Early Nantes is an early variety, suitable for sowing in February. There seem to be several varieties of Early Nantes, each with a number - I think these are either 2 or 5, but can't remember. I must look up what the difference is between those numbers.
I have other varieties such as Purple Haze, which is purple, and Autumn King, which is a later variety. I still have these in window boxes on the veggie patch.
I've sown the carrots in window boxes full of fresh compost. The soil in my veggie patch is quite stoney, so not very suitable for carrots. Carrots I sowed in the veggie patch last year were very twisted and not very good. Carrots I sowed on the allotment last year didn't grow very well and were overtaken by weeds. The window boxes seem like the best idea!
I sowed 8 window boxes of carrots last year too. I've only emptied two window boxes so far, and the carrots were a good size and fairly straight. The carrots seem to have stored well over the winter by being left in the compost.
Using window boxes has other advantages - they fill space between other veggies on the patch and the boxes hold down the weed sheeting. It just all makes sense to me!
Books say not to use fresh compost for carrots as it makes them fork. I haven't seen that problem so far. The compost I'm using is just cheap multi-purpose compost, so nothing special.
I'll empty the other window boxes whenever I need carrots - the sooner they're empty, the sooner I can sow some more, so it looks like i could be eating a lot of carrots over the next couple of months!
Last year:
This year, showing 2 freshly sown tubs and a few of last year's tubs with the dead greenery - I've pulled a few carrots out to show they're fine:
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