![]() ![]() They may be more than willing to help you out for a year and grow the same cultivar as you – especially if you offer to share your seeds. You may need to coordinate with your closest neighboring gardeners on this project. In humid locations like Virginia, a one mile radius is recommended, while in more arid regions like parts of the southwest, where hot dry winds can damage airborne pollen and discourage insect mobility, 1/4 of a mile may be overkill.īecause of these variables, I recommend that you start with a 1/4 mile radius, and try a small batch in your location to see if your saved seeds are producing true. However, the radius required to successfully isolate carrots will vary depending on obstacles such as buildings and vegetation, as well as your local climate – how humid your weather is, and how windy. Whiting at the Colorado State University Extension recommend isolating carrots at a radius of 1/4 of a mile. So when using distance to isolate, just how far away from other varieties do you need to keep your crop? Many commercial growers rely on isolation through distancing, by creating zones dedicated to growing certain cultivars over a large area of land, rather than using isolation cages. Professional growers sometimes use seed isolation cages, but the use of these means the grower has to then hand pollinate flowers or do a controlled introduction of pollinating insects – neither of which is a simple process. If there are other carrot varieties growing within a certain radius, the pollen from these could potentially fertilize your flowers, resulting in unexpected and possibly unwanted characteristics when those seeds are planted.įor the home gardener, the easiest way to isolate your carrots and keep your next generation predictable is with distance. These plants are pollinated when pollen from other cultivars is floating in the air, or – the most likely scenario – via insects that stop at flower after flower, feeding on the nectar and moving pollen around. In the interest of producing plants with the characteristics you are expecting, you will want to isolate your selected plants from other varieties. Saving seeds is about growing food, of course, but it’s also about preserving the genes from the specific varieties that you like – so that you can ensure more predictable results. If you need some ideas, you’ll find a selection of open-pollinated cultivars in our article on the 13 best varieties of these root vegetables. So choose an open-pollinated variety to start with, to make sure you know exactly what to expect when you plant your saved seeds. With hybrids, the seed may also fail to be viable at all. Seeds from hybrids may produce plants with desirable traits – or they may have undesirable ones. The first generation produced from the F1 hybrid will have these selected properties – but if you let those carrots mature, the seeds they produce are not guaranteed to produce true to type, or replicate and maintain the characteristics of the parent plant. When plant breeders create a hybrid vegetable, each parent plant is chosen for various desirable properties – for example, long orange roots from one parent, and super sweet flavor from the other. Hybrid cultivars are the result of cross-pollination between two distinct parent plants. Make sure you choose one that is open-pollinated rather than a hybrid. Photo by Kristina Hicks-Hamblinīut don’t pick just any cultivar. For most backyard gardeners, the easiest way to ensure that you get a seed crop which grows true to type is to plant a single variety – for reasons we’ll get to in the next section. ![]()
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