- From klier@cobra.uni.eduSun Apr 9 22:50:55 1995 Date: 14 Mar 95 17:46:37 -0600 From: klier@cobra.uni.edu Newsgroups: rec.gardens Subject: Re: Info on growing carrots from seed? > My daughter likes carrots and insisted we buy some seeds. Are carrots > difficult to grow? Any special requirements besides deep, loosened soil? Carrots are very easy to grow.... easiest in sandy or peaty soils, because the roots brush penetrate the soil easily and "grow straight", and the soil brushes off easily for harvest. If you've got a heavy, clay-ey soil, you can either grow little round carrots (these are special cultivars), or you can dig a pit, fill it with sand and compost mixture and grow in that. Look around and you'll probably see several cultivars of carrots: why not try several kinds? Some I particularly like are: Nantes Coreless, a classic "big carrot", like from the store Bolero, with a cylindrical root and good flavor Planet, a baby carrot, one of the ball shaped ones for heavy soil, but excellent flavor Little Finger, a small carrot, of the "gourmet baby carrot" persuasion. Carrots do take a while to germinate, and sometimes carry a seedcoat virus that wreaks havoc on the crop. To help both problems, soak carrot seed in milk for 24 hours before planting (use a shallow dish, like a saucer, and any milk... skim or whole. The milk proteins inactivate the virus). Plant the presoaked seed in moist soil, and keep the seeds moist until they germinate, about 2-3 weeks in cooler temperatures. Cover the seeds in the row with a couple of layers of gunny sack if you're concerned with soil drying out... remove it when the plants sprout. Don't forget to thin the rows of young carrots, since most of us plant the seeds much too closely together. An inch or so apart is the spacing I aim for when I plant carrot seeds, but I usually seem to wind up with 2-3 carrots per inch... and you've got to (whining sound!) pull the extras so that the remainder can develop properly. Mixing the seed with sand when you're planting it can help get the seeds a bit more spread out initially. Kay Klier klier@cobra.uni.edu