I started to harvest some carrots - looking very crowded - and discovered at least half of them were Queen Anne Lace. Both plants were hopelessly intermingled. I think I must have got a batch of very impure seed. If my records are right (not always the case) they came from my favourite supplier - very disappointing. I won't say the name in case I'm wrong.
I stopped saving carrot seed long ago because there's a lot of QAL around here and I believe they cross readily. Strangely at the time all my saved seed had grown out pure.
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- rainbowgardener
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if I remember correctly, carrots are developed from QAL, so even tho the parents of your seeds were carrots, the seeds might have produced "throw backs" , and you got QAL. that's why carrots is one thing I do not save seeds from....uuhhh...actually, I gave up on growing carrots. my soil is not good for them. every time I tried, they came out short, bent, and multi forked. just not worth the effort, especially when I can buy them as cheaply as I can($0.50/lb).
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Like you xtron, I've had my share of short, bent & multi-forked roots; but when I manage to give them deep loose soil I get nice carrots that make the grocery store specimens seem tasteless. If you wanted, it might be possible for you to do that in containers/tubs of carefully selected or conditioned soil?
It's an interesting point you make about whether it's worth the effort (& space) to raise things that are cheap in the stores. I feel that way about corn. I'm ambivalent about potatoes, but will never again bother with chickpeas - tangled rambling plants with only one pea in every pod. To each his (her!) own I guess. Wonder which crops other readers would rather buy than grow.
I don't think it's normal to get throwback wild carrots with seed from reputable growers. Even the couple of times I saved my own seed I never had the problem, although I guess I was just lucky they hadn't crossed with wild plants.
It's an interesting point you make about whether it's worth the effort (& space) to raise things that are cheap in the stores. I feel that way about corn. I'm ambivalent about potatoes, but will never again bother with chickpeas - tangled rambling plants with only one pea in every pod. To each his (her!) own I guess. Wonder which crops other readers would rather buy than grow.
I don't think it's normal to get throwback wild carrots with seed from reputable growers. Even the couple of times I saved my own seed I never had the problem, although I guess I was just lucky they hadn't crossed with wild plants.
saving money is a side benefit for me. I started growing my own because of all the food recalls that were being issued a few years ago. if I grow it myself, I don't have to wonder if jose washed his hands after going to the bathroom before he picked the veggies I am buying.
I don't have to wonder what farmer john sprayed to control what bug, or weed, or to make it bigger.
if I grow it, I know what has been put in it, on it, and how it has been handled and processed.
but most importantly, I just plain love gardening.
is it worth it??
I can think of lots of worse ways to spend my time, so HELL YEA it's worth it.
I don't have to wonder what farmer john sprayed to control what bug, or weed, or to make it bigger.
if I grow it, I know what has been put in it, on it, and how it has been handled and processed.
but most importantly, I just plain love gardening.
is it worth it??
I can think of lots of worse ways to spend my time, so HELL YEA it's worth it.
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So now I'm thinking of growing my own carrot seed. I did it successfully once before. I didn't know then that Queen Anne Lace would cross with carrot - so it didn't! Ignorance is bliss.
There's lots of QAL here so isolation by distance is out of the question. If I read things right, bagging a flowering plant - or, better, 2 together - should get me viable seed?
On another thought, would it be possible to arrange for the carrot to be flowering when QAL is not? (IF there ever is such a time!)
There's lots of QAL here so isolation by distance is out of the question. If I read things right, bagging a flowering plant - or, better, 2 together - should get me viable seed?
On another thought, would it be possible to arrange for the carrot to be flowering when QAL is not? (IF there ever is such a time!)