Why have my carrots turned purple?

Question

I've recently re-planted my carrots into my new garden and they've almost all turned purple.

The carrots were originally planted in a pot and grew into about 3-4cm high green sprouts. I'm a newbie so planted way too many (100-200 in a pot about 50x50cm) but under the instruction of my grandpa I separated the small 4cm green sprouts which has small roots on them and planted them spaced apart in my new garden. They looked fine for the first few days but have now almost all turned a dark purple colour.

Since they went into the new garden they've been watered very well, the soil is always moist. The old carrots (I had tonnes left) are still in the pot next to my garden and are a beautiful green colour, and I water them the same amount roughly.

Can anybody answer why my carrots have turned this colour and what I should do?

Thanks.

I've updated the post with the pictures below as per request:

That shows the still planted carrots that are a normal green and I've circled the best examples of the purple. It's hard to see in the photos because of the soil and purple colour similarity. I'm aware of this and apologize.

Here's another of the carrots close up

And here's one of many of the purple carrots

Please let me know if I can help any other ways, I'll retake the photos in better lighting somehow if necessary. Thanks.

Answer 1

You have transplant shock on the one hand, and you have some very "bunch of twigs and rocks" looking "soil" on the other hand.

Much of transplant shock is from loss of roots (inevitable) in transplanting, and as a result you do need to make sure they are not water-stressed at all for a while, without making the soil soggy. Occasional misting of the tops may help.

That extremely rough material playing the part of soil is likely not going to be loved by carrots, but it's what you have, so you'll basically just try to keep them from crisping (without drowning) and hope they start putting out some green foliage.

For next year (plan now) try to prepare an area without all that big stuff in it, with some compost mixed in, and plant carrot seeds directly, as soon as the soil can be worked in the spring. as they grow, keep pulling carrots out to increase the space between them - the first ones won't have much worth nibbling on, but as they grow you'll have real baby carrots from your thinnings, not those things they sell in bags in the produce section.