not-very-nice carrots

 hello,
(another one of my interminable vegetable questions!!)

was wondering if anyone has any clues as to why my carrots aren't that nice.
having tackled (and won) the germination question, we've been eating carrots
here for 6 or 8 months, & some are not bad, but many have that slightly
bitter, "gassy" sort of taste to them (which you will immediately recognise
if you've ever tasted carrots like that).

our soil is heavy & there are rocks in there, but that problem won't be
solved until much time has passed. i've always sown "all seasons" except one
patch of "western red". no problems with forking or disease or anything like
that, but most of them just don't taste that good. we've never been able to
eat the older thinnings either - despite that they look big enough for dutch
carrots, they're too pale & bitter.

i have ordered some seeds of "french round" and "baby" for spring, but not
sure if my problem is related to the cultivar or if it's something else. two
carrots right next to one another can come out differently - one is good,
the other's just yuck.

????
thanks for any help if any is forthcoming!!
kylie

 0tterbot wrote:

Lack of organic matter in the soil?
Soil too old?

Only this year are our carrots starting to taste good and be of any size
beyond match sticks. We have been layering on our compost, purchased
"compost" and the bunny stuff. Can certainly see the change in the soil
from it.

We've had similar bitter carrots in the past.

 
certainly the soil lacks organic matter & will for some time yet i think
although i am going as fast as i can!! if that's an effect of lack of
organic matter, then i think that may well be the problem.


er, isn't all dirt old? <g>


ok, well, that's encouraging! may i ask how many years you've been working
at it before your carrots came good?

in the meantime, i might be able to organise deep composty-patches to put
them in, or something. if i can be bothered.

thanks terry!
kylie

 0tterbot wrote:


oh, we've been here 20 years {:-).

Seriously, we've only been piling the organic matter high for two years.

The soil was under an above ground pool that was emptied every three
years and the garden sits under a large tree.

We tried too many things, systems, until we twigged that we really just
needed to pile it on. Lol, even the green manure crop is looking better atm.

We are lookng forward to other root crops starting to perform.

 
argh!! <g>


right. i'm pretty sure my soil cannot be as damaged as that. there just
wasn't anything there except what passes for grass around here ;-)


me too! my onions were nice but ridiculously tiny. didn't get as many taties
as i'd hoped. etc etc. i trust all these issues will come good eventually.
it's just hard to know when it's ME doing something wrong vs something just
going wrong due to factors i haven't been able to change yet. (my celery is
beyond weird - i'm not even going to ask about that).
kylie