Carrot photo
Containers photo

If you’re growing only a small garden amount, you could try plastic mulch, or even a black garbage bag, instead of burlap. Cut open the bag to only one layer, place over your seeded carrots and pin or bury or weight the edges so it won’t blow away. The mulch will create extra heat to speed germination, and suppress weeds that need light to start (carrots don’t). You should get germination in around 7 days, with no weeds! The plastic will also maintain moisture, you shouldn’t have to water if you water in well just before mulching.

IMPORTANT: you have to check every day, from day 5 or so, because once the carrot seedlings have emerged, the heat under the plastic can kill ‘em off in a few hours. As soon as you see a few up along your row, take off the plastic and make sure to keep the bed moist for the next couple of days to encourage more germination. This is a bit of an extreme method because of the heat generated, but otherwise, carrots can take 3 weeks or more to emerge, depending on the temperature and moisture, they can be real slow… Burlap is gentler, because it doesn’t get as hot, but it doesn’t raise the heat as much and allows weeds to start—it works when you have lots on the go. Oh, don’t use clear plastic, it’ll get REALLY hot and also allow weeds to grow. Hope that helps!

We all need to be a little more sensitive to the way our workers actually feel when they do strenuous work for weeding and harvesting, for example. In the case of the human-hybrid weeding machine that you noticed on ergonica.com, it’s very possible that the employers did not have a clue as to the true feelings of their workers harnessed to the flat bed weeder. Part of the problem is that the workers are afraid of complaining because they may lose their jobs and possibly be deported.

Farmers and other employers of migrant workers have tremendous power over the lives of their workers. If you treat your workers well, they will also reciprocate in whatever way they can. Goodwill can be spread much like the nutrients we use to grow our crops.

You sure have a lot of weed info and weeding tools on your site!! I found particularly intriguing the news (with photo!) that “one of the latest developments for mechanized hand weeding is a controversial human-hybrid weeding machine which supports several workers prostrate on their abdomens and allows them to pull weeds by their hands.” Yikes! I won’t feel so unusual if I ever have to crawl along saving a few hundred feet of carrots or green onions by hand again…but maybe I’ll feel like an oppressed and exploited migrant farm worker… Hmmm.