How To Grow Carrots

By Erica Groneman

Carrots are a delicious, sweet root vegetable. They are an excellent addition to any garden. Carrots are simple to grow, but can also be difficult if the right conditions are not met. Challenges to growing a good carrot include forking, stunted growth, or growing twisted around each other. These outcomes are a result of your soil conditions.

How Can You Grow Carrots Properly?

For starters, make sure your soil is loamy, well-worked, and free from rocks, dirt clods, or other obstructions that would get in the way of the carrots as they grow. If a carrot runs into an obstruction, it will simply grow or fork around it, or it won’t grow at all. If the soil is not loose enough for them to grow through, the carrots will be short and stout.

Secondly, make sure your carrots are not growing too close to each other. Carrots should be thinned to one to four inches apart. If carrots are growing too close to each other they will wrap around each other, fork, or otherwise become misshapen.

Third, make sure your carrot bed is weed-free. Weed roots can get in the way of carrot roots, and like any other obstruction can cause the carrots to be misshapen. Weeds also take necessary nutrients from the soil that is needed for the carrots.

Fourth, be careful not to disrupt the carrots as they grow. Transplanting, digging around, or otherwise disturbing them can cause the carrots to fork. They like having their space and their peace! A transplanted carrot often bolts and goes straight to seed, resulting in a carrot that is all top and no bottom.

In sum, be sure to direct sow your carrots with plenty of space and no obstructions in the soil to allow them to thrive.

Happy Gardening!