Planting Carrots in Toilet Paper Rolls to Ward off Cutworms

By Les Oke
Published on December 1, 2001
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PHOTO: LES OKE
Start saving your toilet paper rolls now for carrot-planting time this spring.

Keep cutworms away by planting carrots in toilet paper rolls.

Cutworms are a perennial problem in our carrot patch. Because of its nocturnal nature, this pest is hard to eliminate by conventional means.

My wife, Jane, and I came up with a rather interesting solution to the problem. I wondered, what would happen if we tried planting carrots in toilet paper rolls, filled them with soil mix and planted carrots in one open end like a soil block? We could transplant the carrots after they had germinated in the tube. The cutworms wouldn’t have a chance.

Our environmentally friendly and practical solution works great. It also turns out that the extra depth of soil in the toilet roll provided a perfect growing medium for root vegetables.

Simply fill the tubes with potting soil or compost, but don’t pack too tightly. Place each full tube on a tray.

Take a small stick and make a 1/4-inch-deep hole in the soil of each tube. Put four seeds of your favorite carrot variety in the hole and cover. The carrots germinate in about a week and should be transplanted when the taproots emerge from the tube bottoms.

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