Quite disheartening, but a lesson learnt. I bought a load of carrot seed from a nearby garden centre that had a 2009 expiry date, for about 50p per pack. That was planted out about a month ago, along with some ‘purple’ carrot seed from last year. I know that parsnip seed doesn’t last any longer than the year produced in, but i didn’t know it was the same with carrot seed.
Of the 7 ‘metre and a half’ rows i planted, i had about 7 seedlings appear. After the slugs had attacked them, i was left with 3. Hmmm.
I decided to turn the soil over and plant some more. I decided on Early Nantes 2, and planted them quite close to allow for thinning. We’ll see!
The parsnips – which i bought new seed for – are going great guns, as are the radish which are planted in between the parsnip.
April 25th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
I am naturally optimistic when it comes to planting and most of my carrot seed is past its expiry date but still does OK. You may just have been unlucky.
However, I was equally tight with my parsnip seed purchase and, yes, the need for fresh seeds have been borne out there…
April 25th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
I thought a 2009 sow by date would be ok with carrots. Hope you do better with your 2nd sowing.
May 9th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
[...] hearing about others having issues, we thought we’d try out luck with carrots in one of the raised beds. So far they seem to be [...]