It is well worth your time and effort to grow this popular root vegetable in your garden patch. Homegrown carrots are a sweet and crunchy taste treat, are easy to store so they can be enjoyed year-round, and have many culinary uses. Not only that, but they are good for you too, being rich in beta-carotene (which our bodies turn into Vitamin A) as well as supplying moderate amounts of Vitamin K and potassium. Sadly, it is a myth (unless you are deficient in Vitamin A) that eating carrots will improve your eyesight or help you see in the dark.
The carrot (Daucus carota subsp. sativus), a biennial, is a kissing cousin to wild Queen Anne’s Lace (and will cross-pollinate with it) and is related to parsley, celery, fennel, coriander and dill. If allowed to go to seed in their second-year carrots are excellent attractants for a number of beneficial insects that prefer their small umbrella shaped flowers. The wild ancestors of carrots had their origins in central Asia, gradually spreading across Europe and to North America. Originally carrots were grown for their aromatic leaves and seeds, not their roots. Carrot greens are edible, however are not generally considered palatable by today’s standards. Until relatively recently you would only find orange carrots in the grocery stores or available through seed companies, now of course a number of different colours such as yellow, purple or red are cultivated. In fact, the ancestors of our modern carrots did indeed come in various shades, with the Dutch being credited with popularizing the orange varieties.
In our area, carrots can be sown as early as April, soil temperature for optimal seed germination being somewhere between 7 and 25 C. To ensure a continuous harvest sow seeds every three weeks. Alternately, sow enough at one time to carry you through to next spring. Carrot seed can take between two and three weeks to germinate, depending on soil temperature, so don’t panic if nothing shows up for a while. If germination seems sparse you can always reseed to fill in, but usually it’s the other way around, as carrots require enough space between each one to reach their full potential. It is possible to start them indoors, transplanting out once they are an inch or so tall; this allows you to carefully space them the right distance apart. When transplanting carefully poke a hole in the soil and make sure the root is straight, filling in around it. This method takes a little time and patience, but is worthwhile if you aren’t planting a large amount and don’t want to have to thin out the seedlings. And they are less likely to succumb to predation by sow bugs since they are a bit bigger. As carrots are relatively slow to take off, it is advisable to plant some fast-growing crop such as radishes or lettuce that can fill in the space and be harvested before the carrots take over.
There are a number of varieties that have somewhat differing attributes, such as shape, length, strength of foliage, colour, days to maturity, and taste. Read up on them and pick one or two types you might want to try out. The most common varieties grown here are Nantes, Imperator, Danvers and Chantenay.
Carrots are pretty easy to grow, but there are a few things you need to pay close attention to if you want to harvest a successful crop. They prefer a site in full sun although they will tolerate a little shade. Give them a loamy, somewhat sandy soil, with a pH between 5.8 and 6.5, amended with some good compost. The soil should be well drained and free of rocks. Broadcast the seed or plant in rows in well moistened soil, approximately 4 seeds per 2.5 cm (1 inch), and barely cover with soil (about ½ cm. or ¼ inch). it is VERY important to keep the top portion of the soil moist, to ensure germination and survival of the tiny seedlings. To do this you can cover the bed with row cover or boards to hold in the moisture (remove once the seedlings start to emerge), or simply keep a close eye on the bed and water as needed. If you’re like most of us, you’ve probably sown the seeds a little (or a lot) too close together. While it is painful to remove healthy baby plants, it is necessary to thin them out so there is enough space (5-7 cm. or 2-3 inches) between plants to accommodate a nice sized root. Yes, I admit that I’m not good at following my own advice, but you need to trust me on this, otherwise you’ll end up with lots of green tops but tiny crowded bottoms. You will probably thin them a couple of times as they grow, starting when the seedlings are approximately 2.5 cm (1 inch) tall. Keep the soil mulched around the top of the root to avoid bitter green shoulders on the carrots. Water regularly, keep the weeds down, and you’re pretty much good to go.
There are a few pests of carrots that need to be managed. The Carrot Rust Fly is endemic in our area. There can be three generations of this fly, with the larvae overwintering in the root of the carrot while pupae will overwinter in the top layer of soil. The fly lays its eggs at the crown of the plant and the larvae eat into the root, creating brownish tunnels. This affects the edibility and storage life of the carrot. The only really effective way to combat this insect is by denying it access to the plants by covering the carrot bed with row cover like Remay or recycled sheer curtains, ensuring that there are no cracks or holes where the little beggars can sneak in. Do this even before seeds germinate as the fly can locate even the tiny carrots through its sense of smell. As they cannot fly higher than 2’ (maybe – there is some skepticism about this), you can also wrap the outside of the bed with the cloth to this height or more. My preferred method is to hoop a raised bed and drape the row cover over it, covering sides and ends, holding the cover down at the edges with 2”x2” boards weighted down with bricks. There is some evidence that delaying sowing of carrots until some time after mid May will spare them attack from the overwintered generation, and carrots harvested before mid July likewise might escape damage from second generation flies. However, this does not appear to be foolproof (and is certainly rather restrictive as to viable planting dates), so my advice personally is to go for the row cover method of control. If you do find evidence of damage from the fly, be sure to rotate your crop into a new area the following year and remove all carrots from the affected bed. Other common pests are wire worms, the larvae of click beetles. Turn over the soil in your carrot bed before seeding to expose and get rid of these creatures, or attract them to a piece of potato or carrot buried in the bed so you can dig these up and destroy the worms before seeding the desired crop. Also, it has been found that planting a cover crop of buckwheat helps suppress wireworms as they are sensitive to certain phytochemicals that occur in the buckwheat. Sow bugs (a.k.a. wood bugs and pill bugs) can also sometimes be a problem, eating the emerging seedlings when they are still fairly small. These little crustaceans prefer to avoid bright daylight by hiding in moist, protected spots, so try to avoid having rotting wood and thick compost near areas they are not wanted. Keep mulch away from the seedlings until they are bigger and water in the morning so the soil is less damp overnight when the critters are more active. Diatomaceous earth around the seedlings will deter these bugs but remember that it also kills any beneficial insects that walk over it. One of our native spiders, Dysdera crocata, feeds solely on sow bugs and pill bugs. If you see this reddish brown and tan coloured spider, please thank it and leave it to get on with its job.
Carrots can take anywhere from 60-90 days to “maturity”, however you can begin to harvest them any time during the growing season, pulling a few here and there for some tasty “baby” carrots to eat raw or steam for the dinner table. Carrots will keep for a couple of months in the refrigerator. Or for long term storage put healthy carrots (with the tops cut off to about 2.5 cm. or 1 inch), in a box or other container in a cool basement or root cellar, between layers of damp sand. The storage temperature ideally should be between 0 and 4 C. (32 to 40 F.) and humidity between 90-95%. Don’t store them near any fruits or veggies that produce ethylene gas, such as apples or onions. This will cause the carrots to possibly become bitter and not store for as long. An easier way (and my preferred method) to keep carrots over the winter is to just leave them in the ground. I mulch around them with leaves and harvest as needed until next spring, when I dig them up and store the remainder in the refrigerator until the last of them are used up.
I probably don’t need to remind you that there are many ways to enjoy eating this nutritious vegetable, but I will anyway. My preference is serving them raw with perhaps a little dip, but they can be grated in salads, steamed, roasted, pickled, made into jam or incorporated in muffins and cakes. Start some now so you can anticipate savoring some flavourful carrots from your garden later this summer.
Article by Marion Woloschuk, Master Gardener with the Vancouver Island Master Gardeners Association (VIMGA)
