Growing Carrots at Home

Growing carrots is one of the easiest ways to start growing plants in the veggie patch.   Prepare the soil before planting, turn it over well with a fork to break it up and get rid of the weeds. you can use an organic weedkiller to get rid of the weeds or just pull them out by hand. Once the carrots start to grow, it becomes increasingly difficult to weed them as they are fragile little things at first, just take care to not pull out the growing carrots. When they get a bit bigger you will need to thin them out a bit to give them enough space to grow .   Carrots love light, well-drained, fertile soils even a bit on the sandy side, as stone-free as possible is ideal. Carrots are not particularly fussy growers. The ideal soil for growing carrots is rich, with well-rotted compost in it.

Growing Carrots from Seeds

Make a furrow in the soil of your vegetable garden then sow the seeds sparingly along the furrow and cover with about 5mm of top soil. If you mix the seeds with sand or sugar before sowing it makes it easier to spread the tiny seeds out in the furrows. Mulching over with straw or hay will help to keep the seeds moist, and this will also make it easier to water them without disturbing the seeds. The  plants don’t need much attention during their growth period, growing carrots  should be kept well watered though, give them some liquid fertiliser every ten days or so, if they don’t get enough water they will end up being tough and coarse with woody roots.   The seeds can be sown 2-3 weeks before the last frost. About a week before sowing your seeds, rake in a light dressing of general fertiliser, blood and bone is ideal. Carrot are cool temperature vegetables, but they will almost certainly not germinate when it is below 5 degrees Celsius. If the soil temperature is around 10 degrees Celsius they will take about 10 days to germinate.

Harvesting your Growing Carrots

Start harvesting your carrots as soon as they’re big enough to eat. When they are younger they are at their sweetest and juiciest. Harvest the larger ones first leaving the smaller ones to keep growing. With a bit of care and attention your carrot harvest should continue over quite a few weeks giving you a crop to be proud of.