HOME GARDENS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 47, 5 October 1949, Page 3

HOME GARDENS

(By J. S. Yeates, Massey Agricul tural College)

THE CARROT CROP

Carrots are a very important crop in many gardens, and a few notes on growing them will not be out of place. There are two main seasons for sowing the seed in the vegetable garden—in early spring as soon as the soil is firm enough and dry enough, and again in January to provide the crop which will he harvested in autumn and winter. It is generally of little use sowing carrot seed in March or later, because the roots do not come to any worthwhile size and in the spring they “bolt” to seed without ever having been worth eating.

The varieties to be used in the garden depend on the , season. The general rule is to use one of- the stump rooted sorts in spring for the early maturing crop, and to use a long rooted or intermediate type for main crop sowing. There is however, something to be said for using a good large-growing field type in the garden, and if necessary eating it when it is only partly grown, though quite big, and is all the better for being taken in the tender half-grown stage. The one field variety which I have heard most highly praised in recent years is “Holmes Improved.” This is a Taranaki variety, a yellow-fleshed root of large size and heavy yield. Its seed is not often sold outside of Taranaki. A New Plymouth firm was recently advertising it in packets for the garden. The soil for carrots should be on the light side, and in a fine state. Farmers prefer to grow carrots after plowing in old pasture—an indication that land in good heart with plenty of organic matter is suitable. It is of little use planting carrot seed in heavy soil while it is either wet or cloddy. The moisture must be at the' right state so that the necessary fine tilth can be obtained. For fertiliser, superphosphate and any form of potash are good. Blood and bone can be substituted for the superphosphate. The blood and bone supplies slow-acting nitrogen which is a distinct advantage. Kerosene For Carrots Power kerosene for spraying carrot crops is a wartime discovery of great value to the gardener as well as to the commercial grower. Sprayed on when the carrots are about three inches high, the kerosene kills practically all the weeds, and also is about the best remedy I know for the carrot fly—the pest which results in the leaves going reddish in dry weather. I have found it is quite satisfactory to apply the kerosene in the garden by means of one of the common “flit-gun” type of sprayer. Give enough of the kerosene to damp leaves of weeds and carrots thoroughly. Do this job on a fine day when the leaves are dry and when no rain is likely for several hours. The Flower Garden Freesias are about at their best out of doors now, and are well worth watching with a view to securing corms of some of the best strains for planting next February. They are one of the earliest flowers to grow and for scent and richness of colouring some of the newer hybrids are very hard to beat. The best coloured strain I know was raised by a former Palmerston North nurseryman (the late Mr W. King'sbeer). Freesias can be grown from seed about as easily as from corms. Polyanthus are going past their best now but I cannot let the occasion pass without remarking on some of the new and beautiful blue-flowered varieties which I have seen. These are not the weakly and small flowered blues of past years, but full sized blues which appear to have full vigour. They are not yet quite multiplied in sufficient numbers to be freely sold.