Tricks for Sowing Carrots- TEST RESULTS

hello everybody it is time for the highly anticipated results of the carrot seating and germination test I was originally going to wait until all of these carrots were mature and ready for picking but they're close enough now and really I already have the results that I was looking for now you can go back and watch the first video where I detailed all of these planting methods but just as a quick recap earlier this spring I was looking for a method of sewing carrots that a helped improve and speed germination and B helped reduce the amount of fitting that I needed to do so in this bed I have eight different methods that I was testing plus several control plots I mixed carrot seed with sand and broadcast sewed them I did a do-it-yourself seed tape I covered newly sewn seeds with a board with burlap with cardboard and with little mini greenhouses I pre-germinated seeds and planted them on paper towels and I tested out mixing seeds into a cornstarch gel slurry kind of mixture so let me show you how each of these methods did I planted or started sprouting seed on April 3rd and just shy of a month later all eight tests and the control plantings were up no surprise the pre-germed seeds on a paper towel were the very first to sprout up within a week of planting but the germination was spotty by the 15th the control group and the seeds covered with the many greenhouses or cloches had sprouted by the 16th the seeds covered with a board were barely up and the seed sowed with sand had germinated by the 18th the seeds covered with the burlap and the cardboard had sprouted and last to join the party on the 22nd was the do-it-yourself seed tape and the seeds sown in a cornstarch gel mixture so in terms of helping me get a jump start on germination and cool weather only the pre-germ seed gave me the real Advantage a fast forward to mid-june First the seed broadcast Zone was sand this was sewn way too thick the rate of sand versus seed appears to need increased drastically to make this a viable option second the do-it-yourself seed tape you can see even more distinctly how sporadic this germination was here which is sad because in the places where it worked the spacing is nearly perfect in hindsight I'd use thinner cheaper toilet paper which I expect would yield better results the next several groups the control seed covered with a board seeds covered with a kosher mini Greenhouse and Seed covered with cardboard and burlap all look pretty similar the cardboard group looks like I may have seated a little more densely in spots but that's human error the pre-germ seed on paper towels is the biggest disappointment of the whole test for me this had very sporadic germination but then the carrots did this weirdness my suspicion is that the paper towel was too thick for them to grow down into so they grew upward instead rather than use paper towel in the future I'd like to try the pre-germ seed on the cheap thin toilet paper and finally the cornstarch gel test was the one I was most excited to see the results of sadly this didn't help speed initial germination or help with the spacing of the seed it actually seemed like the seed clumped together in groups making it more difficult to thin carrots as there were so many in each Clump now I ended up having to hand thin most of these plantings in spite of my efforts to avoid it the only exceptions being the do-it-yourself seed tape and the paper towel test which were very sparse as I mentioned the corn starch gel actually seemed to make my task of thinning more difficult and the seed which was broadcast sewn with sand was by far the most tedious so tedious in fact that I gave up and never did complete the thinning of that patch it is now July 9th and the carrots are very close to being fully mature I'm starting to harvest these trying to pull out the largest carrots first saving the smaller ones for later pickings let me show you a little more of that weirdness in the pre-germed paper towel group but other than these all the other groups look and more importantly taste great so for my early Spring plantings I will probably just stick to my normal sewing or covering my seeds with the little greenhouses or humidity domes when the weather is particularly cool however I am considering replicating this test for my fall carrots so typically with fall carrots I sew anywhere from mid-july to kind of the first week in August and it could be very challenging for opposite Reasons from the spring in that it is very hot it is very dry sometimes too hot and dry for carrot seeds to germinate so I am very curious if I will get better results with something like the covering with the board which I have done before with my summer plantings or even the cornstarch slurry I think that this whole test may act very differently with a summer planting versus an early spring planting so if you'd be interested in seeing this tested out in the summer season drop a line in the comments below and let me know and if you found this video helpful please consider subscribing to my Channel growfully with Jenna thanks for watching and I'll see you next time thank you

Channel: Growfully with Jenna

Views: 44,504

Keywords: tricks for sowing carrots, sowing carrots, planting carrots, how to plant carrots, ways to plant carrots, best way to plant carrots, reduce carrot thinning, improve carrot germination, grow carrots, growfully, growfully with jenna, growing carrots, how to grow carrots, how to grow carrots from seed, germinating carrot seeds, germinate carrot seeds, planting carrots from seed, homegrown carrots, carrot seeds, vegetable gardening tips, tricks for sowing carrots youtube, carrots

Id: ki0zQaH3heQ

Length: 6min 7sec (367 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 09 2023