❧ COOKING COMPANION r r a
Caring for the plants as they grow
Place the pot on a south-facing window- sill. This will give your seedlings the best light from the sun.
If your seedlings don’t get enough light, they will become ‘leggy’ - that means they grow tall and weak. Luckily, prevent- ing leggy seedlings is pretty straightfor- ward.
Make sure they’re in a place where they’ll get 12 to 16 hours sunshine a day.
1. Fill your plant pot almost full with moist compost, up to 2cm from the top.
2. Carefully water the pot with a fi ne rose on your watering can. If you don’t have one, you can make a watering can from a plastic milk container. Pierce the side of the milk bottle just below the lid with lots of small holes
using a pin. Fill with the bottle with water and replace the lid. Squeeze the bottle to release the water.
3. Sow the carrot seeds thinly at a depth of 1cm.
Lightly brush your hand over the seed- lings. This tricks the plants into thinking they’re in a windy place, encouraging them to produce thicker, stronger stems.
If the seedlings start to bend, turn the plant around so they start to bend the other way.
If you can put a lamp over the seedlings this will help, but do this with care. There should be a distance of around 10cm between the lamp and the plants. A lamp will benefi t the carrots only when they are small seedlings, so just use it for a little while.
As carrot seeds start to grow they pro- duce two fi rst leaves called dicotyledons. These leaves soak up the light and give energy to the plant (known as Photosyn- thesis). Once you start to see another leaf that looks feathery like a carrot top then you’re away!
After, make sure the plants keep warm and that you water regularly.
In eight to ten weeks you should have tasty carrots ready to harvest. There’s nothing quite like easing that vivid orange carrot out from the dark compost.
4. Sprinkle a fi ne layer of quite dry compost onto the seeds (around 5mm), taking care not to add too much.
5. Germination will take 10 to 20 days so
please be patient; carrots can take a long time.
6. When large enough to handle, thin out the seedlings so they are 10cm (4in) apart.
To fi nd out more about learning at The Community Farm, visit
www.thecommunityfarm.co.uk.
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