Carrots bolting

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 5, Issue 11, 11 August 1987, Page 11

Carrots bolting

The cause of the problem of carrots bolting is still in dispute despite the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries confirming growers' suspicions that it was the seed that was at fault. Since early January carrot crops in the Waimarino have been growing at a prolific rate, but more than half the carrots are too big, too small or misshapen. In a news item shown on television on two nights last week growers were reported as having to dump more than 60% of their crop. The failure in the crop comes at a time when growers are struggling with failing prices. This year carrots are fetching $2.50 per bag which is the same as 15 years ago, the report stated. The main problem caused by the bolting, said grower Frank Taylor, is the double handling and high costs of sorting and dumping reject carrots. He said it was very time-consuming and labour intensive. The seed was traced by MAF as coming from three companies - Corsons, Webling Stuart and Yates. Yates will not accept that it is the seed which is at fault. They say they have prepared their own report 'on what went wrong, and had trialled the seed at .Pukekohe, Ohakune and • around the world and found* no evidence of the prob- — lem.