[Aidy]

For several years I have always pre-chitted my Parsnips and on the whole get 99.9% germination.

I was looking around for some info and came across a really interesting Amish site, it appears they pre-chit many seeds including carrots! I must admit to never really hearing anyone say they pre-chit carrots so as I had 2000 seeds to play with I have given it ago.

The method is to soak the seed in near boiling water to help break down the hard seed coat, then pop the seed onto some moist kitchen paper towel and pop in a bag or container and leave somewhere warm, start checking after 4 days to ensure the towel is still moist and any sign of the spruts.

So far all the seed has germinated which was transplanted, and transplanted at the correct spacings which again save the job of thinning.

This is looking like a very viable way of doing the carrots and if the end result is as good as the parsnips then it will be a winner.

[crh75]

The Amish are on the interweb!!   

[sunshineband]

I never would have thought of chitting carrot seeds, Aidy 

But if it works, then why not?

[Baldy]

I'm giving it a go - don't have a great deal of success with carrots so I'm up for trying a new method.

Pip pip,
Balders

[BabbyAnn]

.
I was looking around for some info and came across a really interesting Amish site, it appears they pre-chit many seeds

I pre-chit lots of seeds these days too - cucumber and melon germinate really quickly, some winter squash on the other hand were not so clever.  I narrowed it down to the seeds being infected with some form of mould which must be present on the seed case - if grown directly in compost, most likely these would never have germinated either and simply rotted, but the disadvantage of placing several seeds together on damp tissue in humid conditions is that the single infected seed had spread to the other seeds in a very short space of time.  I've now started disinfecting with bleach big seeds before chitting (put into a jar and shake, then pour off bleach into another jar through a sieve and thoroughly rinse under the tap)  - I've read up about the hot water treatment ... still got to give it a try.

Another useful tip you might be interested in is hydrogen peroxide - growing plants need CO2 to grow, but seeds use oxygen to convert the stored starches into energy.  Soaking seeds in very dilute peroxide helps to speed up germination (try googling it - there's loads of info online)

[Beetroot Queen]

I did my parsnips in a black dustbin this year the results in germination have been amazing wont bother fiddling now as its worked so well. Maybe the black bin holds the heat helping germination. No idea why but my parsnips are looking brill.

Never chitted carrots as I do them in buckets too. Interesting though i did chit beans this year

[chillimummy]

BQ how did you chit your beans? Hope that's not silly question 
I have sown two lots of french beans in pots and both times, seed rotted in pots 
Have wasted whole pack of seed now!

[Beetroot Queen]

Damp kitchen towel actually mine is really wet, bean on, layer on top also wet, shove on windowsill few days and beans

[chillimummy]

Damp kitchen towel actually mine is really wet, bean on, layer on top also wet, shove on windowsill few days and beans

Thanks BQ
Giving it a go