Planting Carrots to avoid thinning

[Can the Man]

A friend of mine recently told me she buys her carrot seed on a tape and then she doesn’t need to thin them out. I was thinking what a clever idea, and what if I made my own tape.

I was thinking of using something like masking tape to hold the seeds apart. Has anybody ever tried this or something else ?

[Small pumpkin]

If you do a search on the forum there will be at least one thread on homemade seed tapes. I know BM used to make his own.

Hopefully someone much clever than me will up a link up to it for you.

[veggiechicken]

Clever, like me??

https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...ape_77068.html

https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...oll_84843.html

[Small pumpkin]

I knew you’d come to the rescue VC

[veggiechicken]

Its like a game - finding an old thread using all sorts of variables in Advanced Search. Sometimes I'm lucky - but there are no prizes unfortunately.

[burnie]

I don't thin my carrots as I don't sow in rows, but broadcast sow in metre square blocks, you get the odd small carrots, but it works great for me.

[Aberdeenplotter]

If you cut toilet tissue into strips and then coat with wallpaper paste (best use one without fungicide added) you can space your seeds along the strips at your own preferred spacings and then allow to dry. It's a bit of a faff mind and I'd personally just buy the tapes ready made

[Snadger]

I've always thinned my carrots but experimented with letting them do their own thing this year. They have been smashing, with a mixture of sizes depending on what I want them for.

No carrot fly problems, although I had a loosely draped net over the top and they were in a raised bed.

I will never thin carrots again.

[Can the Man]

Clever, like me??

https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...ape_77068.html

https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...oll_84843.html

Thank you VC very interesting, shame all the photos have been lost.

[Penellype]

I never thin carrots. I try to sow the seeds at least an inch apart, usually in 30 litre buckets but recently also at the allotment. I find if the plants are too close together the carrots are very small, but at the inch in all directions spacing they can grow quite big. I don't need huge carrots so this works well for me. It is time consuming, but so is thinning carrots.

If you can't be bothered to pick out individual seeds in this way, a standard technique is to mix the seed with sand and sprinkle the mixture into the row. It is then easier to sow the seeds thinly. I have not tried this but it should work.

[Can the Man]

Thanks Penelope that’s exactly why I don’t want to thin I want larger carrots but not huge ones

[veggiechicken]

Its finally dawned on me - to avoid thinning you need to sow larger seeds.
Small seeds usually end up being sown too thickly and need thinning whilst larger seeds like beans and beetroot are so much easier to sow individually.

If you can think of a way to make each carrot seed larger (as they do with pelleted seed)..........Maybe wrap each seed in a paper parcel.................

[Snadger]

Its finally dawned on me - to avoid thinning you need to sow larger seeds.
Small seeds usually end up being sown too thickly and need thinning whilst larger seeds like beans and beetroot are so much easier to sow individually.

If you can think of a way to make each carrot seed larger (as they do with pelleted seed)..........Maybe wrap each seed in a paper parcel.................

I hate wrapping Christmas/Birthday presents never mind individual carrot seeds.

[Jungle Jane]

You could make little seed balls wrapped in little compost mixed with a bit of sticky clay soil. Ive never done that but I saw some for sale the other day as a gift

[MelanieSW]

I had a go at making my own seed tapes a couple of years ago (involved tissues, cornflour and water if memory serves right), but sadly not a single carrot germinated.

Next year I may place an order for seed tapes with my family in Germany, there they're much more common/more choice and also cheaper.