to the carrot but I would suspect it is something like the FLAKKEE carrots, there are many strains of them.
For real mastodonts, you can buy seeds from giant vegetable growers, but do not expect anything looking good... Personnally, I would not go for the bulkiest one but for the longer, there is a british company selling one that is huge and long and good looking, but giant veggies are not my cup of tee...
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Post by turtleheart on Oct 28, 2011 21:39:10 GMT -5
i like carrots that dont need super fluffed irrigated compost to produce roots. all the american carrots i try are weak. im looking overseas for something that can grow in hardpan clay like the species evolved to do.
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Post by castanea on Oct 30, 2011 0:38:57 GMT -5
Apparently Mastodon was a heavy yielder in poor soils. It was one a variety of field carrots that were widely grown in the US for stock food before corn became the preferred feed for farm animals.
Wikipedia says: "Field Carrot varieties bred and introduced to UK agriculture include Scarlet Intermediate in 1900, Mid Season Scarlet (1911), Mammoth White (1924), Intermediate Stump Rooted (1935), Red Cored Early Market (1935), Short Stump Rooted (1938), Giant White (1939)."
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Post by canadamike on Oct 30, 2011 22:04:10 GMT -5
I never had the privilege of growing carrots in super fluffed compost... and would have probably ended up with hairy ones in such a case. I have grown them all my life in clay, from poure pottery clay to clayish amended soil...
Clay is a bugger if it gets dry while they are at the beginning of their growth stage, but otherwise they grow well in it, although end up looking bad many times, but nutritious nevertheless.e
I have added a lot of sand in my carrots rows with success. And also devised a funny way to not have to weed too much: I make a depression of about 3-4 inches deep in soil, then fill it with peat moss mixed with compost and lime...and seed them in it
Weeds cannot take over,there is none in the peat AND IN THE FALL I AM MIXING GOOD STUFF IN MY CLAY...if you do it in a foot wide trench and broadcast your seeds lightly, you end up with a carrot forest of sorts...amazing production in a small space...
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Post by turtleheart on Oct 31, 2011 8:19:34 GMT -5
i use carrots purely as space filler. i plant them before and after planting other things in that space (i also use amaranth and quinoa, and many others to fill the soil in place of weed seeds. you can create beneficial weed communities). my sunflowers bodies are mulching some carrots i will eat spring thaw 2012. i always have more than 2 species together in a space. i did alot of carrot, nasturtium, violet, basil, and favas this year. onions too, just put all of them in the empty spots so there was no room for anything to breathe, and certainly no weeds. with a thick living layer above the dead layer of mulch, no water could get in, and the soil stayed wet and cool all year. ( i also breed my tomatoes this way and they compete for height and have to fight the dampness of their toes as the fungal blights come through, i breed for resistance in last year's residue.)
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Post by castanea on Nov 29, 2011 21:46:50 GMT -5
Since I started this thread I have been looking for ANY source of field carrot seed and can't find it. My guess is that if field or stock carrots are still grown anywhere, it will be in Europe, Turkey or Afghanistan. I wonder why stock beets are still around while stock carrots have disappeared.
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Post by steev on Nov 29, 2011 23:25:27 GMT -5
Silly wabbits!
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Post by castanea on Nov 30, 2011 21:09:12 GMT -5
LOL
I wish it were. I am afraid it was us.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Dec 1, 2011 7:51:48 GMT -5
Mike, it looks like the Chantenay style carrots like Flakkee are the most like the stock carrots of the ancient ones. Maybe get a few varieties and "Mammoth" may once again walk the earth.
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Post by castanea on Dec 1, 2011 9:38:07 GMT -5
Mike, it looks like the Chantenay style carrots like Flakkee are the most like the stock carrots of the ancient ones. Maybe get a few varieties and "Mammoth" may once again walk the earth. That's the same conclusion I came to. I just don't want another breeding project, especially with carrots, which are one of the harder veggies to work with anyway. Traveling to Turkey and looking for big carrots might be easier than trying to breed them (although a lot more expensive). |
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Post by steev on Dec 1, 2011 11:36:28 GMT -5
Could be a deductable business expense. Better still, do it from concern for the unborn next billion and take a charitable deduction.
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Post by johno on Dec 1, 2011 13:33:19 GMT -5
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Post by canadamike on Dec 1, 2011 17:19:08 GMT -5
You are right Johno, it used to be a fodder one, now it is kind of popular with people too. I have grown it many times, it performed well in my clayish soil.
Another great one is OXHEART. It is said to prefer light soil, I think it is true of all carrots, but I had success with it.
It gets rounder in heavier soil. This baby can sometimes become almost as large as long.
And, frankly, it is a very very tasty carrot for such a large one, surprizing in fact. She get an A+ in my book. If I could grow only one it would be the one I select. Not the nicest looking, but a true champion. For somebody aiming at self sufficiency, it is a winner.
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Post by castanea on Dec 1, 2011 19:27:04 GMT -5
Thank you! I'm not surprised it is French. |
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