I typically plant Danver carrots in my garden. They say that they should grow anywere from 7-8 inches on average. For the past few years I've been harvesting thick, stubby carrots. They taste is great and all but ideally i'd like them to be longer and more aesthetically pleasing. The package says their growing period is 77 days, although i keep them in the ground even longer than that typically. My soil is pure compost - no rocks and i keep it tilled and loose before planting my carrot seeds. I'm nervious to add sand to the beds as I like to rotate cropped in my 10 raised beds every year. So, one year the bed may have carrots but the next year it may have cucumbers. Any advice on how to improve the carrot length I'm harvesting? p.s. I typically space out the carrots every 4 inches in circumference.
Root knot nematodes is one common problem. You might do better delegating one bed for carrots and treating that one with BT rather than rotating. Or treat them all !!
Sow forced crop seeds in 2cm deep drills (shallow furrows), 15cm apart, preferably a bed prepared the previous autumn. Thin out plants to 10cm apart which minimises competition and enables the carrots to grow quickly to harvest size.
