Carrot seedling one month after sowing.

The carrot trial plots for the Really Wild Veg project were sown on 22nd April this year. Carrots can be notoriously slow to germinate and we have found that the wild carrot seeds have been much slower than the domesticated carrots. After a month in the ground the germination was still very poor for the wild plant. These trials are all about seeing what differences exist between crops and their wild relatives. Differences in the speed of germination could be the result of selection and breeding during domestication.

On the 20th June we gave up waiting and re-sowed the wild carrot seed in a row that had done particularly badly. This row had been dug up by an unknown animal and thanks to some detective work by Andy we think that this may have been birds  trying to get at vine weevil grubs. Some of the carrot seedlings have been keeling over after having their roots severed underground. A bit of digging revealed white grubs about 1cm long that are the juvenile stage of the garden pest known as the vine weevil. These beetle gubs will attack a wide range of garden plants.  To see Andy’s photos and short video of the vine weevils follow this link to Vimeo.