Easier carrot germination

Shannon Robinson

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Just want to pass on a tip I received years ago to help grow carrots is a dry climate. First use a small stick or chopstick to poke 1/2 inch deep holes in soil at desired distance, the fill hole 1/2 way with vermiculite. Place carrot seed on top of the vermiculite and cover with more vermiculite. Then use mister or very fine rose to wet surrounding soil. The vermiculite will soak of water and keep moisture around the seed, giving the seed the opportunity to germinate. Check soil moisture daily, in the morning is best, and only water if it isn’t moist. I plant on a grid pattern of 16 carrots per square foot. You can use 2-3 seeds per spacing, but then you have to thin. It may seem like a load of fuss, but it goes faster than it sounds and no thinning needed, so it is efficient in the end. Mulch when plants are 2 inches tall. We get huge crops using this method.
 

GKW

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Just want to pass on a tip I received years ago to help grow carrots is a dry climate. First use a small stick or chopstick to poke 1/2 inch deep holes in soil at desired distance, the fill hole 1/2 way with vermiculite. Place carrot seed on top of the vermiculite and cover with more vermiculite. Then use mister or very fine rose to wet surrounding soil. The vermiculite will soak of water and keep moisture around the seed, giving the seed the opportunity to germinate. Check soil moisture daily, in the morning is best, and only water if it isn’t moist. I plant on a grid pattern of 16 carrots per square foot. You can use 2-3 seeds per spacing, but then you have to thin. It may seem like a load of fuss, but it goes faster than it sounds and no thinning needed, so it is efficient in the end. Mulch when plants are 2 inches tall. We get huge crops using this method.

I like the sound of this. Will try.
 

Shannon Robinson

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So we just used this method to plant 820 carrot seeds. It took less than 30 minutes. Think how long it would take to thin 130 ft long row of carrots, which is about the the equivalent. Think how much seed you’d need. How much fuss this would be. This is so much easier. In addition you improve the action exchange rate with the vermiculite. This basically means you get great carrots. Final benefit is it improves the soil for several years. We are using this for parsnips too this year. I’ll update in the fall to show if it helped this crop too. I suspect that it will.
 

ClissAT

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Very timely advice Shannon, thanks.
Carrot planting day was Valentine's Day this year on the east coast of Australia.
 

Shannon Robinson

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Every time I try burlap, I forget to remove it and the seedling grow into it. Plus I interplant so some come up before others. The carrots need it most, but take the longest to germinate.
 

ClissAT

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Every time I try burlap, I forget to remove it and the seedling grow into it. Plus I interplant so some come up before others. The carrots need it most, but take the longest to germinate.


Try to get into the habit of planting the carrots one week then go back and plant the inter rows the following week.
That way you give the carrots a head start.
I push lots of sticks into the soil between the rows to suspend my shade cloth about 30cm over to protect the seedlings.
 
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