Kitchen Garden Forum

I have grown masses of carrots in pots in my greenhouse this year. Not expecting germination on any large scale, I ended up with masses. As a result, I gently eased out the plants on the edge, tap root and all, and transplanted them down my allotment. I have been keeping them alive with masses of water, but although some have died, the others seem to be hanging on! What are the odds that they will survive and I will eventually be able to eat them?
Interestingly, I let one of my parsnips go to seed last year and it oblingingly spread seed over several raised beds resulting in millions of mini-parnsips beginning to grow in November time. They all overwintered without problem and many have grown to become handsome plants. Unfortunately, the majority have run to seed. Why is this? It strikes me as daft for a plant to have evolved that will spread seed to make a plant that then sets seed, but doesn't become real parsnips! What's going on here?

The parsnip is not interested in a big root,it wants to set seed and increase itself,the root is only a storehouse as far as it's concerned!What you want does not enter it's little parsnip brain!
As for the carrots there was an interesting article in Organic Gardening Magazine 2 or 3 months ago showing carrots all started in pots about 4" across,a scattering of seed in each and planted out by the potful when they had a little of the true leaves growing but before they grew too long a roots. It was used by a woman with hard soil who knew they wouldn't germinate in her soil and she found the method successful.

Hi Barry,
Normally Parsnips are a biennial plant when sown from February but with yours they had the entire winter to germinate and the minimum temperature of germination is, I think, 4C which means it only needs a couple of good days, say in December, and they will have germinated and been very small seedlings the whole winter through. This means that it will have gone through sufficient of the previous year to make it biennial. As Carole says all they are worried about is procreation and making seed. I suspect that this is the reason that sometimes very early sowings go to seed in the first year. This is why certain flower seeds, that are Perennial, if sown very early in the year, will flower the first year but normally they grow one year and bloom the following year and then in successive years.

Watching The Big Dig, it's clear that a lot of people have trouble sowing carrots directly into the soil. Either they don't germinate, or the slugs get them when they're very small. I have mixed results from sowing direct, and seem to get more consistent results from sowing in Rootrainers and planting them out before the tap root develops too much. This is a 'little and often' approach, and probably wouldn't suit anyone with an allotment.

If you transplant them before the tap root develops very much, then why use root trainers, why not just ordinary modules.
Regards from 'Completely useless at Carrots'

...I suppose I could say, 'because it works for me'. Perhaps I'm just being cautious, but Rootrainers are nice and deep (4"), allowing for some nice root development. The other modules I have are relatively shallow. Or, if I used 4" deep plant pots, I'd need a lot more compost.

Thanks Ken, that makes sense - I hadn't really thought about other roots, only the tap root. B

Hi Belinda,
If you were to dig a very young carrot seedling in it's entirety you would note that the tap root is far longer than any foliage that may be growing and if you dug out a mature Carrot in it's entirety you would find the same thing although only a fraction of that is edible. That very flimsey root show from the bottom of a module would mean generally that it is too late to transplant out and the slightest damage to the young tap root leads to very stunted and mis-shapen Carrots but whereas they all taste the same the mis-shapen ones are very hard to handle without wasting an awful lot of Carrot in the process.
With Parsnips they are the same, rootwise, and certainly use Root Trainers but an awful amount of people save Loo Roll cetres for the expressed purpose of growing Parsnips and then planting the whole thing.

u could use loo rolls for the carrots i suppose

Johnboy, please tell all. How do you come to have so many loo rolls in stock. I doubt if we get more than 5 in an average year, so to grow enough plants in loo rolls for just 1 crop row would take me over 20 years to save up.
Is this why it is so hard to find paper on a roll in Hereford (other than Tesco), see my other topic.
Perhaps you use Epsom Salts to aid production.

Hi Allan,
The War now is over and you are now allowed to use more than two sheets per sitting!! Perhaps I do not suffer from constipation as apparently you do. I do have house guests very frequently I generally amass just over the 100 centres and I feel the average familly with 2.4 chidren will get through considereably more than me. I see you as the odd one out here.

There's only two of us (and Rosie who does use a bit) and we average 5 rolls a week. I have sack fulls of the innards waiting for the spring... I'm worried about you Allan, 5 rolls a YEAR is not normal.

We seem to have a few topics lately that are going, how can I put it, anally retentive, especially this one.
Perhaps Allan you could use the Izal packets as seed trays?

If you can't accumulate sufficient loo rolls, you can get 72 biodegradable pots for a pound in the bargain shops. I use them for carrots, parsnips, sweetcorn - anything that doesn't like root disturbance. Once the seedlings are established, I plant them out, having romoved the bottom of the pot, just in case it doesn't rot down quickly enough and restricts the length.