Tis a mystery. Yes, as far as I know, carrots are biennial. If you planted them from seed, they shouldn't be flowering.... Hopefully, someone will have a good clue.

Even the weird weather shouldn't have been able to do this.

I bought a comsic purple carrot, the only carrot I have seen grow nicely, but they are in their 4th week. The orange ones didn't do anything, got about 1/2 inch thick at their most, wouldn't even sprout very well, the cosmics are doing great.

Can a carrot bolt? You can't eat most root vegetables when they bolt and flower because they will be too tough. That's what I've read, but maybe the colored ones are different and are in a different group?

I'd like to know too.

Several years ago I grew one type of the purple carrots and they began to bolt. All I can suggest is that some of the older, colored varitiesm are "touchy" and can be triggered to bolt by various conditions.

Wouldn't "bolting" only apply to an annual and not a biennial?

I would assume the term could be applied to any vegetable reverting to seed production prematurely.

I have a different question about carrots. I have tried to grow them several times but they always taste terrible. I have tilled and dug and composted and fluffed and watered and tended, but they still taste awful. I don't have any growing now but would like to try again....any suggestions?

Thanks,

Ann

Carrots don't like hot weather. I'm also in zone 7a and I too find it difficult to grow good tasting carrots during the summer. I had much better success last year with a fall crop. The trick with a fall crop is that you need to plant them in August in order to have enough time for them to mature before the cold halts their growth but it's hard to get good germination at such a hot dry time of the year. I had poor germination with my August seeded crop but the carrots that did germinate reached a nice size and had good flavor by mid October. This year I'm going to try covering my moistened seed bed with cardboard until germination in order to try and improve my germination rate.

As for summer carrots, you might try planting them in part shade and keeping them constantly moist with drip irrigation.

- Steve

I've always had a rough time with carrots also. Would it help to freeze the seeds for awhile, then plant in the "fall" Same with spinach.
My cool weather starts anywhere from Sept to Nov! Those can also be our hottest months!LOL!
Heck! With no real "seasons" sometimes it's hard to do the fall thing. NT

I have quite a large patch of carrots growing, and one plant has also started to "bolt." At first, I couldn't figure out why the stem was so thick, but now it's forming what looks to be a flower head. Very strange, but the weather has been odd - hot, then cold and rainy, and now ridiculously hot.

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How big are the carrot tops supposed to get? Mine are going on about 3 months in the ground now, and they have nice green tops, but they're only probably 4" tall and 6" wide at most each. Aren't they supposed to get huge? Maybe carrots don't grow too well now that it's 100 deg outside every day...

For all of us who live in the South the best carrots are in the fall-winter season along with any root or cole plants

I planted five varieties. I'm in zone 4. Almost all of the purple and black are flowering. These are recently developed varieties. One white carrot is bolting (out of about 20.) Not sure when it was developed. The orange and yellow are not flowering, and they are both heirloom varieties. I'm gonna go way out on a limb and guess that the recentness of hybridization might lead some varieties to be less stable. It may be that lack of stability combined with a weather or nutrient trigger might be the cause.

1. Concur that carrots don't like hot weather. late winter early spring plantings or fall plantings for winter harvest for those of us in the south.

2. There are varieties that consistently bolt when spring planted. The dark carrots are very bad about this. I have had 100% bolting from spring plantings of Purple 68. Does fine with fall planting

The best success I've had with seed germination of carrots was when I covered the entire bed with old carpet after sowing the seeds. I watered well and then peeked under the carpet everyday. When I saw little green shoots I removed the carpet. My crop was hugely successful. Best ever! Old, used carpet can be picked up free from carpet stores. It also works well to keep weeds down between rows or in areas you're leaving fallow for whatever reason. Carpet has been the biggest gardening time saver for me. I highly recommend it!