Commercial carrots need to ship well and so are grown to be fibrous. Home-grown carrots are so intensely sweet and crunchy, you’ll probably pull these tender delicacies out of the garden, brush them off and eat them right then.
Not only are fresh carrots tasty, but they’re also rich in beta carotene, the naturally occurring form of Vitamin A.
Although you probably picture the traditional long orange carrot, the vegetable comes in a wide range of colors, shapes and sizes, says Wendy Krupnick, horticultural advisor for Shepherd’s Garden Seeds in Felton, Calif., a mail-order seed company. Their seeds can also be found in some nurseries.
“There are white carrots, purple carrots, round and short carrots,” she says.
Grow carrots and you can also enjoy gourmet “baby” carrots, which often carry a high price in specialty markets.
You won’t find carrot plants in the nursery. It’s a root crop that must be planted by seed.
March is a good month to plant carrots, which germinate best in cool weather. Keep the following tips in mind:
* For a good carrot crop, the soil must be loose, rich and fast draining. Carrots are roots and they can’t push their way through hard, compacted earth. Grow them in poor soil and they’ll be stunted, gnarled and tasteless.
* Loosen hard clay soil and prepare it for planting carrots by generously amending it with homemade or bagged compost. Other good amendments include aged grass clippings, aged manure, coffee grounds and high-quality sandy loam, which can be purchased through a contractor or landscape company.* Carrots grow especially well in raised beds and containers because the soil is easier to control. In containers, use a good potting mix and add compost for extra richness. Also stick to dwarf carrots under five inches long such as Short and Sweet, Tiny Sweet, Red Core Chantenay, Little Finger and the golf-ball-size Thumbelina.
* When you work ground soil, loosen it to at least 18 inches.
* Add a fertilizer high in phosphorus when planting, such as bone meal, which promotes strong root growth.
* Even with well-prepared soil, it’s best to choose a carrot variety suited for our heavy clay soil. Such types tend to be short, blunt and/or round. Stay away from long, thin carrots.
* Choose a location that gets sun most of the day. Make sure the area drains well; waterlogged carrots will rot.
* Carrot seeds are tiny, brown and hard to see. Get an even distribution by mixing seeds with sand. Some seed catalogs sell seed tape, which is biodegradable tissue paper with seeds attached. You can also buy a carrot seed dispenser.
* Plant carrot seeds about one-eighth-inch deep and keep them moist but not soaked. If they dry out, they will quickly die.
* Prevent carrot seeds from washing away when watered by covering them with burlap or newspaper and watering until they germinate.
* Have patience. Carrot seeds can take several weeks to germinate.
* Thinning is usually necessary to get a good crop. Hand-pull the carrots when they reach 1 to 2 inches high. You want them to eventually be 2 inches apart.
* Carrots need frequent fertilizing. Use diluted applications of an all-purpose fertilizer containing phosphorus.
* Keep carrot plants evenly moist. Alternating wet and dry conditions will cause carrots to split.
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Seed Catalogs Let You Start at Beginning
Here’s a sampling of mail-order companies that carry a variety of carrot seeds. All offer free catalogs.
* Gurney’s Seed & Nursery Co., 110 Capitol St., Yankton, SD 57078, (605) 665-1930.
* Nichols Garden Nursery, 1190 N. Pacific Highway, Albany, OR 97321, (503) 928-9280.
* Park Seed Co., Cokesbury Road, Greenwood, SC 29647, (800) 845-3369.
* Shepherd’s Garden Seeds, Order Department, 30 Irene St., Torrington, CT 06790, (408) 335-6910.
* Stokes Seeds, P.O. Box 548, Buffalo, NY 14240-0548, (716) 695-6980.
