Planting tips.

[GrowingBegginer]

Hi,

I'm relatively new to planting and growing vegetables, I started because my grandad has always done it but he's currently in hospital so I've taken over for him. Now tomatoes are simple I know what I'm doing there. However I bought a tray of carrots and a tray of Brussell Sprouts.

I'm planning on growing the sprouts in a large container in the green house and the carrots in a raised bed. My question is that what do I plant. For example I have a tray with three sections (carrots) and there are about 50 green stalks growing. Do I break it into a bunch of three and plant it? Or do I break it into each tiny stalk and plant them? Same goes for the sprouts, there's less stalks but about 3 in each section. Do I just plant the 3 together or seperate and plant them all?

Thanks for any advice, as I say I'm a novice at all this.

[bario1]

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

Sorry to say this, but the general consensus is that carrots should always be sown direct (as seeds) where you want to grow them. Transplanting generally results in twisted, forked and generally funny looking roots - I know this from experience!

As for the sprouts, they grow to be huge plants, so will need very large containers - they may fare better in the ground if you have the space. They will need splitting into individual 'stalks' before planting, and you'll need to give them plenty of space.

Good luck!

[bario1]

Also, sprouts should be grown outside - the heat in the greenhouse will be too much for them.

[GrowingBegginer]

Hi,

Thanks, yeah I have a couple of very large containers that I am going to use. I will plant them into that then and keep the containers just outside the green house. I'll see how the carrots grow then, seeing as I have already bought them, but next year start from seed.

So is that the consensus for everything I buy? Separate each single stalk and then plant them on their own, because I also have a bunch of rocket which I started off from seed.

Thanks for your help

[Penellype]

With the carrots, I would separate them carefully into small bunches rather than try to pull them apart into individual plants. You'll also need to cover the bed with some fine netting after planting to keep carrot fly away.

Rocket tends to bolt fast whatever you do with it. Unless it is hugely crowded I would tend to thin it and eat the thinnings, but it does depend a bit on how big the original pot is. Things that bolt easily tend to do so faster if they are disturbed in my experience.

Some things don't need separating as they will push each other apart as they grow - turnips, beetroot and spring onions can be grown very successfully like this.