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I finally gave up on growing carrots from seed and bought transplants instead
I spent three summers trying to get carrots to grow from seed in my backyard here in Portland. Every year I'd thin them out, keep the soil damp, and they'd still come out all twisted and tiny. My neighbor Martha has this perfect carrot patch and she laughed when I told her I was doing seeds. She said forget it, just buy the little starter plants from the nursery. I thought that was cheating or something but after wasting probably 12 bucks on seed packets over the years, I grabbed a flat of starts for $8 and they're already looking way better after just 3 weeks. The roots are straight and thick. Should have listened sooner. Anyone else have better luck with transplants over seeds for certain veggies?
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carr.elliot29d ago
Portland zone 8b here. Carrots don't actually transplant well because their taproot gets damaged when you move them. The starts you bought are probably just a different variety or grown better than what you attempted from seed. Some things like tomatoes and peppers you can absolutely start from transplants, but root veggies like carrots, radishes, and parsnips really hate being disturbed. If your starts do well, you lucked out, but most nurseries even warn you about transplanting carrots.
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vera_palmer29d ago
Guess I'll just name my carrots Houdini since they keep escaping the garden.
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fiona_murphy28d ago
Oh great, so even my vegetables are pulling a fast one on me. Must be contagious from my Wi-Fi signal that disappears the second I need it.
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