Too Much Carrot Top

The carrot tops look so green and healthy ... but underneath, the roots are puny!

It's hard to judge when carrots are ready to be harvested. I've pulled a few in recent weeks. They've been tasty, but sort of skinny.  I've been waiting to actually see the tops of the roots at the soil line before harvesting. That never happened.  Now the greens are bushy and showing sign of going to seed. I pulled a couple today and the roots were woody at the stem end! Oh no! The smaller ones were still tender and sweet. Time to pull them all up.

These are 'purple haze' carrots.  The skin is dark purple with bright orange interior. They make a very pretty fresh slice! Too bad the color fades when cooked. This variety is actually known for its large, healthy tops, but the roots should be 7 - 8 inches long.  Mine are half the expected size ... about 4" long and skinny.

I suspect the soil in some of my raised beds is a bit rich in nitrogen content for optimal vegetable production. (Remember the okra forest and the wall of tomatoes in the 2010 garden?) When there's too much nitrogen in the soil, plants may look lush and green, but their ability to fruit and flower is greatly reduced. So how to get rid of excess nitrogen?  It turns out that while nitrogen is relatively easy to add to the soil, it's a little more challenging to remove.

In order to remove excess nitrogen from the soil, the nitrogen must be bound to something else... such as plants. Any plant will use some nitrogen in the soil, but some plants (squash, cabbage, broccoli and corn) use up large amounts of nitrogen while growing. Grow these plants where there is too much nitrogen in the soil and they will act as nitrogen sponges.

Another way of removing excess nitrogen from the soil is through the use of mulch. Many people use mulch in their garden and have problems with it depleting the nitrogen in the soil as it breaks down. When you have too much nitrogen in the soil, you can use this normally frustrating problem to your benefit. A layer of mulch will help draw out some of the excess nitrogen in the soil.

I hope that by using mulch and rotating my crops the soil chemistry will eventually even out. Of course, the smart thing would be to take a soil sample in for testing to see if all my assumptions are correct.  And then ... take corrective action! That's on my to-do list.