Transplanting Carrots and Garbage Planters

Nearly anyone you ask will tell you: “Sow carrot seeds directly into the garden. You can’t transplant them.” Nearly anyone, but not everyone. For example, in John Jeavons’ book, How to Grow More Vegetables…, he encourages the reader to plant carrot seed indoors and transplant them outdoors some weeks later. He comments in another book– the name of which I am too lazy to look up, that “some skill is needed… to obtain well-shaped carrots.”

Like… what, exactly? I know that people often comment that transplanted carrots almost always fork. They’re still totally edible, but they look like a pair of pants rather than your standard carrot.

I decided to find out. I started a whole bunch of mokum hybrid carrots (Territorial Seed) the way I start most things: a little 3.5″x6″ or so flat filled with whatever seed starting mix I have on hand over a seed starting heating pad.

Several days later, I had far too many carrot seedlings– most of which were just starting to put out their first set of true leaves.

To avoid as much incidental bifurcation as I could, I decided to go with what’s known in the square foot gardening world as “Mel’s mix” for the growing medium. It’s just vermiculite, peat, and fine compost. Therefore, there are no rocks or compaction issues to deal with. Any forking would likely be a result of the transplant.

I also built another of my not-exactly-patented “pallet planters” for this test. This time, I used some leftover cedar fence boards that have been lying around and a wood pallet that my neighbor had leaning up against his garage and fashioned a 3′x4′ (or so) by 18″ deep (or so) planter. The last part was to line the bottom with some leftover Agribon row cover that had seen better days.

Turns out that something like that takes a lot of Mel’s mix to fill it up. Luckily, I had plenty of compost lying around. I just had to buy bags of vermiculite and peat at Concentrates.

OK, now, I probably should have done some photojournalism here, but… I was dirty. You think I’m going to get slop all over my nice camera just to demonstrate what a seedling looks like, you’ve got another thing coming.

Anyway, as gently as I could (which, in truth, is not terribly gently because I’m a clumsy ape with big fingers), I dumped out the seedlings and one-by-one, pulled off about 75 making sure that they had intact tap roots with decent feeders. The tap roots were all about 2″ long. Some had reached the bottom and so were a little curled.

After wetting down the planter a bit, I stuck my big, clodhopper finger into the mix to make a nice big hole, used a stick to help guide the tap root in straight, and them firmed up the soil-like-substance around the seedling.

Oh, fine, I’ll go take a picture… the things I do for you people.

Fascinating Picture of Carrot Seedlings

That picture made my wife laugh.  It only proves that, in fact, I did plant something, and it’s a dicot.  Well, since I was out there anyway, I took one of the pallet planter, which I now trademark as… Pal-it Plant’r™– so don’t try it.

Pal-it Plant'r™

Note it’s value-added boxiness.  All that stuff wasn’t a box before.  Now it is!  Note our advanced “Pal-it Growth Medium Soyl-Lok™” functionality (i.e., the dirt stays inside the box).  Take a moment to appreciate the cost of its construction: $0.

Here’s another one fashioned from high-end leftover wood flooring. The finish may be toxic as all get out, but since I don’t know… let’s say it’s not.  For what it’s worth, the box said it was completely non-toxic, but then, They probably said thalidomide was an awesome way to relax back in the day.

The Pal-it Plant'r Executive™

This is our higher end model.  Please take a moment to savor the “Pal-it Green Enviro Freedom SustainaWood™” construction (i.e., bamboo).  This one’s also filled with vermiculite/peat/compost blend, which, I hasten to add, I am only testing and not endorsing.  It’s entirely possible that nothing will grow in it, or I’ll develop diabetes from eating what comes out of there.  Still, thought I’d try it out for my increasing interest in container gardening because of the relative portability.  I have some great sunny spots in my yard, but they’ll either be shaded out as tree mature, or there’s only enough room for a couple of pots.  Containers allow me to take advantage of that space while the getting is good.

Finally, long time readers, of which there are… three, I think, may remember my intricately designed cold-frame experiment of a couple of years ago– pre-lost-everything-on-my-blog-disk-disaster.  Anyway, much like the henhouse, it ended up weighing 1800 pounds and pretty much sucking at its original intended purpose.  Since that time, it’s been holding firewood near the back door.

I got to thinking that, instead of using it to harden off plants in pots, I could actually fill the thing with dirt and use it as a permanent cold frame for actually growing stuff.  That’d address the cruddy insulation, and if I just install it on a bed and leave it oriented towards the sun, I can take the top off in the summer and put it back in the winter to grow lettuce or what-not.

Ye Olde Colde Frayme

I think, if I fill it most of the way with soil, it’ll leave enough headroom to overwinter some greens or whatever while helping to keep the inside better insulated (less air space and uninsulated wall to keep heated).  The whole thing is made out of copper treated lumber (yes!  toxic!) and cedar.  It’ll likely last quite a few years even exposed to the ground.  Well, it’s been exposed to the ground for the last couple of years and seems no worse for wear.  We shall see.

I should make a note here that I’ve started to feed my chickens entire heads of lettuce, mizuna, and arugula that are starting to bolt.  They get deluxe salads every day.  Also, if I ever say that I’m going to plant pak choi again, someone slap me.  As much as I like growing things that people (in this case, my sis-in-law) enjoy eating, that plant could put a person off gardening with its susceptibility to pestilence and tendency to bolt at the slightest provocation.  I don’t need that kind of stress.

Erm, and also, I’m starting to harden off the warm weather plants– some are just getting day/night trips out for exposure, and some tomatoes are planted out in their beds with mini-hoophouses over them.  They’re clearly not too thrilled about the new arrangement.  I’ve also sacrificed a few melons and squash to the gods of cold nights just to see what happens.  I’ve got spares in the greenhouse.