Growing carrots that are just pitiful. :( Help please...

Aha, a seed mat from cheese cloth stretched out to full size, with toilet paper -- one layer on top of it.

But, won't the roots get caught in the cheese cloth? I GOT IT!!!! Use those HUGE NEW Ziplok bags made for storing blankets and bulky stuff!!!!! Those would hold a LOT of paper towels/TP seed tapes!

The straw is used just to inflate it. Once inflated remove it and seal the bag as quickly as possible. Haven't tried a trash bag. They aren't clear and wouldn't get any sunlight. For seeds that need darkness that might work. Gallon Zip-locs work nicely for me as they are just big enough to work well in 1 ft. sq. areas.

I've done some flower seeds, carrots, yarrow and a few others. The white paper towel makes it real easy to see how many tiny lettuce seeds you have in one area!

I think the HUGE Ziplok bags are clear.

I was thing the white trash bags, the small ones. But they don't zip.

Isn't cheesecloth made from cotton?

There are cheapie plastic garbage bags that are almost clear. We use them at work. Those would probably work.

So is this a good way to start carrots? Seems like if they get going without deep, soft soil directly under them, they could be more like flattened yesterday's spaghetti sort of carrots.

Ha, I had some funny carrots once, a few of them hit rocks and they were very Picasso. I've always wanted to mix sharp gravel with soft soil to see waht the carrots would turn into! Granchh! Runchh! Boink!