Carrot Tricks and Tips
If you’ve ever planted carrots you know how challenging they can be to sow. Carrot seeds are teeny-tiny, so they are hard to space out correctly which leads to lots of thinning and using up your seeds faster than you need to. A few years ago Burpee came out with Carrot Tape, which is a great product that makes planting and growing your carrots easier. We wanted to see if we could recreate that with household items to save a little money and get out to the garden faster!
Our solution was medical tape, which most people have lying around unused in their first aid kit. The great thing about this thin paper tape is it’s not too sticky or thick so it’s easy to work with and will decompose quickly in the soil. If you don’t have medical tape you can use masking tape or any other kind of tape so long as it’s biodegradable.
To start, stretch out your tape for the whole length of your carrot plot. Since we’re using a pot we’re going to use the diameter of the pot to get the desired length. Now it’s time to spread those little seeds all along the tape. You may want to use tweezers to help maneuver them into the right spot. Space seeds every couple of inches or so keeping in mind that not every single seed will germinate. A good tip is to make your seed tape indoors so that the wind can’t blow it around. You can roll it back up to store it or transport it out to the garden because it will unroll so easily.
When it’s time to plant you’re going to lay the seed tape in the ground vertically (or perpendicular to the surface) so that the seed roots or shoots don’t have to have to grow through the tape.
Growing good carrots requires a really loose soil so that there is room in the dirt for the carrot to expand. We’re trying them in pots this year as we have so much clay in our area. Keep this in mind when you’re planting your tape and don’t plant it too close to the edge of the pot or raised bed so the carrots have room to grow and bunch out. If you’re planting in the ground, many folks like to put sand in the bottom of their furrow to create that room for expansion.
We coiled our tape in a spacious spiral to make the best use of the space in our pot. You don’t have to plant carrots very deep at all so you will probably still be able to see the the tape poking out of the ground, and that’s fine. Just make sure the seeds are covered with about a 1/4 inch of soil. Carrots can take up to three weeks to get growing so don’t be discouraged if you don’t see action right away. It’s important to keep the soil evenly damp during the germination period so you may need to give them a little shower twice per day initially if they are in a sunny spot.
4 Tips for Planting Carrots
🥕 Use tape to space your seeds
🥕 Plant in loose soil
🥕 Keep the soil moist
🥕 Thin if necessary
For a more detailed look and to see what baby carrots look like once they start to grow check out our video below!
Watch Digging In
with Val & Deb
