Growing Carrots From Seeds To Harvest in Small Spaces.

Hello gardeners! Welcome back to my channel. Today we're talking all about growing carrots and how to grow them from tiny seeds to a bountiful harvest. Carrots are one of the most rewarding root crops to grow but they can be a little tricky if you don't know what they need. In this video I'll guide you through everything you need to know from choosing the right variety to sowing the seeds and when to harvest. If you're new here, my name is Jera. I've been gardening all of my life and I'm a professional seed and plant nursery. I love to share my knowledge and teach others how to garden and grow food so you've come to the right place if you want to improve your gardening skills. First let's talk about carrot varieties. There are so many cultivars to choose from each with its own unique characteristics. First we have the Nantes types if I'm saying that correctly and this is the classic cylindrical sweet carrot perfect for fresh eating. Then we have the Chantenay carrots which are short and stubby great for growing in heavy compacted or clay soils. The cultivar called Danvers is pretty universal and grows well in most soil types. Imperator carrots are long and slender. This is the most common type found at the grocery store. There are also some carrot varieties said to be more heat tolerant. This includes Corota, Solar Yellow, and any of the purple or black carrot varieties like Cosmic Purple. When choosing a variety think about your soil type, growing conditions, and how you plan to use the carrots. Now that you have your seeds picked out let's talk about the correct time of year to sow and grow your carrots. General guidelines say to direct sow the seeds in early spring as soon as the soil can be worked or in late summer for a fall harvest. However in warmer climates, those that don't get snow during the winter, the timing of when to sow carrot seeds is very different. The goal is to grow carrots during the coolest parts of your year. Harvest it all out before the heat returns in spring and summer. High heat conditions stunt carrot growth and make the roots taste bitter. Start direct sowing the heat tolerant varieties in September but wait until October to direct sow the regular types. You can keep sowing seeds all the way to about January or February depending on where you're located just to ensure you harvest everything before it starts getting too hot again which is when days are like over 85 degrees Fahrenheit and it takes about four months from seed to harvest so plan that accordingly. Carrots require full sun, even a Florida full sun, to harness enough energy from the sun to grow those nice big roots. Besides this fact, the next most important thing is that the soil is loose and while draining. If the soil has lots of rocks or pieces of wood or mulch, it will cause the carrot root to split instead of growing nice and straight. Loose soil helps the root expand so it grows bigger as well. If you're filling raised beds for the first time then choose a nice loose garden soil mix or make your own by mixing equal parts of sifted compost, peat moss, or coco coir, sand, and perlite or vermiculite in a wheelbarrow. Add a few handfuls of a balanced granular fertilizer and blood meal to give the carrots an initial boost. Then dump the soil to fill your raised beds. When growing standard carrots you want the garden bed or soil to have a depth of at least eight inches so the roots have room to grow downwards and not hit the bottom. Carrots don't transplant well so grow them by direct sowing the seeds only. Okay, so it's time for me to sow seeds for carrots and I picked a full sun spot in my garden. This season I'm growing them in the ground so I just have to add a few amendments. I like to add blood meal into the soil before planting because it is high in nitrogen and will help the carrot seedlings take off and put on lots of leafy green growth. Leaf growth is the most important thing during the early stages. Lots of leaves mean the plants can harness more energy from the sun to grow bigger roots. I also add in a lot of bone meal to increase phosphorus amounts. This nutrient is responsible for production of high quality large roots. Lastly, I add worm castings to improve the texture of my soil and make it fluffier. You can also add things like potting mix or peat moss but I really like worm castings because it feeds the microorganisms in the soil that make it harder for things like root not nematodes to take hold. I use it a lot all over my garden as a soil amendment but if your soil is already fluffy then you can skip this ingredient. I'm following square foot gardening guidelines which says you can plant nine carrots per square foot. I use a straight stick or piece of bamboo to press down and make rows out of squares that are one foot by one foot so I can space them properly. Then I make three rows of three little indents or depressions in each square so I know where to place the seeds. I gently sprinkle the seeds, pat them down and add just enough soil to cover the seeds. Then gently water them in with your water hose. Carrot seeds need to stay moist for about the first 10 days in order to get them to germinate. Letting the seeds in the soil dry out is probably the number one cause of poor germination. I water the soil every day and get good germination in about 7 to 14 days. If you can't water it every day put a flat piece of wood over the surface after watering to lock in the moisture. Take it off once things have started to germinate. Once the seedlings have two to three leaves it is time to thin them out. This is crucial so the roots have room to expand horizontally. Thin out the seedlings so they're about three inches apart. It is important to regularly fertilize carrots if you want them to produce huge carrot roots at harvest time. After six weeks of growth I add fertilizer but this time with something that has higher amounts of potassium and phosphorus instead of nitrogen because those two nutrients support root growth and development. For this I'm using AgriFive fruit and vegetable liquid fertilizer that I pour into a hose and fertilizer attachment. It automatically mixes the fertilizer with the water at whatever ratio I select. This saves me a lot of time running back and forth to mix fertilizer and water together in a watering can. I fertilize my carrot patch with this solution every three weeks or so until harvest time. Now that the carrots are growing in your garden let's discuss some care tips. Check your carrots every day for signs of pests and diseases. The sooner you treat for it the better. If you notice little flies hovering above your carrot patch it could be carrot rust flies. They lay eggs near the roots and the larvae burrow into the carrots. A floating row cover can help prevent this. Also set up yellow sticky traps to catch the adults. Aphids can be a problem as well. They like to suck the juices out of tender new leafy growth. I notice aphids most during the springtime. A strong spray of water to blast them off your plants or neem oil spray can keep them under control. In areas that are humid or rainy powdery mildew can spread which is a fungal disease. Proper plant spacing will help ensure better airflow to reduce the incidence of this disease and many others. But if your carrots get it spray with one cup of three percent hydrogen peroxide per gallon of water every three days or so until you notice the spread of the disease has stopped. Finally allow the soil to dry out just a little bit in between watering. If the soil is too wet the roots will rot and there is nothing you can do to fix that. So how do you know when your carrots are ready to harvest? Most seed packets will say they're ready in about 90 days for the standard size varieties or around 60 days for the little miniature kind like the small round Parisian carrots. However I like to leave mine a whole additional four weeks to make sure they're nice big size carrots and the flavor is sweet. If harvested too early the carrots have not developed enough sugars yet and have this gross bitter soapy flavor. You'll notice the tops of the roots poking out of the soil. Brush the soil away from the top to see how wide the carrot is. If it's over one and a half to two inches wide then it probably is ready. Pull one just to check it first. Loosen the soil around the roots with a garden fork or your hands then gently pull them out by the tops. Be careful not to snap the roots. If it's a nice long root with sweet flavor then most likely the rest are ready too. Go ahead and harvest any others that you think might be done. If some are still too small leave them for a few more weeks and check again. All right so this one looks pretty good nice and big your standard carrot however I like to test it first so I'm going to clean this off slice into it take a little bite and make sure that it has sweet flavor because if it still has a bitter flavor then it is not ready and most likely all of these in this patch are also not ready so I'll be right back after cleaning this up and slicing it in the kitchen. All right so I peeled that carrot up and sliced it in half just to give it a taste test so let's see oh yeah that's a good carrot nice and sweet so most likely the rest of them are also ready for harvest so I'm going to start testing them all out and pulling out what I see. All right so let's pull this one out oh another nice one this one is Kuroda. This is a very popular Japanese heirloom carrot variety it tends to get a little fat and blocky with a tapered root end but also very good producer especially if you're in a hot climate. Here's another Kuroda one look at how big this is and it's poking out of the soil so let's harvest this one oh nice all right let me check my Cosmic Purples. Wow this one is so pretty so Cosmic Purple the skin is like a deep fuchsia burgundy color more than like purple in my opinion but really really pretty but the inside is bright orange so let me check here I have some Solar Yellows oh look at that nice and in my opinion I feel like the yellow carrots are the sweetest for whatever reason in my opinion that's what I think and it's good to remove you know the big ones here and there harvest as needed so you don't have like a ton of carrots all at once and don't know what to do with them all and allow the rest of them to remain and kind of size up and then continue to harvest more just so again you're not stuck with like a whole bunch of them at once. All right so that looks like all of the carrots that are ready today at the four month mark and I stress the four month mark thing because a lot of home gardeners get frustrated when their veggies are not as big as they were expecting in the time frame that's listed you know on seed packets and things like that. Seed packet maturity dates are based on commercial farms and growing in ideal conditions so most likely yeah a commercial farm that's a professional at growing carrots will get them to size up and be ready at that three month mark range but for a home gardener we are not growing in ideal conditions we're not professionals we're not exactly perfect so don't be too hard on yourself when your veggies are not sized up or ready for harvest in x amount of days as indicated on the packages just let them sit there a little bit longer now let's talk about storing your carrots if you plan to use them right away it's totally fine to wash off the dirt and store them in a breathable bag in the refrigerator for about up to a month for long-term storage do not wash them off because that will introduce moisture which will cause them to go bad sooner just brush off the excess dirt and trim the greens off to prevent moisture loss which will make the roots go soft store the carrots in a box of damp sand or sawdust in a cool dark and humid place like a root cellar or basement they can last several months this way you can also freeze carrots just blanch them first to retain their color and texture i have a few carrot recipes over on my second youtube channel called jarrah's fresh kitchen if you need some ideas on what to do with all these carrots one of them is my mom's carrot cake recipe and the other is my roasted carrots served over a bed of spiced yogurt and there you have it a complete guide to growing carrots from seed all the way to harvest whether you're growing classic orange varieties or experimenting with colorful ones carrots are such a rewarding crop to have in your garden if you found this video helpful please give it a big thumbs up and consider subscribing for more gardening tips and let me know in the comments which carrot varieties you're excited to try growing also if you want to try growing the same carrots that i grow here in my garden you can find seeds on my website jarrahsgarden.com thank you so much for watching and happy gardening