Wednesday, April 13, 2011

How Not to Grow a Carrot

This is just a quick update to my kitchen scrap gardening experiment.

I wanted to see if a carrot would regrow from a carrot top if it were placed in potting soil.  I put the potting soil in a newspaper pot to ease the transplant shock from eventually moving it out into the garden and contained the whole thing in a soda bottle greenhouse to keep it moist.  I set it on a sunny windowsill and waited.



I don't think, now, that this is the best way to grow carrots.  While there are some leaves beginning to emerge from the carrot, there are no roots and the the whole thing look and smells bad.  I suspect that the greenhouse is at fault, keeping everything a little too moist.

Time to try something new.

7 comments:

  1. I've been doing this as a project with the kids in one of my classes. The first time was unsuccessful, but this time it's growing (we've also done it with radishes and celery). You'll want a container with good drainage, and lots of sunlight for the leaves. A little root hormone may help as well. I hope you try again!

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  2. Sounds good Kate! I'm currently trying again with another carrot top and an onion bottom suspended in water. I will, of course, post about it when there are conclusive results.

    I haven't heard of anyone doing this with celery before. Let me know more!

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  3. Next time I check on them I'll take some pix. . .

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  4. I'll try that too. If it smells bad, then it shall go to the compost pile.

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  5. Instead of the compost, I stuck it in the garden with the carrots I grew from seed. I figured it couldn't hurt much. Last I checked though it seemed to have disappeared. Maybe the neighbourhood skunk pulled it up? I dunno.

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  6. Hmmm.... I remember my mom said she used to grow carrots like this. She said she'd chop of the tops with tiny sprouts and dig it into soil...
    But I am okay with seeds... [SIGH] I gotta wait at least three months to sow the carrots... So long!

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  7. Thank you for the heads up on carrots.

    I just happened to plant some carrot seeds yesterday (even though I don't know if it's too late), but this is great knowledge to know what not to do.

    Thanks again!

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