Lucy Chamberlain’s Fruit and Veg

Master these crucial germination and growing tips, and you’ll enjoy sweet, crunchy carrots all year round. Lucy Chamberlain shows you how to grow beautiful roots

THEY are among the UK’s most popular vegetables, and yet growing carrots at home can be tricky. Here’s how to leapfrog over any hurdles from spring through to winter, so you can make sure that this is your best-ever year for carrots.

Light, stone-free soils are a carrotgrower’s dream. So if yours is heavy, compacted or clay, consider adding lots of well-rotted garden compost, sowing into raised beds, or container growing. If the taproot is impeded, the resulting crop quality will be poor.

Carrots can be notoriously slow to germinate (they often take two-three weeks to emerge), hardly germinating at all when the soil is less than 7.5ºC (46ºF). Due to the individual seeds within the carrot flower maturing at different times, you can reduce the problem by keeping the soil warm and moist using cloches, and choosing F1 hybrid varieties. The increased vigour of hybrids overrides slow emergence and you’ll get more evenly sized roots, as the seedlings compete equally with each other. Commercial growers also use ‘primed’ seeds (where seeds have been brought to the point of germination), which give even better results. Some seed companies now offer this innovation (such as Mr Fothergill’s Optigrow range, although this isn’t currently available).

Growing essentials

Being relatively upright, seedlings aren’t good at smothering out weeds, so be vigilant with your hoe in the initial weeks after germination. Due to sluggish germination, the tendency is to sow thickly, then thin later. If you’re growing baby carrots, thinning isn’t necessary, but for medium roots thin to 1in (2.5cm) apart; for large carrots, thin to 2in (5cm). Do this when seedlings are 3-4in (8-10cm) tall.

Provided moisture is sufficient, and depending on the variety, you’ll be pulling roots 8-14 weeks after sowing. If growing overwintering types, cut the leafy tops in late October and cover the drills with an insulating layer of straw, or lift roots (tops removed) and store in boxes of damp sand in a garage or shed.

“Carrots are slow to germinate”

With the right care, timing and soil conditions, you can grow carrots in a rainbow of colours

Provided moisture is adequate, you could be pulling roots eight weeks after sowing

Heritage carrots like these purple roots are crisp, with an intense, earthy sweetness

Light, sandy, stone-free soils will help the taproots to develop freely