I live in southern Ohio and you have no idea of how much you have helped me with my gardening. THANKS so much .

Very good! Thanks for taking time to do this & Share your findings! Jeff in N.E. OK

A heartfelt salute to your diligence, my friend! Your videos are a product of the hard work and effort you consistently put into your craft. And it's an honor to have you visit our channel, we can discuss more about our experiences in harvesting and building farms.

One thing about the board method that I think puts it above the others is that I can water without disturbing the seeds by leaving the board there. I water on and around the board, soaking the soil. Prior to sowing, I soaked the soil thoroughly before I put my furrow in, sow seeds, and put the board down. Carrot seeds are so tiny it's easy to wash them away, unroot them, or have them all collect in a low part of the trench. I also covered them with row cover over hoops to protect them from all the critters that would eat them including birds, rodents, and carrot root fly.

I have always started my carrots by laying down two sheets of shade cloth and removing it as soon as they have spouted making sure the ground doesn''t dry out . They are usually up and going by day five. Love your channel Jenna.

I liked using burlap. It retains moisture. The only thing is don’t let them grow into the fabric or they may pull up when checking. I’ve also used a piece of vinyl siding and weight down the ends or it blows away. My best crop ever. I changed several procedures. Used burlap to germinate, installed drip irrigation later this year because of drought, changed varieties to Nantes and imperators And spaced them out more. I did also make sure the bed was fluffy. These were all big changes. I think past varieties were those shorter carrots. They need plenty of water and I did thin and could be a bit more aggressive next year as this stopped all the obscene twisting of the roots.😊. The sun is more intense and some light shade can help many vegetables. I also learned I CAN GROW BEETS AND RADISHES!! in Shade! I had 40% shade fabric for another crop and planted radishes in the shade. Well Hello! I had the best crop! Beets that I just let grow on the side never thinking they would do anything also surprised me! I planted broccoli next to them with bug netting that gives about a 3 shade factor and when I harvested the broc. was I ever Surprised-they were Huge! The irrigation helped a bit but never really reached the beets, however, they were in the shade of broccoli and netting. I struggled for YEARS at this location to get beets, radishes and carrots to bulb up! This year I had a huge success with them and rutabagas that I spaced about 6” apart-they are Huge also and not woody😊. I always thought it was the soil and happily it is not as I’ve thrown everything I can at it. It’s just so hot in this microclimate and sandy and so happy I figured this all out. So water water water deep, mulch, use shade fabric when needed, thin. Z5a, WI. Lol, I gave up on lettuce because the baby rabbits got inside garden as I don’t have chicken wire all around 2x4 wire fencing yet. They ate peas and some beets also. New to me voles this year also and hopefully we got them all.

My method of summer sowing is planting the seeds densely in rows and covering the rows with a light layer of finely chopped straw. Straw seems to keep the moisture in pretty well and the carrots are unobstructed when germinating if it's chopped fine enough. I typically plant fall carrots July 15 to August 1st here in New Hampshire.

Thanks for doing these experiments! We use the board method because it has worked for many years but it’s nice to see it validated against other methods!

I did comment on your earlier carrot sowing video. I usually plant French breakfast radish seeds in my rows of carrots. They mature before the carrots get very large and help with the carrot spacing. I usually use the cornstarch slurry method but after seeing your results I may try something different. I do sometimes use a board over the cornstarch slurry seeds as well but if you have slugs in your area they tend to hide under the board and eat some of the carrot seedlings. I like the shade cloth because it would help protect from birds and insects as well as excessive heat.

It is basically that kind of weather here now! (CentralTexas, Sept 16, 2023) I am going to start carrots next week

My FAVORITE type of video!! Trials! Thank you so much!

Great info, thanks.

love these test trial

Very interesting!

Thank you, Jenna! This was great! Carrots have been the bane of my existence lately! I planted some this spring, as I always do, and maybe 2 came up! But I direct-sowed some for my fall garden, and they are coming quite nicely! I will try at least one of your ideas in the spring.

Great info Jenna. Thank you for doing this.

Bravo! Great information.

Thank you very much for the detailed and scientific testing

I always enjoy seeing your trials. You always give a full account of your process and the outcome. Take care!

Love the experiments. Very transferable and useful knowledge.

Thank you for your wonderful videos. You motivated me to try carrots again. Love you!

You have good ideas

I sowed carrots in early August for an autumn harvest and they’re growing tall! I’m hoping to harvest them for thanksgiving 😊

I was a little late getting my fall carrots planted as I am in Ohio 6a. I direct sowed them on Sept. 1. I was concerned how long it would take them to come up but I was shocked to see them emerge in just 4-5 days. I don't know if that is because I soaked the ground really good before I put the seed in and then lightly watered after or if it was the weather but I was happy. I used some seed tape for part and some seeds for another part. Both were in raised beds. Both came up on day 4 and 5. Now if I can keep these lousy squirrels from digging in there all will be good. Thanks so much for all of your videos.

Hi Jenna! Enjoying your channel! Interesting to see the different carrot sowing methods! I have never tried a summer sowing but may try it this year! Where did you get your shade cloth?

Awesome test 👍 I will have to try the board method. I did the control type and just watered everyday.

Very useful information for me. Thanks 😊 I only use direct sowing metod in the spring. I will try for sure next year some summer carrots, maybe the shade cloth metode 😊

Yeah, I do the board. After 3 years I have finally misdeeds myself thin to reasonable spacing. The July sown seeds did well,but I daily watered.

I did the board and then shade cloth in July and my carrots look great. I used different varieties so germination didn’t happen simultaneously which affected when I could take the board off, resulting in some becoming leggy. Then I did shade to sort of harden them off. I also have a food grade soaker hose running through the bed so I could water while the board was on and now enables me to water deeply for nice roots. I did get concerned with the bugs under the board (pill bugs and millipedes) that they would want to eat the tender emerging cotyledons. Actually remembering now I did double shade cloth at first and removed layers as the seedlings hardened off. I appreciate your informative videos!

Anything that stops the carrot fly. This year I tried raised containers and had wonderful success. I used the board method with cardboard.

I planted pelletized carrot seed in mid August and used a board to cover them. I watered almost daily for the first 2-3 weeks after planting as it was hot and dry. I had good germination overall, but also had a critter eat some of the sprouts. I like the idea of using shade cloth for the late summer sowing of carrots.

Cardboard works just as well

A strip of corrugated cardboard with a few small rocks/pebbles on top (to keep it in place) works the same as a board.

I'm going to make a tool to help thinning the tiny seeds type of seedings that we always need to do, and the older we get, the harder the thinning out becomes. I'm having super germination for them tiny seeds, I'm using felt fabric much as Burlap, and 4 planting a few weeks apart did super each time. Thanks, Lady Gardener

Will try the board method If you walk on decking boards in the summer they feel cool even if it's hot outside 🤔

Call it dumb luck on my part, never grew carrots before. I put in a 6 foot row of seed, watered it once or twice. After 10 days, started seeing it poke thru the soil. Now it's a good 6 to 8" growth, have no idea what I did or didn't do. lol. I also have a nice vole population, so hopefully it comes in before they find it.

At 1:04 you were pulling some wonderful size carrots, yet the greens were minimal. Why not much green growth? You are a great gardener and a super great teacher.

Hello Jenna, I was wondering where you got the tool you were using. It looks like a great weeding tool.

How do you think the cornstarch method would work WITH the shade cloth or board? Thanks!! So enjoy your informative videos!!

Great info, Jenna! Do you over-winter carrots in a raised bed like this and just harvest as needed?

I'm going to try the board method. I'm in Florida Zone 10a and still not sure when to start planting the seeds. It's still in the 90's, yet we're supposed to have a very cold wet winter starting February. Jènna, what's your thoughts on when I should start the carrots. Thank you so much.

That's an awesome experiment. Thanks for that. My summer carrot sowing did great under shade cloth this year. As you, we had cooler than normal temps in August so that helped I think. Do you have any problem with white flies in your Ohio garden? They seem to come around every year in August here now and stick around sucking the sap from my plants until it gets cold enough to kill them. I tried Neem to treat them but doesn't seem to help much. Think surround would work?

Dear Jemma, Thanks for this scientific video. In the morass of all of the videos out there, do your think the encapsulated seeds are worth the added cost in the early spring? I will definitely be using the board method of early August plantings of carrots. Kind Regards. Craig

My spring carrots germinated well but many are going to see now. I assume the shear volume of rain we had, plus the widely fluctuating temperatures have stressed them. Going to try more succession sowing next year. My midsummer carrots are doing well and should be of picking size towards the end of the month.

Timely video for me as carrots are one of the few things I can eat without limitations and about 95 percent of the feral bunnies are gone. (RHD outbreak I believe) They loved to eat the greens of our carrots so I suspect that is what happened to yours. Get yourself an inexpensive webcam with night mode capabilities and see what is hopping around your garden at night. :)

I am not sure why you didn't include the pelleted seeds, since you are concerned about spacing. We all know how pricey they are, though. But it would be interesting to see if they give you the spacing results you are looking for with the board method or shade cloth....any all others.

I only ever grow two carrots at any one time. Plant ten seeds, pick the two strongest ones to grow to maturity.

Hi Jenna! Intressting.. What is the name of the Carrot seeds? Helene in Sweden

I did the "Cheap" toilet paper method and had pre germination success! I'm interested to see the harvest result. The board method has worked well for me too. 😊

What about getting parsnips to germ?? I planted over a hundred seeds and I got ONE to germinate?!

I've been wanting to try this for some time now. I believe I have solved the dredded carrot seed delima. Take the guts out of a ball point pen and load it with seed and tap the seed out the end as you move along the furrow. The hole in the small end is key, the hole needs to be about 1/8" perhaps a tad bigger. Need to experiment around with this. Instead of dropping 4 or 5 seeds, it is reduced to 1 or 2 per tap, sometimes 3. To load the tube, fold the flap back and crease the non flap,(the back side of the envelope) and tap them into the tube over paper so you can put the spillage back into the envelope. Try it on the kitchen table, let me know what you think. All the best! Scott

I put my carrots in 9/1. Do you all think that was too late?? 😅