Here's a photo of the sapling:



I pulled this little sapling out to re-plant it further from the powerline. When I pulled it out, it's roots ended inside a carrot. I've been digging a lot in this area and there's nothing but unexplained carrots growing. Some pretty giant with very deep stalk in which I haven't finished digging up.

So, my question is, do (or can) a Maple grow from a carrot? It's end roots were inside one, so I left it on there. The dirt where it's at, is very moist and nasty looking. There were 3 huge rooted (I guess "mother" carrots). 1 left. However, when I went to replant the sapling. I dug a hole for it, far away from this spot. I dug, and there's some more carrots! (I thought, I guess this little tree will be at home, with more carrots). So, where these other carrots are is very near the gopher homes. So, can they contribute to carrot growing? Or did the Maple tree grow them?

Sorry, if this sounds dumb, I'm just really curious as to what's going on. I don't know much about gardening.

Thank you.

I'm looking at your photo; where are these "carrots" please? I don't seem to see them.

Oops, I forgot to ask what your location is.

It's not a dumb question. Is this the first year you are on the property? Wondering if someone had a garden prior to you. Also, maples will drop the little twirlie things- sorry don't know the exact name but we used to use them as pinocchio noses when we were kids. One could've landed in a garden, and a little tree started growing. (Lots of trees will drop and seed.)

greene said:I'm looking at your photo; where are these "carrots" please? I don't seem to see them.

Oops, I forgot to ask what your location is.

I will add a photo in the morning. It's too late now. I'm sorry, I didn't think about taking photos of it, I was just trying to get it done but it's going to be a weekend thing. My location is NC, USA Zone 7b.

AlyssaBlue said:It's not a dumb question. Is this the first year you are on the property? Wondering if someone had a garden prior to you. Also, maples will drop the little twirlie things- sorry don't know the exact name but we used to use them as pinocchio noses when we were kids. One could've landed in a garden, and a little tree started growing. (Lots of trees will drop and seed.)

No, it's not. I live here with my boyfriend and his grandma. She's been living here for 20 years or longer.

Those twirlie things, I used to play with when little, throw them up and watch them spin. It was fun.

I was really curious as to why the tree's roots ended inside of a carrot. It's very weird.

Is the carrot orange?

You are probably just seeing the taproots of the tree saplings. A carrot has a taproot but so do many, many other plants.

greene said:Is the carrot orange?

Some are orange. Some a lighter orange, some closer to yellow/brown. The "giant" ones are white on the inside and are orange on the outside. Ton of yellow roots as well. I'm going to take some photos tomorrow morning to show. Most of them I've thrown out, but there's still some there along with 1 big one.

Merida72- when you are out taking the photo tomorrow, also note of what is around the area, for example, tiger lilies (Carolina lily) or other plants. We are all waiting to see what you dig up.

Do all the "carrots" have an attached sapling or was it just the one?

AlyssaBlue said:Merida72- when you are out taking the photo tomorrow, also note of what is around the area, for example, tiger lilies (Carolina lily) or other plants. We are all waiting to see what you dig up.

I will do that.

I can tell you one thing that is (well was) there. A dead pampas grass bush. There's two in the front yard as well, both are dying. This one kicked the bucket about a year ago because of a mulberry tree infested it which was cut down. After taking all the dead grass up there was a mound of dirt underneath will all these "carrots" and the maple sapling was poking out of the dead grass. (In the photo in my first post, you can see the pampas grass that's dead around the sapling).

Danita said:Do all the "carrots" have an attached sapling or was it just the one?

Just the one sapling. I'm not sure why the tree was coming from a carrot.

I remember there were lots of yellow roots every where. The sapling's roots were yellow, too. But also there was some white thin roots that belonged to nothing.

I'm gonna go to bed. I'll get some photos in the morning.

Thanks everyone.

Ah, okay. Saplings will often have taproots but if there are other of these carrot-style roots without an attached sapling then it sounds like something else. The sapling and the other plant may have just become really entangled with one another. I look forward to the photos tomorrow! G'night!

My guess is the orangey tap-root belongs to your tree.

Merida72- here's my thought:

Pampas grass can have a huge roots system (rhizomes), so even though the grass is dead above ground, it doesn't mean the root system has disappeared. They can be very big, and multiply below ground, into a giant mass of heavy, hard to pull out roots. So, I'm thinking the rhizomes are what looks like the carrots.

Then, if the twirlie thing landed where the pampas grass had been growing, roots developed and they grew into the pampas grass rhizomes making it appear that a tree was growing from "carrots".

You also mentioned gophers in the yard. They probably love eating the rhizomes, so you've got a food source in the yard for them. They may have even killed the pampas grass. OR you think the pampas grass is dead, only because it's constantly being eaten by gophers.

Looking forward to the photo.

This photo below, has a long tap root, so I left it in there and just cut the top of it off.





This photo below, is another one trying to grow up under the cut mulberry tree.

Those are definitely some big honkin' roots, but not carrots and not maples, as far as I can tell (leaves aren't right for either one); maybe someone else can ID the plants from your photo, though!

AlyssaBlue said:Merida72- here's my thought:

Pampas grass can have a huge roots system (rhizomes), so even though the grass is dead above ground, it doesn't mean the root system has disappeared. They can be very big, and multiply below ground, into a giant mass of heavy, hard to pull out roots. So, I'm thinking the rhizomes are what looks like the carrots.

Then, if the twirlie thing landed where the pampas grass had been growing, roots developed and they grew into the pampas grass rhizomes making it appear that a tree was growing from "carrots".

You also mentioned gophers in the yard. They probably love eating the rhizomes, so you've got a food source in the yard for them. They may have even killed the pampas grass. OR you think the pampas grass is dead, only because it's constantly being eaten by gophers.

Looking forward to the photo.

I've never seen them eat the grass, but it's possible. There are also these "carrot" like things buried around their homes, too. There's a bunch of gopher holes on the edge of the yard and it looks horrible over there where they live.

Weedwhacker said:Those are definitely some big honkin' roots, but not carrots and not maples, as far as I can tell (leaves aren't right for either one); maybe someone else can ID the plants from your photo, though!

Thanks. At least it's cleared up for me, that it's not carrots.