Comments on: Carrot science

By: Kate Stout

Kate Stout — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 13:27:05 +0000

For carrot germination, I use a local product. I live near a factory that makes erosion control blankets. These are rolls of wood excelsior (thin curls of wood) that are sandwiched between plastic mesh. THey are used by the highway department for covering new soil and getting it seeded down.I buy the “seconds” that have a few bare spots in them for an inexpensive price. Make sure you get the ones with mesh on both sides so you can roll them up again. They last all summer. These keep the soil damp and the carrots germinate really well. They also help cool the soil when trying to get fall spinach to germinate in warm soils of last August.

By: Kate Stout

Kate Stout — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 12:59:00 +0000

Hi there Bilal Shah,
I would love to hear more about your garlic farm project. My thought about the humic acid is that the microbial action of real compost is as much value as the humic acid. The acid is a by-product of the action of the microbes that build the soil structure. It is this living structure that you want as much as the acid its self. This structure will help hold soil moisture etc. Any sort of compostable materials can be balanced to make a good, live compost. The humus its self is stable and will not leach out of the soil while the humic acid could just leach away. Best of luck with your plan.
Kate

By: Bilal Shah

Bilal Shah — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 19:15:58 +0000

Hi guys. I’m from Lahore, Pakistan, planning to start a garlic farm. My question is regarding soil improvement.
Can anyone please guide me regarding Humous/ Humic Acid. It appears that The Compost/ Farm Manure/ Chicken Waste all are put in the soil for the purpose of creating Humous.
If i can put Humic Acid (Powder) in the soil, is it a replacement to all of the above?

By: Crooked River Coffee – Yaya Carrots « Bay Branch Farm

Crooked River Coffee – Yaya Carrots « Bay Branch Farm — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 13:13:28 +0000

[...] Farm Blog, we are now trying one of his tried and true methods of carrot germination – the burlap method. We got burlap sacks from our friend at Crooked River Coffee, a local roaster in the area. We are [...]

By: Mike (tfb)

Mike (tfb) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:43:58 +0000

Marg: My experience has been with trying to germinate seed and preserve the burlap, so I've been doing the opposite of what you want! Untreated burlap does break down really nicely, but I'm not sure of the timeframe. A year sounds good for a layer or two. I took a quick look online, this burlap compost blog post is kinda relevant. Hope that helps!

By: Marg

Marg — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 18:11:36 +0000

HI: I have burlap and I would like to use it as mulch to completely renew some lawn that has gone very weedy. I wonder how long the burlap would take to completely decompose. For example, if I covered my front lawn which is in complete sun) with burlap this spring, would the burlap decompose by say, next spring. I am in Toronto so we get snow cover most winters.

By: Mike (tfb)

Mike (tfb) — Fri, 16 May 2008 00:03:24 +0000

Vera: That’s a great article on winter sowing. It’s kind of like mini-coldframes. I’m definitely going to try this winter (well, I definitely INTEND to…). I don’t know how well it would scale for bigger quantities, but it’s so interesting, one thing may lead to another. Every winter, I intend to direct seed a couple of things like spinach and maybe peas, really late, so they’ll germinate in spring, but with such unpredictable winters, chances are it’ll warm up and they’ll germinate before the final freeze-up. Wait too long and the ground is too hard… Anyway, cool. Thanks!

By: Vera

Vera — Sun, 11 May 2008 06:57:25 +0000

First. So glad I found this blog…I LOVE it!
This probably would be too time consuming for you and for your needs, but I germinated my carrots this year using the wintersow method
http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/wtrsow/
I had 100% germination! I sowed them on April 13th and by April 22nd there was about 40% up and within another week 100% . They transplanted well yesterday into prepared carrot area just as 1st true leaves began to emerge! These carrots are Purple Dragon (my pic say P. Haze but messed up).
Have used this method of recycled container sowing since winter/spring 2003 mainly for annuals/perennials, but have also works well for collards, mustard, kale, broccoli, chard, lettuce, ect. Sow them and forget about them, but then I’m not maintaining a tiny farm either!!

Carrot photo
Containers photo

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 19:11:50 +0000

Mary: Burlap! It’s that coarsely woven fabric they used to make potato sacks and the like from, before plastic mesh. I managed to find some in 4′ wide rolls at a garden center, I believe it was used in landscaping and nurseries to wrap the roots of small trees and shrubs for transplanting, uses like that (before…plastic).

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!

By: Mary

Mary — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 17:07:44 +0000

I’m from England. My carrots won’t germinate – found you on website where you said you had covered field in burlap with great germination success. What is burlap?