I gave up growing carrots for a few years. I was failing at them; I got discouraged and quit. I first got back in the game because I was wearing the title “Master Gardener” and felt ashamed to do so while being incapable of something so fundamental.
And then the way I started growing carrots again was by experimenting with whether they could be grown by transplanting. (Yes — contrary to common advice — they can, as I wrote about in this post.) But I was truly hooked after harvesting those first transplants, when I saw how much my family loved having carrots to dig up in the garden whenever they felt like “eating like a bunny,” as my son called it.
So, over the last two years I’ve been really focused on improving my carrot-growing skills. Here, let me share a handful of keys to success to growing carrots specifically in Southern California that I’ve found.
Timing and temperature
You’ll see on a packet of carrot seeds something like this, “Sow in early spring or late summer.” But that’s not entirely accurate for Southern California.
For Southern California, a seed packet should say, “Sow from late summer through early spring.” I think of it as mid September through winter and into early April.
Technically, we can grow carrots all year round, even in summer like most other climates in the country, but I wouldn’t. Or, I should say, I won’t again. This last year, I experimented with growing carrots every month of the year and found that the ones that grew through summer just didn’t taste very good. The plants always looked good, but the roots tasted disappointing: bland or bitter or tough in texture. I’m not sure why, but others always say that carrots don’t like heat, so . . .
Here in September is a great month to start growing carrots again, after the summer hiatus. Carrot seeds germinate fastest when the soil temperature is warm as it is now, between 65 and 85 degrees. Fast-germinating carrots: an oxymoron? It’s relative. According to this University of California chart, within that temperature range it takes carrots 6-7 days to emerge while in the colder soil temperatures of winter it might take around 20 days.
I sowed carrots on Monday, September 11, 2017 and here on Friday, September 15 I’ve already noticed a couple of precocious germinators, like this little fellow:
That’s only five days! Last fall and winter, I noted how long it took my carrot sowings to germinate and emerge from the dirt:
Sowed October 19, emerged October 28 (9 days)
Sowed December 15, emerged January 5 (21 days)
Sowed January 22, emerged February 13 (21 days)
Soil moisture for germination
As you can see, the carrot seeds started growing faster in the early fall when the soil temperature was warmer, and this is so convenient because carrots are annoyingly slow at germinating in general compared to almost every other vegetable. Why is the slow germination annoying? Because carrot seeds are tiny and have to be sown shallowly (barely cover them with a quarter-inch of soil or compost) and yet they have to be kept moist for the entire time they’re sitting there in the soil getting started with life. If you let the carrot seeds dry out, they’re dead. So the faster they germinate, the less time you have to stay focused on keeping them moist.
A few tricks to keeping that soil moist include laying burlap or newspaper or shade cloth over the dirt that you’ve sowed carrot seeds in, but I usually just give the bed a showering every afternoon and that’s sufficient, even in September when afternoons are in the 80s. Crucial for that to work is being sure to soak the soil well before sowing also.
Actually, the best “trick” to keeping the soil moist while carrot seeds germinate is sowing in the winter. Here in Southern California, winter weather is mostly cool and rainy. In fact, for the sowings I made last December, January, and February, I never had to irrigate since the rains took care of keeping the soil moist.
If you have a soil that forms a crust on top when it dries, that can be an obstacle for carrot germination. The dirt in my first garden in Lesotho used to crust badly, I remember all too well. My garden beds now don’t tend to get a crust in part because I try to keep a layer of compost on the surface, which I suggest you try if your soil does crust when it dries. As you know, it’s hard to water soil that has a crusty surface.
And one last thing about dirt: it doesn’t need to be dug up and loosened in order to produce good carrots. I used to do that, but I haven’t in many years, and my carrots are as good and straight (or as bad and forked) as they ever were.
Bugs
Another reason I prefer not to use a cover (burlap, newspaper, shade cloth) over the soil where I’ve sown carrots is because it provides an ideal hiding place for bugs that love to eat your carrot plants as soon as they sprout. I’m thinking of pill bugs and earwigs, primarily. These little pests were probably the biggest reason for my carrot failings in the past. Conversely, my control of these little pests is probably the main reason I’m growing pretty good carrots consistently nowadays.
I use my chickens to get rid of pill bugs and earwigs. (Here’s a post I wrote about that.) Without chickens, the best thing you can do to avoid having large numbers of these, or snails and slugs, is to eliminate their hiding places — that means mulch, cracks and crevices, any dark and moist place. If there are lots of these guys around, you’ll see your baby carrot plants appear one day and disappear that very night. That’s what used to happen to me, and it was so discouraging.
Alternative growing methods
You can attempt to cheat the system and go around the germination and bug challenges with carrots altogether by using transplants or growing carrots in a pot. Heck, might as well put carrot transplants in a pot. Some years back I grew a very nice crop of carrots in a pot that was only a little more than a foot deep.
Harvest notes
There are a few things to look out for as the carrot plants grow and as harvest time nears. If the plants are too close together they often twist around each other. The roots come out looking like a cork screw. I think it’s cool looking . . .
. . . but if you want straight carrots, then make sure you thin the carrot plants to about two inches apart.
Also, carrots will get green shoulders if they are exposed to the sun. If you don’t like that, just scoop some dirt up over them anytime you see the top of the roots above the soil surface.
If you leave carrots in the ground long enough they will flower, which I think is totally worth allowing and enjoying. You can also save the seeds that result from those flowers if you let them dry. Then use those seeds to grow another round . . .
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Hello,
I have just decided to plant carrots, and found your blog today! I was searching to find the best location in my garden. Full sun? Part shade? I have started my carrots on the window sill from the ends of my carrots i used for my chicken soup. They are sprouting just great and hoping to transplant soon. I do plan on putting them in a very large pot. Any additional advice would be great. Thanks!
Full sun is best for carrots in my experience although I have produced good carrots in partial shade too. I would never put my carrots in partial shade if I had the option of planting them in full sun.
My understanding is that by planting carrot tops you only grow more carrot foliage; you won’t end up with a new carrot root to eat. Is that your understanding or experience? I’ve never tried it, but it reminds me of planting onion tops, which grow onion foliage but not a new bulb.
Hi Greg. Thanks for the carrot tips. I am having a problem with my carrots splitting. The internet says the culprit is irregular watering. But my carrots are on a soaker hose timer! Are there other reasons they might be splitting? Thanks!
Hi Megan,
“The internet says . . .” I love that! By splitting, do you mean cracking or forking?
I’ve noticed that some of my carrots crack if I wait too long to harvest. But I can’t say if that’s always the cause.
I’ve noticed that my carrots fork if they run into something like a rock or piece of wood in the soil.
I’ll quote the California Master Gardener Handbook about carrots that have hairy roots, are forked, or are misshapen, in case this helps. It says the causes might be, “root knot nematodes; over watering; roots in contact with fertilizer pellets or fresh manure; hard soil or rocks; overcrowding.”
Hi Greg,
Thanks for all the helpful posts. I’m planting carrots here, in mid-Nov. Your blog post says,
“A few tricks to keeping that soil moist include laying burlap or newspaper or shade cloth over the dirt that you’ve sowed carrot seeds in,…”
Can you explain how you use newspaper to shade carrot seeds? Do I just lay 1 or 2 sheets on top, then lift the paper up when I water the seeds?
Hi Toni,
I don’t know because I’ve never actually taken the newspaper route. I have used shade cloth though, and I lift it off to water and to check for earwigs, slugs, or pill bugs that might be hiding under there.
After reading your post, I was hoping to end my cycle of bad luck with raising carrots.
I planted a package each of organic Nantes and Parisian (spherical) carrot seeds in my raised bed veggie garden back in February (I’m north of you in LA County). I thought I was keeping them moist mouth, watering them 2x a day at 10 am and 3 pm. Here it is April, and only SIX of them germinated/sprouted. Dude, there were at least 50 seeds, maybe more, per package!
I have bird netting about the entire garden, so birds aren’t an issue. I use coir mulch which is very fine, so I haven’t had any snails, pill bugs or earwigs–not even in my strawberries, which is a first. I was using alfalfa mulch before and the coir is a vast improvement.
We did have a series of torrential downpours in SoCal back in February that may have dislodged the seeds and exposed them to the sun. I didn’t plant them very deep. The seeds were inexpensive enough so I felt it was worth a shot, but so dissatisfying to end up with like 6 carrots–assuming all goes well, that is. I’ve never seen carrot seedling starters here.
In any case, I’m going to leave the sprouted carrots there and gradually overplant with new summer veggie seedlings (tomatoes, etc.)
Hi Teri,
This is such a bummer! Carrots are so tricky! Here are some thoughts:
The seeds could have been old or poorly stored. Last October, I sowed two different packets of carrot seeds side by side in a bed. Each packet was a different variety and from a different company. One germinated well and the other was almost a total failure, with a handful of germinating seeds in a twenty-foot row. I can’t help but suspect the problem was the seeds.
The seeds were sown shallowly and the hard rain unearthed them, as you mentioned. That’s a possibility, for sure.
By the way, if the seeds were sown too deeply, you might find that they continue to germinate sporadically over the next few months — even if you plant summer veggies over them.
Hello,
I’ve been having some trouble growing carrots lately. I live in Murrieta, California and the temperature is currently in the 80s. Starting Monday the 23rd, the temperatures will be increasing into the 90s and by the 26th we’ll be in the triple digits. The rest of September will be in the 90s until the last week of the same month.
My question, should I wait until the temperatures drop below 90 to start growing my carrots? I have a packet of Nantes half long, Burpee seed tape.
Also, I get approximately 3+ hours of direct sunlight on my patio but I’m hoping a 4 ft long grow light will be enough to supplement any light needed for the germination process. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you
George Ramos
Hi George,
Your summer heat in Murrieta is similar to mine in Ramona, and I usually take the summer off from carrots and begin to sow them again sometime in September or October. Carrots don’t do as well in the warm soil of summer.
Thanks for your reply.
Hi Greg,
I came across your site not too long ago and loving my deep dive in here – thank you so much for this wonderful resource you provide!
I have never had much luck with growing carrots in the past but decided to give it a shot this year. To my surprise, they germinated in record time for me – about 7 or 8 days! Since I didn’t have much luck in the past, I basically just planted all the seeds in a raised box in rows..almost all of them germinated and are going strong.
My question is – what is the best way to thin them? I’ve seen some folks just cut them at soil level and (I’m sure you’ve heard this many a time) it kind of hurts my heart to do that. Is there a way to successfully dig them out when the soil is wet and transplant them? If so, how long should I wait to do this? Some have their second set of leaves while there are still some with just their first 2 leaves.
Thank you so much!
Thank you, Isabel. Just to say, I almost never thin my carrots. Don’t feel like you have to in order to get good production.
But if you want to, you can snip the stems at soil level with scissors. That’s the easiest way for me.
To transplant, I suggest using a pencil or popsicle stick or similar to “prick out” the plants. Sink the tool deep so the entire root comes up undamaged.
I would only do it with the youngest plants because the roots on the older ones will probably be too deep already.
Do it with the soil moist but not wet. The soil in the transplant area should also be moist but not wet.
And do it in the evening. Transplant immediately, and the little guys will have all night to settle in and be as unshocked as possible by the time the sun rises the next morning.
Water them in well right after transplanting that evening. Good luck! Let us know how it goes.
Greg, reguarding growing carrots in So Cal: How do you reccomend fertilizing—chemical and/or organic?
Hi David,
I simply keep a layer of compost on the surface of the soil of my vegetable beds. That’s the short of it. There’s some more detail here: https://gregalder.com/yardposts/fertilizing-vegetables-with-compost-pros-and-cons/
Hi Greg – I’m finally trying carrots again this year and have a bunch that have survived various bugs, weather, etc 🙂
I was wondering though – how do you decide/know when they are ready for harvest? Just pull a few out and try them? Do you go by date? Is there a negative to leaving them in the ground till we need them?
Thanks for any thoughts you have here!
-MB