Planting Carrot Seed

I have a book that says when you place the carrot seed in its furrow, to pour boiling water on the seeds. Does anyone know the purpose of this? Never heard it before.

Thanks for any input.

Never heard of that- I just plant them in rows and barely cover them with soil. They spriut in about a week. I am growing them in a 3 tier pyramid. They do great in the deep loose soil.

I don't even bother with rows when I plant carrots in my raised beds. I simply scatter them willy nilly on top of the soil and then cover the area with about a quarter-inch of screened compost. I always have great carrots and even those growing close to each other turn out just fine! What's with that boiling water idea?? sounds like a crack-pot method that could kill any viable carrot seed.

I know, it sounds really weird. This is an old book I've had for years, Making Vegetables Grow by Thalassa Cruso, printed in 1975. Under carrots it says: "Try to space the seeds about 5 to an inch. When the seed is in the ground and before the earth is drawn back over it, pour boiling water straight from the kettle on it. Cover with 1/2 inch of soil and firm down....."

Ah ha! I just had this bright idea to see if "boiling water" was in the index, and it is. Here's her info on the boiling water treatment:

"Carrots, parsley and parsnips all take a very long time to germinate, and when the first green wisps appear above ground there are, at least in my garden, often horrible gaps. I have had quick, thick, even germination with all these closely related plants by pouring boiling water straight from the kettle over the seed once it is on the ground before the earth is drawn back down over it. The boiling water ensures and hastens the softening of the seed coat. Do try this method - - you'll be surprised at the results, just as long as you remember that the water you use must be boiling hot."

So there we have it. I just planted some carrot seed this morning, not using this method. I'll do another patch tomorrow with the boiling water treatment and see if there is any difference. I'm also having trouble getting cilantro (coriander seeds) to sprout so may try this for those seeds as well.

Thanks for your comments above and any to come. It's certainly an interesting idea!

You could try it on some and let us know how well it works. :)

Most experts I've talked to, and quite a few seed company instructions reccomend soaking carrot family seeds overnight before planting. Folklore has it that Parsley goes to the devil seven times before it germinates! So, there's a lot of advice to soak the seeds, but this is the only place I've ever seen the boiling water advice. I'll be most interested in how your controlled experiment turns out.

I'll let y'all know. I just love a good experiment. Good story on the parsley.

I should have tried boiling water with scorzonera. I could not get those seeds to germinate.
Cilantro has a built in germination inhibitor (forget the technical term) to keep it from germinating when the soil temps are too high. Leave the seeds alone and they will germinate when the soil temp is low enough.

Thanks for that news on cilantro. I'll move the container away from the sun. [sigh] Silly me, thinking it wanted to be warm to germinate!

Lettuce also is reluctant to germinate if the soil temperature is over 25 Celsius. In hot weather it pays to sow it in pots, put the pot in the fridge for a day, and then prick them out after they germinate.

I believe cilantro is what we call coriander?

Cilantro is when the leaves are used- Coriander is the seeds-which I have never used. I use lots of Cilantro in Salsa and other dishes. It grows very well in the winter and will tolerate light freezes.

In England we don't use the term cilantro. Leaves are just called coriander leaves. It's interesting how American and British English differ. For example you say zucchini (Italian) and we say courgette (French)!

That is strange, because seed packets have "Cilantro" on them. I thought that was the real name! Yes, language is a confusing thing.

It is cilantro here, it may be a Spanish word.

Seed packets in England are just labelled Coriander. I have one in front of me now. I wonder if international companies like T&M do different packets for different countries? There are lots of other examples. For example you say pole beans and we say runner beans. Someone once said Britain and America are two countries divided by a common language!

WOW, the Brits have sure messed up the English Language. HEHE

Yep, we pronounce Basil as Bayzil while the Brits say Bahzil!

Any update on the carrot/boiling water method McP. Mine are taking their sweet time sprouting. For all the seed I put out, just a few have sprouted.

I think the cooler soil is slowing germination. There are a few of my new ones showing. I may put some clear plastic over the area to hold heat.

I think optimum soil temps for carrot seed germination is in the mid 70's. Don't forget seed longevity. For carrots its about 3 years. Older seeds may take longer and have a lower percentage that germinate.

Every carrot seed I have ever sown has taken forever to germinate. They do need to be kept damp.

I have been keeping them damp, the seeds are last years, and the soil temp...we are still in the low 90's/high 80's here. Soooo maybe patience is in order for me.

Soil and air temps are not the same thing. In AZ your soil might be warm for a while after the air temp cools off. You can buy a soil thermometer for under 10 dollars. Its a good investment if you grow a lot of plants from seed.

Here's a link to a seed temp germination table:
http://www.heirloomseeds.com/germination.html

You can find other seed temp tables if you like. Just search something like "soil germination temperature".

Kate, Thanks for that germination table link, it's great. FWIW, I use a cheap meat thermometer to test compost and soil temps.

Okay Peeps, the Great Carrot Germination with Boiling Water Experiment is on its way. I tried to keep the environment as balanced as possible: same packet of seed, same bed, same exposure. Sowed the seed this morning. I'll let you know when I see some green!

Patgeorge, here we have both pole beans and runner beans, they are two different things. Pole beans (like Malibu and Fortex) are self fertile. Runner beans (like White Lady and Scarlet Runner) depend upon bees for pollination.
I rarely have trouble with carrot germination. The one time I did was because I used row covers to shade the beds and failed to vent the ends to allow heat to escape. It was summer time and I thought the shade from the white row covers would be good.

Calalily, do you just sprinkle the seeds onto the soil surface and pat them in or do you cover with something. I keep thinking I plant too deep. But I follow the Territorial Seed suggestions and still get what I would call poor gemination.

Thanks MaryMcP for starting the experiment and posting results. I think I may try the boiling method as well. I'm starting a "tunnel" row this week. Lettuce, radishes, and carrots if I can just get them going! I need to get the hang of carrots =D!

Calalilly
Thanks. I guess pole beans are what we call French beans. When I moved here from England I was told that runner beans would be my greatest challenge. It's been proved right, although I managed a really good crop in '09. Here they are grown, but purely for decoration. They laugh at the idea of eating them!

Pat

Terri, I use a pointed hoe to make a shallow trench, sprinkle the seeds and cover with 1/4 to 1/2 inch of soil/compost mixture. The gardens are watered with a huge sprinkler system that comes on every evening so the beds stay moist unless we are having really high winds (that's pretty often in the winter).
Patgeorge, we grow the French pole beans also. I tried the bush variety, they were delicious but so hard to pick. I tried the runner beans, they don't do well here in the summer and the winds are too high in the winter. I managed to get a dozen or so beans from a 40' row! The runner varieties are big and tough with a strong flavor I didn't care for so haven't tried them again. I used to grow the scarlet runner beans for the humming birds.

Results: Seeds were sown Nov 7th. Yesterday I saw the first teeny, tiny signs of green popping up. In both controlled sites! This means the boiling water had absolutely no effect. Did not hinder nor hurt. Now we know.

Thats interesting

I agree, thanks for the experiment. Too bad, though.

This is my 1st time growing carrots, and I just sprinkled the seeds around and did not bother to cover them. Took them about 3 weeks to sprout.

This message was edited Nov 27, 2010 3:01 PM

Some need you to pray LOL

I had no luck with carrots and parsnips the first two times I tried planting them according to seed packet instructions. A local gardener told me to just till the soil and plant the seed on the surface. Using the palm of my hand I gently cover the seed and wait. As mentioned in one other thread it seems to work best when soil temperatures are warmer (70F), or after June 15th here. The only down side is harvesting. I don't get a crop until late August, and both the carrots and parsnips are much better tasting after the frosts have come.

I may give the covered raised bed another try based on comments above. I know have the option of watering with a blend of hot and cold water for early plantings of cucumbers and squash. Using warm water to heat the raised bed media after planting might just be the ticket.

Morgan, how do you get warm water out to the raised bed?

We are replacing our sliding glass patio doors with French doors and I plan to keep the glass doors to place over the raised beds to heat the soil. Been looking for some discarded shower doors, which are lighter, but no luck so far.

Our morning temps are low 30's yesterday and today. Everything is covered with sheets.

MaryMcP...I had my plumber install a hot water faucet next to the cold water faucet at the back of the house. The water closet was right next to the existing cold water faucette so the installation was pretty simple. I use a washing machine "Y" hose from Ace Hardware to make the connection between the two faucets to my underground 1/2-inch PVC hose which feeds my 20 garden risers plus a tee to the six raised beds. I can blend hot and cold water now to achieve warm water for early crops such as cucumbers and squash which do not do well with cold well water (50F). It came in pretty handY last season, both spring and fall.

m

Sounds like a good setup. THanks for explaining it.

mm