Carrots in paper tubes - Worth the hassle or not?

[Victoria26]

Just wanted to find out if anyone actually thinks this is a good idea or not?

My growing area isn't fully excavated yet however i've managed to get my onions and garlic in the ground. I started them off in modules ages ago.

Carrots in tubes will be time consuming so i was wondering...is it really worth it?

[Nes]

Personally I wouldn't bother - there's plenty of time yet for sowing carrots. Probably easier to wait for an appropriate space in the garden to materialise! Having said that, my first two attempts at carrots all got snaffled by slugs last year. The third lot only survived because I decided to wage war and over did it with the slug pellets (beer traps didn't work). Perhaps if they are a real problem in your garden, and you want to avoid pellets, this would be a solution.

[amandaandherveg]

Last year was my first year gardening - I sowed my carrots late April as my raised beds weren't ready until then. Grew Nantes and they did very well for me.

[Capsid]

The loo roll method is tried and tested for parsnips, it's not done for carrots as the seed germinates more readily. That said, why not have a go? Just sprinkle some seed in a roll and then thin out to one strong seedling.

[Victoria26]

Jeez I tried to post this YESTERDAY morning. Its taken really long to materialise on here. Oh well, finished painting my fence this morning in the lovely sunshine we had here and will start on the beds again tommorrow.

[zazen999]

It was held up because it was put into the Moderated 'growing techniques' section. I didn't see it in there until last night.

[bramble]

Hi Victoria, If your ground is'nt ready for your carrots you could always grow the small round carrot (Paris Market) in containers as they dont need a deep root system.
I've grown these a couple of times with really good results.

[lynda66]

my grounds not ready either, i've got mine in loo rolls, they do go mouldy very quickly though, but they are growing fine so far......

[Victoria26]

Ive sown some broad beans and petit pois in paper tubes but this is my first time doing so and I'm looking every day for a shoot. So far ....nothing....

eek!

[dammad49]

P'raps you havent used the correct section of the newspaper, I made sure today the paper pots for my melon seeds were made from page 3 of the Sun but couldnt work out which section to use for my little marvel peas... Any suggestions?

[Victoria26]

Definatly the Dear Dierdrie section for your little peas. She's seen it all before...

[Victoria26]

I dug down a little to see how the peas/beans were doing and I seen a little shoot so I am once more filled with hope.

Can anyone tell me an approximate timescale to see some real shoots?

[amandaandherveg]

Last year I ran out of so called Summer as my raised beds/greenhouse weren't built until end of April beginning of May. This year I have made lots of newspaper pots and have started then off in the downstairs bathroom which has underfloor heating.

Toms, peppers, aubergines and chillis have been coming through within 7 days and the herbs have been 3-4 days. My aubergines took 6 weeks to germinate on the windowsill last year.

[Victoria26]

six weeks!!! OMG
I'm a bit obsessive - Checking my propagators every day and such... Six weeks might drive me nuts as I've sown some Aubergines too!

EEK!

[zazen999]

I dug down a little to see how the peas/beans were doing and I seen a little shoot so I am once more filled with hope.

Can anyone tell me an approximate timescale to see some real shoots?

Hi

I put 75 [eek] early onward peas in modules on the 27th Feb and the first one is poking through today. They are outdoors, under a plastic cover in a growhouse.

They will go into the lottie once they are about 4 inches high.