Carrots never even sprouted

[catjac1975]

Re the weeding part. They only need to be carefully weeded once. Then mulch them with grass clippings and they will be as weed free as they need to be. If you can glue a micro size seed onto paper, one at a time, you can weed them once. A colossal waste of time with out the weeding. Plant a smaller row so weeding is not such an impossibility. My garden is definitely not weed free, especially at this time of year. But things are weeded enough for good production. What vermin????

Here's what I did with my carrots after 2 years of failure and did great this year. In fact, I'm fighting the vermin for my carrots.
Or you get no made carrot seed tape out of carrot seeds, flour/water mixture for glue and paper towels.

http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/uploads/6992_seed_tape.jpg

Made a tiny little trench for them in the garden, laid the seed tape in, covered very lightly with dirt and then kept them watered. In fact, I hate to admit this, but we got snow and insanely cold weather right after I planted them and it took FOREVER for them to come up but they did great. They would have done even better had I actually kept them weeded... but for my lazy way of gardening, it was good!

 

[SuperChemicalGirl]

I am a pretty crazy gardener, but chem girl,you take the prize. Glue? Elmers

No - glue made of flour and water so it dissolves! The "tape" makes seed spacing easy, so less thinning later. More work when it's cold, dark and dreary and less work when the weather's nice!

 

[SuperChemicalGirl]

Re the weeding part. They only need to be carefully weeded once. Then mulch them with grass clippings and they will be as weed free as they need to be. If you can glue a micro size seed onto paper, one at a time, you can weed them once. A colossal waste of time with out the weeding. Plant a smaller row so weeding is not such an impossibility. My garden is definitely not weed free, especially at this time of year. But things are weeded enough for good production. What vermin????

Here's what I did with my carrots after 2 years of failure and did great this year. In fact, I'm fighting the vermin for my carrots.
Or you get no made carrot seed tape out of carrot seeds, flour/water mixture for glue and paper towels.

http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/uploads/6992_seed_tape.jpg

Made a tiny little trench for them in the garden, laid the seed tape in, covered very lightly with dirt and then kept them watered. In fact, I hate to admit this, but we got snow and insanely cold weather right after I planted them and it took FOREVER for them to come up but they did great. They would have done even better had I actually kept them weeded... but for my lazy way of gardening, it was good!

Oh I did weed once and it looked really nice for about 2 weeks. Great idea on the grass clippings mulch. I'll have to try that next year.

I think it's mice or chipmunks. I have chicken wire around the garden so it's got to be something small that gnaws.

 

[plainolebill]

This is in the soil? Not trays right? How would you ever transplant carrot seedlings with out killing them???

I've taken to using vermiculite for small seeds: carrots, parsley, lettuce, etc. I make light groove in the soil, place the seeds, cover with vermiculite then gently water or mist them. Vermiculite holds water but not so much as to drown the seed, helps them to quickly develop roots.

Yes, in the soil - it's like a miracle - even in the middle of July I can get those tiny seeds to germinate in short order.

 

[digitS']

This has been a very informative thread!

Vermiculite, huh? Maybe I should be getting a bag of that. I developed a very pronounced prejudice against vermiculite waay back in my greenhouse days - but that has nothing to do with its usefulness.

Bill has also prompted me to respond because many of you have seen pictures of my soil. If you wondered where all the dirt went, leaving me with all these rocks, you need to look at the Willamette Valley in Oregon . . . Yes, Bill has my dirt!

That leaves me pouring cornstarch gel into my garden gravel. I describe the technique for sowing carrot seed here (click).

(By the way, I edited that 1st post this morning so that you can once again, see the picture. Linking a picture to music apparently is just a temporary thing on TEG. Or, something is lost on Picasa and all that was left there was a big black, broken link. So, all I did was just to bring the picture back. )

Steve

 

[hoodat]

Digits, it sounds s though your soil is a good place to plant ball carrots. They are shaped like beets so they don't need deep soil and if they encounter a rock they just push up till the carrot is on top of the ground. If they do that you have to put some soil over them to keep the sun from giving them green shoulders.

 

[digitS']

I would like to grow small carrots of whatever shape, Hoodat. DW really wants the long ones like the soopermarket has .

For many years, I grew Nelson Nantes. Nelsons are just a little bigger than the babies. They are about as big as it is safe to grow - safe meaning that 80% to 90% will be nice carrots. Instead, I struggle with these Imperator types that about 10 inches long. I'm afraid the numbers are reversed and 10% to 20% are nice and the rest are of poor quality . .

. oh, it may not be quite that bad. But, close!

Steve

 

[plainolebill]

This has been a very informative thread!

Vermiculite, huh? Maybe I should be getting a bag of that. I developed a very pronounced prejudice against vermiculite waay back in my greenhouse days - but that has nothing to do with its usefulness.

Bill has also prompted me to respond because many of you have seen pictures of my soil. If you wondered where all the dirt went, leaving me with all these rocks, you need to look at the Willamette Valley in Oregon . . . Yes, Bill has my dirt!

That leaves me pouring cornstarch gel into my garden gravel. I describe the technique for sowing carrot seed here (click).

(By the way, I edited that 1st post this morning so that you can once again, see the picture. Linking a picture to music apparently is just a temporary thing on TEG. Or, something is lost on Picasa and all that was left there was a big black, broken link. So, all I did was just to bring the picture back. )

Steve

You must live in the path of the Missoula floods. Well come get your clay back if you want it, I buried it under my raised beds.

 

[ducks4you]

I got carrots--first time!--even in the drought. Here's what I did: I tilled the site, mixed in sand, planted and covered lightly, THEN, I covered the whole area with grass that I'd bagged from mowing, withOUT grass seeds. I've religiously watered the bed, and volunteer companion tomatoes also came up, which have shaded the carrots and helped them with this summer's extreme heat. I just weeded the bed, but I don't intend to harvest until November.