SOW AND GROW

When to sow: January to December in warmer areas; September to February in cooler areas.

Position: Full sun.

Harvest: 12-16 weeks.

Good for pots.

Good for beginners.

GET STARTED

Carrots should always be sown direct. In warm regions, this crop can be sown nearly all year round. In cooler areas, sow them between early spring and late summer.

STEP-BY-STEP

Sow carrot seed in furrows about 2cm deep and 15cm apart and just cover with soil.

Keep seeds moist and watch for germination in about 10 days.

The tiny seed is almost impossible to space accurately as you sow, so mix your seed with fine sand to better space it or wait until the seedlings are around 5cm high, then thin them out so they are a few centimetres apart.

Once the plants are 15cm, thin them again so they are 5cm apart. Carrot thinnings can be harvested and eaten as baby carrots.

Sow another row of seed every three to four weeks for a continuous harvest.

GROWING TIPS

Good soil is key if you want long, straight roots. Till the soil with a rotary hoe or a fork and spade to prepare the soil before sowing, because carrot roots are liable to fork and twist if they hit sticks, stones and hard clumps of clay. Fresh manure and lumpy compost will cause forked carrots, too. A general-purpose fertiliser dug in before the seeds are sown will expedite growth, and a compost or seaweed tea every two to three weeks will also help. Avoid fertilising them too often, though, as it can lead to excessive leaf growth at the expense of the roots.

Carrots can be easily grown in flexible planter bags. In summer they don’t like being pressed up against the hot sides of a pot so sprinkle seed in a circle in the middle of the bag. A 25-litre bag is roomy enough for 12-15 chunky carrots or 15-20 baby carrots.

Full grown carrots are ready to be harvested when the roots reach about 1cm across. If they’re packed in tightly, you may need to dig down and loosen them from the soil so they pull out easily.

Carrots have pretty umbelliferous flowers which are ideal landing pads for pollinators, so leave some of your crop to flower.

STANDOUT VARIETIES

‘‘Majestic Red’’ (which is, rather confusingly, actually orange) topped NZ Gardener’s carrot trials, with a heavy yield of uniform, slightly tapering 20-25cm roots, good flavour and good holding ability in the soil. Or, try fast-growing, disease-resistant ‘‘Express Hybrid’’. ‘‘Resistafly’’ is also a good pick if carrot fly has been a problem for you in the past.

If you want something other than traditional orange, try heirloom variety ‘‘Purple Dragon’’, with purple skin and an orange core, ‘‘White Belgian’’, a parsnip doppelganger with a mild flavour and crispy texture or golden ‘‘Solar Yellow’’. ‘‘Mini Sweet’’ is ideal for pots as it produces 10cm carrots with sweet, tender flesh, or try mini ‘‘Rainbow Blend’’ with white, red, yellow and purple

This column is adapted from the weekly e-zine, get growing, from New Zealand Gardener magazine. For gardening advice delivered to your inbox every Friday, sign up for Get Growing at: getgrowing.co.nz carrots or golf-ball shaped ‘‘Parisian Market’’.

TROUBLESHOOTING

Carrot fly is a serious problem – the adults lay their eggs near the roots and larvae then tunnel in to feed. Mound up the soil around the base of the carrots as they grow to make it harder for larvae to reach the root and stop the shoulders from turning green. A horticultural mesh crop cover will protect them, but place it over crops before pests arrive. You can also plant carrots in high raised beds or put windbreak barriers around beds as the flies don’t fly more than 45cm above the ground.