Topic: BROADCASTING CARROT SEED

[betula]

Saw Monty broadcast his carrot seed last night.

It has never occurred to me to do this.Normal regular straight rows are what I normally do.

What do you think?

[Ant]

I suppose it comes down to how ordered you want to look, and how easy you want to weed  :)

[sarah]

i am going to give it a go because i HATE thinning out carrots. seems like a sensible idea to me.  :)

[redimp]

I was planning on broadcasting mine this year as I haven't had much look with rows.  In fact, took my daughter to her "little allotment" on Tuesday and helped her broadcast carrot seed.  I then covered it with twigs.

[Doris_Pinks]

I always broadcast mine now, then sprinkle compost over the top of them to help germination as I was having trouble growing rows.
Works a treat! ;D

[tim]

These were broadcast.

Ready for market.

[calendula]

I broadcast mine whether I am sowing straight into the ground or in boxes, tubs etc - they find their own way  :)

[redimp]

Broadcast mine down a row about about a foot wide and covered with old compost and a doubled up fleece.  We'll now see if I fare/fair(?) any better.

[Ant]

well we just did our carrot tub on the patio. Sparkly broadcast the seeds... or as I said "sprinkled"  :)

Will see how they do... Might be a good idea for doing a 1 foot wide strip like that on the plot, Sparky does the weeding anyway  ;D

[Mrs Ava]

I always broadcast sow carrots, doing a block about once every 4 to 6 weeks until mid summer.  One of the old boys on our plot also broadcast sows his beetroots and he has so many he gives them away and they are the best beets I have ever tasted.

[tim]

How do you cover them? Just rake them in - or add soil?

[calendula]

I sprinkle compost on top of mine, just to cover them - generally i use the bed that I've pulled peas from, rake over, sow, sprinkle and wait  :)

[thegreatgardener]

In my personal opinion I  find both broadcast sowing and row sowing to very untidy and wasteful.To sow carrots I use seed dots(similar to seed tape but only one seed per 1 cm square pieces) sown in  blocks or offset blocked rows, in both methods I use a drilled wooden template. 

[albacore1854]

I take out a shovel width trench an inch deep and 30' long and thinly broadcast.Cover with sieved soil, and then fleece it.Repeat monthly. Simple, and far easier than fiddling about thining, or messing about with modules, or strips of paper and flour paste.

[Mrs Ava]

I just rake over Tim.  Works a treat for me.

[thegreatgardener]

let me see last season. I plant 64 carrot seed dot  a week for 16 weeks
I harvested 48 market quality carrots from 64 seeds on average  85 days later. 
With a total harvest of 893 carrots from 5.95  sq meters (64 sq ft).
So guess I must doing something right. 

[sawfish]

I broadcast last year and it did work, but the problem was weeding. Its far easier with a hoe so you can go down the lines. Its a 'kneel down and get your hands dirty' job when you broadcast them.

[betula]

let me see last season. I plant 64 carrot seed dot  a week for 16 weeks
I harvested 48 market quality carrots from 64 seeds on average  85 days later. 
With a total harvest of 893 carrots from 5.95  sq meters (64 sq ft).
So guess I must doing something right. 

Gosh what did you do with 893 carrots? ;D

[thegreatgardener]

lots of juice,canned, frozen veg mix and fresh eating for family.

[tim]

No wonder you're great!!

Me too, Emma.