Growing Carrots

How to Plant, Grow, and Harvest Carrots

By The Editors
Carrots on Table
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Garden-grown carrots are full of flavor and texture! They are a popular, long-lasting root vegetable that can be grow in many climates. Learn all about planting, growing, and harvesting carrots.

Carrots are easy to grow as long as they are planted in loose, sandy soil during the cooler periods of the growing season—spring and fall (carrots can tolerate frost). Depending on the variety and local growing conditions, carrots may take anywhere from 2 to 4 months to mature. 

Therefore, soil preparation is important for carrot growing. If the carrot roots can’t easy grown down, it can lead to stunted and misshapen crops.

  • Till down 12 inches and make sure there are no rocks, stones, or even soil clumps to impede your carrots’ growth.
  • Avoid amending the soil with nitrogen-rich material such as manure and fertilizer, which can cause carrots to fork and grow little side roots; instead, work in old coffee grounds. 
  • Most of us need to add sand to our carrot bed. We use 100% sand mixed with ⅓ peat moss. 
  • If soil is heavy clay or too rocky, you need to plant carrots in a raised bed at least 12 inches deep and filled with fluffy, sandy soil (not clay nor silt).

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

 

Planting

Sow seeds directly in the ground. Do not 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.

  • Carrots need a location that receives full sunlight, though they can tolerate partial shade, too. 
  • As discussed above, soil must be loose, sandy, and airy so that carrot roots can easily push down through the soil.
  • Sow seeds outdoors 3 to 5 weeks before the last spring frost date. Find your local frost dates here. 
  • Sow ¼ inch deep, 3 to 4 inches apart in rows 1 foot apart.
  • Cover with a layer of vermiculite or fine compost to prefvent a crust from forming (which would hamper germination).
  • For multiple harvests, sow seeds about every 3 weeks.
  • 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 leaf, so don’t panic if your carrots don’t appear right away!
    • To help spot the first appearance of their tiny leaves, mix carrot seeds with quick-germinating radish seeds or sow radish seeds in rows between carrot rows.

Stunted carrots.
Misshapen carrots can be caused by heavy, compact, overly-enriched soil.

Care

  • Gently mulch carrots to retain moisture, speed germination, and block the sun from hitting the roots directly.
  • When seedlings are an inch tall, thin so that they stand 3 to 4 inches apart. Snip tops 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 to start, then two inches as roots mature.
  • Weed diligently, but be careful not to disturb the young carrots’ roots while doing so.
  • Fertilize with a low-nitogen but high-potassium and -phosphate fertilizer 5 to 6 weeks after sowing. (Note that excess nitrogen in the soil promotes top, or foliage, growth—not roots.)
  • See more tips for growing carrots.

Pests/Diseases

  • Black (Itersonilia) canker
  • Carrot rust flies
  • Flea Beetles
  • Root-knot nematodes
  • Wireworms
  • 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

  • Generally, the smaller the carrot, the better the taste.
  • Harvest whenever desired maturity/size is reached—the size of your finger or at least ½ of an inch in diameter.
  • 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 one or a few 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 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 proeduce seeds in the next year.

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

How Do You Store Fresh Carrots?

  • To store freshly-harvested carrots, twist or cut off all but ½ 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.

Recommended Varieties

Carrots come in a rainbow of colors, sizes, and shapes.

  • ‘‘Bolero’: slightly tapered; 7 to 8 inches; resists most leaf pests and blights. 
  • ‘Danvers’: classic heirloom; 6 to 8 inches long, that tapers at the end and has a rich, dark orange color; suited to heavy soil.
  • ‘Little Finger’: heirloom; a small Nantes type of carrot only 4 inches long and one inch thick; good for containers. 
  • ‘Nantes’: cylindrical (not tapered); 6 to 7 inches; exceptionally sweet; crisp texture.
  • ‘Thumberline’: heirloom; round carrot, good for clumpy or clay soil and containers.
  • For unusual color, try heirloom ‘Red Cored Chantenay’ and bright ‘Solar Yellow’.

Carrots of many colors. Photo by USDA/Wikimedia

Wit & Wisdom

  • Not all carrots are orange; varieties vary in color from purple to white, and some are resistant to diseases and pests.
  • Long-lasting carrots are rich in sugar, and a great source of vitamins and carotene. Read more in Carrots: Health Benefits!
  • The Irish called carrots “underground honey,” due to this root vegetable’s sweetness.
  • Carrots were the first vegetable to be canned commercially.

Recipes

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Reader Comments

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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

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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
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