How many days has it been?

I have had great success with the row cover laid on the soil to keep it moist. I bet you could do the same with an old sheet. Mine still took 10 days and after I uncovered there are still some coming up. Carrots are divas just like Dawn says.

I seeded mine in February when it was warm for a few days. I figured they could germinate in the warmth and then, knowing it is still spring, they could grow in the cooler temps. I think they prefer cooler growing temps but warmer germinating temps. I have a bunch (100s?) of tiny carrots growing ever so slow, but surviving and growing none the less. And they are divas. Some years they never germinate. even out of the same pack of seed.

Last year I had carrots sprouting over a month after I had sowed and actually got quite a few. I had changed the plan for that bed and then was surprised when carrots actually came up.

You can preheat your soil by putting black plastic over it for a couple of weeks before sowing the seed. That will help. Carrots sprout slowly in cool soil and quickly in warm soil. Unfortunately the flavor is best if they grow to maturity in cooler conditions, so you can't just wait for your soil to get hot naturally and then sow the seeds.

Look at the carrot entry on Tom Clothier's database where he shows the germination results of his experimentation with sowing seeds at various temperatures. When you see the data, it helps to understand why they are so slow to sprout in February or March when our soil temperatures are still pretty low.

Effects of Soil Temperature on Seed Germination

I sowed some in a Smart Pot that is on my front porch. I think they were planted six days ago and maybe, just maybe I see something coming up. Or maybe not. I'm afraid to dig around much to check.

Dawn - I live and breathe by that database! :) It is the idea that some came up and some didn't compared to what I actually sowed. I must have sowed about 100 of them suckers to only have 5 or so pop up. I am wondering if more will happen with this weeks warmer weather.

I also thought about trying to transplant some more. Heck, it only takes a couple of days to get them to sprout under the grow lights.

Maybe warm the ground first like Dawn says. Get it nice and warm with black plastic. That might help. Threatening to plant something else and screaming forget it then helps. Just sayin

Ezirah, A couple of points about carrot seeds.

First, is the seed fresh, like packed for 2016 or maybe for 2015? Carrot seed (along with lettuce seed) has an incredibly short shelf life. Germination drops quickly after it is just a year or two old.

Secondly, you cannot expect results better than the Federal Germination Standard for a given kind of seed. For carrot seeds, the Federal Germination Standard for carrot seed to be sold in the USA in interstate commerce is 55%. So, even under exactly ideal situations, you might not get better than 55% germination. Granted, 5 out of 100 is not 55% but I suspect it was the cold soil. Don't forget too that wind can blow seed away, certain critters will eat it, and rain or irrigation water can wash it away. More may pop up as the weather warms. I have had that happen even after I've already thinned the sprouted carrots to the desired spacing.

You can try everything under the sun to see what works for you. Some people quit fighting the carrot seed germination issue and only grow carrots from a summer sowing for a fall harvest. That way the carrots can germinate in the warmth of late summer and mature in autumn's cooler weather. Since the carrot seeds sprout readily in hot soil and mature to their sweetest flavor in cooler weather, it seems to me that carrots were designed specifically for the fall garden.

I long ago stopped trying to make carrot seed sprout in February/March's colder weather. It just is too time-consuming and also too aggravating, and I decided to stop fighting the carrot's nature, and just wait until soils are substantially warmer in early April. Honestly, they germinate so slowly in cold weather that I can sow seeds in late February or March in ordinary (not pre-warmed) soil and they won't germinate any more quickly than seed sown in April, so I just wait until earliest April and generally get decent germination fairly quickly.

I have even sprouted carrot seeds indoors under lights, using a soil-less mix inside cardboard toilet paper tubes and then transplanted them, cardboard and all into the garden. They sprouted fine that way but seemed to stall after being transplanted and I decided that it wasn't worth the effort involved. Now I just sow seed late into pre-warmed soil, sow thickly enough that even if only half of it germinates I'll still have to thin the seedlings, and I sow late (early April) on purpose. I think I get as good of a stand of carrots this way as I got when sowing on time, if not a better stand, and it is less frustrating. If you use carrots with a 50-70 day DTM, they'll still mature before the summer heat gets too dreadful, and you can keep your carrots cooler under thick mulch and some shade cloth. Their flavor is good, maybe not as great as fall carrots, but good enough for carrots in OK's hot spring/summer carrot.

If growing carrots in spring doesn't work out for you, try them for fall. Sometimes, the harder you try to do something, the more stressful it becomes and it just sucks all the fun out of gardening. If carrots are that way for you, push them to the back of your mind and raise them in the fall.

Dawn

Dawn - That is a good idea. I was going by the OSU OKC grow guide. Now I thought about putting out another "batch" this coming weekend and see what happens. I love experimenting in the garden, so it is fun for me to try all kinds of things and see what works and what doesn't. :) But yeah, I can see how just waiting for the fall would give a better crop. But I am stubborn, and I will get me a carrot. LOL :)

I hope you don't live out in the country, or you may have to fight Peter Rabbit or Bugs Bunny for the carrots. And, actually, I've never had rabbits eat carrots, but they sure do like to eat nasturtiums and bean plants.

My puppy has been pulling up and eating carrots. My son says it's my fault since I raised her to eat veggies

ezzirah, I'm with you! I'm so determined to grow a carrot this spring! Mine are in a large Smart Pot on the front porch. On a positive note, I think I see echinacea coming up. I put the seeds out last fall. It's another one of those things like carrots that I've had a hard time starting from seeds. Still not seeing signs of life from the carrot smart pot.

I think this weekend what I am going to do is take another soil temp (last weekend it was about 52 degrees) then dig down some, scatter sow some carrots, then top with potting soil, then the burlap. And see what happens. :)

Hazel - Echinacea! Good for you!!! I could not get that to sprout! What's a smart pot?

I'm not absolutely certain it's echinacea, but it looks just like the sprouts in pictures. It could be just a weed, but....I'm hoping! I scattered a packet of seeds last fall in a little wine bottle bed that I made. For months that was the only bed in my garden. Neighbors were confused by it. It does look a like an alter or something. They already think I'm weird. Anyway. It's going to be pretty with coneflowers and once the other beds and pathways are finished it will all come together.

I watched a video about horseradish on the Peaceful Valley website. The woman in the video planted a horseradish root in a Smart Pot. I saw them at K & K (a nursery near me) so bought one. It was a size too small, so I decided to use it for carrots. They are made in Oklahoma.

https://smartpots.com/

Hazel, Your comment about the neighbors already think you're weird made me laugh out loud. All my neighbors know I'm weird. I think that is part of being an avid gardener---we go to lengths that our mostly non-gardening neighbors just don't understand. I use a lot of wine bottles and blue beer bottles for garden ornamentation, which means my poor husband drank beer he didn't even like for months just so I could have the blue bottles for my garden in general and for my bottle trees in particular. That's true love. Heaven help him if a hail storm ever destroys my blue bottles because then he'll have to drink beer he doesn't like again.

I like the concept behind the smart pots, but I'm not convinced that vegetable plants will thrive in them in our summer heat, particularly in the hottest, driest years. Maybe one of these years I'll try one. So far I have avoided using them because I already know how often I have to water very large containers (the size of whiskey half-barrels) in the summer, so anything likely to dry out more quickly than those do just doesn't appeal to me.

I hope your carrots sprout and grow well for you in your smart pot.

Dawn