Growing Carrots

How to Plant, Grow, and Harvest Carrots

Carrots on Table
Popidar/Shutterstock

Share: 

Rate this Article: 

Average: 3.9 (1211 votes)

Garden-grown carrots are full of flavor and texture. However, gardeners often complain that their carrots don’t grow straight. We’ll tell you how to properly plant and grow carrots.

About Carrots

Carrots are long-lasting root vegetables that can be grown in many climates. They prefer to be grown during the cooler ends of the growing season—spring and fall.

Carrots’ root is rich in sugar, and a great source of vitamins and carotene. Not all carrots are orange; varieties vary in color from purple to white! 

Common Carrot Problems and Answers

Some readers tell us they’ve stopped growing carrots because the plant didn’t grow straight. Don’t give up hope! It might just be your soil. Here’s what to try next season:

Do your carrots look round, short, fat, and/or more like a potato?

  1. Carrots need loose, light, airy soil. Most of us need to add sand. We use 100% sand mixed with ⅓ peat moss.
  2. Till deeper! Carrots usually give up if they grow down a foot and hit any soil clumps. While we’re not normally big fans of tilling, you must prepare a carrot bed. Till down 18 inches and make sure there are no rocks, weeds, or even soil clumps to impede your carrots’ growth.

Do your carrots look as if they have legs or do they split?

  1. Do not amend the soil with nitrogen-rich material. You have too much heavy compost or manure and too many nutrients, and perhaps not enough sand.
  2. Seed directly in the ground. Don’t transplant. Try to distribute seed in an even fashion so seeds don’t grow together or use a seed-sower or thin vigorously to the right space.
  3. Main soil moisture with frequent shallow waterings during germination. The soil can’t crust over.

Finally: Don’t expect the perfect shape of grocery store carrots. Your carrots will still taste better, whatever their shape!

See more about planting and soil preparation below.

Planting

When to Plant Carrots

  • Plan to plant seeds outdoors 3 to 5 weeks before the last spring frost date. Find your local frost dates here. 
    • Tip: Plant additional seeds every 3 weeks or so in order to extend the harvest. 

Choosing and Preparing a Planting Site

  • Carrots are best grown in full sunlight, but can tolerate a moderate amount of shade. Carrots grown in shade won’t be as robust as those in full sun, however.
  • Provide shade for seeds planted in mid-summer so that the soil does not heat up too much. Garden fleece will do this job.

Preparing the Soil

One of the most important things to consider when growing carrots (and other root vegetables) is the condition of the soil. Follow these guidelines to ensure a healthy carrot harvest:

  • Make sure the soil is free of stones. Stones obstruct the path of carrot roots, which can result in a stunted and misshapen crop.
  • Till the soil before planting. Carrots need deeply-tilled, loose soil that they can easily push through.
  • Use the right type of soil. Carrots grow best in sandy or loamy soil (as opposed clayey or silty soil), so add sand if necessary! Learn more about soil types. 
  • Avoid using manure or too much fertilizer. Have you ever seen a carrot that has grown “legs” or has forked? Fresh manure, or even recently-applied rotted manure, can cause carrots to fork and send out little side roots. Don’t use it before you plant your carrot seeds.

Stunted carrots.
Misshapen carrots can be caused by tough soil, overly-enriched soil, disease, and pests.

How to Plant Carrots

  • Plant carrot seeds 3 to 4 inches apart in rows. Rows should be at least a foot apart.
  • Cover the newly sown seeds with sand or fine soil that will not crust over when dry.
  • Keep the soil moist with frequent shallow waterings. For small carrot seeds to germinate, the soil mustn’t form a hard crust on top. (If you put your finger in the ground, it should be moist, but not wet, to the middle knuckle.)
  • Carrots are sometimes slow to germinate. They may take 2 to 3 weeks to show any signs of life, so don’t panic if your carrots don’t appear right away!

Care

How to Grow Carrots

  • After planting, gently mulch to retain moisture, speed germination, and block the sun from hitting the roots directly.
  • Once plants are an inch tall, thin so that they stand 3 inches apart. Snip them with scissors instead of pulling them out to prevent damage to the fragile roots of the remaining plants.
  • Water at least one inch per week.
  • Weed diligently, but be careful not to disturb the young carrots’ roots while doing so.
  • Fertilize with a balanced fertilizer 5-6 weeks after sowing. 
  • See more tips for growing carrots.

How Long Does it Take to Grow a Carrot?

  • Depending on the variety and local growing conditions, carrots may take anywhere from 2 to 4 months to mature. 

Pests/Diseases

  • Wireworms
  • Flea Beetles
  • Aster Yellow Disease will cause shortened and discolored carrot tops and hairy roots. This disease is spread by pests as they feed from plant to plant. Keep weeds down and invest in a control plan for pests such as leafhoppers. This disease has the ability to overwinter.

Harvest/Storage

How to Harvest Carrots

  • Carrots should be mature and ready for harvest in about 2–4 months, or when they reach at least ½ inch in diameter (both measures depend on the variety of carrot). You may harvest whenever desired maturity is reached.
  • If you’re growing carrots in the spring and early summer, harvest before daily temperatures get too hot, as the heat can cause carrot roots to grow fibrous.
  • Carrots taste much better after a couple of frosts. (A frost encourages the plant to start storing energy—sugars—in its root for later use.) Following the first hard frost in the fall, cover carrot rows with an 18-inch layer of shredded leaves to preserve them for harvesting later.

Carrots
Scrub off the dirt and remove the tops before storing carrots!

How Do You Store Fresh Carrots?

  • To store freshly-harvested carrots, twist off the green tops, scrub off the dirt under cold running water, let dry and seal in airtight plastic bags, and refrigerate. If you simply put fresh carrots in the refrigerator, they’ll go limp in a few hours.
  • You may leave mature carrots in the soil for temporary storage if the ground will not freeze and pests aren’t a problem.
  • Carrots can be stored in tubs of moist sand for winter use. 

Recommended Varieties

Carrots come in a rainbow of colors (see image, below), sizes, and shapes.

  • Nantes varieties are 6 to 7 inches long, cylindrical (not tapered), and entirely edible. They are medium-sized, sweet and mild, and have a crisp texture.
  • Danvers carrots are a classic heirloom carrot, 6 to 8 inches long, that tapers at the end and has a rich, dark orange color. This variety can handle heavy soil better than most varieties.
  • ‘Little Finger’ is a small Nantes type of carrot only 4 inches long and one inch thick. Great for containers. 
  • ‘Bolero’: resists most leaf pests.
  • ‘Thumberline’: round carrot, good for clumpy or clay soil.

Carrots of many colors. Photo by USDA/Wikimedia

Wit & Wisdom

  • Carrots are biennial plants. If you leave them in the ground, the tops will flower and produce seeds the second year.
  • Carrots have a long list of health benefits, not just those from Vitamin A. Read more in Carrots: Health Benefits!
  • Can dogs eat carrots? Yes! Carrots aren’t just great for humans—they make a great treat for your pets! Try this dog-friendly peanut butter carrot cake for your dog’s next birthday.

Recipes

720x480-gardening.jpg

What do you want to read next?

Reader Comments

Leave a Comment

Companion plant

Submitted by Janet on

Can carrots be planted at the base of peas and get what they need to grow?

Store carrots

Submitted by Roy morecraft on

We have tried several ways to store carrots , sand ,wash them, not wash them and so on. We have found that if you pull them , let them dry a day or two out of the sun, cut tops off 1 inch above the top of carrot, brush off the loose dirt with a soft brush , wrap each carrot in saran wrap and put in a ice cream bucket and store in the fridge. We keep ours every year this way. We dug ours in Aug. last year and they are still stiff and great flavor, only got 4 carrots left from last year. That is 6 months from digging time till now.

Source of information

Submitted by rick padgett on

This is one of my top 4/5 locations for plant information!!

How to Grow & Harvest Carrots

Submitted by Issac Grai on

Excellent; You just perfectly explain how to just to help interested farmers like me.
Thank you for your Knowledge and Skills and Experience to help us. I know the best will come back to you. Issac Grai - From Papua New Guinea.

Carrots blooming?

Submitted by Christina on

I have 4 or 5 varieties of carrots growing, and 1 is a Japanese variety. This Japanese variety has a couple that are starting to flower. I thought they were weeds so I pulled and noticed they were my carrots, but not ready to eat. Is this typical? Will this make them inedible?

Japanese variety of carrot

What variety are you growing?

Did you test your soil? Excessive nitrogen in soil promotes “top,” or foliage, growth. If indeed the roots form they should be edible, but the nitrogen may cause the plant to put its energy into the greens and not the root.

That said, you can use the greens in pesto. Combine with your favorite pesto greens (e.g., basil).

White carrot amongst the orange!

Submitted by M. J. on

Why does my carrot the color of a parsnip? Planted in a pot with heirloom Danvers.

White Carrot

Occasionally a seed from another variety will slip into a seed packet; perhaps you just got a lucky white carrot in yours!

First time planting petite carrots

Submitted by Katie on

HI,
Is there some physical indicator (like the dried greens of potatoes) that carrots are ready to harvest. I live in area 5 and have planted my carrots in a deep planter. They seem to doing well, with lots of tops. The seed was planted in the beginning of June, when we were below normal temps until the beginning of July. How will I know when they are ready to harvest?

when to harvest baby carrots

Your packet will have “days to maturity” as a guide. You can also look at their green tops. When the carrot tops are 4 to 6 inches high, baby carrots can often be harvested.  This is around the time you’ll want to thin them to their final spacing–about 3 inches apart.  When ready, the baby carrots should be about 3 inches long. You can leave carrots in the ground for storage unlike some vegetables. If the greens start to yellow, the carrots are past maturity.

After harvest

Submitted by Jordan on

Hello,

My carrots are ready for harvest. After I harvest them how long until I can plant in the same soil and can I plant carrots again in the same spot? This is my first time planting vegetables!

after carrots, what to plant...

Congratulations on your harvest! Here’s to many more … if you rotate. A basic and essential principle of growing food is crop rotation: planting something different in the spot ever cycle. You can see where carrots fit into a rotation plan—and what you might plant next—here: https://www.almanac.com/video/how-rotate-your-vegetable-crops You should be able to plant another crop where your carrots grew any day now, assuming there are enough days in the season to bring it to fruition.

Carrot seed don't seem to be sprouting!!!

Submitted by Isa on

I am from Newfoundland , Canada. We planted carrot seed in the ground a little over 3 weeks ago. The seed was left over from last year. To date, we are not seeing any progress other than just a few peekings that might be only about one centimetre in height. Is this normal or a bout with bad seed?

Carrots Seed Germination Time

Carrots are notorious for taking a long time to germinate, emerging sometimes after three weeks or more! In your case, it could be due to bad seeds, though carrot seeds should stay viable for up to three years. The other possibility is that it has something to do with your weather conditions. Has it been particularly cold or rainy this season? This could slow down your carrots’ growth rate. 

Carrots

Submitted by Isheanesu on

There are easy to grow.Children can understand it

I am from Gambia

Submitted by Muhammed Touray on

I am from Gambia and I seed my carrots like five days ago and still they are not gamenat I wanna how long will it take before they gamenat please

carrot germination

Submitted by michel fitzgerald on

can be 1-3 weeks

Seeds

Submitted by Carsyn Ward on

How many seeds do carrots need to grow? This is for my school project so please answer quickly. we are growing a Milk Crate for our cafeteria.

Growing Carrots

Each seed grows into a carrot plant.  However, the seeds are so tiny that a gardener usually broadcasts a bunch of tiny seeds, and then “thins” the seedlings once they grow so the spacing is correct (matching what it says on your seed packet).

how to plant, grow and harvest.

Submitted by Dairo Rowland b... on

More information about farming.

Carrot

Submitted by Zainab muhammed on

What is the depth at which carrot produce from the surface of the soil

The best time to plant carrot in Nigeria.

Submitted by Innocent Akpan on

Please what is the best time to plant carrot in southern Nigeria.
Can I plant the vegetable during the dry season?

Thanks!

Submitted by Marvis Couture on

Thanks!

Regrow carrot?

Submitted by Lucy may Beach on

I have a carrot which has started to root while in the fridge and wondered if this can be planted to grow and get seeds?

Carrots

Submitted by Donna Fritz on

Can carrot stems be planted?

Carrots

Submitted by Frank krawcion on

So adding sand to the soil in the garden will help to grow carrots and beets better? Haven't had much luck with them.

carrot soil

The sand helps carrots from getting stunted, Frank. And you want only enough sand to achieve a nice “porous” soil. If there is too much sand, the water/moisture and nutrients will pass by the carrots. Sand helps if your soil is heavy and clumpy. Check your pH. Give seeds plenty of moisture at the start. Rotate your crops. Carrots can be hit or miss—at least in our experience in the community garden. But the hits are out of the ball park.

See below for other advice.

You have to be careful adding

Submitted by Stephen Scalf on

You have to be careful adding sand to certain soils. We have a lot of clay here, and if you add sand, you get cement. Although carrots don't always do well in clay soil, I till the soil very well, then mound the soil for the rows fairly high so the carrots have a good 6" of good, loose topsoil. I get a few deformed carrots, but not many. Another tip if you don't have sandy soil: I till in a lot of leaves in the fall, and fresh grass clippings shortly before planting. The clippings decay much more slowly underground with limited oxygen. It retains a good amount of growing moisture, but helps drain water faster than clay alone.

carrots

Submitted by david silcock on

is it ok to grow carrots in the same place every year

Carrot pests

Submitted by Emmanuel on

Pls can Goat or sheep eat carrot leaves. I want to plant them in my unfenced garden

Pages

Growing Carrots

Botanical Name Daucus carota subsp. sativus
Plant Type Vegetable
Sun Exposure Full Sun
Soil Type Sandy
Soil pH Neutral
Bloom Time
Flower Color White
Hardiness Zones 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Special Features

FREE BEGINNER'S GARDEN GUIDE!

BONUS: You’ll also receive our Almanac Companion newsletter!

The Almanac Webcam

Almanac Headquarters Cam

Visit the Almanac HQ Webcam

Chosen for You from The Old Farmer's Store