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Carrots are sweet, crunchy, delicious, and nutritious, making them an excellent addition to your home garden. These Vitamin A rich vegetables can be cooked, eaten raw, preserved and make an excellent addition to so many dishes. If you’ve eaten a carrot from the grocery store, and never had one fresh from the garden, you are missing out on carrots’ true sweetness. From harvesting to the grocery store, the natural sugars in carrots will turn to fiber and not have the same flavor profile as a market or home grown counterparts. Carrots are a cool-season crop that belong to the Apiaceae family alongside parsnips, celery, and cilantro. These are flowering vegetables with very similar leaf structures.If they’re allowed to bolt (grow flowers) carrots can reseed and be grown as a biennial.
While they can be tricky to grow for first time gardeners, the first step in being successful growing carrots is understanding the different varieties and how they perform in the type of soil you have in your garden. The first problem that most people encounter when growing carrots is that they won’t germinate. This is likely due to the soil being too hard, or crusting, and potentially having chosen the wrong variety for your soil type. But before we get to those solutions, it’s best to figure out what kind of carrot you would prefer to grow in your garden.Â
Carrots are well suited for containers with a little planning. Your container should be deep enough to make sure that the roots have plenty of room to grow down in loose, well draining soil. So depending on the size of your container, a smaller variety like the stout Oxheart Carrot would be an ideal candidate to grow in a container like a Root Pouch.
A major benefit to growing carrots in containers is weed control. While carrots naturally do a good job of suppressing weeds because of their hefty tops, growing them in containers helps with weed control even more so.Â
Container grown carrots need more moisture on average than carrots grown in the ground but too much moisture can cause the roots to rot. So make sure that your container is well draining to keep moisture balanced.Â
Carrots like cool weather and don’t tolerate heat well at all. This make them a perfect vegetable to plant in either Spring or early Fall. Carrot seeds tend to germinate better at a soil temperature of at least 55°F – 65°F, but not as high as 75°F.Â
Depending on your climate, if you’re planning on a Spring harvest, start your seeds outdoors 2 to 3 weeks before your last Spring frost. For a fall harvest, you’ll want to get your seeds in the ground much earlier – from 8 to 10 weeks before your first Fall frost.Â
Carrots grow best when direct-seeded outdoors and doesn’t transplant well because they don’t like having their roots disturbed. Carrot seedlings may have a hard time emerging due to hard top soil, or crusting. See Extra Credit below for a handy tip to avoid crusting!
We recommend direct seeding carrots in a thick band along the desired row. This will ensure a solid stand of carrots and help to aid in weed control once tops get larger. Carrots are a great crop for double-row planting on drip irrigation. When choosing a spot to grow summer squash, full sun is always recommended.
For this strategy, plant two rows 3″ apart with drip tape in the middle then skip about 12′, then plant another two rows 3″ apart. The double row technique allows for easy weed control because the tops shade the area between the double rows. It also allows you to maximize the garden space because you can get two rows of harvest for almost the same amount of space as one row.
Row Spacing – 2 to 3 feet
Plant Spacing – 24 to 40 seeds per ft in the row (On the higher rate come back and thin after they emerge)
Planting Depth – Lightly cover
Row Spacing – 1 to 2 feet
Plant Spacing – 24 to 40 seeds per ft in the row or 24 to 30 per sq ft (On the higher rate come back and thin after they emerge)
Planting Depth – Lightly cover
Carrots grow best in a sandy loam soil so that the root has enough space to grow downward and not get stunted or misshapen. While you can absolutely grow carrots in clay soil, you just have to make sure that it is well drained and fairly loose. Be sure and match the appropriate carrot type to your soil type. An easy way to determine the type is that stubby type carrots can grow in clay soils but all carrots grow well in sandy soil.
HOSS always recommends getting a soil sample to your local extension office several weeks before planting. Once you get your results, you will need plenty of time to adjust your soil accordingly and make sure your plants are getting the best nutrients possible as soon as they hit the ground.
Click Here to find your local extension office.
Drip irrigation will control the amount of water each plant gets and will push water into the soil slowly and precisely for maximum absorption. Too much water too fast can cause stress to the plants and keep oxygen from getting to the root systems. On the flip side, too little water can result in low yields and increased disease and pest issues, and a host of other problems. As a good rule of thumb, regardless of how you water your carrots, be sure they’re getting at least 1 to 2 inches of water per week but checking in on your plants and watering as needed is really the best way to manage irrigation for carrots.
Several Weeks Before Planting
Test your soil at your local extension office.
1 Week Before Planting
After adjusting soil pH to 6.0 – 7.0, mix 1 1/2 cups per 10 ft. of row of Hoss Complete Organic Fertilizer with your soil.
2 Weeks After Planting
Sidedress 1-2 cups of Hoss Complete Organic Fertilizer per 10 ft. of row.
Every 14 Days After
Mix 1 tablet each of Dr. Joe Nutri Bubble -AND- Dr. Joe All Purpose Growing Bubble into 1 gallon of water. Apply as a drench per 5 sq. ft or 5 ft of row in raised beds
Several Weeks Before Planting
Test your soil at your local extension office.
1 Week Before Planting
After adjusting soil pH to 6.0 – 7.0, mix 1 1/2 cups per 10 ft. of row of Hoss Complete Organic Fertilizer with your soil.
2 Weeks After Planting
Using the Hoss Fertilizer Injector, Mix 1 cup of Hoss Premium 20-20-20 Fertilizer -AND -1-2 cups of Hoss Micro-Boost Micronutrient Supplement per 20 ft. of row.
Every 14 days After
Mix 1 cup of Hoss Premium 20-20-20 -AND -1-2 cups of Hoss Micro-Boost Micronutrient Supplement per 20 ft. of row.
Garden Insect Spray – Leaf miners
Horticultural Oil – Aphids, Leaf Miners
Bug Buster-O – Aphids, Leaf Miners
Take Down Garden Spray – Aphids, Army Worms, Whiteflies
Diatomaceous Earth – Cutworms, Leaf Miners
Neem Oil – Aphids, Leaf Miners
Non-Organic Controls
Bug buster ll – Aphids, Wireworms, Cutworms, Mole Crickets, Leaf Miners
Treat as needed using label instructions.
Non-Organic Controls
Proper Crop Rotation – Root Knot Nematode, Southern Blight
Complete Disease Control – Powdery Mildew, Leaf Spots, Grey Mold
Carrots generally taste better the smaller they are because the sugars in the vegetable haven’t begun to convert to fiber. The best way to determine if your carrots are ready for harvest is to check the top of the root for its size. If you’re growing carrots like the long, thin Viper Carrot, they will be mature at around 1/2″ to 3/4″ in diameter. Stockier varieties like the Hercules Carrot will be at full maturity at 1/2″ around. So if you want a sweeter carrot, harvest your crop at a smaller diameter.
To harvest carrots, a simple twist a pull motion is the easiest method as long as the soil isn’t too hard. Using a garden fork or shovel in colder soils can help get them out easier. If you’re growing carrots in the winter, letting one or two frosts occur before harvesting will actually make the carrots sweeter. During the warmer months, if you experience a heat wave, it’s a good idea to go ahead and pull up the whole harvest so you’re not as risk of the carrots getting bitter.
Like strawberries, carrots can actually be overwintered depending on your climate. As long as pests aren’t a present issue and the soil doesn’t completely freeze through and through, you can keep your carrots in the ground during the winter months. Simply use mulch or row covers and let the roots continue to get sweeter the colder it gets.
After harvest, cut the green tops off leaving about an inch or two, keeping the dirt on the roots, and store in a cool, dark place and use them as needed. If you’re storing fresh carrots to eat within a day or two, washing off the dirt is fine as long as you store them with plenty of cold and moisture. So a plastic perforated bag in the fridge with a damp paper towel will keep them fresh.Â
Because crusting can be such an issue with germination in carrots, planting a row of quick-growing radishes in between your rows will not only help you determine if you’re experiencing germination issues but also keep the soil loose as the radishes emerge. Beets are also a good option for this method. By the time the beets or radishes are fully mature, it’ll be time to thin your carrot seedlings.
Planting Shallots in the Garden On this week’s episode, Travis is planting shallots with the Hoss Wheel Hoe. Since shallots are Alliums, that means they are related to garlic and onions. Unlike onions, the shallots are planted in sets which is like an immature bulb that we plant and they will multiply out similar to
Lemon Drop, also known as spilanthes or the toothache plant, is a tropical perennial herb that flourishes in zones 10 and warmer, but it can also be grown as an annual. Spilanthes is native to Brazil and is now found throughout the world.Â
Benefits of Using Drip Tape The easiest way to maximize garden production with effective irrigation and steady water-soluble fertilizers is through the use of drip tape. Most people believe that drip tape can be used either on top or buried in the soil. However, drip tape was really made to go underneath the soil in
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