Growing Carrots – Quick Guide, Step by Step Instructions and Carrot Q&A

Growing Carrots – Quick Guide, Step by Step Instructions and Carrot Q&A was first published on http://ift.tt/1nr27gs

Some folks don't bother growing carrots in the home garden because they're so readily available at the store, but once you've tried a homegrown carrot, you'll be hooked. Like many homegrown vegetables, garden fresh carrots tend to be sweeter and more flavorful than their store bought counterparts. You can also grow carrots in a variety of colors – purple carrots, white carrots, red carrots, yellow carrots and many shades of orange carrots. Growing carrots in containers can be challenging, but is possible with the right container and the right carrots. In this post we'll cover carrot growing tips and common questions.

Growing Carrots – Quick Guide

1. Carrots prefer soil pH between 5.5 and 6.8. Above 6.0 is better.
2. Soil should be rich in organic matter, but avoid excessive nitrogen, which will make your carrots hairy.
3. Plant carrots in full sun for best production. Plants will tolerate late shade.
4. Carrots prefer loose, well drained soil. Heavy clay or rocks will produce stubby or tangled roots.
5. Space plants 2″ apart within rows, with rows 6-8″ apart in a block style planting.
6. Apply an organic mulch to keep soil cool and control weeds.
7. Water regularly if rains fail.
8. Harvest when carrots reach desired size, or before heavy frost.

How to Grow Carrots – Step by Step Instructions

#1 – Prepare your soil

The best soil for carrots is deep and free of rocks and heavy clay. If you have light, fluffy garden soil in good condition, you're good to go with a little compost or rotten manure mixed in at planting time. If your soil is heavy or rocky, you'll want to do a little more preparation. Carrots do best with at least nine inches of easy to penetrate soil. With rough ground, it's helpful to fork in some leaves the fall before planting to lighten the soil. Most rocks should also be removed. (When a growing carrot hits a rock, you'll get a forked or bent carrot.)

Sally Jean Cunningham shares a great tip for those with heavy soil in her book, Great Garden Companions. She frames out a mini raised bed with 2×4 boards, right in her existing garden bed. (Say a 3'x 4′ space, for example.) She fills this bed with a mix of lighter soil, compost and leaf mold to create a carrot-friendly growing spot. At harvest, the entire frame can be lifted for easy picking.

#2 – Planting Carrots

The best time to plant carrots is once the soil has warmed, about when the tulips are in bloom. Soil temperatures around 45°F or lower will slow down or stop germination. You can buy planting tapes with neatly spaced carrot seeds, but they are pricey. I prefer using carrot seeds “as is”.

Plant carrot seeds about 1/4″ to 1/2″ deep. I'll often make a shallow trench with my fingertip. Sprinkle the seeds roughly 1/2″ apart down the trench (thicker for older seeds). Cover gently and water lightly to settle the soil. If soil is heavy, cover seeds with compost to make it easier for the seedlings to break through. The carrots below were planted in newly broken ground in the greenhouse, and had to struggle a bit to get established.

You can continue to plant carrots at roughly two week intervals up to about mid-July for extended harvests. Some people interplant carrots with radishes. The radishes emerge more quickly, which helps to mark the row. They are then harvested before the carrots to make room for the carrots to grow.

A few carrot seed options that caught my eye on Amazon include:

• Caleb's Heirloom Color Carrot Seed Mix
• Krasnyy Velikan – Red Giant Organic Russian Heirloom Carrots
• David's Garden Scarlet Nantes Carrot Seeds – My mom always planted scarlet nantes. It was her favorite “go to” carrot as a reliable producer of large carrots.

#3 – Help Your Carrots to Sprout

Ideally, your seed bed should stay moist until the carrots germinate. If you don't have rain, water gently every day or two. I give the area a light sprinkle one my morning garden rounds. Be patient – it may take up to three weeks for seedlings to appear. In good conditions, the baby carrot sprout should show up in a week or two.

Some folks cover their planting beds with burlap and water right through the burlap to help retain moisture. Remove the burlap at the first sign of green sprouts. Another technique is to cover the seeded rows with a board, or tent garden fabric over the area to retain moisture. I like to be able to see what's going on, plus bare ground is likely warmer ground, which speeds germination, so I usually keep mine naked. If it is very windy or dry, I'll use burlap.

#4 – When to Thin Carrots

I usually do my first thinning when carrots are two to three inches tall. At this point I aim to have them about one inch apart, and toss the mini greens into my salad. They taste a something like parsley. About three weeks later you can thin again, leaving the plants spaced two to three inches apart to finish growing. Alternatively, you can thin to two to three inches at the first thinning.

I usually pull my extra carrots, but if plants are very thickly planted, snipping off the extra might be safer. Pulling closely growing carrots might lead to pulling up the carrots you want to keep. Use a sharp pair of scissors to trim plants to ground level and desired spacing. Below you can see a cluster of greenhouse carrots that are ready to be thinned.

#5 – Carrot Care During the Growing Season

Once thinning is complete, apply an organic mulch such as grass clippings or straw to moderate soil temperature and moisture. Water if needed to keep soil moist.

An old family photo of my carrot harvesting team.

#6 – Harvesting your Garden Carrots

As mentioned above, you can start snacking on the thinnings, but the main crop won't be available for at least a couple of months. Don't be fooled into thinking big tops means large carrots – carrots fill out above ground before they fill out below. Carrots will typically hold for weeks in the ground, unless it's too hot or cold or dry. Heat and drought may cause bolting.

If soil is loose and moist, you may be able to pull up carrots by the tops. When soil is hard or compacted, loosen gently with a fork before lifting out carrots. If you accidentally skewer a carrot, use or process it shortly after harvest. Do not attempt long term root cellar storage of damaged carrots.

When gathering carrots, take carrot to avoid getting the juices from the carrots tops on your bare skin. Like parsnips and other plants in the carrots family, the sap can cause phytophotodermatitis. Phytophotodermatitis symptoms include painful rash and blisters, as you can see in the post My Worst Gardening Mistake.

#7 – How to Store Garden Carrots

For root cellar storage, cull any damaged roots. Snip carrot tops to roughly one inch in length. Brush off excess soil. Pack carrots in layers in damp sawdust or leaves in a box or bin. Try to avoid having the roots touch. Do not store carrots near apples, as the ethylene gas from the apples may cause sprouting and off flavors in the carrots.

Alternatively, wash carrots and trim tops. Store in a plastic bag with the top open in the crisper drawer of your refrigerator. Best if used within a few months.

Carrots can also be frozen, dehydrated, freeze dried or canned in a pressure canner. It is not safe to can carrots in a water bath canner because they are low acid.

If you would like to store your carrots, look for varieties that are specifically recommended for storage. The best storage carrots tend to take a little longer to mature and be larger carrots. The top and bottom photos of the post are carrots (and beets) that are headed to storage, and you can see that most of the carrots are rather stocky.

Carrot Q & A

What's the Best Carrot Seed?

The best carrot seed is fresh carrot seed. Many types of seeds store and germinate well for several years, but not carrots. Try to use your carrot seeds within 1-3 years of purchase, and plant them more thickly in later years. Keep unused seeds in a cool dry location, out of direct sunlight. You can make your own seed vault using a sealed container in your freezer.

What are good companion plants for carrots?

Great Garden Companions suggests teaming up carrots with:

• onions
• chives
• caraway
• coriander
• calendula
• chamomile
• swan river daisies

In Carrots Love Tomatoes, Louise Riotte recommends pairing carrots with:

• onions
• leeks
• rosemary
• wormwood
• sage
• black salsify

I like to plant my carrots in a bed of mixed root vegetables, alternating several rows of carrots with onions, beets, kohlrabi, herbs and sometimes flowers.

Are there fast growing carrots?

Yes. Some carrots will mature faster than others. Look at the “date to maturity” on package or catalog listing. Smaller varieties like Minicore, Bambino and Parisian mature in 55-60 days. Their small size also makes them good choices for carrot container planting.

Can I Buy Carrot Plants?

Nope. Carrots are one of those crops that is bet sown directly in the garden.

What's the Best Carrot Fertilizer?

Good garden soil with some compost mixed in should be enough, but if you'd like to add a little “extra”, choose an organic fertilizer that's high in potash. A dusting of wood ashes or kelp meal worked into the bed before planting will do the trick. Don't go crazy. Too much ash will burn your plants.

How Can I Grow Purple Carrots?

Purple carrots (and other colored carrots) are grown just like orange carrots. Just choose a variety that has the color of root that you prefer.

Were all carrots originally purple?

According to the book Heirloom Vegetables, the earliest carrots were purple, red or white. Yellow carrots came on the scene in Turkey in the 10th century, and our modern orange carrots didn't show up until the 17th century. Wild carrots (also known as Queen Anne's Lace) have a white root.

Are Carrots a Vegetable?

Yep. Because we eat the roots (and possibly the greens) rather than the seeds, they are classified as a vegetable – even though you can use them to make cake.

My Carrots are Bumpy and Strange Looking – are they Safe to Eat?

Carrots grown in rough ground and some varieties of carrots will naturally develop bumps, forks and other odd looking bits. Don't worry, they still taste like carrots – they're just trickier to peel. I've assembled a lovely collage of ugly carrots from my many years of gardening. Don't fear the funky veggies! Tons of food is thrown out each year because it's not cosmetically perfect. It's time to change that trend. Also, for those who are worried that these odds shapes might be due to Fukishimi fallout, most of the photos in the collage were pre-Fukishima. I did get a refund on the purple carrot at top left, because the seed company noted that some of the seeds were producing “off type” carrots. They still tasted just fine.

For the Love of Garden Carrots

One of my husband's favorite memories of his grandfather is about garden carrots. When he was a little boy, his grandfather let him eat carrots straight out the garden, washed off with the garden hose. He still remembers the crunch and sweetness, many decades later. (This is pretty significant, given that he sometimes forgets his own birthday…)

I hope you'll make space for carrots in your home garden, too.

Questions, comments or requests for the next vegetable? Leave me a comment and share your thoughts.

You may also find useful:

• How to Start a Garden – 10 Steps to Gardening for Beginners
• How to Grow Tomatoes Organically, Plus Innovative Gardening Techniques
• Planting and Growing Peas – What You Need to Know

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