I'd leave it alone and keep it moist and just be patient. Carrots do not sprout quickly at cold soil temperatures.

If your soil temperature were at 32 degrees when you planted the seed tapes, you could expect zero germination. If it was at 41 degrees, you could expect that 48% of the seeds would germinate eventually, but it would take up to 51 days. If your soil temperature were at 50 degrees when you planted the seed tapes, you'd get 93% germination in aproximately 17 days. See how the percentage rises and the number of days drops when planted in warmer soil? And, of course, in real life the soil temperature varies, sometimes wildly, from day to day.

If your soil temperature was at 59 degrees when you planted you'd expect to get 95% germination in only 10 days. By the way, the highest percentage/shortest time combination for carrot seeds from Tom Clothier's database occurs at 77 degrees when 96% of the seed germinate in only 6 days.

Carrots require patience. They are quite the garden diva and like to keep us waiting for them to make their appearance.

I agree with Dawn. Carrots can take forever to sprout. I thought I bought some bad seed last year, because it seemed like it took a month for it to all sprout. In the end the carrots turned out just fine.

They're just picky! I've taken to germinating them indoors and planting the sprouted seeds or tiny transplants. I know they're sensitive to transplanting, but sheesh .. i think they're more sensitive to outdoor temps.

I am starting a transplant experiment today on some purple carrot seed I bought. (I forget the actual name of them) I found a you tube video that showed someone transplanting them and as long as you get the hole they are due to go into deep enough and carefully pack the soil around it it should work. I am excited to see what happens!

Edit to add: Chickencoupe - do you have to harden them off?

I have had the best germination ever by covering row with cloth on the soil. It really kept the top moist and I will be doing that again. I don't think there was one seed lost. And none of them washed away.

luvncannin - what kind of cloth? I am using burlap at the moment.

Dawn - LOL..do you really just "toss" them in a spot?

I am using row cover right jow but I am getting some gossamer? From a friend and thought that will probably work too. The water goes through and keeps it nice and moist. Otherwise my ground dries crusty

Ezzirah, Yes, the proper name for it is broadcast sowing or scatter sowing, and in order to keep them from bunching up too much, I mix my carrot seeds with leftover lettuce seeds and throw in a good amount of radish seed. The radish seed is big and sprouts first and breaks through the crusty soil, paving the way for the lettuce and carrot seeds. My favorite way to do this is to toss handfuls of seeds on the ground where I later will be growing tomatoes. It gives me tons of lettuce (I feed the excess to our poultry who adore fresh greens), lots of carrots, and more radishes than we can eat. The plants serve as a living mulch for the tomato plants, and the carrots happily grow where I don't really "want" them to grow. I get much better carrots from a mixed planting like this where they seem to be an afterthought compared to the main event (tomatos) than when I dedicate a whole raised bed area to them and painstaking plant them, thin them properly, etc. At tomato planting time, I yank out all the baby lettuce and carrots plants in the spot where a tomato plant will go, and plant it. They live and grow together happily in harmony. I used to grow carrots this way all the time in my brother's raised beds because we had them filled with a 50/50 mix of compost and soil that was light and fluffy and grew great carrots. I don't have as much success with the carrots sown randomly around the garden now that pine voles have found the garden. Nowadays, the only 'safe' carrot crop that won't be eaten by the voles is one in a container or in a hardware-cloth lined bed that they cannot tunnel into from underground.

Sometimes I broadcast sow carrots along the southern edge of the raised beds where I grow potatoes. If the sprout quickly enough, I can get a good carrot harvest from them before the potato plants get tall enough to shade them out.

I also often scatter sow carrot seeds into containers that later on will have other plants growing in them. They serve as a ground cover for the other plants and increase my carrot harvest. Because carrots are finicky about sprouting, I plant them in various methods as I just described. It increases the chance of us getting a great carrot harvest instead of a merely good one.

Kim, I imagine gossamer will work. Soil dries crusty partly due to low organic matter, but the constant wind seems to make even humusy soil get crusty, especially in warmer weather. To help carrot seeds along, sow a radish every inch or so when you sow the carrot seeds. The radish will sprout first, breaking through the crusty soil and paving the way for the carrots to follow. Since many radish varieties produce a harvest in 20-30 days, the radishes are harvested and out of the way well in advance of the carrots sizing up.

Dawn

Dawn - I am so going home after work and trying that! I usually plant radishes as "trap plants" for bugs anyway. I just thought since carrots where such divas you couldn't just toss them in like that. But heck if it works it sure will save me a lot of head ache every year.