# Can't grow carrots



## kyle1! (Jun 20, 2022)

I am not a pro gardener like some folks here. Living in Iowa I just till my ground, plant my seeds from packets in rows, water and keep the weed pressure down. For the last 3 to 4 years I can not get carrots to grow. Before that I would harvest 5 to 10 gal buckets worth.

Nothing else in the garden seems to have a problem except carrots. The only change is that I have been adding compost from a city compost site to my garden to help with soil structure/clay. Hmmm Carrots are my favorites out of the garden


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## Backyard Lumberjack (Jun 20, 2022)

assuming the seeds are fertile, sounds like only one variable: city compost! no seed germination at all? or won't bulb up? so set up test bed. made of soil and/or compost of dif source. that is what i would do. other than that in short-run would be to have soil tested! strange nothing else affected. since everything likes N-P-K, etc. hope u sort it out. i like garden fresh carrots...


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## kyle1! (Jun 21, 2022)

No germination nothing. I think a few years ago I had a few sprouts. I have an old cooler I was going to throw away so I will drill some holes , fill that with store bought soil and see how it goes.


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## cookies (Jun 21, 2022)

I always seem to get dead carrot seeds, try sprouting in the little peat puck greenhouses they sell since they are pretty sterile. If I sprout seeds inside on the windowsill I tend to get 90+% germination across the board if seeds are healthy.


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## Mad Professor (Jun 21, 2022)

need to keep seeds wet for ~week, put in raddish every few feet to mark rows, they germinate fast


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## Backyard Lumberjack (Jun 24, 2022)

cookies said:


> I always seem to get dead carrot seeds, try sprouting in the little peat puck greenhouses they sell since they are pretty sterile. If I sprout seeds inside on the windowsill I tend to get 90+% germination across the board if seeds are healthy.


last fall i did 5 short rows of carrots. dif types. one had -0- germination... (wtf is with that, i thot!?) prob died inside. the germ. will further test them this season. keep better records! lol.... but i keep all carrots and all my other seeds in refer.... i have planted 24-year old lima seeds saved from the garden and they produced very well!


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## Chainmale (Jun 24, 2022)

Did you collect your own seed? 
Don't know if carrots are dioecious or not , but if so could be infertile seed if it only pollinated itself


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## sonny580 (Jun 29, 2022)

We only got a 1/4 stand of carrots this year from the early planted row and ZERO stand from a row planted a couple weeks later. Had trouble with ALL packaged seed this year. ( Govt. is paying seed producers to nuke seed so it wont grow! dont want us to grow our own food!)


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## Backyard Lumberjack (Jun 29, 2022)

sonny580 said:


> We only got a 1/4 stand of carrots this year from the early planted row and ZERO stand from a row planted a couple weeks later. Had trouble with ALL packaged seed this year.* ( Govt. is paying seed producers to nuke seed so it wont grow! dont want us to grow our own food!)*


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## jakethesnake (Jul 8, 2022)

From my experience in Delaware they germinate slow as heck. Like to the point I was giving up on them. I’ve grown carrots for years. I’m no ace at it by any means.


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## jakethesnake (Jul 8, 2022)

Lousy picture but got a respectable stand. Looks like you’re probably a farmer going off the pioneer profile picture. So here we plant corn end of April. I like to start may1st. When I’m half done with my corn I plant carrots in my garden. It usually takes about a month before I ever see any. Makes it kinda tough for me to get them going. But yeah I plant them incredibly shallow Usually that time of year we have good moisture anyhow. Forever later I find baby carrots in the grass. Then weed em and they seem to go. I’d grab a soil sample out of that garden. Just to see if anything is going on


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## jakethesnake (Jul 8, 2022)

Seems like a really nice fine seed bed helps me.


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## kyle1! (Jul 11, 2022)

I have planted them in 2 different spots and I'm going on 1 month since doing so. No germination. I filled an old cooler (with drainage) with potting soil and 2 packets of seeds. If no germination it has to be the seeds.


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## kyle1! (Aug 3, 2022)

I didn't get anything to grow in the cooler so next year I will have to find a better seed source.


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## jakethesnake (Aug 3, 2022)

Sounds like you figured the problem out. Mine are gonna be ready really soon.


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## kyle1! (Oct 24, 2022)

The garden is done for the season and after about 5 weeks of planting my carrot seeds I had about 10-12 little plants growing in my cooler. Pulled the carrots this weekend and had enough to fill a quart size ziploc bag. Man they are so good.


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## jolj (Oct 26, 2022)

First time I grew carrots only one came up, the last time I sowed them thick & every one came up.
I have not ideal what I did.


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## Brushpile (Nov 4, 2022)

First time growing carrots in a raised bed. Mostly mushroom compost. Planted a row where my tomatoes shaded them all summer. Pulled last week. Someone said the extra toes were probably from soil too compact. Roasted them in the oven, had with cornbread and collards. Just harvested probably my last mess of collards. Cooked with bacon, garlic and chicken stock. Good, good, eating.


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## sonny580 (Nov 6, 2022)

I use horse manure in my 4.5 acre garden, ---- sometimes it gets rotted down in a pile,---sometimes it goes directly on and plowed under.
Carrots grow great in it IF you can get good seed that will sprout.
Was told that the manure was the problem BUT I tested some seed in the house in wet paper towels and same thing---nuttin, so it was the seed. This year we had the most trouble with all seeds not growing! However,--- ALL of our home saved seeds grew 100%, so the ground had nothing to do with the germination this year.
For the most part carrots are quite forgiving as to the ground structure but really do great in looser ground. This year our ground got dry/hard, but with regular watering the ground stayed soft enough for them to expand without getting all funny shaped.


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## jolj (Nov 6, 2022)

I have less than 2 acres at this time, need a new bed for winter squash & fig trees.


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