The Benefits Of Growing Carrots In Toilet Paper Tubes

You probably already know that even though carrots are cold-hardy, tasty vegetables to plant in your garden in spring, the little seedlings don't transplant well due to their long taproot. Carrot transplants will often have distorted roots that don't form correctly or end up growing sideways. That's because the roots grow much faster than the leaves, and by the time the seedlings are large enough to transplant, the roots have already hit the base of the pot and started to deform. 

This means carrot seeds are better sown straight in the soil. However, sowing seeds directly in the garden and ending up with viable plants can often be a problem, too. Freshly sprouted seedlings are a magnet for pests such as slugs, snails, and cutworms. But there is a solution you might want to try — starting your seeds in toilet paper tubes.

There are a number of benefits of growing carrots in these tubes. Firstly, the cylinders are long enough to allow the taproot to grow downward, nice and straight. Once the leaves have sprouted, you can just plant the entire tube in your garden without any disturbance to the roots. The cardboard will break down over time and feed the microbes in the soil. You'll also find that once the seedlings are large enough to be transplanted, they'll be much safer from garden pests that might want to decimate your crop. So, while carrots might be one of the most difficult vegetables to grow in your garden, you can achieve complete success using this method.

Reusing what would otherwise be a waste product in your garden will not only protect your plants and provide you with a delicious harvest but also help you be more environmentally conscious. After all, it's much better to give all those empty tubes a worthwhile second purpose than dispose of them in your recycling bin or compost. There are a couple of ways you can utilize them to create seed starting pots. A common method is to cut some slits in one end and then fold the small flaps up to form a base.

But to better accommodate the long taproots of your carrot plants, you'll find that the tubes fit nicely into the individual compartments of cardboard egg cartons. This also helps them stand up a little better. And when it's time to transplant them into the garden, it's just a matter of carefully cutting up the cartons into sections and planting each one as a whole. 

If you do this, make sure you place the cartons with the cylinders into something sturdy, like a seedling tray or a shallow Styrofoam box. This allows you to carry them out to the yard without them falling apart. It will also help keep everything together while the seeds germinate and start to grow. Finally, if you've been saving a lot of those empty rolls, you might want to discover some other functional ways to reuse cardboard toilet paper tubes in your house.