Expensive and rare carrots!

[endymion]

We sowed three rows of carrots. We've waited, and waited, just in case, but out of those three rows only 16 seeds have bothered to germinate. 3 Restistafly, 9 Dragon and 4 Paris Market.

They're under netting, protected by a few slug pellets, sown in a deep drill filled with veg-growing compost that was well-watered before the seeds were put in. They've been watered every few days along with everything else.

Apart from the low temperatures we can't work out what they didn't like.

[Florence Fennel]

Did the slugs in the soil get them before they could emerge? This has happened to me before.

[Alison]

My first sowing of carrots failed this year - I put it down to them drying out as they germinated as it was soooooooooo dry. Have resown and did much better, suggest you sow more, there is still time

[ginger ninger]

I'm also growing all 3 of these carrots and they have grown great for me. Silly question, but are they all new seeds? Another silly question...who told you they were rare? There all readily available from most seed sites from £0.99p. If you have bad germination my advice is to contact the seed company and complain. I do and 9 times out of 10 you'll get replacement seeds...they don't like bad press

[Aberdeenplotter]

The deep drill bit worries me. I put mine in no more than half an inch deep.

[Two_Sheds]

I think she means rare because only a few have appeared, as in 'it's going to be rare to have carrots for tea'

[Alison]

I think she means rare because only a few have appeared, as in 'it's going to be rare to have carrots for tea'

That's what I thought too

[binley100]

I only grow 'rare' carrots .........

[SarzWix]

By 'deep drill' it's meaning that a deep V was taken out, then the V filled with compost, then the seeds sown on top of that, then covered with more compost. That's how I sow mine too, because if I sow direct, I always get capping if it rains and then nothing comes through at all!

Lots of mine have been a bit reluctant this year too. I found that a few more popped through after I tickled the soil a bit with a mini-claw cultivator, heaven knows why. The same batch of seeds sown in the school garden have all germinated quite happily!

Like Alison said though, there's still time to sow more

[endymion]

Yes, sorry, I did mean 'rare' in that there aren't many of them, and 'expensive' because if all these 16 carrot seedlings manage to grow to eating size they'll have cost the same as three packets of seed.

The seed was new this year. We used it all, so can't re-sow unless we buy some more, but are reluctant until we can work out what's gone wrong. It's not the expense as such, it's the waste of time and space.

The 'drill' was hoed out quite deep because the soil is stony clay, and we wanted to get at least the top few inches of the carrot straight and unforked, it was deep enough for the whole expected size of the Paris Market roots.

The 'drill' was hand-filled with good quality compost (we've used the same compost for sowing under cover, so we know there's nothing wrong with it). It was well watered and left to settle, watered again the next day before seed sowing and then a little compost was sprinkled on top of the seeds which was moistened with a gentle spray. The seeds weren't buried too deep and we've kept an eye on the compost to make sure it neither dries out or is watered too much.

the whole lot was fleeced to begin with, then when they started to germinate the fleece was changed for fine netting, because carrots don't like being brushed by fleece.

There are enough slug pellets to attract slugs away from any seedlings (but not too many) and also a border of small, sacrificial, French Marigolds surrounding the drills. None of those have been touched. We know there are quite a few Slow Worms nearby, so the chances are they've been eating those few slugs that have ventured out and, oddly, the best germination is towards the outside of the rows, rather than in the middle.

We've never had such poor germination before, even when we've grown carrots in the flower beds using the same general principle (into deep, new, compost), so it's quite a puzzle.

This year's parsnips are poor too, but proportionally much better

[Two_Sheds]

My carrots are patchy this year - germination a bit erratic. I follow the same procedure as you re: capping.

I put it down to our drought, as last year's carrots (it rained all summer) were the best ever

[Germinater]

I only anted the cheapest pack I could find at the gc as its my first attempt at carrots since I was 9 and we planted them on the allotment on the side of our house with my mum and we ended up with these twisted things that was really gutting as we had spent forever taking the stones out of the ground but if this year goes well I will dare to venture with a few more variatys next year ..this year though I seem to have an almost 100% germination rate witch was a suprise ..

[endymion]

In the last couple of days something's bitten off the top growth and left the leaves on the ground, we're now down to four carrots!

It doesn't look like slugs because they've ignored the lovely pellets and there are no slime trails. It wasn't pigeons because they're covered with fine netting over 18" high hoops, and, because it's slightly above ground, it probably isn't cutworm.

Would mice bite off the leaves and leave them lying on the ground?