How to germinate and grow carrots. Carrots are notoriously difficult to germinate which is why so many people think they're hard to grow. They're not, they're just hard to germinate.
So what's with the picture of the carrot cake? It all ties in to germinating carrots. My former fella's favourite birthday cake was carrot cake with a cream cheese icing. It's what his mother used to make him.
Years ago my plan was to grow all the carrots I needed to make the cake for his birthday. An ambitious plan that went horribly, horribly wrong.
Why?
Carrots are a bitch to germinate. Also, the year I was planning to do this, the fella ran away and I never heard from him again until a week later when I texted him a photo of me pirouetting his things into the dump.
Carrot germination is sporadic at best if you don't take certain precautions. A clump will grow and then nothing else, then a month later a few more might sprout. Or sometimes they just don't sprout at all and you hate them.
You can fix your relationship with germinating carrots. Here's how.
Table of Contents
How to Germinate Carrots
Carrots like 2 things to germinate. Darkness and moisture.
Like mould. Or a yeast infection. If they don't have either of these things even for a day, their germination rate can drop by 50%.
One of the easiest ways to increase your carrot germination rate is to pre-sprout your seeds by "planting" them on a wet paper towel.
- You need squares of cardboard, carrot seeds, and paper towels.
- Place a very damp paper towel on a piece of cardboard (or anything else sturdy, the cardboard is just to keep the seeds stable).
- Place your carrot seeds 2 inches apart across the whole paper towel until it's covered. You'll plant about 20-25 seeds per paper towel.* Since I plant a lot of carrot varieties, I label each board to know what's what.
- Cover with another wet paper towel. Continue doing this with all of your seeds.
- Stack the boards up and place the entire stack in a plastic bag and put it in a dark area.
- Then wait.
- You can also just scatter the hell out of the carrot seeds if you want to go a bit rogue.
How to Germinate Carrots
How to help guarantee germination with carrot seeds.
Materials
- Carrot seeds
- cardboard
- paper towels
- water
- plastic bag
Instructions
- You need squares of cardboard, carrot seeds, and paper towels.
- Place a very damp paper towel on a piece of cardboard (or anything else sturdy).
- Place your carrot seeds 2 inches apart across the whole paper towel until it’s covered. You’ll plant about 20-25 seeds per paper towel. Since I plant a lot of carrot varieties, I label each board to know what’s what.
- Cover with another wet paper towel. Continue doing this with all of your seeds.
- Stack the boards up and place the entire stack in a plastic bag and put it in a dark area.
- Then wait.
In 7 - 10 days you can check to see if anything's going on in there.
As soon as the seeds have germinated and have a tiny root on them you can take the piece of cardboard and paper towel outside. Carefully slip the paper towel off of the cardboard and onto your garden soil. Cover with a scant ¼" or less of compost or vermiculite so the seeds and paper towel don't blow away or get eaten by whatever eats things in your particular garden.
How to Germinate and Grow Carrots in the Field
- Press seeds in wet/damp soil. (you can use your hand or a board and mallet like I am in the photo to press the seeds into the soil) Soil contact is important.
- Cover the rows of seeds with wood boards.
- Lift the boards after a week to see if any action is happening. Once you see seeds sprouting, you can remove the boards and remember to keep the area watered.
Lately, over the past 5 years or so, I've been planting my carrots in the field. One way to improve your carrot germination a lot is to oversow your seeds into wet soil and cover them with boards.
Covering your carrot seeds with boards will keep the seeds in contact with the damp soil, keep them dark AND prevent anything from eating them.
(most people grow them wrong)
When to Plant Carrots
Plant carrot seeds 2-4 weeks before your first frost-free date. This will give you a summer harvest.
Plant carrot seeds 10-12 weeks before your first frost. This will give you a late fall harvest.
This method doesn't give you as good of a germination rate as pre-sprouting, but it's perfectly acceptable.
Remember to oversow! That'll improve your chances at getting a good harvest.
In a couple of months you'll be looking down at a ferny swath of carrots.
No field? No problem.
Grow your carrots in buckets.
A couple of years ago when we were allowed to roam free I toured the University of Guelph's kitchen garden where they grew a lot of their produce in leftover muffin mix buckets. Carrots, tomatoes, corn, okra ... all grown in buckets.
Just remember to drill some drainage holes into the bottom and you have a perfect container for carrots.
That birthday cake for the man that ran away? I still made it. It was the one you saw at the top of the post. I froze a piece of it to eat on the 10th anniversary of my dump run.
This post was originally written 40 billion years ago almost before carrots were invented. It was completely rewritten with new photos for 2021.
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Lois
Love the buckets. That might work for me. I love frothy carrot leaves . . . and carrots . . . and carrot cake. As long as I don't have to grow the cream cheese, I think this might work.
Karen
Hi Lois. I love the buckets full of carrots too! ~ karen
Cheryl Oke
Do you ever use pelleted carrots? I have and if they are kept really damp they germinate like crazy and they have the advantage that one can see the little dickens as one is planting. It is really important, as you have so eloquently pointed out, to keep them damp else the coating will not break and the little dickens will not germinate -- as I found out the hard way. I'm going to try your method or my variation of it for some of them. Carrots are probably my most favouritist vegetable (yes, I know there is no such word - said just in case there is a fussy person out there reading this),
Cheryl Oke
Do you ever use pelleted carrots? I have and if they are kept really damp they germinate like crazy and they have the advantage that one can see the little dickens as one is planting. It is really important, as you have so eloquently pointed out, to keep them damp else the coating will not break and the little dickens will not germinate -- as I found out the hard way. I'm going to try your method or my variation of it for some of them. Carrots are probably my most favourist vegetable (yes, I know there is no such word - said just in case there is a fussy person out there reading this),
Karen
Hi Cheryl! As a general rule I don't like pelleted seeds. I actually find them WAY harder to germinate because of that thick coating that's supposed to make planting easier.🤣 It takes a LOT of water to dissolve it. ~ karen!
Celeste
You, missy, are a freaking genius ... unless you didn't invent this method. Ok, still, you're a freaking genius. I'm hauling out my carrot seeds and going for it TODAY. Thanks.
Vikki
I just want to plant seeds to grow carrot cake. 😋
Susan
This spring I kept it simpler. Instead of using the cardboard, I simply lined transparent food storage containers with paper towels, wet down the towels with a spray bottle, then sprinkled carrot seeds on top of the towels. Then put the lids on the containers. The containers went into my growing room, 70 degrees, with ambient line. Checked the containers daily. The seeds germinated in three days, which wasn't real obvious until I took the containers out in the sun. One variety (Kuroda) was a bit slower and didn't germinate as rapidly as some of the others (Cosmic Purple, Uzbek Golden, Muscade). My Emperator seeds were coated; I do not recommend doing coated seeds this way, because you have to deal with the coatings falling apart. It's far easier to just grab the uncoated naked germinated seed with tweezers.
Today I planted near 12 dozen carrot seed sprouts. Well over 3 hours work, not counting the time to prepare the bed. I hate thinning carrots and disturbing the bed, so keeping my fingers crossed this method will work for me.
Karen
Hi Susan! I actually have taken to just planting directly in the field on damp soil and covering everything with plywood. I check after 4 days or so and if sprouting has started I remove the board. It's works well. And I agree about pelleted seeds. I've never liked them. ~ karen!
A
This is an old article, but I came across it last weekend. I tried this technique and I can touch that in exactly 7 days, 75% of my carrot seeds have sprouted! Thank you for this information!
Susan
I tried this last year. The carrots germinated very well on the cardboard.
Stuck the germinated sprouts in the soil. My fears about the sprouts not knowing which way is down were unfounded. They figured it out.
What I did NOT do and should have done - about a month after planting the sprouts, cover the ground with more soil - maybe half inch to an inch. To ensure the vegetable shoulders don't pop up too soon. Not only was this a problem for my carrots, but also my pre-germinated beets and turnips.
I had some good turnips. Practically no beets. And a few good carrots.
I WILL try the corrective measures this fall.
Lenna
I found this to be the one method that actually works! But I would like to add that when I used cardboard, it dried out the paper towels and prevented my seeds from germinating. However, when I used large plastic container lids as my rigid backing, my seeds germinated in three days! I am not exaggerating! I documented the dates on my seeds when I put them in the dark to germinate. When I checked three days later, they all had germinated! Talk about a little carrot miracle! This will be my new method every year.
Susan
Sounds absolutely brilliant!
It is late July now here in Utah, and am taking some classes on fall planting this weekend.
Here's my carrot attack plan:
Take a 10 x 10 cardboard
Wrap in saran wrap so it won't absorb moisture
Lay paper towel on one side and moisten
Space seeds on the wet towel
Lay more paper towel on top and moisten
Lay another saran wrapped cardboard on top for seed sandwich
Slip the cardboard sandwich into a ziplock one gallon freezer bag
Spritz inside of bag with water and seal
Leave in dark cool room and check periodically
Going to try this with fennel seeds too.
Susan
So far, so good. Got the fennel and the little fingers sprouted and in the ground. About to plant my germinated scarlet nantes. Yay !
Expatriate
Karen,
Cussing and having a sarcastic tone don't make you seem interesting. E.g. "Like mould. Or a yeast infection." It's obvious that you are 1) trying to be funny (which is never funny) 2) by being vulgar. Having now taken a peek at your About page, I see that that attitude is the major theme of your blog, giving it its supposed uniqueness. Honestly, it just comes across as pretentious. Initially I was quite shocked, in fact, after having seen the photo of the potentially elegant woman and then reading her tasteless writings. I recommend rediscovering your dignity and that you stop searching to impress others by vulgarity.
Karen
The hilarity in you describing me as pretentious will not be lost on the readers of this comment section. ~ karen!
Lenna
Wow. I laughed so hard when I read your carrot seed blog that I had to share it with my hubby and daughter. Didn't see pretentious anywhere. And besides, you're the first person to actually help me germinate my carrot seeds successfully! Thank you!! (I don't know...maybe leave out the cuss words??)
TucsonPatty
Karen can do what ever she wants! If someone doesn’t like it, then this is the wrong place. Go start your own blog! Good luck! Sorry to be snippy, Karen, I guess I’m in the mood! I ❤️ ❤️ Karen and I ❤️❤️ TAODS!!!!
The end . Oh, P.S. I have never grown carrots and suspect that I never will, but I absolutely love reading instructions and imagining and hearing about others failures/successes! Too much vicarious fun.
Karen
LOL, Thanks Patty. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go do some pretentious things. Like clean the chicken coop. ~ karen!
TucsonPatty
I totally always thought you were! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
I really don’t know how in the heck I missed this post the first or second time round! (I buy my carrots at the carrot buying store, I eat too many baby carrots for anyone to keep up with in one garden. I’m impressed with the carrot farmers now!!)
Kathleen Donaldson
I could write a book detailing everything that's disturbing about the previous comment. You, however, nailed it in a few words. WELL SAID!
Karen
Thank you. There are many more words I felt like saying, lol. ~ karen!
Tracy K
😂😂😂 I guess she figured out pretty darn quick that she was definitely in the wrong place!!! 🤣 OMG, Karen, I love your humor so much that goes hand in hand with the practical diy tips. I guess that the pretentious sarcastic sailor in me! 😂
Karen
I really don't think the word pretentious means what she thinks it means, lol. ~ karen!
Mart
My carrots sprouted in 4 days, temps between 70 and 90 degrees. I put the cardboard in a plastic container and put water in the bottom so it could wick up thru the cardboard. If you were to put plastic ziplock bag around yours I bet you would see higher germination as well. Remember cardboard will pull water away from your paper towel so one should compensate in some way.
Cheers!
Tania
Oh dear, if too cold is an issue I don't think I will chance leaving my carrots in the ground! Those polar vortex's are brutal!! I picked up some wonderful old wood crates in preparation of storage...and I luckily have a dad with a big cold room to leave the veggies in :)
Thanks
Tania
Tania
Hi Karen,
As a first time vegetable gardener, I am LOVING your blog!! I'm not realized the fight for the carrot is real!!! After a pretty unsuccessful first attempt at seeding, I'm now trying your germinating method. Living in SW Ontario, I'm hoping it's not too late :) A have a couple questions though! First is when you move the carrots into the ground, do you leave the top and bottom layers of paper towel, or just the bottom layer? And second question is about leaving them in the ground over-winter....I believe you are a Canadian girl as well but I just wanted to make sure I could leave them in there with our climate.
Thanks so much!!
Tania
Karen
Hi Tania! I'm not only Canadian I'm a South Western Ontario Canadian. Just leave both the paper towels. I've had both good luck and bad luck leaving carrots in the ground over winter. It depends on a) how cold it is and b) how much snow there is. The more snow the better because it acts as a great insulator. THIS is how I store my root vegetables and it works absolutely great! You'll have carrots all the way into March or April. ~ karen!
Amanda
Hi there , might be a stupid question but do you put the paper towel into the ground as well ?
Karen
Not a stupid question Amanda. And yes. You just put the whole sheet in the ground. And remember to keep it watered! Dryness is the carrot seeds enemy. Well that and blowing your nose with them. ;) ~ karen!
doug
Why is there no update on how this all turned out. I can not seem to grow a carrot because of sprouting issues...
Karen
Hi Doug. The carrot sprouted fine, but it's still more work than just overseeding. I was too cheap to overseed but now I've decided it's worth it. If you can't get carrots to germinate a) make sure your soil is nice and damp b) put a board over the carrot seeds as soon as you plant them. This helps keep the soil moist which is more important for carrots than for any other seed and it keeps them dark which they also like. Lift the board after a week or so to see if the seeds have sprouted. If they're just started to sprout, remove the board and keep the soil damp until they're well on their way to growing. Once they get their first set of true leaves or so they're pretty strong and can take care of themselves. ~ karen!
K
This is extremely helpful! We're getting our school garden ready for the spring and carrots are the most popular request.
Also, please please please ditch the "Subscribe!" pop-up. It's very annoying and it really turns me off of actually subscribing.
Karen
Hi K. Glad you find it helpful. Overseeding also works well. Sorry, can't get rid of the subscribe popup. Since I installed it 3 months ago my subscription rate has gone up by the thousands, and since this is my business I have to do what makes the most business sense. It only pops up once (on your first visit here ... so I'm guessing that's the case for you), and then again once a month after that. ~ karen!
Craig
I use this method to germinate most seeds. Adding some hydrogen peroxide to your water before wetting the towels will kill bacteria and mold which helps germination rates. I lay them in a Pyrex dish and keep them someplace warm and cover it with plastic wrap and check them every 24 hours.
chosen
i don't really know what to do about my carrot
seeds .i have planted in my garden
two consecutive times but no hope of germination. what do i do?
chosen
i don't really know what to do about my carrot seeds .i have planted in my two consecutive times but no hope of germination. what do i do?