How do you propagate carrots? Are they propagated from seeds or top cuttings? Besides buying the seeds, can we get the seeds from our planted carrot plants or from the carrot flower?
You can get the seeds from your carrot after it seeds out. If it is a hybrid then you really don't know what you will get.
For fun you can cut the top off a carrot, place it in a small bowl lined with pebbles add water to just cover the pebbles. The top will sprout greenery and roots, however it will take a long time to grow a carrot from this. Best is to start from seeds.
When I grow carrots, they grow with deformity and the same applies with parsnips. Can you advise me what the problems are?
Root vegetables, like carrots and parsnips, grow best in loamy/sandy soil that is loose. The reason for most deformed root vegetables is that the soil is hard to grow through and they compact or misshape as they grow as a result.
Amend your soil with plenty of organic material and, as long as it is not clay soil, some sand. This will help your carrots grow long and straight and your parsnips round and full.
Also, with any root vegetable, bone meal added to the soil will help with production. Bone meal adds phosphorous, which helps roots (and therefore root vegetables) grow better.
Is it true that carrot seeds need sunlight before they will germinate? The planting method goes like this: Sow seeds in a shallow trench. Water the seeds with a sprinkler. Wait 24 hours (this meets the light requirement) and cover with a 1/4 in. to 1/2 inch of soil.
While some kinds of plants do need light to germinate, carrots are not among them. They will germinate fine with or without light.
Can you eat carrots after they been in the garden all winter? Some are hard and seem ok.
Yes, you can eat them. This is actually an old fashioned way to keep carrots for the winter.
I'm looking for advice on how to grow larger veggies in my upper New York state organic garden. I heavily composted last year, and still had fairly small carrots, peppers, and lettuce. Would side dressings of bone meal help? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
It really depends on the plant. If you are eating roots or fruit, phosphorus will help, and if you are eating leaves, nitrogen will help. Potassium is also important for large growth, though scientists are not sure why. As always, make sure you have tested your soil to see what might be missing.
I'm looking for information concerning crop yields per square foot for baby carrots and nugget potatoes (and possibly several types of onions). I want to grow large quantities and would like to know how big of a plot I'll need. Also, tips for growing these vegetables would be appreciated. I live in New West BC, have lots of space and varied types of soil.
I am afraid I do not have information on crop yields for these plants, but you may find these articles interesting in regards of tips:
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-9.html
https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/smallacreage/crops-guides/vegtables/onions/
This is my first garden in TX, and I live by the bay. Even adding compost did not loosen the soil enough. I have a raised bed I can put them in.
You can try, but normally carrots do not transplant well. They germinate so quickly though, that if I were you, I would just plant new seeds.