Where Does A Carrot Seed Come From | Tech Foodie
If you love carrots and want to produce your own, it is a good idea. Carrots belong to a family called Umbellifer. It includes parsley, dill, cumin, and coriander. This family gets this name because of their appearance, they have flower clusters which look like umbrellas. All plants of this family can produce nectar for predatory flies and ladybugs.
Carrots are popular vegetables that you can grow in your garden but during their harvesting, you will not be able to find any carrot seeds. So, the question is where do its seeds actually come from?
First, we will understand the carrot’s life cycle. A carrot is a biennial plant which means that the plant life cycle requires two years to complete. In the first year of their cycle, they grow vegetables. And if you do not harvest them, then in the second year they will turn into flowers and you can get seeds also.
So, we have found that carrot seeds come from carrots themselves. To get seeds most farmers harvest them in the first year of their life cycle, which means that these carrots never get a chance to turn into flowers and produce their seeds. In this article we will discuss everything about where does a carrot seed come from.
How do carrot seeds look - Overview
Carrot seeds are 2mm long and they are very tiny in brown color. They have an oval shape with a bit pointed ends. Carrot seeds look like parsley seeds, but you can distinguish them by smelling them. They have a specific smell that is different from parsley.
How do carrot seeds form?
Carrot seeds are formed because of the pollination in the carrot plant. The process starts when the pollen grain from a male plant transfers into the stigma of the female plant. The pollination process includes the transfer of male productive cells of a flower into another flower to the female reproductive cells.
During this process, a seed is made which contains genetic information from both of the parent plants. After some time, the seed grows up and starts to dry out. Then, the seeds are extracted from the dry umbels. This process is done with the help of different insects like honey bees.
Types of carrot seeds:
There are many types of carrot seeds, including heirlooms, genetically modified seeds, and hybrids.
- Heirloom seeds are open-pollinated, they are 50 years old at least and passed down from one generation to the next generation. They are open-pollinated without human interference. For pollination, they depend on natural sources like wind and insects.
- Genetically modified seeds (GMO) are produced in labs, to get desirable characteristics by inserting genes from another plant. This process is done by adopting modern biotechnology. Some of the desirable traits are to resist a drier environment and become defensive against harmful insects. They are expensive compared to other seeds.
- Hybrid seeds are produced in a greenhouse with human intervention. It involves a cross-pollination process, in which the cross occurs between two different plants of the same species but genetically different. They are produced to get bigger sizes of vegetables or fruit.
How do farmers grow carrot seeds?
Farmers grow carrot seeds in two ways:
- The first method is the seed-to-seed method, in which the carrot seed is directly implanted into the field. A carrot plant completes its two-year life cycle. Farmers let the carrot seeds grow and turn into flowers and produce seeds. The quality of seeds produced depends on the quality of the seed which was used sown in the fields first.
- Root-to-seed is the second method. In this, carrot seeds are implanted in the first season to produce full-grown roots. During harvest, young stems are removed and then again planted for seed production. They should be irrigated after every 2-3 days.
The seed-to-seed method is very popular and used by most farmers. To produce carrots, its seeds are planted away from the other varieties in order to protect them from cross-pollination, they are planted at a minimum of a mile away.
The time period for production:
In the case of the root-to-seed method, carrots seeds should be sown at the beginning of June. And Mature roots should be harvested in August or at the beginning of September. And for the seed-to-seed method, you should implant the seed in mid of August, and it can be done in mid of September.
Steps to follow for the plantation of carrot seeds:
If you want to grow your own carrots at home, it’s very simple and easy. You can easily do this job by following these steps:
- First, choose a good spot in your garden for planting. Carrots like to grow in sunlight and fully drained soil
- Implant the seeds about ¼ inch deep into the soil
- When they start to grow at least two inches, separate the seedlings into 3 inches that are too close to the stronger ones can grow properly
- Soil should be moist
- You can harvest carrots when they are fully grown usually after 70 days
Procedure to get seeds from matured carrot:
If you want to plant your own carrots, you will need carrot seeds. For this, you need to get a fully-grown carrot. This carrot should be 4 inches long and 2 inches in terms of diameter. When you find a carrot like this, remove it from the ground with proper care.
Next, you need to carrot from the top and carefully handle it without damaging the seeds. Then, you can collect the seeds and can implant them in your garden or in a pot in a sunny area.
Best time to harvest carrot seeds:
You can harvest carrot seeds in late summer or early autumn. Sometimes, the time to harvest carrot seeds can vary depending on the environment in which you implanted it. You can check if the carrots are ready to harvest when the flowers start to change their color to brown and become dried out. Such seeds will be called matured seeds.
You can also check it in another way if the carrot is in a bright and nice color. Then, you can say it’s ready to eat.
You will need a tool to cut the dry umbels and gather them in a bag. Now, put the dry umbel on a flat surface, take the flower heads and get the seeds from them. Remove the seeds from its shell, you can also do this by rubbing the seeds in your hands. In this way, you will get seeds.
You should harvest the seeds in the early morning in calm and mild weather to avoid high wind or rain. Because such weather can cause damage to carrot seeds.
It is important to choose seeds that are disease-free and healthy to grow your carrots healthy.
How to store carrot seeds?
You need to store carrot seeds properly, in order to use them for planting purposes. You should store them in a glass jar with a solid lid. And it should be stored in a cool, dry place. You can also store it in a cloth bag or in a plastic bag.
The temperature of the place where you are going to store them should be 12-18°C. You can keep them safe and useful for up to 7 years if you store them in a freezer. In this case, the temperature of the freezer should be 32°C or lower than this.
You should also keep checking the stored seeds after every month in order to make sure that there is no fungus growing in them. If you see any signs of fungus, you should immediately discard these seeds.
Can a carrot grow from a carrot?
No, we can’t grow a carrot by planting a carrot in the soil. However, it can produce a carrot plant which can produce carrot seeds also. If we will take proper care of it, by irrigating it daily and by supplying direct sunlight to it.
For this, you need to plant the carrot into the soil about ½ inches deep. Within a few weeks, green shoots will start appearing, preceded by flower stems. If you let the plant fully grow, it will produce seeds for you. And you can use them to grow more carrots.
A single seed can grow how many carrots?
Only one carrot can be grown from one seed. There are multiple stems that come out from a carrot and they hold large amounts of seeds. A single carrot can produce 10,000 seeds. These seeds are very tiny and weigh only one ounce. Carrot seeds can be stored for a maximum of 7 years.
Advantages of growing carrots at home:
A lot of benefits are associated with growing carrots are home, let’s take a lot at few of them:
- It will save your cost, you will not need to buy them from outside
- They can be stored for a longer period of time, up to 6 years without any harm
- You will be in charge of your carrot crop, you can decide the size of your carrots, and also the variety of them
- The complete process will be fun and you will learn something new
Conclusion
You can grow your own carrots at home very easily. It will help you to save money on buying them outside. Carrot seeds come into being by a process of pollination between plants. You should know the accurate time to sow t and harvest them. Also, you must know the procedure to take care of your crop.
To grow high-quality carrots and carrot seeds, you must know the process to take care of carrots. You can also use these carrots as a source of earning, by selling them in different stores.
