yes that is exactly what I read as well, plus carrots are supposed to take a long time to mature so I guess in the meantime you can be munching on some radishes at least. I planted some parmex carrots that Twiggy gave me a while back, they are suppose to be an early carrot.
Carrots
Anyone care to mention how close they plant their carrots beside their radishes? Can you get real close like 1" since neither veg takes up tons of room? Or do they need more space due to a root requirement? Thanks.
Since the radishes mature faster than the carrots, I planted them 1" apart. That way, when I pull the radishes, the carrots will be 2 " apart.
That's what I did too...
Quote from Calalily :
We grow Bolero, Sugarsnax, Mokum, Yaya and Nelson. All are sweet and pretty easy to grow. My seeds usually germinate in 7-10 days. I water the seedbeds often so the seeds don't dry out and continue with a little extra water for the first couple of weeks after germination.
Too much nitrogen is bad for carrots, so don't overfertilize. They will be covered with little hairy roots and taste like kerosene. [/quote]
[quote="HoneybeeNC"]I have clay soil, too so I sow "Short 'n Sweet" carrots. I'm wondering if perhaps the birds ate your seeds, lafko6. I cover my seeds with floating row covers, and hubby waters them three times a day when it doesn't rain to keep the soil damp - they sprout in a week.
Right on, here, with what theysaid! Moisture to get the seeds to germinate. Once the seeds germinates it's important to not let the soil dry out for a few days. Dry soil just after seeds germinate will kill tiny new roots in just a matter of hours. Killing seedlings is my most common mistake in the garden.
I am currently eating Danver's Half Long, Burpee Short n' Sweet, and Henry Field's Rainbow Mix. All were productive and flavorful except the flavor of the white carrots from the Rainbow mix is not to my liking.
What I will be planting in the coming days: Ferry-Morse Nantes Coreless seed strip, Burpee Short n' Sweet, and Park's Ya Ya.
This message was edited Mar 5, 2010 2:23 PM
I planted my first ever carrot seeds yesterday and can I just say they were a pain in the patootie! LOL How annoying! Hopefully, though, all my painstaking effort will be rewarded soon! Now I see why seed tape is the way to go with those little buggers!
Quote from stephanietx :
I planted my first ever carrot seeds yesterday and can I just say they were a pain in the patootie! LOL How annoying! Hopefully, though, all my painstaking effort will be rewarded soon! Now I see why seed tape is the way to go with those little buggers!
Agree....Carrot seed for some reason are a pain to sow especially when the wind is blowing 15-25 mph. I seem to always plant way too thick. When it comes time to thin there is more work avoiding pulling up everything. In the end I end up open spaces in my rows.
Years ago when I tried seed tapes my soil was a little too lumpy causing some seed to not come in contact with soil and therefore either not germinating or germinating and then dying before its tiny root made it to a solid footing. Now I'm using an organic commercial garden and lawn mix I buy in bulk. This soil contains more sand and compost than what I used in the old days which hopefully will be a better fit for seed tapes.
I long ago opted for the lazy man's way out in planting carrots--or most other tiny seeds for that matter. I simply broadcast them, cover with a light layer of peatmoss and screened compost and keep them moist from then on. And, I don't thin them at all! Yes, some grow too close together, but I have excellent results in the main without going to all the spacing bother.
Thank you for the tip about watering them a lot once planted, I truthfully did not know that, and really thought my soil was moist enough, after reading it I rushed with a container of water and watered the seeds again. I actually planted them yesterday and with all the sun the ground was a little dry.
I agree about the seeds beign a pain to plant, I did read in one book though that said that you can mix the seeds with sand and plant them this way so that way they don't clump up, or place them in a salt shaker, I did not do this myself since I just mixed mine with radish seeds, but we will see if this works or not.
I sow 5 or 6 rows of carrots in a 4 ft wide bed. I don't thin. I have nice carrots too. Sometimes they're too close and twist around each other, but not often.
Lettuceman, I've thought about broadcasting carrots like I do lettuce and mesclun mixes. Thanks for the info!
The other day I was rushing to get a whole bed of carrots planted. It was getting late, I was tired and in the middle of planting I ran out of seeds. I knew I had another package in the potting shed so I went in a grabbed what I thought was a packet of carrots (well, it started with "ca"). The next day I was going thru the seeds. I found the carrots. Then it was "what the heck did I plant in the carrot row?" I found the empty packet, it was a thousand minuteman cauliflower seeds!! I know what the vegetable of the month will be in about 2 1/2 months!
This message was edited Mar 7, 2010 7:26 AM
Calalily, that is very funny, I can see myself doing just that!
Yesterday I was just bringing my tomatoes and peppers outside for hardening and boy that was a lot of work, and I really don't have that many plants, I can' magine having the volume you have and not getting tired. LOL.
Too funny, Cala!! I can so see that happening to me!
That's the good thing about the packages with the pictures on the front.
I like packages with pictures. Territorial at least puts carrots in orange packages, tomatoes in red ones, greens in green ones, etc. This particular company just puts them in plain white packages with a computer generated stick on label. They all looked the same. I should wear my glasses when I'm reading seed packages!
That's funny Calalily! I like the seed packets with pictures too. Helps me keeo things straight...