The #1 Carrot Germination Hack that will Simplify Your Gardening (LESS WATERING!)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 มิ.ย. 2021
- For the longest time, I struggled with consistent germination for my carrot seeds. Until I learned this hack that made growing carrots much more successful with a nearly 100% germination rate.
For more information on planting carrot seeds, visit the blog: homesteadingfamily.com/how-to...
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#plantingcarrots #howtoplantcarrots #plantingcarrotseeds
To keep the seed moist & get fast germination, I do what we call 'boarding in' the carrots. After careful planting, I use mist setting and water well. Then I lay 1" x 6" boards, usually scrap lumber, on top of row, covering the moist, shallowly planted carrot seed. Keep checking to see when seeds sprout, then remove the boards. It's a tip from an old gardener 40 yrs ago, it works great for me.
Old dutch method: cover up with burlap bags and keep them moist
I do almost the same thing:
I water my bed, pull the rows, spread my seeds, cover them lightly with compost, use mist sprayer, and then cover with boards. Usually by day ten all of them have germinated and I remove the boards. Works also with moist cardboards or soaked old jeans.
@@earlshine453 I've heard of this. Where can you buy burlap bags?
Yes, the board method works. I have high germination under boards and its easier to keep moist
I use the boarding method also and don't even cover my seeds with soil. I break up the soil, water, broadcast the seed and then cover. Once I see good germination I uncover.
Some people have suggested to use boards to keep in the moisture. You need to keep checking them and then lift up the boards when they start popping up out of the soil. I tweaked this method and used cardboard cutouts for the containers that I was growing in. I put small rocks on the cardboard so they didn't blow away. This method worked great since you don't even need to lift up the cardboard when you water. Just let the water soak through the cardboard and you're good to go. This method worked great for me this year. Very high germination rate.
I love that a mistake lead to a revelation! Gardening is all about learning + observing.
Amen!
Hi Heather how are you?
On the Farm, my brother and sisters ALL worked together. Planting, weeding, and harvesting. Ours was bigger than your place, but seeing your girls helping, is beautiful to see. Memories Flashback !
The kids will love eating those carrots later !
LOVE THAT YOU HAVE YOUR GIRLS LEARNING WITH DAD!!
Best way to teach and form a great bond♥️
I absolutely LOVE how you have the younguns out there and are teaching them. I noticed that you instructed the youngest and then her older sister followed up with showing her, again, how it's done. I have a daughter that has told me that she is waiting till her sons are older and will be out of her way, before she starts gardening. I think they are all missing out on a wonderful life experience. Kudos to you Josh.
in addition to keeping the soil moist, for hard to germinate seeds, putting them in a jar of water and running them through a marinade cycle with a vacuum sealer does a good job of getting moisture inside the seed quickly.
I gardened with my mom, who gardened with her mom. I garden now as an adult, and my sisters do as well.
Gardening with my son has been a fantastically rewarding experience. He's the only one that's been interested. Both my girls couldn't care less! He started helping me at 3 - they don't need to be old to dig holes!
Yes! My son has his kids help garden - so enjoyable to see!
Our girls help us too. Something they'll remember.
Man, this family is truly blessed. All these videos are either great lessons or just beautiful, joyous things.
This world needs more MEN like this man. Thank you for sharing 💜
This brings tears to my eyes seeing your children help you! What a gift you are giving them.
Good morning!! I’m happy you touched the topic of not stressing out about covering the seeds. To be honest, that was my biggest worry until you said so. Thank you Uncle! The girls did a great job dispersing the seeds.❤❤❤
A couple of years ago I decided to go deeper with my planting also. 1/4" +or-. And I had much better results with germination. The other thing that happened was that the top of the carrots, when they grew, were mostly below the surface, and that kept them from getting green. 🥕
I just watched a TH-cam on spacing carrots. It was ingenius! She made a gel out of cornstarch and water. Put the seeds in after soaking them until they just started to sprout. Put in a zip lock bag, using it like a pastry bag. Amazing how evenly the seeds came out!
I saw that too :)
I’ve got to try that. Thanks for mentioning it.
@@monav1423
Hi! I saw it today too, and this #1 HACK! method alone or both combined would be great! They're from Quebec and it was called perfect spacing and they germinate the seeds first before pouring them into the cornstarch thickened water. Then planted the gelled seeds. They thought it was much easier to drizzle along and helped to keep some moist and spaced. At harvest time she showed a link to the outcome video and I'd suggest that you watch both before trying it.
Any idea what the video name was? I need to see that...
@@kathymcmc
Sowing carrots in cornstarch
PLEASE do more vegetable planting guides. Very helpful!
Hi Katherine how are you??
You blew my mind with the PEX over the take tines!
That was a cool trick we'll have to try
So I planted some seeds in our Florida winter. They didn't come up. Now that it's in the 90s they are growing! My free range rabbits are happy now Lol
🤔 Interesting. I was waiting till September to possobly plant them....hmmmm
finally. a very good video with somebody ( a bit older) who is not hyperactive. I think all this market gardening stuff is great .... there is just a certain flavor about many of these videos that puts me off. Thanks for this.
You've got some great helpers there!
This spring I planted my carrots in a raised bed, I covered with sifted compost like you did and then a thin layer of pine shavings, about 1/2-1 inch worth, and watered well. Having a covering over the soil really helped with holding the moisture in and protected the seeds a little more during the watering process as well. I did the board method last year and that was okay, but doing the layer of pine shavings has given me the greatest success yet!
Thanks for this because I was just wondering about using some rice straw for thT same purpose. I'll go ahead.
Hi Raylin how are you?
I learned the exact same thing. I plant them about 1/4 inch or a little less and they do much better for me now.
Nice garden!
I have a 23' x 50' garden that used to be lawn. After cardboard, leaves and my broadfork, it works! ❤
I remember learning how to plant garden seeds with my Mom when I was around your girls' ages, 60 years ago!
Wonderful, lasting and important memories ❤
Hi Nancy how are you?
For years now, I’ve had great success soaking almost all of my seeds before planting. Usually 4-24 hours, depending on the size of the seed. The seeds then have the moisture to start sprouting. Since they sprout a lot faster, there is less time for soil to dry out before green starts popping up.
Are the carrot seeds hard too plant after being soaked? They are so small I would think they would clump together?
@@Zeldabug24 I strain them in a small mesh kitchen strainer, flip the strainer over onto a paper towel, and gently pat them dry. Sometimes I let them air dry a little if needed. Then plant.
Great Homesteading, Great Parenting
Your girls are naturals at this...doing a great job!👍💝
Hello how are you?
"There are no mistakes, just happy accidents."😂 I love it when our children teach us how to do something.💕 We currently have some carrots in a container...so far so good. I've all but given up on them, but maybe there's still hope.😉 Thanks for the tips, they make a lot of sense.
I love that I know when you give tips, you've used them (probably more than once) yourselves and tried other ways as well most likely. And if it's a tip you've just heard, you say so.
Agreed. Everyone these days is a "TH-cam" expert.
This!
This is one of the only channels i feel comfortable taking at face value!
Many other people will do something in a video without the knowledge behind it & its wrong info.
Hi Salem how are you?
Those girls did an absolutely amazing job!! I would hire them to help with my garden. They are learning the most important life skills from y’all. May god continue to bless your beautiful family. ❤️
I had good luck using a thin plastic, like for over spray when painting, laying over the seeded area. I'm able to keep soil moist and I can easily see when they've sprouted to be able to remove the plastic, which I reuse many times.
Oh! Good idea!
Pelleted seed really makes the job easier, allows a seeder to be used, and ony costs a buck or three extra over tens of thousands of seeds.
Even if hand seeding, makes it easier to singulate/space the seed and eliminates the need to later thin.
Seed tape is even easier. I too have had trouble with carrots. This year I tried seed tape and have had fantastic success!
I much preferred the pelleted seeds when planting baskets of petunias and snap-dragons this spring! It is insane how small some seeds are!
Johnnies seeds sell pelleted carrots seeds
The later need to thin produces nice and tender carrots. The best tasting ones. So i prefer to oversow this crop.
Has anyone had success with soaking seeds? This was my first year to try it with other seeds like tiny basils. It worked really well. Actually, I lined up tiny glass containers with water and soaked a ton of seeds before putting them in dirt and I had the best germination ever! I’m in zone 8 far west Texas.
I think carrot seeds are too tiny to soak and plant. Unless you use twizzers to separate them.
I have experimented with soaking seeds. I put them in Petri dishes. It is a good way to check for germination. After the seeds germinated I put them in small pots with potting soil. This works with most all seeds although makes more work for yourself for those seeds that you can direct sow in your garden. A few seeds like spinach seem to prefer being started in soil.
I tried with a few other seeds but our water contains chemicals which killed the seeds.Never tried on carrots,the seeds look to small but you might try rain water
Thank you for keeping the camera steady or if it moves, it moves very slowly -- easy on my tired eyes. I love the row-maker tip!
Great job with the carrots and the girls!
Your methods are terrific, I will give them all a try. My opinion is that carrots germinate only in warm enough soil. Last year I planted carrots three times in different parts
Of the same row approximately ten days apart. They all germinated and grew at the same time. We had way, way too many!
I would love to have "way, way too many!" 😅
I have a tiny garden in comparison but I water well and cover with cardboard for the first week to two weeks. Works for me. Found some growing still in January 😂 last yr in Missouri.
Carrots seed their 2nd year. I plant in a raised bed and even had my soil freeze over the winter in it and covered in a few inches of snow for a few days. My carrot and beets I didn't fall harvest survived fine and are seeding now. My sweet peas I planted early November also made it through winter and I began harvesting pods in May.
O.o
The student has taught the master!!
I put my carrot seed directly on the soil. Water them. Then I place a sheet of cut plywood that fit my boxes. Check them after 7bdays. Then every day after. Been they sprout and root. I pull the plywood and POOF! No fail.
Nice video and really great to see the girls learning about gardening.
OAG
The girls are such good helpers !
I love your channel. Just started following you. It’s so enriching to watch your family and see the cooperation and love of a traditional family.
This year my carrots sown in the sunny part of the garden hardly came up. Contrarily, those sown in the (partial) shade came up beautifully. Other conditions - depth, watering, soil - identical. Which proves that keeping seeds moist is the critical condition. Covering with planks or cardboard is one option.
Thank you so much for the actual video lesson. I learn by watching and doing. And this will help me with my carrots that I just started.
Sifted compost is a joy to work with...Some vermicompost will make some happy carrots will make them very sweet;
The Jang seeder works for carrots. It works really well.
I used your method, but with a small patch I covered them with old bath towels to keep moist. After 7 days all germinated. Thanks for the info!
I'd like to see more videos from you sir. Your wife's kitchen skills are fab, but your outdoor info is very valuable as well. There's nothing to can if the garden won't grow. And I like your quiet style a lot.
Great video. Great Dad time and lessons for the girls. They are really good listeners. Subbed.
Experience is the best teacher
I had an amazing carrot harvest this year. Thank you for this tutorial!
has anybody tried mixing carrot seeds with dry sand, ratio roughly 1:5, and sow it that way? much easier handling, spacing is about right, it works for me. good luck, happy gardening to everyone
I was looking for a sand comment!! This is good for many reasons, look it up and give it a try.
Hi Lenka how are you?
Very informative as usual. The homestead looks so beautiful with the neat rows and trees in the landscape. Breathtaking!
Hi how are you?
Happy Carrot Day 🥕😎👊
Keep Up The Good Work ‼️
I LOVE my broad fork!! Best garden tool I’ve EVER purchased!! Also a great work out 😉
I can always sit down and give some time to a homesteader. Thanks for the wisdom!
One of the tips for showing carrots seeds is to cover with 1/8 - 1/4 soil water then cover with a 2/4 for to give days up to ten days. Keep checking each variety is different. It worked every time close to a hundred percent sprouting. Works for me hope it works for you.
Soaker hose / leaky hose works to keep the beds damp without overhead sprays. I'm also a board fan and use the fine compost cover, but use a length of 2x2 pressed in to make a shallow V trench. Good video.
Great. video and a fab way to get the kids involved.
Glad you enjoyed it
Great tips Jess on finding a starting path to a sustainable food system. Folks have come to believe that such a thing is so complicated and unattainable that they refuse to even start to try. You have pointed to some great tips that anyone can begin with and apply to success. Thanks for sharing!
As I recall you mentioned the deeper planting of carrots seeds in a past video which led me to start planting this way. Works great, I don't even bother sifting the soil on top, just dig trench and cover seeds with it. Thank you for spreading the word to help people have better success with our gardening adventures.
I love seeing how you guys teach your kids everything. You are preparing them excellently🙏❤️
Hi Essie how are you?
I like to use white row cover right on top the soil after seeding, had successful germination with carrots 2 years in a row with this method. I also tried straw mulch one year👌
weed prevention fabric or frost protection fabric?
I would call that tilling, but since I'm not married to the no-till method it doesn't bother me. Most root crops want loose soil, and that looks like a great setup for carrots!
Brianna and Abigail...thank you! Love your mom and dad, but love seeing you and your sibs in these videos!
Love this video. Love how your daughters are helping out
Love to see your young ladies shoveling compost into the wheelbarrow....good exercise!!!
It’s really good that you’re teaching your children how to grow veg, well done, greetings from Cornwall.
I used to have a small plot in a nearby community P-patch. So space was at a premium. Using the "square foot gardening" method, I laid out a grid of 1-ft squares in a raised garden bed. Then using the eraser end of a pencil, I pushed half inch deep holes every one inch, such that each square foot had 12x12=144 holes. Using a jar lid to hold some of the seeds, I then used a tweezers to carefully plant exactly one seed per hole. Then filled in the holes by brushing the surface lightly with my hand. Being diligent to water every day and keep the soil moist until the seedlings were well established, not only did I achieve nearly 100% germination and no need for thinning, the carrots matured very well, growing to nearly a foot long and were mostly 1 inch in diameter, making maximum use of the space available. I ended up with way more carrots than I could use and gave a lot of them away.
Have you ever seen people use sand with the seeds depending on how many seeds you use then you add sand to keep them spread out when you are direct sowing the seeds. I've seen it work for others it's an old tip that some of the older gens give to us so that we don't drop so many seeds in one area and have to get rid of some. Waste is what they are trying to avoid so that we can keep our seeds. :)
What a wonderful and inspiring family! Thank you!
Thanks for the video. I look forward to seeing those girls doing videos themselves. They have a natural aptitude for gardening.
Thanks for the nice video. Every day you learn something from people like you that share their experiences.
What a beautiful video, God Bless You, your family, and May your labor produce a bountiful harvest.
We love carrots, and i have 2 more varieties I want to try out and will be planting them soon. I have been sifting compost for two years like your lovely girls. It's a wonder I don't have Popeye arms! My beloved husband decided to build an electric trommel after he had to sift in the hot weather for an hour! Can't wait for it to be done!
Try this, after making the four rows to plant in, take a thin straight piece of wood (like 1/2” plywood x 4” x48” nailed to a 3 ft handle (1 1/2” by 3/4”)and go down the rows lightly pressing the thin wood into the bottom of the rows the entire length of the rows. Then plant the seeds and cover with screened compost like you did. This method flattens the bottom of the row so that the seeds make better contact with the soil giving them more consistent moisture for germination. It only takes a few minutes to do this added step.
Its great to see young ones out and learning how to grow food. I believe it will be imperative one day when the world loses its farmers.
The Meadow Creature is legit. I've had mine for 4 years and it still works like the day I got it
I would trash the method with the rake(planting rows). Your no till fork would make better groves and it's pre-spaced already.
Take what other's are willing to help you with and use your own brain, create your method.
Your garden space looks great! You definitely have experience and knowledge! Thats more than I can say for most TH-cam Gardners .
First of your videos I have seen. Thank you 🙏 🤲 😊
You are doing a great job raising those kids ..GOOD JOB ! Even better than raising carrot Tanks too, for your carrot wisdom, Paul
I did the cornstarch method this year and results are great. Less thinning and less watering.
These are very good suggestions. I've grown carrots for years and used very similar process, if you don't have a watering system take care they don't dry out when geminating.
New subscriber here. Great video! I just started gardening last year and have grown carrots already with some success. I figured out that I could start them a little deeper kind of by accident and it's great to see that I'm not the only one. Thanks for the video.
Thank you for sharing i love learning new ways to do things. Also I have not sadly had a garden since moving into a rental w very small space n not much of anyplace to grow food but I will love to come back and watch these to do so. Also cute family love how involved u all are
Such a great TH-cam channel. Thanks for sharing your lifestyle
Second video I’ve watched and I had to come back to comment your videos are down right therapeutic & I love this is a family effort!
Thanks for sharing. Love seing how everyone else gets things done!
Interesting and informative video! I especially like your method of covering carrot seeds with finely-sifted growing medium.
I've had success with two different approaches to keeping carrot seeds moist. The first is by seeding in well-watered soil and covering with old carpet and then removing the carpet when the seeds start pushing up above the soil. The second method (I'm small-scale) is to use a drip system with fine-mist sprayers and misting the seeded bed for about a minute or two 3 times daily.
So glad to find someone from Idaho! South East Idaho is a bit different from North Idaho but it is encouraging for me. Will definitely be watching more of your stuff.
Thanks so much Homesteading Family for all the tips. Extending a landscape rake is new to me. What I do with tiny seeds is mix them with sand and use a salt or spice shaker. That usually disperses the seed pretty evenly.
Amazing garden space! Blessings, julie
I'm inspired to be such inspiring and empowering parents as you both do!
Hi Laila how are you?
Awesome! And absolutely no rocks in the garden. Gorgeous soil.
Okay. I'm on it. Thank you.
Thanks for the tip...will be trying it out this time around!
I like the cornstarch gel that Malorie of Quebec Homestead uses to transport her carrot seeds from the germinator into the planting rows.
I love it when we learn from our children. Thank you for a great vid. Would u list the company’s where you got the tools u used in this vid? 🦋
Excellent video. I have great germination even through woodchips, I love that even after all these years you are experimenting and doing a test with more soil cover. I bet they do just as well as the rest of your row!
Hi Megan how are you?
Now that's a garden! Looks Great
I like that Broadfork, I've never seen one before but I definitely want to get one for my garden & gardening!
I really wanted to see you harvesting these carrots to see how they turned out, but I didn’t see a video posted. I’m really excited for you guys. I want to plant carrots this year!
Hello how are you?
Hi. I like your garden system, and even more I like the family-together approach. Really nice to see in this fragmented age of everyone on cell phones and barely interacting.
Technically 'no till' means no disturbance of soil. 'Minimal till' would be better. But call it what you want, it's a great video and a fantastic garden! Thanks for sharing
Thank you very much!
Thanks for sharing!