Carrots

While carrots technically are not a green vegetable, as the taproots that we eat are not green, they can be a welcome addition to a vegetable garden.

The best carrots are grown in sandy, deep loam, but carrots can grow in any soil that is well cultivated.

If you are planting carrots in heavy soil, you should make sure that the soil is free of lumps before you sow seeds.

When growing carrots on heavy soil, stick to varieties with stumpy roots.

Try to make sure there is no fresh manure near the soil surface, because that will cause the roots to fork.

It helps to use soil that has already had manure added to it six months, or more, before sowing.

You can sow seeds of stump-rooted carrots beginning in March, on a seedbed that is dry, crumbly and warm.

Either scatter the seeds over the soil or place them in holes 6 inches apart.

If you cannot avoid sowing the seeds in cold, wet weather, cover them with 2 inches of soil.

You can plant radishes along with the carrots.

If there is a possibility that it may rain after you sow the carrot seeds, cover the seedbed with a mat. If it rains heavily soon after the seeds are sown, they will probably not germinate.

Once the carrot plants are growing, thin them out to 2 inches apart, and then to 4 inches apart.

Protect the seedbed from cold and frost.

Seeds for bunched carrots can be sown in seedbeds starting in the end of February. Soil should be warm and dry.

Sow the seeds in holes that are 9 inches apart.

Keep in mind that about ½ of the seeds probably will not germinate.

Do not thin the plants until you harvest them. Pull out the largest roots as you harvest.

You may grow a large crop of carrots directly on open ground, without using a seedbed.

Make sure the soil has been worked deeply and well drained.

Soil should be fine, dry and crumbly.

You can ads potassium sulfate and bone meal to the soil. After adding potassium sulfate, you may also add ammonium sulfate to heavier soils, or if the soil is poor or the carrots are growing slowly. Do not add ammonium sulfate unless you have already added potassium sulfate, because ammonium sulfate on its own will cause the carrots to grow too much leaf and not enough root.

Do not sow seeds if you think that it may rain soon after the seeds are sown.

Seeds should be sown from March to April, in holes that are ½ inch deep and from 9 inches to 1 foot apart.

Carrots with long roots should be grown in lighter soil and carrots with short roots should be grown in heavier, clay soil.

To grow longer roots on clay soil, sow the seeds into ridges from 15 to 18 inches apart.

The seedlings should be thinned to 2 inches apart as soon as possible. When they are large enough to collect in bunches, they should be thinned so that they are between 4 and 6 inches apart.

Once the plants have been thinned, use soil to fill up the spaces that were made when you pulled up the roots.

During the summer, hoe the soil between the carrot plants and keep the soil free of weeds.

Using loose soil as a mulch helps keep moisture in the soil and helps prevent roots from splitting, which can occur when wet weather follows a drought.

The crop can be harvested in October.