A complete guide to cultivate carrots

How to grow carrots : instructions on the cultivation of carrots in the garden or in pots. From sowing to harvest. Care and irrigation.

The carrots have a wide use in cooking and is listed among the ingredients of many recipes; in the kitchen, they are useful for soups, casseroles, purees, desserts, veloutes, pasta dishes, juices extracts, smoothies ... in short, it is a very versatile food that can be used both for the preparation of a side dish and for main courses.

Carrots are often eaten raw in salads and are great for munching as an afternoon snack!

Those lucky enough to have a small vegetable garden or terrace space can take the trouble to grow carrots in complete autonomy.

The cultivation of carrots does not require special care . Here's how to grow carrots by following all the necessary directions.

When to grow carrots
There is no universally right period! It depends on the geographical area of ​​origin but above all on the variety. Let's say that in central and southern Italy it is always the right time to grow any kind of carrot.

In detail, the early carrots are sown from January to March and are harvested in July, the average carrots see the sowing period in the months of April and May and are collected in August; finally there are the late carrots that are sown in June and are harvested in October.

How to grow carrots in the vegetable garden

1. Soil processing

The soil suitable for the cultivation of carrots is draining and light and must first be worked. A few months before the planting of carrot seedlings it will therefore be necessary to dig manually or with the help of the tiller and fertilize the soil with mature manure.

2. Fertilization

Dig a furrow about 40 cm deep for the entire length of the affected area and spread, on the bottom, mature manure in the amount of 2-3 kg per square meter of worked soil.

Practice another groove, parallel to the first, whose clods will have to cover the manure placed in the previous furrow. Once this is done, proceed as in the first groove until the entire plot is completed.

3. Sowing in the vegetable garden

The right time to proceed with sowing falls in spring, although in the south of Italy it could be done all year round due to the temperate climate.

Before starting with the sowing of the carrot in open field, make sure that the soil does not contain any manure residues. The fertilizer, with the processing of the soil, must be well incorporated without creating aggregates.

Sow in rows at a distance of 20 centimeters from each other to facilitate harvesting and make maintenance, weed removal, weeding easier.

After sowing the carrot, cover the seeds with a thin layer of soil then watered to compact the soil.

The carat needs irrigation but beware! Irrigation must be done when the soil is completely dry and taking care not to create stagnant water.

4. Thin out the seedlings

The planting should always be done to excess, when they start to germinate and the seedlings of each plant puts forth its leaves, carried out a "clean work". Go to thin the plants so that between a carrot plant and the other there is a distance of at least 5 cm.

5. Care and harvest

Pending the harvest it is not necessary to fertilize, only to remove weeds, limiting the growth with weeding interventions.

After sowing, the plants should be watered with a watering can with hand shower, to avoid altering the distribution of seeds or damaging the seedlings just sprouted. Avoid too strong pumps or jets of water that would damage the seedlings under development.

Grow the carrot in a pot

More than for pot cultivation , the carrot is suitable for growing in open field: the fleshy root needs a good depth to develop!

Who does not want to give up, can organize a cultivation of carrots in bags or in deep containers.

For the cultivation of the pot carrot you will need containers at least 30 - 40 cm deep.

For the substrate, use universal soil to mix it with the perlite or pumice to ensure better drainage.

In case of late carrots, when sowing summer, to protect the carrots from the sun, with the cultivation in pot, move the containers in a zone to half shade until the plant has reached a height of 10 cm. The carrot in a jar should be watered daily.

Cultivation of the carrot in a pot or in a vegetable garden:
recommended variety

Carrot varieties do not differ only for development period and for size (already, there are small carrots and giant carrots!). A very tangible difference is between the classic orange carrot and purple carrots.

To experiment with the cultivation in pot or in the garden, you could alternate rows or seedlings of orange carrots and purple carrots.

The purple carrots are rich in anthocyanins and therefore have interesting nutritional properties. In our body, the anthocyanins taken with purple carrots have an anti-inflammatory, antiallergic, vasoprotective action and support of the stomach and intestine mucosa.

Among the varieties of purple carrot we mention, from amazon, one that can be grown all year round and, from sowing to harvest, requires a development time of about 3 months.