unsuccessful vegetable update

Three crops have been disappointing - carrots, onions, and broccoli.

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!

Second and third planting

After the first planting, made possible when the soil warmed to 45 degrees, it seemed to take forever for the soil to warm to 50 degrees for the second planting. But then it warmed up to 55 degrees soon after, and I did the two plantings so close together that I decided to write them up in one post.

The second planting included two types of carrots and one type of onion. I chose carrots based on shape - I wanted short, fat, cylinder shaped carrots for easy slicing and dicing rather than cone shaped. I selected scarlet nantes and red core chanterey, both from seeds of change. They are planted in one of the raised lasagna beds. It was difficult getting the soil depth right when planting carrot seeds here, as well as onion seeds. Here are the results, a few weeks after planting.


You can barely see them, but there are a few fern-like carrot types in there. I was pretty satisfied with the germination, but gradually fewer and fewer carrots have been present. I'm not sure if they're dying due to poor soil or weather conditions, or if animals are getting to them. We rabbit-proofed the fence and we never see rabbits in the garden anymore, but we do see crows pretty often. I expected to get over 100 carrots, and right now there are about 10 plants. I would be shocked if any more germinated. The onions are doing about the same, which makes me think that the problem is poor soil. I've read that birds and bugs are repelled by onions, so if critters were the problem, the onions should be doing fine.

Luckily, carrots and onions can be sown again for fall harvest. I will work the soil some more, adding in fertilizer, and I will do some more research about planting, water conditions, temperature, to make sure I'm giving them the best shot.

I don't have photos of onions, because the slim little creatures just don't show up on camera. But I chose two storage-type onions, Newburg (from seeds of change) and Copra (from territorial). It is about time to re-sow onions! Both are open pollinated types.

Then we have broccoli. I chose Arcadia and Comet, both hybrids from territorial. Anytime I chose hybrids, it means there were truly no other options or that as far as I was concerned, there were no other options (see the "first direct seeding" post). Pictured below are the Comets, with at least one seedling in each spot. Success!


Not pictured are the arcadia, which were not so talented. I only got two out of five spots with seedlings for the arcadia. But, they did germinate about a week before the comets. Currently the two arcadia are doing well; the comets, for whatever reason, have fallen to two seedlings as well. An additional suspect: there is a tree hanging over the broccoli and carrot/onion beds. Since those are the only veggies not doing well, I am suspicious that it is providing just enough shade to limit their growth. I'm not sure if that explains why some of them are dying after successful germination...

But again, broccoli is a crop I can do a second sowing of for fall harvest, so I'm not freaking out yet.

I am keeping the broccoli bed weeded with a hoe - I try to get out there pretty frequently and just scrape the soil. It goes quickly and as long as I stay on top of it, the weeds are small enough to be conquered by the hoe.

Finally, I planted the second type of spinach - Bordeaux, another hybrid from territorial. I am disappointed to report that although I initially thought it had germinated, I never saw any plant with true leaves and there is nothing there any more.

Another thought is that I just waited too long. Once the soil warmed enough to plant these, it just got too hot for them. I wonder what would have happened if I had just planted them all when the soil warmed up to 45 degrees? Perhaps the broccoli, carrots, onions, and bordeaux spinach would still not be doing well, but who knows.

A friend who used the lasagna gardening method suggested putting a little seed starting mix in the furrows created for planting. I will probably do this when I try these varieties again in the fall.