I give up!

[TillinWithMyPeeps]

... With carrots.

The carrots grow so slowly and stay so low to the ground that they are getting over taken by weeds.

I think I will put bush beans in their place. Do you have a recommended variety?

 

[Greenthumb18]

... With carrots.

The carrots grow so slowly and stay so low to the ground that they are getting over taken by weeds.

I think I will put pole beans in their place. Do you have a recommended variety?

So the weeds are growing faster than the carrots, have you been weeding from time to time?
Yes, for pole beans i recommemd 'Fortex' which is a green bean variety, were you looking for a shelling bean instead?

 

[TillinWithMyPeeps]

It is hard to describe, I have been weeding, both the weeds and carrot seedlings are small, but the weeds are growing faster, and it is getting hard to tell what is carrot and what is weeds. I might try the carrots somewhere else. I am definitely looking for a green bean type where you just eat the whole thing.

Has anyone tried the yellow or purple beans?

 

[ddawn]

Sugar snaps and "haricot verts" are my favorites. Haricot verts is actually just French for green beans, but here it means thinner, smaller beans when mature, tender and tasty.

 

[allabout]

Oh, I agree!!! (on the carrots) I ALWAYS have visions of a beautiful harvest worthy of royality with my carrots. I'm lucky if my darn pet rabbits even look thrilled with those "things" at the end of the growing season. They just are not worth the headache.

Our family favorite for pole bean is the "rattlesnake" pole bean. I'm always in trouble with my Grandma if any other is even experimented with!


Claudia

 

[vfem]

Honey, I am long done with carrot.... they all came out so skinny and tiny... I wish I was that skinny myself!!! SHEESH!!!!

I'd go with the beans, and probably bush beans to combat the weeds!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Any green bean recommendation is personal preference. They all have something to recommend them. My wife insists I raise Blue Lake as she says they smell more like green beans than the others I've tried. I'd suggest trying different ones in different years until you find one that stands out for you.

I have not tried the purple beans but I understand at least some varieties of them cook up green.

I understand some of the frustration with weeds in carrots. I usually only weed them once after they come up, then they shade out enough of the new the weeds that try to sprout. I usually wind up watering my carrots a couple of times when it is dry to help them come up so I often have a crust when it is time to weed them. I wait until it is a little damp to weed them. I do less damage to the growing carrots that way. And I usually gently water them after I weed to settle them back down.

One way that might work to help keep the number of weeds down would be to prepare the ground to sow the carrot seeds about three weeks in advance, then cover it with black plastic. This should sprout and kill most of the weed seeds right at the surface. Then, when you plant the carrots, disturb the ground as little as possible to not bring more weed seeds to the sprouting region. Carrot seeds are so fine they don't have to be buried very deeply so you can do this without disturbing the soil much. It would not help on seeds that need more cover to germinate.

I got my first good carrot yesterday, by the way.

Good luck!

 

[HiDelight]

I love growing carrots ...mine are far from perfect looking but they are really good I plant them in and around other things and just broadcast them pretty intensly ...eating the baby carrots when I thin them ...(I do use raised beds and pots so maybe that matters?)

I plant everything tight so I have few or any weeds in the vegetable beds (now the rest of my garden is another story!!!)

Purple string beans taste great but loose their color when they are cooked

I was so disapointed the first time I cooked them having no idea that happened I thought something was wrong and there was some strange reaction in the pot!

 

[me&thegals]

The purple beans are great for eating raw I love the yellow ones just for interesting color. My favorite green bean is Slenderette. It holds the beans for SO long without getting overripe and each plant is loaded!

 

[jamespm_98]

I prefer Blue Lake in the bush bean variety. I am trying Rattlesnake pole beans this year as well. I have no luck with carrots either, the little seedlings never make it very far at my house. I have a 3 X 6 carrot patch with only 8 - 10 plants because I gave up reseeding them.