[rhysdad]

My soil (being on natural flood plain) is on the heavy side. It's lovely when damp but sets like concrete under a hot sun. I sowed some early nantes carrots about three weeks ago but still no sign . I wonder whether the 'crust' has set so hard that they can't sprout through. I sowed three rows of parsnips on sunday morning and have taken the approach of backfilling the drill with MP compost to give the seedlings a chance. Can i/do i need to use
this approach for all seeds or is it a waste of time? Also i sowed my parsnips (in warmed soil) but put the clear plastic sheeting back over the drills to conserve the heat and to stop the compost drying out. Is this advisable or will it cook 'em before they've even got going!?!!

[fatcat1955]

I have an area like that on one of my plots. I start all my seedlings for that area in small pots and transplant them when they are large enough to cope.

[suesowsseed]

I have clay soil so use raised beds for carrots and parsnips, however, this year i've tried sowing both in rows of 'mounded up' soil (much improved with compost) in the veg border to give a greater depth for the roots. 

I read about this in 'Munty's Planting Tips' 

[Salmo]

If the soil has capped the best thing to do is to water gently in late evening. Keep doing this until the carrots come through.

[Kristen]

Couple of ideas:

Water the drills that you draw and then plant the seed into the wet drills, and cover with draw soil. No need to water again as there will be enough moisture until they germinate.  But rain may make them crust over ...

Fill the drills with multi-purpose-compost (old stuff left over from last year's Hanging Baskets, Potatoes-in-Bags, seed trays, etc. will do), and then sow into that

Or raise plants in pots and plant-out - but that's too much faff for me with Carrots - but I do use newspaper pots for Parsnips.  I grow carrots in containers ... (50:50 left over multi-purpose-compost and sharp Horticultural sand)

[stompy]

I now grow carrots in old (free) flower buckets with 50/50 compost to sharp sand.
I never did any good with them in the ground, poor germination (sometimes none at all 100% failure), strange shaped unusable carrots and slug damaged.

I also still grow parsnips in loo rolls or paper pots and then use a bulb planter, got very good snips last time, and that was in very heavy ground.

[Trillium]

Clay soil tends to be cooler than loamy soil and carrots won't germinate until the temperature is to their liking, so that could be part of the problem.

Also, when you seed them, top the drill with coarse sand rather than soil and this will stop crusting and ensure drainage, etc Just don't add too much topping, only 1/4 inch or less. I water mine every 2nd day until I see the first sprouts start up and then I stop watering.