Carrots are Ready

The carrots I planted in early April are finally ready to start harvesting. As you can see the carrots mostly are a good size and have a nice shape to them. I will harvest approximately a third of this bed and leave the smaller ones in the ground another week or two to give them a chance to grow larger. I don’t want to let them go too long however since they will be at risk of ground pests the longer they are in. You can tell they are ready if you see the carrot popping out of the ground.

Carrots prefer cooler weather. Perfect growing conditions would be nights in the 50’s and days in the 70’s but I’ve found they can produce all summer in my location and can tolerate light frost as well. I usually do three plantings. One in the beginning of April, one in the beginning of June and one toward the end of July for harvest in late autumn. This keeps me in carrots for half the year.

I plant carrots in squares as most things in my garden. The whole idea to planting in squares is to maximize space. The ground must be loamy with good drainage for any root crop to thrive so adjust your bed accordingly if you have a lot of clay or rocky soil. A good rounded organic fertilizer is recommended since carrots are fairly heavy feeders.

So once my bed is ready I move some soil to one side, spread my seeds down as even as possible, and rake back the displaced soil. They should not be planted too deep - 1/4 to 1/2" is deep enough. I keep the ground evenly moist without overwatering while waiting for the seeds to emerge. Carrot can take a little longer to germinate than some other seeds such as lettuce, radishes or beets so don’t get discourage if they don’t pop up right away. They should emerge in 7-10 days however.

After they emerge I keep them watered but don’t disturb them for a week or two. I then do an initial thinning so the tiny plants are 1-2” apart.

A couple weeks later I’ll go through again and thin until they are 2-4” apart. It is important to thin them sufficiently or your carrots will not grow big.

Usually not all my carrots come out perfect but if I can get 75% or better to form nice carrots I feel the crop was a success. Some carrots will be deformed or cracked which is usually caused by poor soil conditions, harmful nematodes or inadequate watering. Carrots prefer even watering of around an inch a week so don’t overdo it but keep them wet. Of course there is nothing you can do if you are in a monsoon season. Adding compost which is rich in predatory microorganisms can help with nematodes.

Here are a few ugly ones that came out today.

But if conditions are ideal and soil is prepared properly your results should look something like this (this picture was taken a few years ago).

Thanks for reading and good luck with your carrots. Please upvote and resteem if you enjoyed my post.