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Carrot
Also known as
Karotte (DE)
wild carrot (EN)
devil's plague (EN)
Queen Anne's-lace (EN)
cenoura brava (EN)
mohrruebe (EN)
gelbe ruebe (EN)
morot (EN)
gulrot (EN)
gulerod (EN)
porkkana (EN)
How to sow carrot: Direct Seed, thin to 3cm apart when seedlings are 8cm high
Sun requirement for carrot: Plant in Full Sun
The carrot is a root vegetable. It is usually orange in color, but some cultivars are purple, black, red, white, and yellow. The most commonly eaten part of the plant is the taproot, but the greens are sometimes eaten as well. The leaves appear first, and the taproot grows more slowly beneath the soil. Fast-growing cultivars mature within three months of sowing the seed. Slower-maturing cultivars are harvested four months after sowing.
- 136
- plantings
- 62
- harvests
- 11
- seed packets
Carrot facts
Lifespan
Annual
living and reproducing in a single year or less
19 weeks
median lifespan
First harvest expected
20
weeks after planting
Last harvest expected
23
weeks after planting
Height × spread
10cm × 5cmRow Spacing
5cm Members' seed packets: 30cmDays until maturity
50–68 days median of members' seed packetsWhen to sow
Southern hemisphere
Sep–May
Northern hemisphere
Mar–Nov
median of members' seed packets
Grown for
root harvested 27 times
Optimal temperature
15–24 °C
Absolute temperature
3–30 °C
FAO EcoCrop
Optimal rainfall
600–1200 mm/year
Absolute rainfall
400–4000 mm/year
FAO EcoCrop
Optimal soil pH
5.8–6.8
Absolute soil pH
4.2–8.7
FAO EcoCrop
Crop cycle
40–150 days
FAO EcoCrop
Max altitude
2600 m
FAO EcoCrop
Optimal light
clear skies to cloudy skies
FAO EcoCrop
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For carrot, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 3°C and a shortest growing cycle of 40 days at its best temperature, about 660 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your carrot will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Growing carrots
- Dig the bed fine and stone free 1 week before sowing
- Keep the seed bed moist at sowing every week
- Thin the seedlings 3 weeks after sowing
- Weed between the rows 4 weeks after sowing every 2 weeks
- Start pulling young carrots at first harvest
- Lift the rest of the crop 8 weeks after first harvest
How members grow carrots
Sunniness
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Planted from
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Harvested for
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Varieties of carrot
Kuroda carrot
Daucus carota
oxheart carrot
Daucus carota
Paris market carrot
Daucus carota
purple carrot
Daucus carota atrorubens
red Cored Chantenay
Dacus Carota sativus
Whanganui giant carrot
Daucus carota
white Belgium carrot
Daucus carota
white carrot
Arracacia xanthorrhiza
Plant carrots with
Photos
Carrot crops
Carrot plantings
Carrot harvests
Carrot seeds
Video
Where carrots grow
Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.
What people are saying about carrots
How to save seeds
by shiny,
beans
peas
corn
pumpkins
melons
lettuces
celery
parsnips
carrots
leeks
onions
radicchio
cucumbers
tomatoes
zucchini
capsica
Read more
beans
Preparing for winter
by shiny,
I'm going to attempt to grow potato over winter. To prepare I'm going to do a full garden bed of mustard and then dig the greens into the soil. Add compost and blood and bone. I've never attempted potato over winter. It can get very wet here, and in …
potatoes
mustard
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Some of features id like
by shiny,
I like to automate the calculations, analysis, and plain old remembering what has happened in the garden.
Some of the challenges in my garden is knowing when it's too late to planting something, if it will cope with the weather conditions here, and working out what is killing the [tomato](/…
tomatoes
broccoli
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carrots
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Transplant carrots or not?
by FedericoMenaQuintero,
Do carrot transplant well at all when they are small? I set up some rows of carrot seeds mixed with radish seeds, but I don't know if the carrots will be amenable to transplanting once they sprout. Has anyone done this?
carrots
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No subject
by oakandsage,
My raspberry are flowering!
Anyone whose english pea plants yield spherical peas must be a saint. I only get spherical peas if I miss a pod. In the evening I sit out in the garden and eat peas until there is nothing worth eating left on the plant. Then I am done…
raspberries
peas
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chard
kale
melons
rhubarb
carrots
dill
basils
squash
cherries
nectarines
apples
pomegranates
blueberries
Read more
First strawberry!
by neotoma,
I had the first tiny strawberry of the season today! I'm looking forward to many more.
Also, I transplanted a lot of seedlings into the community garden today: 2 cucumbers, 3 green beans, 2 tongue-of-fire beans, an ornamental [sweet potato](/crops/swee…
cucumbers
green beans
sweet potatoes
artichokes
lettuces
radishes
carrots
parsnips
sunflowers
strawberries
Read more
Garden trouble!
by oakandsage,
Something's skeletonizing my carrots and dill. It did a number on the sweet basil I planted, and is taking out the kale plants one by one. I haven't caught it in the act yet, though I've seen a couple big fat grasshoppers around; they're pretty lik…
carrots
dill
blueberries
sweet potatoes
cauliflowers
Read more
Who's planted carrots
- shiny Aro Valley · Wellington, NZ
- JamieG carrot (Akaroa) Garden
- Diego Mi JardÃn
- DirtFarmer DoubleBed · Wichita, kansas
- valgrind Vegetable Garden
Carrot harvests
-
shiny harvested not specified.
22 days ago
-
shiny harvested 6.
24 days ago
-
shiny harvested 10, weighing 3 kg.
about 1 month ago
shiny harvested not specified.
Find carrot seeds
- shawnacscott will trade nationally.
- oakandsage will trade locally.
- pazinjanka will trade locally.
- View all carrot seeds 11
View all carrot seeds
- Purchase seeds via Ebay
- Sign in or sign up to list your seeds to trade.
Nutritional data
A summary of nutritional data per 100g for Carrot, mature, peeled, fresh, raw.
| Energy | 146.0 kJ |
|---|---|
| Protein | 0.6 g |
| Carbohydrate | 6.6 g |
| - Sugars | 6.2 g |
| Fibre | 3.4 g |
| Sodium | 49.0 mg |
Time to harvest
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 40 to 150 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Daucus carota L.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Rosidae Apiales Umbelliferae |
|---|---|
| Killing temperature | growth: 0 °C, rest: -1 °C |
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | biennial |
| Habit | erect |
| Optimal soil depth | medium (50-150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium, organic |
| Optimal soil fertility | moderate |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | long day (>14 hours) |
Learn more about carrots
Resources outside Growstuff.
