How to Grow Carrots from Seed to Harvest

picking carrots in my grandparents Garden is probably my earliest memory of actually gardening all root vegetables are fun for adults and kids because you never know what you're gonna get not to mention some carrots can grow into some pretty interesting shapes in this video I'm going to show you how to grow lots of carrots from seed to harvest step by step I'm also going to let you in on three different ways to get carrot seeds to germinate successfully every time in mild winter climates carrot seed can be sown in the fall and cold winter climates you can soak here at seed Outdoors three to five weeks before your last frost date carrots don't like to be transplanted so you'll need to sow the seeds directly into the garden carrots like full sun but will grow with a minimum of four hours of direct sunlight they like a moist lightweight root run without a lot of nitrogen adding manure or other high nitrogen source to the soil will cause your carrots to twist and Fork carrots are notoriously difficult to germinate and that's because they don't like their seeds cover with soil the problem is they also like to be consistently moist so how do you not cover them with soil but keep them moist without having to go outside five times a day and water them so I have two tips on how to keep carrot seeds moist in dry climates and if you're in a humid climate or a rainy climate at the end of the video I've got a really great tip for everyone that will actually cut the time in half that it takes carrots to sprout which typically is 14 days so we can cut that in half you're closer to your Harvest from the very beginning so the first tip I'm going to move aside the mulch to expose some soil make sure you pre-soak the area so the soil is nice and wet I'm going to sprinkle my seeds along the row scattering as far apart as possible but we have a fix for that later then I'm going to take a piece of scrap wood and lay it directly on top of the seeds it's not that carrots need sunlight to germinate however their seeds are so small they're not packed with a ton of energy which means they don't have enough energy to push themselves up through the soil to get at the sunlight so covering it with wood keeps the moisture in and every few days you can lift the wood and Mist them if needed but after about a week you're going to check on it every day and as soon as you see about 50 percent of the seeds sprouted remove the wood you want to check under the wood daily though because if they sprout and are left under there too long it'll be the same as if you buried them under soil they won't be able to find the light and they will just die after removing the wood keep them watered well but very quickly the seedling will produce a little Taproot basically the future carrot and that will go deep enough to reach a level where if you water every day or two the soil stays moist the second tip I just discovered this spring by trying a couple of things I covered half my seeds with vermiculite and the other half with pine shavings basically pet bedding you can see a few weeks later the vermiculite side has much spottier growth than the pine shavings I used those two materials because they would both let light in and are very lightweight as soon as the germination happens they can find their way through a thin layer of either of those to find the light however it looked like the pine shavings did a better job of keeping the moisture in the soil this is them now eight weeks later now with both of these methods you're still going to need patience because the typical germination time for carrots is about two weeks now remember stick around in just a minute I'm going to show you how to cut that time in half because carrot seeds are so small all but the most patient people will have to thin them and I say that because I would never have the patience to take each individual c feed and place it an inch apart they're just too small so once the carrots are up and have their first true leaves not the seed leaves that look flat but the first leaves that look like ferny carrot leaves you want to make sure you thin your carrot seedlings so there is at least an inch or two between each one cut off all the rest at ground level I prefer to cut them off rather than pull them out because I feel like pulling them out when they're kind of close together under the soil messes up the roots that are on the ones you're going to keep but however you do it you need to do it and they're not wasted because carrot leaves actually taste like carrots so throw them on your salad keep carrots moist throughout the season and they will grow fast the only way to truly know if a carrot is ready to harvest is to brush the soil away from the base of the plant to expose the top of the carrot root if it looks to be the diameter it should be it's time to pull it the last thing I want to touch on before we get to the bonus is companion planting now carrots actually make great companion plants themselves did you know that carrots produce beautiful flowers the carrot family consists of many flowering plants that we already grow as Edibles such as carrots celery cilantro Dill fennel parsley and even a few we would typically grow in a flower border such as amimages and Queen Anne's Lace what they all have in common are flat humble or umbrella shaped blooms it is these humble shaped blooms that attracting beneficial insects such as hoverflies lace Wings ladybugs parasitic wasps and hoverflies every year I let a few carrots go to flour to bring in these good bugs but don't let all of them go to flower because the sugars that make the carrot sweet are what the plant uses to flour so if you let them flower the carrots aren't going to be really good to eat carrots can benefit from companions as well cut worms can be very destructive to carrot seedlings and can wipe them out overnight by planting thyme in your carrot bed a few weeks prior to the carrots you'll attract damsel bugs who will feed on Cut worms and carrot fly larva carrot fly in some places is a major pest for your carrot crop they find carrots through smell you can mask this smell by planting a hedge of chives around your carrot patch the strong chive smell will confuse them and persuade them to look elsewhere lace Wing larva are voracious aphid Predators attract adult lacewings to your carrot patch by companion planting with Cosmos okay now the pre-sprouting bonus for this you need a paper plate some indoor potting mix or seed starting mix a Ziploc plastic baggie carrot seeds of course and a freezer you're going to take the carrot seeds and sprinkle them kind of liberally across the potting mix make sure it's Primo person and you don't have to worry about spacing right now because we're not planting them in their final location we're just pre-sprouting them then you can just firm them into the soil and you're still going to be able to see them but we're going to slip it inside the plastic bag and zip it shut this is now going to go into the freezer for 24 hours no more no less and that is going to trick the carrots into thinking they've had a winter and then when you bring them out of the freezer the next day they're going to think they've had that winter be excited to grow and get ready to germinate you can put them on top of your refrigerator or some kind of appliance that just kind of gives them a little bit of bottom heat if it's still warm outside you can just put them right in the shade you don't want to put them in the sun though the bag will cook them within just a few days you're going to start seeing carrots sprouting now I sewed these in a bag about a week prior to this I caught this probably 24 hours later than optimal you really just want to see white Roots sprouting out and no green there's a little green here but it will be okay once you get to the stage choose a spot in preferably full sun but again they can get by on four hours of Sun per day and then you're going to take the seeds and the potting mix all of it and you're going to scatter them around or if you're growing in a line put them in a line now if they do have green on top like these you're going to cover them very very lightly if it's just the Sprouts you still need to cover them as well but with some more indoor potting mix but not necessarily as lightly you just want them covered so you don't see the white Sprouts keep the area well watered for the a couple of days you probably want to water every day but then that root is going to get down deep enough where it can go a couple of days between waterings if you want to see what other fall crops you can put in now give this video a click I'll see you next time

Channel: Next Level Gardening

Views: 77,561

Keywords: how to grow a lot of carrots in raised bed, tips for growing carrots, growing carrots tips, carrot tips, raised bed gardening, growing carrots, how to grow carrots, best carrots growing, grow big carrots, food gardening, organic carrots, carrots easy, rainbow carrots, best carrots, grow carrot seed, grow carrots at home

Id: JotgQ35AFQQ

Length: 8min 4sec (484 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 12 2023