Growing shop bought carrots

[Panoply]

Hello all,

This is a pretty weird question, but I was wondering if anyone knew if it is possible to get seed from shop bought carrots. I've been to Sainsbury's and have fallen in love with their "witches noses" purple carrots. They have a mild carroty flavour and a rich purple colour through to the core, but I cannot find any purple carrot seed for sale in the UK that doesn't have an orange core. I think they're possibly Deep Purple carrots, but I can't be sure.

Would I have any success in keeping a few carrots and trying to grow them next year for seed? A few have some roots still attached, but would they grow new ones given the chance? I've grown carrots for seed before, but I've just left them where they grew so I don't know if the preparation for sale will have damaged these purple fellas beyond help.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

(Oh, and when I registered to post this question I was amused to be asked "Please answer the following question - What colour are carrots?"!)

[SarzWix]

If I remember correctly, you need quite a few carrots to get decent seed. I would think that they would resprout if you planted them though, because if you just put the top off-cut on a plate of water it sprouts?

[Mikey]

Well this is a new one on me, I've grown carrots for years but I've never tried planting a shop bought one. I'm assuming the greenery is still intact?

I would say there are three methods you could try, cut of the top with foliage in tact and leave in water until it grows some roots and transplant on, this way you can still eat the carrot. Second replant the carrot as it, carrots seed in their second year so may well survive in the ground over winter, slugs permitting. Thirdly, clamp up some of the carrots and replant them in the spring.

Hopefully trying the three methods should give you some margin of success, and some seeds next year.

Welcome to the forum Panoply.

[Panoply]

That's a very good point! I'd forgotten the top sprouts in water.. why do we do that? I remember we'd often put the carrot tops in water on the windowsill when I was a child. I don't suppose I'd be able to get seed from just the top though, would I? It would be good, cos then I could eat the yummy carrot as well!

Why do you need a lot of carrots to get decent seed, do you know? I suppose I'd have to keep them away from any cross pollination as well.

Edit: Oh! Another reply while I was typing! Thanks for your suggestions Mikey. No, unfortunately there's very little greenery left, just a few little straggly bits. Might give it a try though and see if anything happens. No harm since it'd just be going in the compost. I might try popping a few in my empty carrot pots and a few into storage - if I can resist munching on them!

Any ideas how many I'd need? £1 a bag for 500g.. there's about 10 carrots in a bag I'd say. This might become an expensive experiment!

[veggiechicken]

Hello Panoply and welcome to the Forum. Could you put your location into your profile please as it would help us understand your local conditions - you may live in an area totally unsuitable to carrot growing
You can buy seeds of purple carrots, although whether they are the ones sold as Witches Noses, who knows? More info here Purple Maroon Carrot
I have had carrots root in a damp bag - usually because I've forgotten that I've got them! Not recommended as they seem to rot before they root.

[chris]

I thought real seeds did an all purple carrot? They don't deal in hybrid varieties either, so it'll be possible to save seed in the future.

[zazen999]

The usual way with carrots, as they are biennial - is to dig them all up, select the ones you want, keep all winter in sand, replant in the spring and let them flower and collect the seeds from them. However ideally you do need 40. The flowers grow up to 4-5 foot tall, and you need to isolate them from crossing which basically means netting over the lot but you will still need insects to get in and around them to pollinate them. Or you could cut down any carrot flower-like flower in the vicinity to try and avoid pollination and leave the net off. You could [if you had a polytunnel or big greenhouse] bung all 40 into a 'recycling box sized' container, and let them flower indoors rather than outside.

[David1949]

Looking at the Marshalls catalogue you can buy a packet of Purple Carrots name of Purple Haze FI for £1.75.

[Panoply]

Thanks for all the replies. I've added my location (Gloucestershire) to my profile. The Sainsbury's purple carrots say they are grown in Fife, Scotland, so they ought to be able to handle our weather.

I did look around for seeds, but the only ones I could find (including on Real Seeds) had orange centres, which isn't what I'm looking for. Though I might end up giving them a try if I can't get anything going this way.

Netting or putting them in the greenhouse are both do-able, although the greenhouse tends to fill up with insects when I open the ventilation so it might defeat the purpose! Glad to know that this is actually a fairly reasonable idea though - I thought I was being a bit nuts thinking I could get seed from shop produce!

Getting 40 of them seems a heck of a lot... Any ideas as to why this many are required? I saw a whole crate of them in the shop today due to expire on Thursday, so I shall have to go back and see if I can get some reduced!

[northepaul]

I have never thought about doing that! Do let us know how it goes....

[Snadger]

Hopefully they won't have been grown from F1 hybrid seed or else you'll be wasting your time.

40 carrots don't need to take up a lot of space just for seed purposes. Four buckets with ten in apiece would be ok.
As far as I can gather, you need so many for to get a decent 'gene pool' Just like animals need a certain amount to give a big enough varied gene pool to stop them going extinct.

Aha...............googled a useful article for you!

Carrot Seeds and Flowers

[scarletrunner]

Shop bought carrots are washed in chlorine,any seed obtained from them could result in being problematic!

[marchogaeth]

Getting 40 of them seems a heck of a lot... Any ideas as to why this many are required? I saw a whole crate of them in the shop today due to expire on Thursday, so I shall have to go back and see if I can get some reduced!

If you read the seed saving section for carrots on the Real Seed catalogue site it explains about the numbers thing.

You could contact the carrot museum (yes really!):- Carrots in todays world

[zazen999]

You could get away with 16 but the more the better

Carrot seed saving guidelines from the Heritage Seed Library

[Florence Fennel]

Welcome Panoply. Could I suggest asking Sainsburys what variety they are? Perhaps you could get the seeds from somewhere in Scotland?