How to Plant, Grow, and Harvest Carrots
Everyone enjoys a sweet, crunchy carrot but many people find them a bit tricky to grow. But they’re not if you know how! See our Carrot Guide for planting, growing, and harvesting carrots in the gardenâand in containers! Plus, enjoy our new video to grow perfect carrots every time!
About Carrots
Carrots are a cool-season crop grown in spring. They are an excellent source of vitamin A and add color to a meal. They can be served cooked or raw.
This popular vegetable has a natural sweetnessâespecially the homegrown carrot because the sugar that makes a carrot sweet begins to be replaced by fiber as it ages in the grocery stores.
Plus, the home gardener has so many more varieties to grow from Belgium Whites to Purple Dragon to Parisian heirlooms that are round! (Not all carrots are the grocery store shape.) In fact, don’t expect to get perfectly straight âgrocery storeâ carrots. Your carrots will still taste better, whatever their shape!
Carrots have a reputation of being difficult to grow, especially in heavy, compacted soil. However, with a little effort, you can indeed grow carrots. Learn more in our planting guide below.
Carrots come in a rainbow of colors, sizes, and shapes.
- ââBoleroâ: slightly tapered; 7 to 8 inches; resists most leaf pests and blights.
- âDanversâ: classic heirloom; 6 to 8 inches long, that tapers at the end and has a rich, dark orange color; suited to heavy soil.
- âLittle Fingerâ: heirloom; a small Nantes type of carrot only 4 inches long and one inch thick; good for containers.
- âNantes’: cylindrical (not tapered); 6 to 7 inches; exceptionally sweet; crisp texture.
- âThumberlineâ: heirloom; round carrot, good for clumpy or clay soil and containers.
- For unusual color, try heirloom âRed Cored Chantenay’ and bright âSolar Yellow’.
How and When to Harvest Carrots
How do you know when your carrots are ready? Have a little root around and check the approximate width of the roots by looking at the neck of the root. The first roots should be ready as soon as two months from sowing.
- Generally, the smaller the carrot, the better the taste. Carrots should be about as wide as your thumb or at least œ of an inch in diameter.
- Younger and shallower roots should come away easily enough, simply by gripping them firmly at the base of the foliage. It often helps to push down on the root first, and then give it a twist as you gently pull upwards.
- Larger, longer roots â particularly those of maincrop carrots that are sown for winter eating â may need to be eased up with the help of a fork.
- Harvest in stages â or as roots reach full size. In this way youâll stagger your harvest over many weeks.
- 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.
- If you are harvesting in the fall, carrots taste much better after one or more frosts. (A frost encourages the plant to start storing energyâsugarsâin its root for later use.) Following the first hard frost in the fall, cover carrot tops with an 18-inch layer of shredded leaves to preserve them for harvesting later.
- Note: Carrots are biennial. If you fail to harvest and leave the carrots in the ground, the tops will flower and produce seeds in the next year.
How Do You Store Fresh Carrots?
- To store freshly-harvested carrots, twist or cut off all but 1/2 inch of the tops, scrub off any dirt under cold running water, and air-dry. 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 also be stored in tubs of moist sand or dry sawdust in a cool, dry area.
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I sow carrot seeds using a suspension of school wallpaper paste.
I make the paste up so it is gloopy then put it in a squeezy bottle, add the carrots seeds and shake well so the seeds are evenly dispersed , then squeeze the contents in a line . School paste works , as it is cool water paste contains no preservatives or fungicide .
It's nice and ai want to start up a farm project
It's nice and ai want to start up a farm project
Found a great way to keep the soil from crusting and impeding the carrot germination. After planting the seeds, I lay down a salvaged metal grid shelf from an old portable "green house". It stands about an inch above the soil. Then lay a floating row cover over this and secure with stones or anything at the edge to keep it in place. This keeps the seeds from washing away while watering and helps keep the surface of the soil damp until the seeds sprout. Once the little carrot plants are about an inch high, remove the cloth and grids and away you go! If only I could figure a way to keep the BEARS out of my carrot patch!
I am experimenting with a raised bed and wondered why my carrots had not come up yet. Thanks for the information. Spinach came up really fast. Now I know Iâm just impatient. Everything else is coming up beautifully and I hope square foot horticulture works for me. I have a 4 x 8 space with a small variety of veggies growing. Iâve learned the value of companion planting to save space with the radishes and tomatoes co-existing quite well at one end and more radishes encircling zucchini hills at the other. By the time my radishes are harvested the zucchini will need the space. I love your website. You are a wealth of information. Thanks.
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