After doing all the usual things (pressing down on the soil after covering the seeds, watering well but gently) many people lay a board over the row. Check after a week, and daily thereafter. Remove at first signs of germination. Maybe you did all this? Could be your seeds were old or had been wet at one time before you tried to sow them.

Hepatica

They sell pelleted carrot seed which would be far easier to sow but certainly not quicker to germinate. From past experience carrots germinate very slowly anyway.

Greg
Nevada

I read that carrots wont germinate when its too warm, they like it cool. I planted 1/2 a row and then a week later I planted the 2nd half a row. The 2nd planting grew very well and the first planting barely grew at all. Temp was 60-75 degrees. I am not sure what happened. Last yrs seed for both plantings. Possibly I didn't keep the first planting watered enough.

I sow my fall carrots around July 18, when it's very hot. I water twice daily and usually get great germination. Do watch out for slugs, which can devour the little seedlings overnight.

It was a great help to me to discover pelleted carrot seed. My garden soil drains very quickly and this is an arid part of the world. If I didn't get carrot seed in the ground at just the right moment, it wouldn't germinate well.

Still, pellets aren't available for every variety and they are a little pricey. It is always tempting to buy the regular seed.

I decided to try "fluid seeding" with carrot seed several years ago. The pellets are preferred just because of the ease of using them but sowing seed in a cornstarch gel seems to have as good of germination results as the pellets!

The idea for the gel came from an article by a Colorado State horticulturalist altho' I was aware that farmers were using the technique for alfalfa. That's another difficult crop to get started.

I've gotta say that pre-germinating the seed worked very poorly. I decided to do a little test with lettuce seed and pre-germinated some and just sprinkled other seed on the gel in the soil. My results there convinced me that pre-germinating wasn't at all worth the bother.

Secondly, I don't use the gel for an early start. In fact, I can use it later in the season than I'd otherwise get away with. Certainly, right thru June - sowing carrot seed.

The gel keeps the seed from drying out so quickly. I like it! You can read about the idea in the article linked below.

Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: Fluid Seeding, CSU

I second the board idea. Just lay a board across the row, raising it up with some bricks (or the edges of a raised bed) on either end. It keeps the soil/seeds from heating up and drying out so fast. I did it with my carrots this year and got a LOT more germinating and surviving than last year's sad little crop!

Steve,
Thanks for the fluid seeding reminder. I thought about the gel the other day when I attempted to plant my pre-sprouted seeds (not so successful btw, I didn't really think that plan through very well). Maybe I'll give the carrots ONE MORE TRY this summer and plant the seed in the gel.

I like the gel idea. really cool. I have to try it. simple and low cost. and it makes sense.

I did get some carrots to germinate this year. but the row is spotty. I used 2 packs of seeds where they were planted about 10 times too dense. and still many areas have no plants. the gel idea is excellent. I will try it with beets for the fall crop. perfect idea.

I have used the board idea with great success some years ago. I kind of gave up on carrots and decided to try them again this year. they have been a challenge for me.

I am still very new and getting used to the "lingo" of gardening. Do you just put the seeds in the gel or do you sprout them on a paper towel first?

Thanks!

You can do it either way. The CSU sheet talks about presprouting the seeds indoors but IIRC from an earlier conversation about the fluid seeding (on the RMG forum), Steve had good success just squeezing the gel into the soil and sowing the seed into the gel.

I had reasonable results just covering with a thin layer of grass clippings (prompted by the success of a second planting). I tried it this year and germination appears mediocre. It could be the layer was too thin or slugs and mentioned earlier. I was waiting until I had some plants before using slug bait. :(

My carrots failed, they grew great until it got up to 100 deg. this summer, then they just died off. When is the best time to plant carrots then?

I'm in the Mojave desert, do I want to wait until soil temps get back down to 70 deg to try planting this fall?

jordanz - In your area you can start planting carrots around the first of September and continue through until the middle of November. You can plant again the first of February and plant until the end of March. I wouldn't plant after that.

Greg
Nevada

Someone posted this trick to getting her carrots going:

She put down a piece of plywood covering the seeded area to get excellent germination and prevent dryout anywhere.

I don't remember if carrot seeds need dark to germinate, or if they don't care one way or the other.

Slugs, though, would eliminate all seedlings under the plywood, so I'd get after them before seeding.

This year, I treated new beds against slugs well ahead of seeding beans, and it helped.

I will try the board trick first then since I do have whole bunch of cedar boards leftover from making raised beds. If that fails, I will try the gel technique. Thanks so much for all the good tips!

One more addition to this discussion that seems to work: in addition to the board trick, I watered the bed heavily before seeding (since it is too easy to dislodge the seeds with heavy watering after planting.) Then I sprinkled the seeds and covered them with a 1/4-1/2 inch layer of fine soil. Then I watered again with a fine spray and covered with boards. Even now, when I am getting germination and the bed is uncovered, it seems to stay damp, even on the surface, even in the current 100 degree temps. Capillary action from the water still present at the deeper levels of the soil? I'm pleased with my germination, especially given the brutal temps for the last several weeks. The real test will be how the carrots grow, and then how they taste, after such a hot start. We don't plan to eat these until after a frost, so there is hope

Hepatica