Vegetable · Apiaceae
Carrot
Daucus carota subsp. sativus
Offer it deep, loose soil and unwavering water, and the carrot returns sweet, straight roots for the table.
Full sun
Every 3–7 days
41–77°F · 5–25°C
60–80 days
Overview
Few crops earn their place in the kitchen garden as quietly as the carrot. It is a cool-season root vegetable, all feathery green above and a long, sweet taproot doing its work out of sight below. Kin to parsley and dill, the carrot traces its wild line back to Central Asia, and while the orange root is the one most of us picture, the crop also turns up in purple, red, yellow, and white, a palette worth playing with on the plate.
Everything hinges on the soil you give it. Deep, loose, stone-free ground lets the root descend in a clean line, while heavy clay or a hidden rock leaves you with something forked and stubby. Prepare the bed with care first, and the season that follows asks little more than patience.
Think of it as a biennial grown as an annual: you lift the root in its first year and rarely meet the flower, which arrives only when a plant is left to overwinter. Sow the seed where it is to stay, thin the crowd, water faithfully, and lean the crop toward cool weather, which is where the sweetest roots are made.
Care
The short version: give carrots full sun in deep, loose, rock-free soil, keep the moisture steady at about an inch a week, thin the seedlings so each root has its own space, and dig in a low-nitrogen feed before you sow.
Light
Carrots ask for full sun, six hours a day or more, though a little afternoon shade is welcome where the summer turns fierce. Cast them in too much shade and you get handsome tops over a thin, underwhelming root.
Water
Aim for soil that stays evenly moist, roughly an inch (2.5 cm) of water each week, given deeply enough to wet the entire root zone. Allow the bed to lurch from parched to flooded and the reward is bitter, tough, or split roots.
Soil
Here is where the whole crop is decided. Carrots want deep, loose, well-drained sandy loam picked clean of rocks, clods, and debris, sitting at a pH of 6.0 to 6.8, since any soil that is heavy or compacted forks and stunts the root.
Temperature
A cool-season crop through and through, the carrot is most at ease between 41°F and 77°F (5°C to 25°C). It takes frost in stride, and a brush of late-season cold turns starch to sugar and lifts the sweetness of the root.
Humidity
Plain outdoor air suits carrots perfectly, so there is no humidity figure to chase. The thing that truly matters is even soil moisture, not anything held in the air.
Feeding
Turn a low-nitrogen balanced fertilizer such as 5-10-10 into the bed before sowing, with an optional side-dress at midseason. Lean too hard on nitrogen, or reach for fresh manure, and it works against you, throwing out forked, hairy roots.
Pruning
There is nothing to prune, but thinning is non-negotiable. Once the tops climb to about 2 inches (5 cm), thin the seedlings to 2 to 3 inches (5 to 8 cm) apart, snipping them off rather than tugging so the roots that remain stay undisturbed.
Size & spacing
The leafy tops rise about 8 to 16 inches (20 to 40 cm) with the roots tucked below, and each plant wants 2 to 3 inches (5 to 8 cm) of its own room to swell to full size.
When to plant
Carrots are creatures of the cool season, at their finest in the gentler weeks at either end of the year. Start the first sowing a couple of weeks ahead of the last spring frost, repeat every few weeks into midsummer, and the roots arrive from early summer through fall, all the sweeter for any frost that catches them.
Northern hemisphere
Southern hemisphere
Typical months for a temperate climate: start earlier in warm zones, later where spring frosts linger.
- Plant: Direct sow outdoors 2-3 weeks before the last spring frost once soil is workable and at least 7°C (45°F); succession sow every 2-3 weeks through midsummer for a fall crop
- Harvest: Harvest roots at any usable size, typically 60-80 days after sowing; fall crops can stay in the ground into cool weather, which improves sweetness. Flowers only appear in the second year if roots are overwintered.
Hardiness
USDA hardiness zones: 3–10
Temperature: down to -40°C
Troubleshooting
Most of what goes wrong with carrots happens below the surface, so the tops seldom raise the alarm in time. Learn to read the handful of signs that do appear, and lift a sample root the moment something seems off. Match it to the list below, then put the bed right before you sow again.
Rust-stained burrows running through the root
Grubby channels stuffed with rusty droppings are the signature of carrot rust fly larvae, while tidier round holes suggest wireworms have been at work. A few shallow tunnels you can pare off, but a root riddled through belongs in the compost or the bin. Lay floating row cover over the bed from the day you sow, shift the planting away from last season's carrot ground, and wait out the first flight of egg-laying flies before you sow.
Fix:
- Harvest promptly and discard heavily damaged roots
- Cut away lightly damaged tissue and use the remainder
Twisted yellow new leaves over a hairy, bitter root
What you are seeing is aster yellows, a phytoplasma that hitches a ride on leafhoppers from one plant to the next. The young inner foliage yellows and curls while the outer leaves redden, and below ground the root sours and sprouts a thick beard of side roots. No treatment exists, so lift and destroy every affected plant, then keep leafhoppers at bay with row cover and clear the weed hosts growing nearby.
Fix:
- Remove and destroy infected plants; there is no cure
Woody, bitter, or stunted roots at harvest
A carrot left to dry out and then drowned, over and over, turns bitter and tough by the time you dig it. Skip the thinning and the seedlings crowd one another into a tangle of skinny roots, and a spell of summer heat while they size up sours the flavor further. Settle the watering to a steady inch a week, thin the row to 2 to 3 inches (5 to 8 cm) apart, and time the crop so it matures in cool weather.
Fix:
- Resume deep, even watering of about 2.5 cm (1 in) per week
- Thin remaining seedlings to 5-8 cm (2-3 in) apart
Roots that come up forked, crooked, or split
Pull a carrot that has wrapped itself around a buried stone or a hard clump of earth, and you find a split, kinked root that grew sideways to get past the blockage. Fresh manure or a heavy hand with nitrogen brings on the same forking and a fringe of hairy side roots, and root-knot nematodes can also be to blame. The cure is in the prep: dig the bed deep and clear out the stones before sowing, and your next harvest comes up clean and straight.
Fix:
- Harvest and use affected roots normally; flavor is unaffected by simple forking
- Deeply loosen and rake the bed, removing rocks and clods, before the next sowing
A band of green across the crown
Green shoulders show up where the top of the root nudges out of the soil and the sun reaches it. Only the upper inch or so goes green, and the carrot underneath is faultless once you slice that part off. Draw a little soil or mulch up over the crowns while the roots are swelling, and you head off the trouble before it begins.
Fix:
- Trim off the green portion before eating; the rest of the root is fine
Toxicity
As garden plants go, the carrot is among the most reassuring. Both root and leafy top are simply food, with nothing toxic to pets, livestock, or children. The single caution is a large raw chunk, a choking hazard, so cut it down for small mouths.
Safe for
People · Cats · Dogs · Horses · Rabbits · Livestock · Birds
Cats None
There is nothing in a carrot to worry a cat, and a few shreds of raw or cooked root make a harmless little treat. Most cats turn up their noses at it anyway, and the one thing to mind is a big raw piece, so dice it small.
Dogs None
A dog can tuck into carrot with zero concern, raw or cooked, and plenty love gnawing a whole chilled one as a low-calorie chew. Trim the larger pieces down so they are kind to the teeth.
Horses None
The carrot is a time-honored horse treat that does no harm in reasonable amounts. Snap them into long strips rather than coin-shaped rounds, which can stick in the throat, and keep the portions small for an easy keeper.
Rabbits None
For a rabbit, the feathery tops make the better meal, because the root carries a lot of sugar and suits only the odd nibble. None of it is poisonous, simply rich, so be sparing with the orange part.
Livestock None
Cattle, goats, sheep, and pigs all enjoy carrots and the tops with no risk of poisoning. Bring them into the diet slowly and chop the roots up so a hungry animal does not gulp a whole one and choke.
Birds None
Backyard hens and pet parrots can have carrot as they please, and the bright flesh delivers a useful dose of vitamin A. Grate or chop it finely so smaller birds can handle it, and the leafy tops are welcome too.
People None
This is an everyday vegetable that people of any age eat raw or cooked with nothing to be wary of. Put away a great many over a stretch of time and the skin can take on a faint orange cast, which is harmless and fades once you ease off.
No special handling required.
Varieties
Carrots come shaped for every kind of soil, from the long supermarket types to squat roots that take heavy ground in stride. These are the names worth keeping in mind as you plan the bed.
Danvers 126
A tapered root around 6 to 7 inches (15 to 18 cm) long that handles heavier garden ground far more gracefully than the long, slim types do.
Scarlet Nantes
The dependable home-garden favorite: sweet, crisp, cylinder-shaped roots with a blunt tip that taste their best eaten fresh from the bed.
Imperator types
The long, slender carrots familiar from the produce aisle, which only run straight where the soil is deep, loose, and free of stones.
Red Cored Chantenay
A short, broad-shouldered carrot suited to shallow or heavy beds, the kind of ground where longer roots would only struggle.
Thumbelina
A little round carrot at home in containers and in the clay or stony beds where standard roots tend to fork and stall.
Companions
Carrots do best beside onion-family plants that throw off the carrot rust fly, and quick crops like radish that share the row while the slow seed germinates.
Plant near
onion: Onion-family plants interplanted with carrots are traditionally used to help deter carrot rust fly
leek: Like onions, leeks are used in extension companion guides to help confuse and deter carrot rust fly
radish: Fast-germinating radishes sown beside slow carrots mark rows and save space; cited as a space-saving intercrop by UMN Extension
lettuce: Shallow-rooted lettuce shares bed space without competing with the deep carrot taproot
Keep apart
dill: Some extension companion guides advise keeping dill away from maturing carrots; the related species may cross-react and dill can attract pests of the carrot family
How to propagate
There is just one way to make more carrots, and that is from seed sown directly into the ground, since the taproot will not survive being lifted and moved.
SeedEasy
Early spring through midsummer, once soil is at least 7°C (45°F) · Germination in 1-3 weeks; roots reach usable size in about 60-80 days
Seed is the only route to more carrots, sown straight into the bed because the taproot will not tolerate a move. Set it about a quarter inch (6 mm) down any time from early spring through midsummer, once the soil warms to 45°F (7°C), and keep the surface steadily damp across the 1 to 3 weeks it takes to germinate, a wait slow enough to test the most patient gardener. The roots then plump up to eating size over roughly 60 to 80 days.
Myths
Carrots can be raised indoors and set out as transplants, the same way you start tomatoes.
Lifting a young carrot upsets the fragile taproot right when it should be driving straight down, and a forked or stubby root is the result. Sow carrots exactly where they are meant to grow, and thin them in place instead of moving them.
A carrot has to be out of the ground before the first frost, or it is spoiled.
Fall carrots shrug off a light frost without complaint. The chill actually converts starch into sugar, so the roots grow sweeter the longer they linger in cool soil, and across many regions you can keep lifting them well into late fall.