Looks awesome. Do those carrots all get covered for winter, or are you about to harvest them? Do you seed them by hand or with a planter?

I grew a mix of different colored carrots this year (Cosmic Purple, Atomic Red, etc.), which sold better than I would have thought. I plan to grow a lot more of them next year, but not so ambitious as you.

The first two pics get covered by movable high tunnels. The 3rd pic will be covered with row cover, then row cover and plastic. We will dig as needed. They were all planted with a Earthway seeder with a carrot plate.
Most are orange. I added the purple and yellow for color.

I'm envious. All I have is about 800 sq ft of high tunnel space planted to tatsoi, komatsuna, tokyo bekana, purple mustard and radishes. But I also sell potatoes, dried spices and indoor microgreens to complement what I offer. Our November weather is comparable to January in Maine where Eliot Coleman farms, so I expect I will be able to keep the high tunnel greens going upto late November. Once December arrives, all bets are off the table - we can get nights below -40 and days that struggle to reach -25 F.

That looks dynamite. Does your market(s) go year-round? If not, what do you do with all your winter produce?

One of our kale beds and our dog, Nate

Nate with some Laurentian Rutabaga I thinned out (these are the little ones and most in that pile were well over a pound each)

Rutabagas, This crop had got me confused. One place said I could plant them the same time you plant turnips. Another place says 90-120 days.

Tried them last year, planted same time as turnips and never picked one before they finally froze out.

This year I planted in early August/end of July and I have a few bigger ones, but not enough to harvest (yet).
I think my problem is I haven't thinned them. I think this because the ones that are further apart are the bigger ones.

I will let them grow this year and next year plant sooner and thin more (I guess.)

Rutabagas, my most lucrative crop......not.
But I plant them anyway just to have another thing on the table that most people don't know what to do with.

Mine direct seed the first week of July, get thinned to 3-4" and have sized up pretty well by now. The aphids got to a bunch even though I row cover them to protect from turnip maggot, however most look good and should hold well through the winter.

One crop i'm really happy about this fall are the leeks which I haven't started digging yet. There are 4 100' beds totaling 16 rows, more than i've done before.
Here's a pic from a few months ago (cauli on the right).
-Mark

I put in rutabagas in April for summer harvest and July 1st for fall harvest. The fall ones are very nice. I have decided to cut out the spring seeded ones and just seed more kohlrabi. Too many cabbage root maggots ruin the appearance of the summer ruties. The early July seeded ruties are mixed size right now but some are very large.

We have very few winter crops this year. I hate to say it, but I'm kind of glad---tired. Simply couldn't get them planted--altho I do have some nice broc, caul, cab, and turnips. It was another strange year. One inch of rain from late April to August and 25 inches from August till now. Surprisingly, we had some bumper crops this year, and I didn't lose much like in 2012. I am worried tho about fall prepping and next spring. There is a lot of standing water everywhere. It's made harvesting difficult too.

Mark-
I am awestruck with those leeks. They look great! Wish I could grow leeks that looked like that.

Keep up the good work!

Jay

I wish we had the market to support all that fall planting and winter planting. I've grown several different things and took them to market in the winter, and they really didn't fly that well. I had some great leaf lettuce one year in February, and I ended up taking some of it back home and giving some to the market manager. It seems at our winter market all they want is houseplants, coffee, meat, eggs, baked goods and pork burgers. And I'm bringing houseplants. I made christmas wreaths and sold 15 or so of them at market and more at the house last year, but I'm kind of looking forward to a break cleaning the greenhouses and the house this winter. And plotting how to take over the world next year...lol

Mark -
That's a LOT of leek soup!

Jay -
How late can you keep harvesting?

The carrots are awesome!

We harvest all winter long. We have winter markets about every two weeks from November 1-February 13th. Then again at the end of March and our outside market starts up in mid to late April. The reason for this break i the building we use is booked up and we can't use it.

The low tunnel with the carrots is new for me this year, so we will have to see how that works out. I am guessing that I will harvest them before I start pulling the carrots in the movable tunnels.

Sandy,
Our markets are just the opposite, the bakers and craft people get whatever is left, the fresh locally grown produce is the hit of the market. 2 years ago, 4 of my top 5 markets all year were in the winter. Last year I messed up and didn't get stuff planted on time and paid the price. Not this year, I am off to a good start.

Jay, when did you plant the carrots? what else do you grow to harvest in the winter? I'm guessing that it is all in tunnels. We have a year round market too. I sell squash, potatoes, and onions until they are gone for the year. I would like to grow more for the winter market. I have customers ask all the time how long we will be coming this year, and when we will start back in the spring.

The first planting of carrots were planted on the July 25th and the second planting was seeded on August 5th.

We do grow other crops. All our winter crops are inside, we are experimenting with some low tunnels this year too. We are also growing lots of root crops to put into the walk in cooler before it gets too cold.

We are growing 4 types of kale, swiss chard, collard greens, tokyo bekana, napa cabbage, spinach, mustard greens, tatsoi, 7 types of lettuce, 2 types of bok choy, cilantro, dill, kohlarbi, green onions, arugula, radishes, and haikuri turnips.

Jay

sounds wonderful. keep posting your progress, and how it worked out for you. Thank you for sharing.

P.S. makes me wish i started more things earlier this year.

Jay, how's that walk in working for you? I'm trying to remember, did you go w/a Coolbot?? It's in your basement as I recall.

Well it isn't finished. I have all the pieces and they aren't put together yet. I just haven't had the time. I am hoping to get it done in the next few weeks.

It is going to be sitting outside. I will be putting a roof over it, but it will take some time. I figure it won't hurt it too much over the winter.

Jay

Jay, what percentage of your land area is in high tunnels?

We have about 5,000 square feet under plastic at all times. If you figure in all three movable spots, that goes up to over 8,000 feet covered in a year, If I only move them once, but I usually have them covering 4 to 5 spots a year so that number goes up to over 9,000 sq feet.

As far as our total acreage planted verses high tunnel planted, I would have to guess it is about 1/4 to 1/5 of our growing space is covered.

Jay

Jay,

Do you have to thin your carrots at all or does your seeder space them pretty well? With that many carrots, I assume you aren't out in the field hand thinning. My Earthway seeder seems to spit out too many seeds at once. I've tried spacing carrots by hand, but that's madness. I have a handheld seeder that's slightly better than seeding by hand.

Mark, do you have to use a fungicide or anything on your leeks? Last year I think my leeks were hit by onion flies, this year it seemed to be some sort of leaf rust. I'm the only vendor at my market who grows leeks and they are a good seller for me, but I need to do a better job at monitoring them. They do great at the beginning of the season, but by the time I notice problems with them it's too late to salvage.

JB

I don't thin, One thing I have learned using the Earthway seeder is to use the heavy plate and lean it slightly to the left of center. You have to have a good amount of seed in the bottom for it to work, but you do end up with a seeding that is somewhere between the Heavy plate and the light plate. Also, try not to start and stop when planting them, walk with a constant speed.

I am not concerned if I have big and little carrots. I don't bunch them. I pull them, break off the tops wash them and then bag them on size, so all the small ones just end up together in bags perfect for crockpots meals

Jay

I don't have many issues with the leeks. If I saw rust starting i'd spray with Actinovate which is OMRI approved.

I know Jay already answered about the carrots but I thought i'd chime in too. I plant about 5000 row feet of carrots over the season and have 2 beds (8 row, 200') mature now for winter harvest. I use pelleted seed in a planet jr and get amazing stands. I do go through and thin by hand which only takes a few hours each bed which is completely worth it to me due to the high value of perfect sized carrots.

-Mark

Jay, those purple carrots look fantastic, congratulations!

This post was edited by madroneb on Wed, Oct 29, 14 at 10:05

This was the first year I tried to grow carrots and I had mixed results. The first planting I used pelleted seed and planted late February in the high tunnel covered with row covers. This planting produced some beautiful carrots and they sold out every week at 50 cents a carrot. The next two plantings I did outside with non pelleted seed but I had trouble managing the weeds. It might be best for me to invest in a flame torch. I just don't know the best way to manage the weeds with the carrots. Inside the high tunnel it wasn't an issue because the ground is very free of weed seeds.

Mark, how deep are you planting your pelleted carrot seed?

Thanks Mark, the Purplesnax carrots are have really wowed me so far this year. Their growth has been surprising. I am very happy with their color and flavor too. I am hoping they sell well this weekend.

Tomatoesandthings: 50 cents a carrot, how big were they? Except for the purples, most all the carrots I grow are Nantes, so they are 6-8 inches long. I have been charging $2.50 a pound all year long.

To start carrots from seed, I will share a link on how we start them in the summer. Mark uses a similar method, but doubles up the row cover to keep them more moist and require less wetting. This year we were gone for 6 days to Yellowstone when I had to seed our winter carrots. I set up a misters and programed them to go off every 30 minutes for 2 minutes from 8 am to 8 pm. It must have worked well as we had carrots up when we got back. The problem was I couldn't flame weed them and the kids really didn't like me when they had to come and help weed.

Jay

Here is a link that might be useful: Starting carrots in summer

I got almost all my fall crops covered now that it turned cool. I built a few low tunnels today. I am picking tomorrow for fall CSA and market Saturday. Always chilly washing the veg! No pics today but maybe soon.

I plant the pelleted seed somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4". The planet Jr. seeder is only so accurate so I just aim to get it all covered.

I may have to try that purplesnax next time. I like purple haze but it's pretty slow to size up.

I picked in my tunnels today and it was a lot of work prepping for fall shares and winter market. Super cold out. I think it was the last time washing with the hose for the year.