Quick start ⚡ Quick start info for sowing carrots ⚡
🌱 Sowing & planting
- Sowing depth: 1.25 cm – loose soil ensures straight roots
- Sowing distance: 📏 3 cm (spring) to 10 cm (winter carrot)
- Row spacing: 📏 15–30 cm – earlier in the year = closer
- Germination temperature: 7–29 °C
- Germination time: 🕒 10–16 days
- Planting out: not applicable – always sow carrots directly in the ground
📅 Growing times throughout the year
- Super early: October–February → harvest March–May
- Early: February–March → harvest June–July
- Summer: from the end of March → harvest July–November
- Late: April–June → harvest October–December
- Winter carrots: April–July → harvest October–December
Basic information about carrot ( Daucus carota )
- Crop group: root crop
- Crop family: Apiaceae family
- Height: 25–60 cm
- Growth cycle: 🕒 65–70 days
- Frost resistance: ❄️ yes
- Root system: 45–60 cm deep
- Fertilization: little – avoid fresh manure
- Soil: airy, loose, stone-free, pH 5.5–7.0
Location & water requirements
- Sun: 🌞 Carrots like a sunny spot
- Water requirements: 💧 modest – regularly but not too wet
🤝 Good & Bad Neighbors
✅ Good neighbors
- Beans
- Chives
- Salad
- Pea
- Pepper
- Rosemary
- Sage
- Tomato
- Onion
- Marigold (Tagetes)
❌ Bad neighbors
- Dill
- Parsnip
- Radish
🧺 Harvesting & storing
Harvest spring carrots before the summer heat. Harvest winter varieties before the first frost.
Always pull carrots by the base, not the foliage. If necessary, use a pitchfork to loosen the soil.
🍽️ Nutritional value of carrots (per 100 g raw carrot)
- Energy: 41 kcal
- Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 10 g
- Proteins: 1 g
- Fiber: 10 g
- Sugars: 5 g
- Vitamins: A, B6, C and K
- Minerals: thiamine, niacin, folic acid, manganese, potassium
Table of Contents:
How to sow carrots, a brief introduction
Carrots are a vegetable you can use for virtually anything in the kitchen; you can even make a delicious pesto with the leaves. With a little attention and some special tips and tricks you'll read in this article, these super healthy and easy vegetables are a must-have for your vegetable garden. Besides many other vitamins, they contain vitamin A, also known as beta-carotene. You know the joke: Why are carrots good for your eyes? Have you ever seen a rabbit with glasses? #children's joke. Well, carrots are indeed good for our vision thanks to vitamin A, which keeps our retinas functioning optimally and helps your eyes adjust between light and dark. Carrots also have properties that are very beneficial for healthy skin and mucous membranes, and they also boost your resistance and immune system. So there's no reason not to sow a few rows of carrots in your vegetable garden. Sow in multiple batches. This way, you'll have fresh spring carrots and delicious winter carrots.
Carrots belong to the Apiaceae family and are, of course, edible? They're an easy vegetable to grow, even for beginners, and they can be grown both in the ground and in pots, provided they are deep enough for the long roots. Sowing carrots is ideal if you only have a small plot of land or a small vegetable garden. For best results, sow carrots in a sunny spot, such as in the garden, on the balcony, or on the patio. Give them loose, rich soil free of clods and stones and a soil temperature between 8 and 29°C. Yes, you read between the lines correctly: you can grow carrots any time of year, even in the winter with some protection in a greenhouse . Especially in the winter in the greenhouse or early spring in the vegetable garden, it's best to provide some protection in the form of fleece or a blanket. Fleece is very light and highly insulating, so it's more suitable for protecting carrot seeds and mini plants.
Short carrots like Parisian Market can be grown in 60-70 days. Ideal if you want to grow carrots year-round.
Carrots are slow germinators. So be sure to have plenty of patience and consider running a hose over your seedlings. If you activate it briefly and regularly, the carrot seeds will never dry out and germinate optimally.
Tom Deseyn
Since I started using a sweat hose irrigation system, my roots have sprouted perfectly. Below are some of the products you might need. In this guide, " Build your own irrigation system in 4 simple steps ," you can design your own system, and it's not that expensive at all.
