Cool-Season Vegetables: How to Grow Carrots

Carrots are fun to grow in fall or spring. First of all, they offer instant reward, or at least as instant as one can get with a vegetable — you can start harvesting some varieties in as little time as a month. Second, they have some cute shapes. You can go for the traditional long, thin carrot, but you can also find ones that are round, short and stubby or even shaped like a heart. Third, their lacy tops, which belie the sturdy roots beneath the ground, are great fillers in a veggie garden and right at home among ornamentals. Finally, they’re great to eat raw or cooked, in everything from soup to cake.

More: How to grow cool-season vegetables

When to plant: Sow carrot seeds in early spring and then again in late summer if you have cold winters. If your winters are mild, with only occasional light frost, you can grow carrots from late summer through spring.

Days to maturity: 30 to 80

Light requirement: Full sun

Water requirement: Regular, even moisture, otherwise they’ll become hard and misshapen

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Planting and care: If you want your carrots to look like those on the seed packet, you need really loose, fine soil that has no lumps, stones or roots for as deep as your carrots will grow. So, even more than with other vegetables, soil preparation a few weeks before planting is your first job. Add in plenty of amendments so the soil is very rich.

Carrot seeds are extremely small and can be hard to handle, and they do best sown directly in the ground. Sow them about a quarter inch deep in rows or broadcast them across a wide bed, then cover the seeds with more fine soil.

Keep the rows or bed moist for three weeks after sowing until the seeds have germinated. Continue to water regularly; carrots will dry out and become hard or split with inconsistent watering. Weed carefully. Once the greens reach 1 inch tall, start to thin the carrots to about 2 to 4 inches apart. Fortunately, you can eat the ones you thin, including the tops. Keep the tops of the roots covered so they don’t turn green.

Carrots have some problems with pests, particularly carrot weevils and carrot rust flies, but these are primarily problematic when plants are young. You may need to rotate your crop seasonally or use row covers until the plants are about 6 inches tall.


Harvest: Start to harvest once carrots reach your preferred size. The shorter the growing time, the smaller the carrot. Dig around carefully to pull them out. If you live where winters are very cold, you’ll need to harvest before the hard frosts. If your winters are not bitterly cold, but you still get freezes, cover carrots with hay or straw after the first hard frost and then continue to harvest them. Remove the tops if you’re going to store them.

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