Roots & tubers
Carrot
Never transplant.
- Outside
- Direct Apr to Jul, succession
- Where
- Raised bed or in ground
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Damp till sprouted, then deep and even; swings fork it
- Harvest
- 60 to 80 days, fall sweetest
Care
- Water
- Keep the seedbed from crusting through the slow germination, which drags 2 to 3 weeks; water lightly when the surface dries, or lay a board over the furrow. Once up, switch to a deep soak every 5 to 7 days, every 3 to 4 in July heat, letting the top inch dry between. A wet-then-dry swing forks and splits the roots.
- Sow
- Sow from mid April through July, once the soil holds 45F, a quarter inch deep and about a quarter inch apart, in rows a foot to 18 inches apart in deeply worked, stone-free soil. Thin early, cutting rather than pulling, to 1 to 3 inches so the shoulders have room to swell.
- Feed
- A shovel of compost or castings worked into the bed at sowing carries this crop; it needs no more. A light feeder that wants no nitrogen push, since a rich or freshly manured bed grows forked, whiskery roots. Skip the liquid feed.
- Ready
- Pull at whatever size you like from about 60 days on; there is no wrong diameter. Lift with a fork where the bed is dense so they do not snap. Roots left through a frost or two in fall turn the sweetest.
- Trouble
- Rusty tunnels through the root: carrot rust fly, a weak low flier that a covered row keeps out. Forked or split roots: rocks or a water swing, so work the soil deep and keep moisture even. Woody, hairy, bitter roots: leafhopper-spread disease, pull the affected plants.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 10–15 gal bag.
- Water
- Water daily once they are up in summer heat; a bag dries far faster than a bed. 60 to 90 sec on the shower dial through a deep bag until it runs from the base.
- Sow
- Use a tall bag filled with loose, stone-free mix; a shallow one forks the roots. Sow and thin at the same spacing as the bed.
Carrots go in as seed and stay put: succession sowings from April through July, pulled from July to November. The fall pulls, sweetened by cold, are the crop's whole argument.
Growing
Direct sow from mid April onward, a fresh row every few weeks through July; that July sowing becomes the sweet fall crop. They demand loose, rock-free soil a foot down or the roots fork, so a deeply dug bed earns its keep here, as does a tall bag of loose mix. Sow shallow and keep the surface damp for the slow two to three week germination (a board over the row helps), then thin ruthlessly to an inch or two. Mulch the last rows deeply and keep pulling into November.
Varieties
Napoli and Yaya are the sweet early pulls; Bolero holds for fall and storage; Danvers 126 copes when the soil is less than perfect.
Pests
Carrot rust fly maggots tunnel rusty scribbles through the roots, but the fly is a weak, low flier; a row cover over spring sowings, or a bag up off the ground, mostly defeats it. Wireworms sometimes drill fall roots in beds converted from lawn; the damage is cosmetic, so carve around it.
In the kitchen
Summer pulls get eaten raw at the sink. Fall carrots roast whole and anchor soup, and the November ones out of the mulch taste like a different, better vegetable.