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I added a lot of horse manure compost to two raised beds prior to planting carrots. The tops looked good, but the carrots were short, fat and forked. What did I do wrong?
Last Updated: September 24, 2007
Branching in carrot roots is stimulated by quickly available nitrogen, compacted soil, stones, or close cultivation.
In your case it could be the nitrogen introduced when you added the horse manure. Use well-rotted manure and incorporate into the soil in the fall before planting carrots in the spring. Hopefully, this well-amended bed will reward you with normal-looking carrots in subsequent seasons.
The carrot bed should be at least 12 inches deep with loose soil free of sticks, stones and other debris. In addition to amending soil with manure, leaf mold is useful and in heavy clay type soils gypsum is helpful.
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