Carrots

Selection and Planting

Carrot Varieties

The four carrot types listed below are the primary ones you will find in a seed distributor.  The carrot type is usually listed on the seed package or on the company’s website.

  • Chantenay – Carrots are thick at the top and taper to a point at the bottom.  They are good for shallow or heavy soils and are recommended for first-time carrot growers.
  • Imperator – Most of the carrots found in grocery stores are of this type.  They are long, slender, durable, and best for deeply-worked soil
  • Nantes – This carrot type contains the most variety when compared to all the other types.  Nantes carrots are almost completely cylindrical and are usually 6-7″ in length.  They require moderately loose soil to grow straight without branches.
  • Parisian – Often called ball or mini carrots, these are short in length (<3″ long), grow in soil that hasn’t been deeply worked, and can even be grown in containers.  Be sure to harvest at the correct time or else these can become woody.

When shopping for carrots, you need to first consider the type of soil you have and how deep it will be worked in order to know the type and estimated length to choose.  Even with a large rototiller (we do not recommend tilling of any kind), the soil 7-8″ down will begin to become harder.  While it is still possible to grow carrots in this kind of soil, the likelihood of your carrots becomming small or twisted are greatly increased.  If you are wanting to grow the longer varieties of carrots, you will need to build raised beds or mound the soil.

In the distant past, the carrots people would grow came in a variety of colors.  As food production became more industrialized, orange carrots became the dominant variety available ot consumers.  However, as market gardening rose in popularity, so has the diversity of carrot colors.  Today, while orange varieties are still dominate, you can find a number of shades of red, purple, and yellow carrots.

 

Planting

Like with most root vegetables, carrots are extremely difficult to transplant once they have begun growing, so we will only discuss direct sowing.

Before owing your carrot seeds, there are a few steps you need to follow in order to increase your chance of success.

  1. Fork the soil – Broadforks are commonly used on no-till gardening in order to gently loosen the soil while maintaining the structure of the soil below the surface.  Rose Tree Garden does not recommend rototilling your carrot plot.
  2. Level and water the soil – Making the surface of the soil smooth will greatly help evenly distribute your seeds.  After leveling, water the area thoroughly and wait a week.  Because carrot seeds can take up to 3 weeks to germinate and even longer to reach a noticeable size, you want to make sure to make the area as weed-free as possible.  After a week, take a sharp hoe (as described in the Weed Prevention page) and slice the weeds off at the soil line.  You will likely still get some weeds that pop up, but this step will remove most of them.
  3. Sow your seeds – Make a thin line in the soil and place your seeds inside as directed on your seed packet.  Usually seeds are sown 1/4″ to 1/2″ in depth, at a spacing of 3/4″ to 1″, in rows 12″ to 24″ apart.  Cover your seeds with soil and water well.  Until the carrots germinate, continue watering to keep the soil surface moist.
  4. Remove weeds – Even with the initial hoeing step, you will need to keep the area weed free.  If the carrots have not yet germinated, it may be possible to use a hoe to carefully remove weeds, but we generally recommend hand weeding.
  5. Thin the carrots – After they germinate, you may need to thin carrots that are spaced too close together for each to grow to their full size.

Growing Carrots

Pests

At this current point in time, no insects have been seen attacking carrots at Rose Tree Garden.  If you notice insect damage on your carrots, please contact us.

Diseases

Because carrots are not commonly grown at Rose Tree Garden, diseases haven’t yet made an appearance.  Even so, you should still practice preventative gardening techniques.

  1. Plant spacing: Carrot spacing within rows is generally close.  However, spacing between rows should be no closer than what is indicated on the seed packet.  Planting carrots too close together can increase the likelihood of disease.
  2. Watering: Never water your plants by spraying the leaves.  If spraying the leaves is unavoidable, water in the morning so the sun can quickly dry the water on the leaves.
  3. Crop rotation: A number of plant diseases come from a slow buildup in the soil over a period of time.  Crop rotation (not growing plants in the same place every year) will keep the amount of soil disease low.  Every year, move your plants to a different part of your garden that hasn’t hosted carrots for the past 3 years.

Watering

Maintaining consistent soil moisture levels will improve plant growth, reduce the chance of carrots forking from underwatering and splitting due to overwatering.  Monitor both the soil moisture and rainfall using the Rose Tree Garden Weather Data and water your plants when soil moisture decreases or the garden has not received at least 1″ of rainfall in the past week.

When watering, be sure to avoid overhead sprinkling as this increases the likelihood of soil-borne diseases spreading to the plant.  Water very slowly at the base of the plant over a period of an hour to allow the carrot root to slowly adjust to the increased water levels.  Taking time to water will reduce the chance of split carrots.

Weed Control

It is important to keep your carrots free from weeds, especially as they are becoming established.  Use a garden hoe or hand pulling to remove the weeds.  Reduce the weed pressure by following our Weed Prevention suggestions.

Harvesting

Just like with nearly all root vegetables, carrots can be consumed at all points in its growth.  But generally, we try to wait until they have reached full size before harvesting.  This can be hard to do with a crop that grows underground.  In order to make things easier, look for when you see your carrots begin to germinate.  From this point, count the days listed on the seed packet and mark the day on the calendar.  This will give you a good estimate of when your carrots will have reached their ideal size.

Harvest your carrots one at a time by loosening the soil around each.  Gently pull on the carrot.  If it does not easily come out of the ground, pull more soil away from the carrot.  Pulling too hard will snap the carrot in half.  Remove the foliage at the top of the carrot along with the soil.  Carrots can be kept growing in the ground until you are ready to eat them, or harvested all at once and stored.  Carrots should be able to be stored for at least a couple months in the refrigerator.