A Fork in the Root

You may once have dug up a crop of carrots with great excitement only to find that they were all a strange shape. Don't panic, your carrots were not cursed by Poseidon to come out looking like tridents, the problem is really simple to prevent if you know a few things about the conditions carrots like. 

The most important thing to consider if you don't want wonky carrots is the quality of the soil. If your soil is too compacted or stony the shape of your carrots will be affected. Carrots often alter when they alteration find, changing their growth pattern at the slightest contact with a lump of hardened earth or a stone. Loosen your soil to the depth that your carrots are likely to grow to to  stop this from happening. It is also good to not walk on the area where your carrots are growing to avoid compacting the soil. 

Another thing you don't want to do is plant your carrots too close to each other and fail to weed around them. Any competing roots will cause your carrots to attempt to grow around the obstruction and make them an odd shape.

The last two things to remember are to use older manure to fertilise your carrots as it is less nitrogen rich, and not to transplant your carrots. Unlike many vegetables, carrots are not big fans of nitrogen and it can affect their shape adversely. Sowing your seeds directly where you want your carrots to grow rather than transplanting seedlings helps to keep the carrots straight. Planting in raised beds, rather than directly in the ground also enables you to have more control over the conditions your carrots grow in. 

These tips will help you with growing most root vegetables not just carrots. And don't throw your less perfect carrots away, they will still make a fine carrot and coriander soup, imperfections aside.