Growing Carrots from DIY Seed Tape

I have tried and failed at times with growing carrots. Little seeds are tough to get a good start in really cloddy clay soil like we have had at times in our gardens.

One thing that worked was sprinkling a lot of seed on my patch where I wanted carrots and then covering the area with wet burlap bags. The bags kept the seeds damp and dark until they sprouted. Once they began to grow, you carefully pull the burlap back and leave the carrot seedlings to grow. Once up a few inches tall thin them to the desired space apart.

Planting carrots is easier for me now, because I put in raised beds a few years ago with the square foot gardening 'soil' in them. I get nice smooth planting surfaces now. So I adopted a method that doesn't use tons of seeds.  It works quite well.

I took a class by the local university Extension office about how to get kids interested in gardening. They taught us to use paper towels as a base for seeds for square foot gardens. It was awesome.

With carrots I went with toilet paper squares, but it is the same concept.

First, roll out a strip of toilet paper the length you need for where you are planting. I used three foot strips for the edges of my deep bed.

Using regular school glue - water soluble - put dots on your tp squares an inch in from each corner. Then I followed with a row halfway between the dots and all along the middle so that my dots were about 2 1/2 inches apart and staggered. I harvest my carrots quite small. If you raise big carrots, leave out the middle row.

Then while the glue is wet, carefully put a carrot seed into each glue dot. Let the glue dry and you have a seed tape.

To plant, smooth out an area the size of your tape in the garden, depressing it just a little. Put the seed tape in the depression and cover with an eighth to a quarter inch of soil. Keep well watered. Carrots are slow sprouters, so be patient. And keep them moist. Did I mention that? It is really important not to let them dry out.