when to re-seed?

altagarden 6/4/2011, 11:08 pm

It's been 16 days and my carrots have not sprouted. None. A few radishes have, and a quarter of the beets next door. This isn't in Mel's Mix, but in a community garden plot with a soil and compost mix. We had heavy rain after I seeded and cooler temperatures. I noticed carrots were sprouting in other gardens. When do I give up and re-seed?

BackyardBirdGardner 6/4/2011, 11:15 pm

Wait awhile longer. Mel has a table in his book that gives both germination %'s and numbers of days till germination at different temperatures. Grab your copy and look it up, as I don't know the temps where you are right now.

Even if they are a few days past what the book says, don't give up on them. There is no way, imo, that a full square of carrots planted will fail to sprout....unless they are 10 yr old seeds. Just stay patient awhile longer. And, keep the soil moist.

westie42 6/4/2011, 11:21 pm

Anytime I would say. But looking at this chart and another suggests germination time and rate is seriously affected by temps. The heavy rain may also have washed lot of it away. I put two kinds of carrots in 5 gal wicking pails with MM in them. Then put a plastic bag over them for 3 days. A few were sprouting then and now at about 8 days most are up an inch or so. My experimental theory is that the deep loose MM and rich medium will produce nice thick long carrots.I tried to seed about 3/4 inch apart on average and will munch on those that are crowding the bucket. No guarantees but have my hopes for success. Sorry BBG I was composing this while you posted. http://www.heirloomseeds.com/germination.html

Goosegirl 6/5/2011, 8:02 am

altagarden wrote:It's been 16 days and my carrots have not sprouted. None. A few radishes have, and a quarter of the beets next door. This isn't in Mel's Mix, but in a community garden plot with a soil and compost mix. We had heavy rain after I seeded and cooler temperatures. I noticed carrots were sprouting in other gardens. When do I give up and re-seed?

Give 'em a bit more time. Carrots are slow, and some of the varieties I have grown say 14-21 day germination - but my nantes for Carrot Week took 5 weeks! Our weather has been so goofy that these are only about an inch tall and I planted them on 4-17-11. Our weather has taken a turn for summer, (we skipped spring.....:scratch:) and now everything I plant is on a whole NEW schedule! lol!

GG

altagarden 6/5/2011, 11:11 pm

Thanks for the reminding me to be patient, but it does seem like a mystery that not one is up after 19 days.

I checked again today and my spinach is up after 7 days but the carrots are still not up. According to the chart, that puts my soil temp in the last week at 59 F/15 C, which explains why I am still waiting on the beans I planted the same day as the spinach.

Those carrots will get a few more days and then I am reseeding. I can always thin if I get too many.

milaneyjane 6/5/2011, 11:19 pm

My carrots were VERY slow this year.....longer than what you have waited so far. We had an unusually cool spring. Now it all looks great. I would hold out.

altagarden 6/9/2011, 12:00 am

You guys were right! I see a few are up today (or those are weeds, but they look right). Hopefully more will come up soon. The beets were pretty spotty, with lots of empty patches, so I think the rain did wash away a few, but at least some carrots are finally up ... only took 3 weeks in May/June Shocked

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