how do yo plant carrot seeds?

[Todd]

Hi All,

I was looking at a packet of carrot seeds. They are very tiny. How do you plant them without special vision equipment?

Many thanks,

-T

[Brooklyn1]

There exist various devises for planting small seeds. From inexpensive:

pricier:

[Todd]

[David Hare-Scott]

Mix them with dry sand then put the mixture in folded piece of paper. Gently tap the paper as you move it along the row and the mix will fall out in a thin stream along the fold. Adjust the amount of sand to how densely you want to plant them.

D

[Brooklyn1]

That works with broadcasting grass seed, it doesn't work well with individual vegetable seeds.

[Todd]

Do they ever sell (tiny) seeds on a tape?

[songbird]

you can do it with paper towels if they are the cheap kind that will fall apart easily enough. some people have used toilet paper (don't get it wet, just dab the seeds where you want them with a bit of water soluble glue).

songbird

[Brooklyn1]

It's a lot less expensive to buy carrots at the stupidmarket.

[Todd]

The carrots in the supermarket taste like the cardboard they are shipped in! They are bread to lie flat and not rot in a storage container.

Two days ago I brought home a bunch of heirloom carrots from a local community organic farm. They stunk my car up all day. It was all I could do not to pull over and eat them right there on the spot. When I finally got them home, my wife and I devoured them. I was suddenly four years old again, which was when I last remember carrots smelling like carrots and having a pleasant taste.

Got my eye on some purple heirloom carrots for next year's garden.

-T

[Todd]

Thank you!

Would sticking them to masking tape work?

-T

[Brooklyn1]

What horse shit... and it's *bred*, and plants are not bred, you imbecile.

[Todd]

Oh crap. I used loaf of bread instead of bred. Hey, I went to publik skool! Graduated A- average too. Couldn't read, spell, write add ... About died when I got to college.

[David Hare-Scott]

Isn't it strange how your anecdotes are gospel but those from others are horseshit. Any experience contrary to your preconceived dogma simply cannot be true, Todd must be lying just to annoy you.

You only show how mean and desperate you are when you reach for the spelling flame.

On the topic of correct use of "bred" it is very common usage with respect to plants (3million plus hits for "plant breeding" on google) and a handful of reputable dictionaries accept it in reference to plants too. See also

this looks like 0/3. Your abysmal manners might be more tolerable if you actually knew something.

D

[Farm1]

Rather than using a piece of folded paper, it's easier if you just dump the sand/seed mix in a jar with a plastic lid where you have drilled a hole. I use an old Vegemite jar with about a quarter inch hole in it's lid. Works a treat.

[David Hare-Scott]

Sounds like a good idea.

But what about the poor benighted souls who don't have a vegemite jar? I suppose we could arrange food parcels. I reckon Shelley at least could do with some B-group supplement, it might delay Korsakoff's syndrome.

D

[songbird]

...

no, you want something that falls apart easily.

very tiny speck of glue, sprinkle seeds on and dump off those that don't stick. let dry. keep dry.

plant by unrolling across prepared seed bed, cover with just a little sand/soil, gently press with something flat to tamp in place and then mist

[Brooklyn1]

your used TP, let it dry, and it'll contain fertilzer.

[Kay Lancaster]

Carrots are actually big seeds. Here's one method -- and you can try it with any size seed packet, with seeds ranging from lettuce and tomato down to begonia and other dust-like seeds.

1. Cut the top or bottom off the seed packet, right below the fold. Don't tear it open, it leaves rough edges that can catch seeds.
2. Open the seed packet, and bend a crease in the front of the seed packet in the middle to make a little "spout" to the front edge of the packet. The "spout" is an inch or so long, perpendicular to the cut edge.
3. Hold the seed packet between thumb and pinkie, front of the packet facing away from you. You're holding the two factory-folded sides of the packet, and you'll squeeze slightly to cause the cut edge to open.
4. Hold packet so the front of the packet is parallel to what you're seeding and tap on the pinkie-held edge of the packet with your forefinger repeatedly and rhythmically. The seeds will line themselves up in the "spout" and march themselves out over the cut edge one at a time.

Try it over a big sheet of paper several times so you can get the feel for moving your hand along as you tap, spacing the seeds in the furrow.

If you've got seeds left to store, tap the seeds back down into the bottom of the packet, fold it in half crosswise, and apply a couple strips of scotch tape to the top. You can now store the seed packet standing on the new fold in a file box in the bottom of the refrigerator.

If all this verbiage makes no sense, go to:

for photos.

Kay

[Farm1]

Shelly could use a Miracle Whip jar. :-))

[Todd]

for photos.

Thank you!