How to grow the sweetest carrots

Before you plant your carrots, make sure your soil has been worked until it is light and airy. If the soil is too hard, carrots won’t be able to push through the hard dirt to form beautiful roots.

Spring 2019: Carrots between peas and onions

You’ll know when to plant carrots by the soil. When the soil is workable, carrots can go in the garden. They don’t mind a few crisp nights in their early stage of growth.

In fact, we actually plant carrots in September, too, and allow them to winter over in a covered garden bed. This gives us a Spring crop of carrots that are much sweeter than summer-grown carrots.

We always have help from Piper when thinning our carrots.

Tip: Because carrot seeds are tiny and the Kansas wind is strong, we use carrot seed tape. This produces perfect rows of carrots that also are perfectly spaced (3” apart).

• It keeps us from having to thin out the carrots, too, which can sometimes disrupt the neighboring carrot’s root system.

If you direct sow carrot seed without using the tape method, watch the wind. if it catches your seed, you’re likely to have carrots growing sporadically throughout your garden.

Once we lay down our carrot seed tape, we cover it lightly with soil. Carrots like to see the sun, and actually need this in order to germinate. If rains come too quickly after planting carrots, you may need to replant. Last year we planted carrots three times before we were successful due to the massive amounts of rain we received.

If you want multiple harvests of carrots, plant every three weeks. Keep the soil moist with frequent shallow waterings. Be sure the soil on top doesn’t dry out and crust over as this will make it hard for your carrots to pop through.

Carrots are sometimes slow to germinate (2 to 3 weeks), so it’s a good lesson in patience.

Fertilize your carrots with a low-nitrogen but high-potassium and high-phosphate fertilizer 5 to 6 weeks after sowing. (It’s important to note that excess nitrogen in the soil with promote top growth, or foliage, but not root growth.)

Happy carrot planting… and thinning!

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“No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden. ” — Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States

Noted chef Jonathan Bardzik discusses the many uses of carrots. This vegetable can be used in both sweet and savory dishes.

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Do you have gardening questions? Ask our experts in the comments section below. They’d love to share their knowledge with you!