[Zippy]

I am growing carrots (Early Nantes) in containers of compost and 255 sharp sand.  I sow and water and then coer with a fleece top until germination and this works really well.

That is until it is time to water the seedlings as even with a fine rose the water flattens the seedlings and they never recover to the vertical. If left out in even alight rain, this flattens some seedlings to the point they die off - a kind of natural thinning, but I lose too many. See photo "carrot flat".

To get round this do I use a narrow nosed watering can like the indoor ones and water around the seedlings and not weight the leaves down.

The other question, probably to do with this is - look at the picture "carrot stem" - is that single brownish stem (shown up by the fleece behind) below the green ferny leaves suppsed to be there or have I sowed too shallow and thsi should be below the soil surface? matybe this is why my carrot seedlings are so unstable?

Your comments please...

[zazen999]

Put the container on a tray and water into that and let the compost suck the water up.

Put a cane in the middle, and drape the fleece/netting over the pot and leave it on there until the leaves are a good enough size not to need protection; or until they are harvested if you are prone to carrot fly.

[Zippy]

Thank you zazen - both obvious solutions that I am aware of - so obvious I didn't see them!