Introduction: Carrots in a Bottle (Updated on 2/24/2014)

About: I attend Clemson University majoring in Environmental and Natural Resources Management. Currently I do research on peaches at a Clemson research farm. I love the outdoors and anything dealing with it.

Carrots in a Bottle, is an easy, fun, creative, and sustainable way to grow carrots at home while recycling. This will make delicious carrots for any dish, just remember that the larger variety carrots will need a bottle with a wider mouth or have the top removed. If you have a bottle with a small opening and a huge carrot grows inside, there is no way to obtain the carrot without breaking the bottle.
Updates on my Carrots in a Bottle will be posted once the seeds germinate and begin to grow so keep an eye out ;)

Materials:
Potting Soil
Carrot Seeds (preferably those of a smaller variety)
Tape
Paper
Scissors
Knife
Drawing utinsiles

Step 1: Cleaning the Bottle

First off your going to clean the bottle, both inside and out. Wash the entirety of the bottle, remove the stickers/labels if it has any and do the best you can to remove the sticky residue underneath the stickers/labels.

Step 2: Creating Your Own Label

Your label will serve two purposes: 1) to showcase your ingenuity at making such a marvelous planter for carrots and 2) to cover up any of the sticky residue that couldn't be removed during washing. After you have created your front label, cover the entire label in tape, making sure that there is over hang to that you can apply it to the bottle. Covering it in tape makes the label mostly waterproof. As you can see in my pictures remove excess tape with either scissors or knife so that you have a straight line of tape. Place front label onto bottle covering the largest amount of sticky area you have. If you wish you can do as I did and create a back label, similar to the nutritional labels on the back of products. On mine I included the information that was on the seed packet. As with the front label I covered the back label with tape and cut away the excess. If you notice, I made my data so that the germination date could be written in, its easier to write on paper instead of tape so in this blank area do not put any tape. Apply to bottle.

Step 3: Add Potting Soil

Simply add potting soil to your bottle. I rolled a piece of paper to make a funnel so that I wouldn't make a mess on my desk.

Step 4: All Done :)

Plant the seeds according to their specific instructions, water and wait for the harvest to begin.  :)

Note: Since I do not have much faith in Walmart bought seeds (never know how old they are) I planted around ten seeds. This is way to many for my bottle, but I'm not expecting all to germinate and once they do germinate you can weed out the less promising ones.

Updates on my Carrots in a Bottle will be posted once the seeds germinate and begin to grow so keep an eye out ;)

Step 5: Germination (Updated on 2/24/2014)

I achieved germination on 2/22 which as you can see was written onto my back label. 

Spring's Coming Contest

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Spring's Coming Contest

Makerlympics Contest

Participated in the
Makerlympics Contest

Full Spectrum Laser Contest

Participated in the
Full Spectrum Laser Contest