Carrots or weeds?

[Fiona]

Now this is going to sound like a really stupid question but please bear with me as I'm new to this.

I have taken over an allotment which I have finally managed to clear and recently had rotovated.
I've got loads of stuf growing, I'm pleased to say, including a couple of rows of carrots. However, I seem to have them growing everywhere, all over the plot.
Thinking they might be weeds I have pulled up the odd one here and there and there are long carrot shaped roots, which have gone from white to an orangey yellow colour.

My question is, is there a weed that looks like a carrot when it's growing or do I really have three tons of them grwoing on my allotment.

The man who has the plot next to mine told me that the previous owner of my plot had dug in lots of manure, which is why I had so much grass growing because horses eat alot of it. Is it possible that they also ate alot of carrots and that's why I seem to have so many growing?

If anyone reads this and manages to pick themselves up off the floor and repair the split in their sides, I really would value some insight into my problem - I don't know whether to leave them or pull them up.

Incidentally, there seems to be no sign of the really neat rows I should have from the seeds I know I put in!

Thanks,
Fiona

[Clara]

Hmmm well I´m no expert either but I think I know what you mean. i have weeds that resemble carrot tops, though my patch hasn´t been cultivated for at the least 25 years.

So I guess you have a few options; they are weeds, they are self-sown from previous carrots that went to seed (I don´t think they will be worth keeping in this case but I may be wrong) or somehow your seeds have moved (seems unlikely, but was it windy when you sowed?)

I expect and hope that someone more knowledgable than me will be along shortly!

Clara x.

[pskipper]

Try digging up a couple to see, I've inherited quite a few self seeded parsnips on my allotment ( only got is this month) depending on how far they spread will depend on whether you treat them as weeds or not, I've left two fairly wild beds with the majority of the parsnips in. I'm growing winter squash on them as they will spread across the beds shading out smaller weeds but not effecting the parsnips which have tall leaves and are well established.

[flower]

the same thing has happened to us and (just to confuse you even more) some of ours are definately weeds....the others are definately carrots

Yes there is a weed that looks just like a carrot seedling at first, but also a fox or other beastie dug over my newly sown carrot bed and scattered the seeds all over the gaff

I'm not helping at all am I?

[Wombat]

Unfortunately the wild carrot (ancestor of our cultivated carrot) is still hanging around as a weed and it looks (initally anyway) similar to the cultivated carrot. As the cultivated carrots grow and the root swells it will become obvious which are wild and which are tame.

They are also referred to as "Queen Annes Lace" and seed very freely. Give it a bit of time and then yank out all the skinny ones!

Nev

[Millymollymandy]

Whether they are real carrots or wild ones, ask yourself if you really want carrots everywhere on your allotment, growing through everything else that you sowed or planted.

I'd hoe them off if I was you, and stick to your rows of real carrots. If they don't germinate after a few weeks there is plenty of time to try again.

After preparing the soil for sowing that of course is the time when the first flush of weeds germinate, just to confuse you when you are trying to find the seedlings that you sowed!

I've got very good and identifying weed seedlings when they are only tiny as I spend so much time looking at them.