Small and light carrot seeds are difficult to sow evenly, and sloppy seedlings can fall prey to weeding. How to achieve even rows that are easy to notice and process, and ideally get rid of thinning? There is a way, and not just one.
Of course, you can just try and carefully pour the seeds into the grooves prepared in advance. If there is no wind, you lean low enough and do not rush, then the rows can be formed quite uniform. However, if you don’t like standing over the garden bed and carefully measuring the number of seeds per 10 cm, you can try to change something.
Sowing carrots on toilet paper
The main advantage of this method is that preparation for sowing can be carried out at any time. Even in winter. And in the country, when every spring hour is precious, do not waste extra effort standing over the ridge, but simply lay out the workpieces.
So, for sowing carrots on toilet paper, you will need:
- toilet paper of any quality;
- paste (homemade glue based on starch);
- scissors;
- seeds;
- tweezers or cotton swab;
- bags for storing different varieties of carrots.
The preparation process itself is simple, although rather tedious. However, if you manage to involve the whole family in the case, you can manage in one evening.
- Prepare a paste (dissolve 1 tsp of potato starch in 1 cup of boiled water and stir), cool it to room temperature.
- Cut toilet paper into pieces equal to the width of your beds, and then cut these pieces lengthwise into 2-3 strips.
- Pour the seeds out of the bag and start gluing them one by one onto paper strips at a distance of 3-4 cm from each other.
- When the glue is completely dry, roll the paper into rolls and put it in bags on which you sign the carrot variety or put the package from them inside.
- When the time indicated on the package comes, lay the paper strips on a ridge at a distance of 15-20 cm from each other, sprinkle with soil and pour plenty of warm water.
Sprouting carrot seeds in a bag
Not ready to wait for carrots to rise? Speed up its germination by "confusing" the seeds.
To do this, you will need the seeds themselves, a linen bag and a conspicuous place in the garden, which you definitely will not lose or forget.
- To reduce the period of germination of carrots in the open field to 5-6 days, pour the seeds into a linen bag in advance (or several if you are planting fundamentally different varieties).
- Wet the bag itself in warm water, and while it gets wet, dig a hole in the garden to the depth of a spade bayonet.
- Place a bag of seeds in it and fill it with soil, and put an identification mark on top.
- Remove the bag after 10-14 days.
- Mix the hatched seeds with sand and sow them at the usual depth, sprinkle with soil on top and cover the crops with a film or spunbond.
In principle, the seeds swell over time in the ground and become quite convenient for sowing, so you can sow them without sand, carefully folding them into holes. This will reduce the need for thinning and will not waste planting material.
Sowing carrots in an egg carton
We agree that the method is controversial and is suitable only for those gardeners who have a lot of free space, but some of our readers still practice it, which means you can take a chance.
- So, for starters, you will need to save up egg cartons all winter, buying only cardboard copies.
- In the spring, 3-4 weeks before it is time to sow carrots in open ground, soak carrot seeds in warm water for a day or two.
- While the seeds are soaking, put the egg containers in waterproof trays, cut off the lid, pierce a few holes in the bottom and pour seedling soil into the "cups".
- Arrange the seeds in containers of 2-3 pieces in one container, water.
- When shoots appear, carrots can be thinned out.
- With the onset of a suitable temperature, plant seedlings in the garden directly in containers. Care for plantings in the same way as for ordinary carrot beds. During the season, the cardboard will get wet, and during the winter it will rot without a trace.
Radishes, root celery, onions, beets, herbs, etc. are planted in the same way.
Sowing carrots with a manual seeder
Small carrot seeds are so light that they are scattered all over the ridge with the slightest breath of wind. In addition, no one will have the patience to lay them out in a hole grain by grain, and if sown in the old fashioned way, the seedlings will be too thick and more than a third of the seeds will be wasted.
Do not torment your back, leaning over the ridge, and do not overspend expensive seeds allows you to create a manual seeder with a long handle. Thanks to this design, the rows are even, the seeds fall into the ground at a certain distance, and no extra effort is required.
It is made from an empty flat plastic round jar (from herring or seafood), in the center of which a bolt is inserted in a plastic tube attached to a long handle. At the ends of the container with a red-hot nail or awl, holes are pierced every 3 cm, with a diameter slightly larger than a seed. Some gardeners attach a small metal hoe over the plastic part of the seeder, which allows you to immediately fall asleep rows with seeds, but this is optional - you can close the rows with a rake after sowing.
A small triangular hole is made in the lid of the seeder, into which the seeds are poured. And so that they do not scatter, a metal or eraser patch-lid is placed on this hole, fixed with wire and opening not up, but to the side.
You can sow in this way not only carrots, but also any other crop - flower, vegetable or green. True, for seeds of different sizes, you will need containers with holes of different diameters. As a rule, it is enough to have 3-4 seeders on the farm.
Combined crops of carrots and onions
Often the main problem in growing carrots is that its seedlings do not appear very soon, significantly lagging behind the weeds. That is, at the time of the first weeding, the carrots are still so small that a careless gardener can easily lose part of the plantings, damaging them. In addition, the carrot fly does not sleep, waiting for shoots almost more vigilantly than the summer residents themselves.
The solution to both problems will be the joint planting of onions and carrots. Firstly, the onion will quickly hatch and mark the rows, and secondly, with its smell, it will scare away the carrot fly. You can also alternate carrots with other fast-growing crops.
Often on the Internet you can find advice to mix the seeds of radishes and carrots and sow like that. Supporters of this theory argue that the radish will ripen quickly, it will be pulled out, and the remaining carrots will not have to be thinned out. Alas, pulling out radishes, you will surely damage the roots of the nearest shoots of carrots, and lose part of the crop. In addition, such sowing will not be uniform, and seedlings will still have to be thinned out.
