[cloddopper]

I have sown eight square feet of carrots ' 16 seeds to the sq ft so far this year on 5 April ( edit  ...sorry 5th May 2014. (   ...Thanks for pointing it out MGW )

 It's only today that I have found any evidence of them germinating with a little grid pattern of 3 mm long green carrot seedling emerging .

 That's 27 days germination to 3 mm tall , usually my carrots have reached 3 mm tall by about day 19.  Has any one else experienced later than  usual for  germinations of their carrots or any other seeds being late for that matter of fact ? 
 

[Louise Gaunt]

I germinated my carrots in small cells in the greenhouse then planted them out about 3 weeks ago, they are not growing very quickly. I am also struggling with broad beans, but I think that might be due to field voles rather than failure of germination. We are in South Devon.

[Lesley Silvester]

Cloddopper, my maths might be wrong but surely 5th April to today is nearly two months or around 57 days? That is a very long time to germinate.

[Fleecewife]

I've had quite the opposite experience this year with carrot germination. I usually grow carrots in the polytunnel , mostly in some sort of container to help keep the carrot flies off.  This year we have built our first outdoor raised bed so I don't have to bend so much, and I planted it with strawberries, onions, beetroot, parsnips with radish, and carrots.  I have had great germination with all the seeds - and of course the weeds  .  I had sown the carrots in a wide strip (no idea how many to the square foot) and they all germinated after 2 weeks and now have their first true leaves.  The parsnips were up within a month too (I marked the strip with radishes which I need to pull out now).
So for me this has been an excellent year for germination 

[HesterF]

My first lot were sown at about the same time as yours and were slow but are now a couple of inches high. Second lot were about a month later and are just showing (with gaps but I always get gaps with carrots, however thickly I sow). I saved a whole load of sunflower seeds last year from my most beautiful flower and planted loads of them. I thought they were taking a long time to come up until I realised the crows were nipping them off. They've also pulled up and chewed every single sweetcorn plant (40 in total) and most of the pumpkins, squashes and gourds. My best ever plants, sturdy looking creatures, in the middle of the chicken run so safe from the badger and slugs (and fenced from the chickens and ducks). So instead the crows have ruined the lot. Had somebody over yesterday to shoot them but they're canny and he only managed one. I've hung it up in triumph and so far they're steering clear and the chicken food seems to be going a lot further! Sorry, that was a bit of diversion into crow rant.

[pgkevet]

I've sown 4 rows of carrots so far.. 20 yards each.. first over 2 months ago and then roughy every 2-3 weeks... non up at all. First parsnip seeds took over 6 weeks to come up and a second lot sown 2 weeks later about the same... third and fourth rows of those show no sign after 4-6 weeks either. Swede however popped up in a week.

I put a whol series of flowers into the veggie patch last week.. we;ll see how all those varieties do.

[pgkevet]

...just come back from moving the cade lambs and it looks like a few of the first carrot sowing are finally coming up..was sown thinly and so far really really thin....

[Fleecewife]

I went to pull some radishes for lunch today but they were horrible, full of little brown worm holes.  Does this mean I can expect my carrots and parsnips to be wasted too, or will it be different beasties?

Does anyone know at what size of seedlings carrot root flies will lay their eggs?  I thought my high raised bed would be tall enough to prevent carrot root flies from getting to them, so I didn't cover them.  Am I too late to cover them now with insect mesh or are they already a lost cause? They are between 1" and 3" tall with a couple of true leaves, and the parsnips are smaller with just one true leaf.

[MAK]

I can not imagine how you can count 16 seeds - I can barely see the row I am planting in  . Actually I have taken to do as my neighbours and just sprinkle away and plant seed by the packet. I just thin out the early crop ( we are eating the little finger size thinners now). The main crop will be harvested in autumn and will not be thinned ( they will be our winter store / winter food).
Peas and carrots are a popular food here and sold in jars and tins. packet seed tells you when to plant the seed to harvest "carrots and peas". So June/July is peak season for peas although we did have our first peas tonight.
Tip - take a bottle of water to wet your carrots before wiggeling them and pulling them. They are then easy to pull and rarely break.  Main crop are dug up of course.
 

[cloddopper]

I can not imagine how you can count 16 seeds - I can barely see the row I am planting in  . Actually I have taken to do as my neighbours and just sprinkle away and plant seed by the packet. I just thin out the early crop ( we are eating the little finger size thinners now). The main crop will be harvested in autumn and will not be thinned ( they will be our winter store / winter food).
Peas and carrots are a popular food here and sold in jars and tins. packet seed tells you when to plant the seed to harvest "carrots and peas". So June/July is peak season for peas although we did have our first peas tonight.
Tip - take a bottle of water to wet your carrots before wiggeling them and pulling them. They are then easy to pull and rarely break.  Main crop are dug up of course.

 I sow & plant in square feet squares . I have made four sowing grids/masks in 5 mm thick clear Perspex & chamfered the holes so that there is no interfering burr to obstruct any seeds so I can simply lay on the grid on the square that gives me the spacing's I want .. I then sprinkle a few seeds on the plastic  then steer two down each hole starting at the top left and working  down the  grid moving in a flowing zig zag from the left side to right side .( having a rigid sequence helps stop me missing holes or triple sowing etc.
As soon as the square is sown it gets a long white plastic seed label with the square's contents written on it in soft 4b lead pencil .

 When the seeds emerge if there are two or more I used a pair of scissors to snip the weaker ones off, leaving the best to grow on rather than disturbing the roots s and attracting various pests that feast on or in disturbed plants that are damaged or in the pulled out areas .
All snip off's are put in the compost bin as soon as the square has its " hair cut" and buried under the compost . Annual weeds get the same snip off treatment, any  perennial weeds get an additional spot of round up on the cut .

[cloddopper]

I went to pull some radishes for lunch today but they were horrible, full of little brown worm holes.  Does this mean I can expect my carrots and parsnips to be wasted too, or will it be different beasties?

Does anyone know at what size of seedlings carrot root flies will lay their eggs?  I thought my high raised bed would be tall enough to prevent carrot root flies from getting to them, so I didn't cover them.  Am I too late to cover them now with insect mesh or are they already a lost cause? They are between 1" and 3" tall with a couple of true leaves, and the parsnips are smaller with just one true leaf.

 Put a fleece on the bed as soon as it is sown .carrot flies fly at least 1.200 high for I made a 400 mm high enclosure to sit on a 9 square foot raised bed that was 900 mm high .

  WRT sowing too thickly & having to thin them out thus attracting pest to the scent of disturbed carrot tops or pulled roots & holding back the carrot growth for a couple of days or more .

Apparently mixing a teaspoon of pure wood ash from clean untreated wood helps.
Do it as follows ...
 mix 1 reaspoon of dry ash to 1/4 teaspoon of carrot seed in a large spray can cap or similar and sprinkle sow it between your index finger & thumb along the 10 mm deep drills ( It helps the poor of sight if you run a white line along the drill line so you can easily see it)  or it can be done using a folded sheet of thick lining paper as a distribution chute to slide seeds along a drill on the drill .
Having the white ash with the seeds also helps you see where you have sown and where to gently cover over with sieved soil or use a good 2" paint brush on a stick to gently sweep some soil over the sown drill .

[Fleecewife]

<< Put a fleece on the bed as soon as it is sown .carrot flies fly at least 1.200 high for I made a 400 mm high enclosure to sit on a 9 square foot raised bed that was 900 mm high .>>

But I didn't do it at the right time clodopper, so I'm wondering if it's too late now.  Silly me with the height for carrot flies - I thought it was 18" 

[pgkevet]

I prefer to grow my radish in the greenhouse border edge..just hort lengths sown every weekish - fast short lived crops of plump roots. Outdoors they grow slowly and woody here.

[MAK]

Clodhopper - why do you sow in square feet. are you making a specific study or do you find you get a better crop?

[regen]

"Silly me with the height for carrot flies - I thought it was 18"   "

The carrot fly tends to fly low to the ground and it is generally accepted that an 18 inch barrier will deter them.  However it is easier to cover the whole crop with a loose fitting fleece which leaves room for the crop to grow.

Radish belong to the cabbage family  and will not be tunneled by the carrot root fly larvae. However the cabbage root fly larvae are quite at home in a radish. Dont follow radish with cabbage as the cabbage root fly can decimate a cabbage crop if left untreated.

Regen