Vegetable · Apiaceae
Carrot
Daucus carota subsp. sativus
Hand it deep, loose soil and steady water, and a carrot pays you back with sweet, straight roots.
Full sun
Every 3–7 days
41–77°F · 5–25°C
60–80 days
Overview
Carrots are a cool-season root crop topped with feathery foliage, and the long, sweet taproot does all its growing down in the dark. They share a family with parsley and dill, and the wild ancestor goes back to Central Asia. That orange root everybody pictures is just one choice, since carrots also show up in purple, red, yellow, and white.
Want to know what makes a carrot easy or tricky? It comes down to the soil beneath it. Deep, loose, stone-free ground lets the root drill straight down, while heavy clay or hidden rocks turn it into a stubby, forked mess. Sort the bed out first and the rest is mostly waiting.
It's a biennial grown as an annual, so you pull the root in year one and never spot a flower unless a plant survives the winter. Drop the seed right where it'll grow, thin the crowd, never skip a watering, and aim the crop at cool weather for the sweetest roots.
Care
The short version: give them 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 elbow room, and mix a low-nitrogen feed into the bed before you sow.
Light
Carrots are after full sun, six hours a day or more, though a bit of afternoon shade is fine where summers get scorching. Pile on too much shade and you'll get leafy tops with sad little roots.
Water
Keep that soil evenly moist, roughly an inch (2.5 cm) of water a week, and water deeply so it sinks through the whole root zone. Let the bed flip between bone dry and drenched and you'll get bitter, tough, or split roots.
Soil
Here's the make-or-break part. Carrots need deep, loose, well-drained sandy loam picked clean of rocks, clods, and debris, sitting at a pH of 6.0 to 6.8, because anything heavy or packed down forks and stunts the root.
Temperature
Carrots are a cool-season crop, most content between 41°F and 77°F (5°C to 25°C). They shrug off frost, and a bit of late-season cold flips starch into sugar and sweetens the root.
Humidity
Plain old outdoor humidity suits them just fine, so there's no number to fuss over. What really counts is even soil moisture, not anything floating in the air.
Feeding
Work a low-nitrogen balanced fertilizer like 5-10-10 into the bed before sowing, with an optional side-dress come midseason. Pour on the nitrogen or fresh manure and it backfires, throwing out forked, hairy roots.
Pruning
No pruning here, but thinning isn't something you can skip. Once the tops hit about 2 inches (5 cm), thin the seedlings to 2 to 3 inches (5 to 8 cm) apart, snipping instead of yanking so you don't jostle the roots that are staying.
Size & spacing
The tops reach roughly 8 to 16 inches (20 to 40 cm) tall, with the roots tucked below. Space each plant 2 to 3 inches (5 to 8 cm) apart so every root has the room to bulk up.
When to plant
Carrots are happiest in the cool stretches at either end of the season. Get the first sowing in a couple of weeks ahead of the last spring frost, keep sowing every few weeks into midsummer, and the roots come ready from early summer right through fall, picking up extra sweetness from any frost they meet.
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
Here's the catch with carrots: most of their trouble stays hidden underground until you pull a root, so the tops won't tip you off in time. Get to know the few warning signs that do show, and dig a sample whenever something seems off. Match it below, then fix the bed before your next sowing.
Rust-packed tunnels running through the roots
See grubby little channels stuffed with rust-colored frass? That's the handiwork of carrot rust fly larvae, while neater round holes usually mean wireworms instead. You can cut light damage away, but heavily chewed roots are best tossed. Lay floating row cover over the bed right from sowing, shift the patch away from where carrots grew last year, and put off sowing until that first wave of egg-laying flies has moved on.
Fix:
- Harvest promptly and discard heavily damaged roots
- Cut away lightly damaged tissue and use the remainder
Yellow, contorted new leaves plus a hairy, bushy root
What you're looking at is aster yellows, a phytoplasma that leafhoppers ferry from one plant to the next. The newest leaves go yellow and twist while the outer ones blush red, and the root turns bitter and sprouts a beard of stringy side roots. Nothing fixes it, so pull and destroy any plant that's hit, then fend off leafhoppers with row cover and clear away weedy hosts close by.
Fix:
- Remove and destroy infected plants; there is no cure
Roots that taste bitter, go woody, or stay small
Why do carrots turn bitter and woody? Usually it's watering that bounces between dry and soaked, or a row that never got thinned. Seedlings packed too close fight for space and end up thin and tangled, and a hot spell while the roots are sizing up sours the flavor even more. Settle into a steady inch of water a week, thin to 2 to 3 inches (5 to 8 cm) apart, and time the crop for 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 fork, twist, or come up crooked
So what's going on when the taproot meets a rock, a clod, or packed-down ground? It just bends and splits its way around whatever's in the path. Fresh manure or too much nitrogen triggers the same forked, hairy mess, and you can blame root-knot nematodes now and then as well. Dig the bed deep and clear the stones before sowing, and your next batch grows nice 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
Green caps showing on the root shoulders
Ever noticed a green crown on top of a carrot? That's green shoulders, and it happens when the top of the root nudges up out of the soil and gets a dose of sunlight. Only the top inch or so is affected, so trim that bit off and the rest eats just fine. Mound a little soil or mulch over the crowns while the roots fatten and it won't happen in the first place.
Fix:
- Trim off the green portion before eating; the rest of the root is fine
Toxicity
Carrots are about as harmless as garden plants come. The root and the leafy tops are both food, with nothing toxic to pets, livestock, or kids. The one thing to keep an eye on is a big raw chunk, which can be a choking hazard, so cut it down for little mouths.
Safe for
People · Cats · Dogs · Horses · Rabbits · Livestock · Birds
Cats None
Carrot is perfectly fine for cats, and a bit of cooked or grated raw makes a harmless snack. Most cats can take it or leave it, and the only thing to watch is a big raw piece becoming a choking hazard, so keep it small.
Dogs None
Dogs handle carrot just fine, raw or cooked, no worries there. Plenty of them love gnawing a whole cold one as a low-calorie chew. Just cut the chunky pieces down so they're gentle on the teeth.
Horses None
Carrots are a go-to horse treat and do no harm in reasonable amounts. Snap them into long strips instead of coin-shaped rounds, which can get stuck in the throat, and keep portions small for an easy keeper.
Rabbits None
For a rabbit, the leafy tops are the smarter choice, since the root packs a lot of sugar and is best offered only now and then. None of it is toxic, it's just rich, so ease up on the orange part.
Livestock None
Cattle, goats, sheep, and pigs all happily eat carrots and their tops with zero poisoning risk. Bring them in slowly and chop them up so an eager animal doesn't choke on a whole root.
Birds None
Backyard hens and parrots can eat carrot to their hearts' content, and the bright flesh delivers good vitamin A. Grate or finely chop it so the smaller birds can manage, and yes, those feathery tops are fine too.
People None
Carrots are an everyday vegetable that folks of any age eat raw or cooked with nothing to worry about. Pack away a whole lot over time and your skin might pick up a faint orange tint, which is harmless and fades on its own.
No special handling required.
Varieties
There's a carrot shape for every kind of soil, from those long grocery-store types to short, chunky roots that brush off heavy ground. Here are the ones worth knowing by name.
Danvers 126
A tapering carrot around 6 to 7 inches (15 to 18 cm) long that handles heavier ground much better than the long, slim kinds.
Scarlet Nantes
The go-to home-garden pick, sweet and crisp with cylinder-shaped roots that finish in a blunt tip and taste great straight from the bed.
Imperator types
Those long, tapered carrots from the grocery store, which only come up straight when the soil is deep, loose, and free of stones.
Red Cored Chantenay
A short, broad-shouldered carrot that's happy in shallow or heavy soil where longer roots would have a hard time.
Thumbelina
A little round carrot that loves pots and the clay or rocky beds where regular roots fork and quit.
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's really one way to grow more carrots, and that's seed dropped straight into the ground, since the taproot won't put up with being 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
There's just one route to more carrots, and that's seed dropped straight into the bed, because the taproot won't put up with a move. Tuck seed about a quarter inch (6 mm) deep anytime from early spring through midsummer once the soil reaches 45°F (7°C), and keep the top layer damp the whole 1 to 3 weeks it takes to sprout, which is slow enough to wear out your patience. After that, the roots swell to eating size in roughly 60 to 80 days.
Myths
Carrots can be started indoors and transplanted out the way you'd do with tomatoes.
Shifting a young carrot knocks the thin taproot right when it's trying to dive straight down, and you wind up with a forked or stunted root. Carrots want to be sown right where they'll grow, then thinned in place instead of moved around.
Every carrot has to be dug before the first frost or it's a goner.
A light frost is no problem at all for fall carrots. The chill actually converts starch into sugar, so the roots taste sweeter the longer they sit in cool soil, and plenty of places let you keep digging well into late fall.