Hello Friends!
Today I have some fun tips and tricks to a good carrot harvest
We eat lots of carrots around here.
We like them fresh and we really like them cooked with a roast or with a chicken.
Before we get into the tips to growing great carrots, here’s a little history of carrots.
Story goes that carrots were actually not orange until the seventeenth century. They were cultivated for William of Orange after he helped lead the Dutch to their independence. Before that all carrots were purple, yellow and white.
Now that we learned something new about the history of carrots lets get to the growing part.
1) Carrot seeds germinate the best when your soil temps are between 55 and 75 degrees F.
2) Don’t let your soil get too dry. Carrots can take up to three weeks to germinate and if you let your soil get too dry that can also delay or ruin your germination.
One way to help keep your baby plants from getting dry is to add a slightly thicker layer of soil over your seeds. Carrot seeds are small, by adding a little extra soil over the seeds you are going to have a smaller chance of them moving or getting washed away.
3) Carrots are a root vegetable, so they grow deep into the ground. In order to have nice long carrots you need a well-draining and aerated ground. We rotilled the garden then if you see any big rocks or additional weeds you will want to pull them out before you plant. We made hills this year the length of the rows and then planted. However in years past we have planted straight into the ground (no hills) and the carrots of done just fine.
Don’t worry to much about getting every last rock out of the way. Our garden space has LOTS of rocks and the carrots have grown well.
4) Before planting its best to get your row ready. If you are going to plant carrots beside each other make sure you leave 6-8 inches between the rows.
5) If you are planting more then one kind of carrot get your row markers ready. I have found its best to bring pen and paper with me to the garden, that way I can write what type I am planting in each row as I plant and not forget.
6) Now its time to plant. I plant more densely then needed and then come through and pull any carrots that are to thickly planted.
We tried using a seeder but it didn’t work as well with the tiny seeds.
Two ways to plant is to gently shake out seeds from your packet or put a few seeds in between your fingers and roll your fingers back and forth. The main thing is to try and get about 1 inch in between seeds.
7) Once you have the seeds in the rows you need to cover them. Like mentioned earlier, its best to cover your seeds with a little extra soil, about 1/4 inch will do.
8) Time to thin. Once you see baby plants growing you will want to make sure they have enough room to mature. Its good to have 2-3 inches in between your carrots. That will give your plants plenty of room to grow into full sized carrots, not intermingled tiny carrots (unless that’s what you want 
).
Another thing to remember to do is mark your calendar what day you planted them. Then look at your package(s) and mark what day they should be fully grown. That will help you so much! Since the plant grows underground you have to pull out a carrot to see of its ready and I rather pull out a carrot that is large then one that is too small.
One last thing.
Carrots can stay in the ground past the amount of days listed on the package.
Here’s a quick guide you can download and keep with your gardening info as a quick reference!
Last year I didn’t get all ours picked before the ground froze. When spring came we went out to see what they were like, and most of them were still good. The tops that had not been underground weren’t good, they were kinda rubbery, but (most) of the carrots that were underground were perfect.
I hope you find this helpful and end up with LOTS of carrots to enjoy!
I look forward to sharing more tips and tricks to help you succeed in the garden.
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