Of all the carrots I have grown so far I enjoy growing the variety Purple Dragon the most. The flavor is mostly like a conventional carrot with a bit of a kick. The kick I am referring to is not spiciness, but rather a different flavor than a conventional carrot. Purple Dragon carrots are perfect for snacking and - most importantly - my children love them.
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| I used to leave the fuzz on the carrot seeds |
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| Small Carrots require thinning if one would like large roots |
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| Later thinning includes snack-sized carrots |
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| At last, the larger carrots are great for lunches |
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| Most carrots have orange flesh, though you can select for darker flesh |
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| Carrot Plants Bolting |
As the carrot plant grows out a main stem the carrot root becomes dry and woody. At this time the gardener can choose to pull the carrot out for compost or grow the plant out to seed. The carrot flowers attract beneficial insects from miles around including small wasps, bees, ladybugs, lacewings, etc. The area around the flowers literally becomes buzzing with activity.
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| After a while, the seed begins to form on the flower heads |
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| The dried seed heads are now ready for harvest |
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| Harvested Purple dragon Carrot seed now ready to plant |
I ove purple carrots and have never let any go to seed...might be fun to let them
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reply Donna. I'm glad you enjoy purple carrots. I think they're delicious. They are very easy to save from seed.
DeleteI basically fail every thime I try and grow carrots. This year I managed to have a few actually grow large enough to harvest. Very cool to see how you go about saving the seeds. I used to teach educators about not harvesting everything to teach students where the seeds they started with actually came from, but have never really done it myself.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the comment, Rebecca and Tucker. I greatly appreciate it! I believe children need to know more about growing vegetables from seed to seed. That helps students see where the seeds that you plant actually come from.
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