Carrots

Overview

Carrots can grow almost all year round! Just like most vegetables carrots taste better when they come freshly from the ground.

Varieties to choose (all sold by Kings Seeds)

• ‘Berlicum’: Roots normally reach 20cm in length in good soil.
• ‘Chantenay Red Cored’: Stump rooted with smooth skin. Probably the best flavoured.
• ‘Amsterdam Forcing 3’: Very sweet flavour, first choice for early sowing.
• ‘Flyaway’: Claimed to have resistance to root fly. A Nantes type for mid season use.

How to grow

Carrots are recommended to be sown from at the start of March to July, they prefer a stone and clay free soil. But the stump rooted varieties will grow well in grow bags if you’re short of space. Carrots cannot be transplanted they have to be sown directly into the soil and thinned out later to produce quality roots. Sow the seed thinly along drills  that are 1ins/25mm deep and 6ins/15cms apart for the early carrots and 12ins/30cms apart for the later sown maincrop carrots.

Water every 10-14 days in dry weather to keep them growing steadily and prevent the roots from splitting.

Keep the hoeing between the rows to keep weeds to a minimum as they will compete with the carrots for light, water and nutrients.

How to Harvest

Carrots generally take up to 12 – 16 weeks to harvesting. Lift them carefully with fork so you don’t damage them.

Issues

The carrot root fly lays its eggs alongside the carrots where they hatch into maggots which eat into roots causing them to crack and become unusable. To help prevent this always use a fresh site and cover with horticultural fleece. One method used by organic gardeners is to sow seed during Mid – July because around this time of the year the carrot root fly ceases to be active. The yellow rooted varieties are considered to show some resistance to carrot root fly.