Roots & tubers
Carrot
The winter root here; sow Aug to Sep, again Feb.
- Outside
- Direct Aug to Sep, again Feb
- Where
- Raised bed or in ground, deep loose soil
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Daily till sprouted, then deep and even
- Harvest
- Oct to Dec, again Apr to May
Care
- Water
- Water lightly every day until the row is up; the August sowing germinates in the year's driest month, and a seedbed that dries and crusts is how the crop is lost. Once up, deep and even soaks, and never a wet-to-dry swing, which forks and splits the roots.
- Sow
- Direct sow, never transplanted: the state sheet says to plant the fall crop in August, and the county's list carries it through September; a February sowing repeats it in spring. A quarter inch deep, thinned to 1 to 3 inches, in the deepest, loosest soil the bed has.
- Feed
- A shovel of compost worked in at sowing carries the crop. A light feeder that wants no nitrogen push, since a rich or freshly fed bed grows forked, whiskery roots; skip the liquid feed.
- Ready
- Pull from about 60 days on, at any diameter you like. The frost is the point here: roots left through a frost or two sweeten, and with ground that never freezes solid the fall row holds in the bed and pulls all winter.
- Trouble
- Forked or stubby roots: heavy clay, fresh manure, or a water swing, so work the bed deep and keep moisture even. A crusted surface in the August sun stalls germination; water daily until the row stands. Roots turned hairy and bitter: pull the affected plants.
In a bag?
- Yes
- Up to a 5–10 gal bag.
- Water
- Daily until the row is up, then when the top inch dries; a bag dries far faster than a bed even in October.
- Sow
- A tall bag of loose, stone-free mix keeps roots straight; the Texas container guide lists carrots at 1 gallon, but depth is what stops the forking. Sow and thin as in the bed.
Carrots invert here: the main row is an August and September sowing pulled all winter, each frost sweetening the roots, with a February round for spring.
Growing
The state sheet says to plant the fall carrot crop in August, and the county's September-October lists carry carrots too, so the row goes in August and again in September, into still-warm soil that germinates fast. Keep the seedbed damp until the row stands, thin early by cutting rather than pulling, and mulch as the nights cool. From then on the climate does the work: the ground never freezes solid, so the crop winters over in the bed, sweetening after a frost or two, and the February sowing repeats it for pulls before the May heat.
Varieties
The state sheet lists Danvers 126, Danvers Half Long, Imperator 58, Nantes, Nantes Half Long, Red Core Chantenay, Royal Chantenay, Scarlet Nantes and Sugar Snax; Travis County adds Mokum, Napoli and Little Finger. Napoli was the fall-sweetening pick up north; here every fall root gets the frost treatment.
In the kitchen
Fall and winter carrots roast whole and anchor the soup pots, and the escabeche jar takes matchsticks alongside the jalapenos and onions. The last roots out of the mulch in a cold snap taste like a different, better vegetable than anything pulled in May.