I think that you hit the nail on the head. Gardeners think that they have poor germination with carrots whilst the biggest culprit is slugs who can hover up a full row in one night. I generally do not have much problem with carrot germination I may have to reseed the odd bit but nothing too drastic but I do put slug pellets down as soon as I have set the seeds. I grow 6 rows under mesh which is so tall I can get in to weed or thin out. I now only grow Sugarsnak variety as they are our favourite. Up until this year I grew some Mercurio which were pelleted seeds but I found the ants were moving the seeds all over the place but they did not bother ordinary seeds. The biggest problem that I have with Sugarsank is digging them up in a confined space as they are such a long carrot. Back to the question I have within the last week set another half row of beetroot and 2 half rows of spring onions both lots of seeds I have chitted which gives them a bit of a start and it deters the ants from moving the seeds.
I took your advice (as I always do) and bought some dwarf broad beans (The Sutton), tumbling tomatoes (Cherry Falls) and radish (French Breakfast 3).
I have some spare containers that are 6 inches deep. Are these deep enough to grow the tomatoes and radish in? Perhaps even the dward broad beans?
Also - just to clarify - I dont need to build a cane tripod for the dwarf beans?
As it happens - a few days ago I raised the netting a few inches above my carrot sowings and it seems a lot more are coming up. So either the slugs have moved on, or they were perhaps eating the seedlings through the netting.
The 6 inch deep containers would be fine for baby salad leaves - doesn't have to be lettuce, you can use beet (I don't like the roots, just the leaves for salad) spinach beet, chard, rocket etc.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
If you bought tomato plants now you could just about get a couple of trusses ripe by the end of the season @tuffnelljohn , especially if they were cherry tomatoes, but they need at least 12" of soil depth . Seeds need planting inside in April, ready to plant outside end of May 🙂
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Back to the question I have within the last week set another half row of beetroot and 2 half rows of spring onions both lots of seeds I have chitted which gives them a bit of a start and it deters the ants from moving the seeds.
I took your advice (as I always do) and bought some dwarf broad beans (The Sutton), tumbling tomatoes (Cherry Falls) and radish (French Breakfast 3).
I have some spare containers that are 6 inches deep. Are these deep enough to grow the tomatoes and radish in? Perhaps even the dward broad beans?
Also - just to clarify - I dont need to build a cane tripod for the dwarf beans?
As it happens - a few days ago I raised the netting a few inches above my carrot sowings and it seems a lot more are coming up. So either the slugs have moved on, or they were perhaps eating the seedlings through the netting.
Broad beans don't climb ... no canes need be involved.
They need deeper containers than 6". Can they not go in the ground?
However 6" will be fine for radish.
I think you're too late to sow tomatoes this year.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Ill put the broad beans in the spaces where the carrots were/should be.
Ill grow the radish in the new planters I bought yesterday where the tomatoes were meant to be going.