Regeneration of wild carrot

Seed dormancy

None.

Vernalization

Wild carrots are usually annual and most cultivated carrots are biennial. Most accessions of wild carrots will flower in the first year when growing in an unheated glasshouse, where it will temporarly grow under low temperatures conditions in spring, leading to vernalization, which may be required to induce flowering (depending on the genotype).

Sowing and planting

The carrot seeds are sown around mid-March in trays. If the germination of the seeds is poor, the tray may be put in the refrigerator for a week to enhance germination. After 3-4 weeks the plantlets are transplanted into larger pots. Before the start of flowering the pots of an accession are put into an isolation cage in an unheated glasshouse.

Population size

About 80 plants per accession are used for regeneration with a minimum of 40 plants.

Pollination

Carrot has no self-incompatibility system, so self-pollination is possible and causing inbreeding depression. The pollination can be carried out with a paintbrush, but normally flies (blow flies, houseflies or blue bottle flies) are brought into the insect proof isolation cage as soon as 50% of the plants are flowering. Additional flies may need to be put in the cage, to have enough flies active on the later appearing flowers.

Disease control

  Non-preventive

• If necessary: fungicides to control Carrot powdery mildew (Erysiphe heraclei), which is favored by dry soil and high humidity during morning and evening hours.
  

Harvesting

The flower heads can be harvested as soon as they are sufficiently dried out. Daucus carota can be harvested on one occasion, but other Daucus species may drop the seeds at some point and need to be harvested more often. The harvested seedheads are stored in a dry air-conditioned room. Sieves and blowing with air can be used to clean the seeds further.