The carrots seemed to have a high germination rate, but very few grew to be seedlings - maybe 10 instead of the 200 or so I was expecting. The ones that made it past seedling stage seemed to do well, but I harvested a couple of them and they tasted really bad. I think the problem was the soil - I did an unsupported raised bed and through some combination of wind and rain, the bed spread out until it was only a few inches off the ground. This exposed the top of the root.
The onions also seemed to have a high germination rate, but even fewer grew to be seedlings and none of them grew past that stage.
I planted two types of broccoli, with mixed results. The arcadia didn't germinate well (40%) but those that germinated grew well. The Thompson germinated well (100%) but only two survived past the seedling stage. The problem here seems to be more about timing - we had such a long spring that by the time the soil was warm enough for broccoli germination, it quickly got too hot for broccoli to flower. My plants are still growing strong, just not producing anything edible. See, they are huge!
Arcadia broccoli plant
I thought I would be able to do a second planting of all three crops for fall harvest, but after doing a bit more research about the soil needs of carrots, onions, and broccoli it turns out that is not the case for onions. Theoretically you could, because they take about four months to mature, but they don't germinate well in hot temperatures and they don't dry well in cold temperatures. Oh well, I will try again next year. Carrots and broccoli take a little more than two months to mature, so I will plant them soon. I'm planting carrots in the potato bed and broccoli in the old carrot bed, since the broccoli did reasonably well in that shady spot. My spouse tilled the potato bed so that it would be nice and soft for carrots - now I just need to fertilize the soil and stick the seeds in the ground!
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