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Vegetable Gardening

What is happening to my carrot seedlings???

13 years ago

I planted pelletized carrot seeds and they all came up beautifully... I could see entire rows of teeny hairlike baby leaves. Then one day -bam!- entire sections of the rows were just GONE.

This happened last year, too. But we had that long, cool, rainy spring and I thought maybe it was damping off or something. This spring's weather has been perfect seed-starting weather.

Could it be too much watering or not enough? (Though why that would affect only chunks of the bed, not the whole bed, I don't know.) or slugs?????

I'm very discouraged.Now need to reseed some areas. Any advice appreciated!!

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Comments (7)

bsntech
13 years ago
I've had a similar problem with my carrots this year as well. The carrots came up very well. After they got a little larger and started to put on their true leaves, I noticed a lot of them had fallen over.

I just figured this was from the rain and they would prop themselves back up.

Nope. It seems that right at the soil line, it looks as though the stems are pinched - but still intact. In other cases, they have completely fallen off.

I had over 350 carrots that came up. I bet I'm down to only around 150 - 200 now.

Here is a link that might be useful: BsnTech Gardening Blog
Stacey Collins
Original Author
13 years ago
I think that sounds like damping off, from my recollection. Mine are totally gone--- no leaves left at all. it's a frustrating mystery!
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Try soil solarization. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_solarization http://solar.uckac.edu/new_page1.htm I did this last summer when preparing a spinach bed for fall planting and it really helped reduce the weeds dramatically. I plan to do it to my carrot beds in July this summer before planting my fall carrots in August. The basic idea is that you soak the soil with water when you are expecting lots of hot weather (June, July, August.) Then you cover the area tightly with transparent plastic sheeting. The sun shines through and the soil gets very hot and kills all weed seeds and soil diseases. Another approach is to get your carrot bed ready to plant (tilled, fertilized, etc.) then water the bed and wait a few days for weed seeds to germinate. Then you hoe or till at a very shallow depth to kill those tiny weed seedlings. Then water it again and wait a few more days for more seedlings to germinate and once again shallow till/hoe. After this there should be very few weed seeds left to germinate. Now plant your carrot seeds and they should germinate with far fewer seeds. This is called stale seed bed technique. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weed_control#.22Stale_seed_bed.22_technique Solarization is more effective but generally takes longer if you follow the recommended solarization times and it also requires buying enough clear sheet plastic to cover the area you want to solarize. - Steve
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I really love the color of that first one. SA x LOH is very pretty too with the lighter colored sepals and the midribs. Have to confess to making some unlikely crosses myself and for the same reason you gave. This years Pink Lemonade Party x Shamrock Shore cross should be amusing. Your pics have me chomping at the bit to see what shows up in the seedling bed here this year. Linda
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Look underneath the container for our enemy de slug he will eat all the tasty tender seedlings leaves you so thoughtfully provided. Found little slugs under the cells of my seedlings and missing leaves. So take a peek and see if some are hiding. George
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digdirt2
13 years ago
Gone completely or are the wilted dead tops laying there? If it is damp-off then the tops would be laying there. If it was cut worms the tops would be laying there. But if they gone completely then it is either birds - they love them for nests and crows will eat them pulled right out of the soil - or rabbits or one of the other garden invaders that ate them.

Dave
milehighgirl
13 years ago
Could it be bunnies or birds?

Here is a link that might be useful: Finally caught the culprits eating my peas!
Stacey Collins
Original Author
13 years ago
Gone completely. We don't have rabbits around here, so maybe birds?! You guys don't think it's slugs, though? I know we have a big slug problem here....
bsntech
13 years ago
Mine is most likely damping off - however I'm in shock that it still happened to the carrots. I guess it is possible though.

I have deer netting around the carrot bed - so I know there aren't any animals that caused it.

{{gwi:49353}}

Here is a link that might be useful: BsnTech Gardening Blog
livelydirt
7 years ago
It's DEW WORMS. I had the same problem for several years. I'm on my third planting this year. Finally figured it out. My carrot bed is 4' X 25'. Picked 70 big worms one night. I knew I had missed lots, so next day I decided to use technology. I made two probes out of coat hangers, wired one to the black wire of an old extension cord and the other to the white wire. I stuck them in the ground about two feet apart... And the worms came dancing out. Almost 1,000. No BS . After five days I still have carrot seedlings. Use at your own risk. Leave plugged in for a few minutes, then unplug and pick worms. After a while I got brave and started picking with the power on. Just be sure to unplug before you grab a probe to move it. Works better if the ground is very wet.

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