Carrot

Sds/g: 600-900                    Feed Requirements: Low                                   Usual Seed Life: 2-3 yrs

Cultural Notes:

• Carrots are a great crop for the home grower as they produce great yields per square metre of space, they taste crisp, sweet and fresh. Additionally, they are packed with lots of nutrition (they are an excellent source of antioxidant compounds that help protect against cardiovascular disease and cancer and also promote good vision. They are the richest vegetable source of the pro-vitamin A carotenes and have high levels of Vitamin K). Plant seed into a part of the garden that was well fertilised for prior crop as soil that has too much nitrogen will cause the roots to put more effort into leaf growth than go searching for food, resulting them to fork or not form long roots and diminish their flavour.
• Work the soil well up to 30 cm, clods will also cause forked roots. If you have clay closer to the surface than this do not mix the clay with the topsoil, try planting varieties with small or medium length roots.
• The hardest part is getting the fine seed to germinate as they are slow to germinate (10-21 days) and must be planted close to the surface, making mid to late summer sowings even trickier. We find it best to plant seed mixed thoroughly with finely sieved dry compost (once wet after sowing the organic matter will retain moisture longer) and sprinkled along furrows 6-12mm deep. The seed/compost mix also helps space the seed much more uniformly. It is important not to let the soil surface crust over as the seedlings will have trouble breaking through, in early spring when there is good moisture in the soil you have less problems germinating seed but in summer we find that by laying hessian or timber planks over the seed rows helps keep the soil to remain moist. Remove the hessian or planks as soon as the first seedlings emerge (and keep an eye out for any slugs that may also be loving the moist conditions!).  
• Thinning is vital for uniform and full grown carrots, give between 3cm (baby) and 8cm for larger rooted varieties. Sow an extra few meters or rows in late January to mid-February of a winter holding variety if you want to store carrots in the ground to harvest over winter.

Problems:

• Mound soil over orange crowns to help if rats and mice in over winter crops are a problem.

Harvest:

• Harvest carrots as needed. A friend of ours uses the leaf like a parsley in carrot and orange soup. Over-wintered carrots will need to be harvested before the carrot even thinks about going to seed otherwise they will be woody and taste horrid.