CarrotDaucus carota

The carrot grows in sun or light partial shade, but everything hinges on the soil: it must be light, deep and free of stones so that the root goes straight down. Choose a bed that has had no manure for at least a year, for example after leeks, salads or peas. A slightly windy corner is an asset, as the carrot fly flies poorly more than fifty centimetres above the ground and hates draughts. Alternate the rows with onions or leeks, whose scent confuses it, and wait three years before returning to the same spot.

In our loamy soils, the carrot succeeds with careful preparation; in clay, it needs proper groundwork. Loosen with a broadfork to thirty centimetres, remove stones and break up every clod. For heavy soil, build a raised bed twenty centimetres high made of two thirds soil and one third coarse sand and very mature compost, or grow in a deep container. No manure or young compost; they make the roots fork and attract the fly. Rake until the surface is as fine as potting compost, then leave to settle for a week before sowing.

Sow from late March to mid-July, in small quantities every three or four weeks. April sowings give the June earlies, those from mid-May to mid-June the summer carrots, and those from late June to mid-July the storage carrots, the tastiest and the best protected from the first generation of flies. Draw drills one centimetre deep and thirty apart, sow thinly by mixing the seed with dry sand or a few radish seeds, cover with half a centimetre of fine compost and firm with the back of the rake. In cold soil, wait until the temperature exceeds 8 °C.

The carrot is never transplanted, but its slow, fragile germination can be nursed. After sowing, water with a very fine spray and cover the drill with a plank, cardboard or fleece for eight to ten days: the soil stays moist and the seeds do not dry out at the surface, the leading cause of failure. Lift it every day to check, and remove the cover at the first seedlings, between ten and twenty days. Radishes sown at the same time mark the row, which lets you hoe without crushing the carrots, and are harvested before they get in the way. Pelleted seed or seed tape makes it easier to sow at the right spacing.

On a balcony, the carrot becomes easy: in a container the compost is light and the fly does not climb to the second floor. Choose a short or round variety, such as Marché de Paris or a short Nantes type, and a container at least thirty centimetres deep, filled with two thirds potting compost and one third sand, with no fresh compost. Sow in rows fifteen centimetres apart, thin to four or five centimetres, and water regularly with a fine spray: the compost must never dry out. A sixty-centimetre trough gives three or four bunches, sown in two batches to spread them out.

Sowing too thickly and then not having the courage to thin, and harvesting tangled, thread-like carrots. Letting the drill dry out during germination. Adding fresh compost or manure, which cause forking and rot. Sowing in unprepared clay soil: the roots stop at the first obstacle. Thinning in mid-afternoon and leaving the pulled seedlings on the spot, which calls the fly in from miles away. Watering heavily after a drought, which splits the roots. Forgetting the insect-proof mesh. Harvesting storage carrots too early, before the first cold spells that make them sweet.

Until germination, the drill must stay moist at all times: a daily fine-spray watering in dry weather, or covering the sowing, takes care of that. After that, the carrot prefers regular, moderate watering, five litres per square metre every five to seven days in dry weather, rather than infrequent floods, which split the roots. Water in the evening, with a spray, without forming a crust. A fine mulch greatly reduces the need. From September, storage carrots do without watering; autumn moisture is enough and a root less full of water keeps better.

Thinning is the task that makes the harvest, and the one people hesitate over most. First pass when the seedlings have three leaves, to three centimetres. Second pass a month later, to six or eight centimetres for long varieties, four to five for short ones; the carrots removed at this stage are eaten as baby carrots with their tops. Work in the evening, in overcast weather or after rain, holding the soil with one hand so as not to disturb the neighbours, then firm, water and take the seedlings to a covered compost heap: their scent attracts the fly. Fill the gaps with a little soil.

The carrot grows slowly and copes badly with competition: hoe and hand-weed as soon as the row shows, then every two weeks, without ever damaging the crown. After the second thinning, mulch finely with dried grass clippings or miscanthus mulch three centimetres deep, to keep the soil cool and space out watering. When the shoulders of the roots start to show, draw a little soil or mulch over them: this avoids green, bitter crowns. No fertiliser is needed in properly stocked soil; in poor ground, a little ash for potash.

The carrot fly lays its eggs at the base of the plants in May and again in August; its larvae bore rusty tunnels. The only reliable defence is fine insect-proof mesh laid over hoops from sowing, edges buried, and kept on until harvest. Back it up by growing high up or in containers, interplanting rows of onions and leeks, thinning in the evening followed by firming, and mid-June sowings that dodge the first generation. Against slugs on seedlings, collect them in the evening. Alternaria spots the foliage in damp weather: space out, water the soil and practise rotation.

March: fine preparation of the bed, sowing under a tunnel for the impatient. April: first sowing in place, marker radishes, insect-proof mesh, drill covered until germination. May: first thinning, hoeing, second sowing. June: second thinning, mulching, storage sowing around the 20th, first earlies at the end of the month. July: last sowing before the 15th, regular watering, harvest of summer carrots. August: thinning of the late sowings, mesh kept on against the second generation of flies. September and October: watering stopped, harvest as needed. November: lifting and storing, or a thick mulch over the rows left in the ground.

Harvest earlies as soon as the crown is the diameter of a one-euro coin, watering beforehand and pulling gently on the tops, or with a fork in heavy soil. Pulling every other carrot lets the rest swell. Storage carrots wait until the end of October: the first cold spells turn the starch into sugar. In free-draining soil, leave them in place under fifteen centimetres of dead leaves or straw covered with fleece, and pull them until February; in clay, lift before the hard frosts and store in sand. A late sowing under a tunnel in August gives tender mini carrots for Christmas.