Greetings:

I am envious of those with raised beds for carrots. I grow mine each year in heavy clay and they do fine. I am limited to growing short, fat carrot varieties(chantenay) because of this.

A long time ago I had raised beds when I was a Horticulture student. The beds allowed me to grow varieties that had long roots without getting them all forked upon harvest. Raised beds drain well so you will have the benefit of being able to plant sooner as well. I recall growing some excellent carrots and was very partial to an Israeli variety called 'Mokum'.

Carrots are real slow to germinate especially when the ground is cold so be patient. It is best to plant heavy and thin them out later. Do not wait too long to thin them ( I did once and the tops broke off leaving some large roots left in the ground). Best to thin when the soil is moist not too dry and the plants still small.

If you have pet rabbits, they will love all the carrot foliage! I now plant carrots specifically for our pet rabbits, although we eat a share of the harvest too.

After picking in October, I have successfully stored them in the refrigerator until March in large poly bags. Just be sure to have some holes in the bag. Too much moisture will result in bacterial soft rot. Too little moisture and the roots will shrivel.

Spartanapple, do you grow yours in full sun? Does some shading do any harm to growth? Do you fertlize them? I've heard excess nitrogen causes forking?

habjolokia:

Yes my vegetable garden is in full sun. Since I have not grown carrots in part shade, I have no experience with them that way. I will presume you would need at least 3/4 day sun to grow carrots with full sun preferred to get a good yield. Perhaps others can comment on their experiences if grown in part shade.

Fertilize? Sometimes I do not. Usually I fertilize just once and use a liquid fertilizer on them should the color of the carrot tops tell me that they are a little short of nitrogen early in the growing season. I normally grow about 8 gallons worth of carrots a year so not a major crop in my tiny city garden.

With a raised bed, you will find that watering is more of a necessity than with a traditional garden since it drains so well. You may also find the need to fertilize more frequently than I do with carrots should your nitrogen leach out quicker with the more frequent waterings needed. Let the plant tell you if it needs fertilizer. If the growth is good and the foliage is a decent green, then don't bother. Poor growth and very sea green tops may mean you are short on nitrogen.

Carrots are an easy crop to grow. With my little patch the only issue I once had was root maggots. One year I found the tops nice but when I harvested, the roots had been mined out by maggots. Lost a lot of the crop. Since then I have avoided that spot in my garden and moved to the other side. I did not plant carrots the following year and so far no problem since.

I usually plant some type of half danvers in a raised bed but when I plant them, I mix up radish seeds in the same mix. Carrots always seem to take forever to hit their growth spurt for me and the radishes are harvested about the time the carrots begin to need the room. My mom always did it like that. I've done it for years, although last year I realized that I don't actually like radishes and my grandfather who did love radishes has been gone for a few years now. I guess now I plant them just to remember him and give them to the neighbors.

Last year I harvested the carrots rather late because they took forever to grow. I accidentally shaded them with really tall lettuce (way taller than I anticipated) so that might have been the issue. I harvested my spring crop in October after a frost and was pleasantly surprise that they tasted possibly even sweeter than my usual harvest.

This year I'm trying a few different varieties of carrots. If I can keep up with my note taking, I'll have a better idea for next year. :)

I usually grow my carrots in a raised bed that gets part shade. They seem to do fine for me. If the soil you are using is amended, I doubt you'll really need to fertilize much...I didn't.

Not that you don't plan on doing this, but you should always direct sow your carrots into your bed. Carrots don't transplant well. Also, they don't like obstructions in the soil. If the carrot root comes across an obstruction it will either be stunted or deformed, trying to grow around it. What I do, and you really don't have to do this, is I screen the top 8" of soil in the patch I'm going to grow in. If not, you can just work the soil with a spade and remove any large rocks or twigs. Again, not required, I just like to give the carrots a clear area to grow.

As for sowing seeds, like Spartanapples said, you can scatter and thin afterwards. I wouldn't go crazy trying to plant them in a row, because when you water them, they're just gonna shift and move around. Leave a good 2-3" between seedlings when you thin.

Like Hannah said, doesn't hurt to let them get a frost. The carrot converts starch to sugar, as a way to keep the water in the carrot from freezing. Pretty sweet :-)

I grow my carrots in a raised bed generally. They are easy to grow and thinning is really the biggest issue/pain with them. They do not require a lot of sun, finicky temperatures, or much fertilization (if any.) They do take a long time to germinate. Definitely plant them ASAP!

Fall carrots (sown in late July here) can definitely benefit from some shade especially if the shade blocks the intense afternoon sun. Last year I planted my fall carrots in a raised bed that was due east of a bed that had 6' tall asparagus ferns in it that blocked the afternoon sun and they did very well but took about a month longer till harvest than the DTM stated. The shade helps to keep the soil somewhat cooler and not dry out as fast.

I think partial sun is OK for spring carrots but it will probably slow down germination and growth to some degree but you should eventually get a harvest.

I don't fertilize carrots at all. Yes, plant them ASAP!!!!!!! Mine have been the ground since 3/6, began sprouting 3/25, and have been thru a few mid 20s nights since. For comparison my fall carrots germinated in 8 days last year according to my notes.

I started mine under plastic and they already have 2 sets of true leaves :)

Going for lots of carrots this year! They taste amazing compared to what you get at the supermarket.

Jack, I'm considering waiting until late July(after the garlic is harvested) to sow my carrots. Any differences in the harvest, compared to a spring-sown carrot?

My Fall carrots were surprisingly large despite small foliage (but still smaller than Spring), they should be started early as they have a long season.

I prefer the fall carrots. They are much sweeter when maturing in cooler weather and there is no rush to harvest them as long as the ground hasn't frozen solid yet. Spring carrots for me don't usually mature until late June when started in mid March. Hoping the little earlier start will get me a earlier harvest this year...if I can keep the chickens out of the bed!

I think I'll do a small spring crop and a big fall crop. This is the first year growing garlic, and the only downfall is it's taking up an entire bed. Something tells me I won't mind when I harvest them all in July :-)

They take so little space, I'm sure you can find somewhere to squeeze some in :)

True. This is a good excuse to build another bed though...as if I needed an excuse.

Even a little 2'x2' bed could yield 40 or so carrots. ;)

That is what I do Chris. This spring I only planted in an area that is 18" by 8' but in the fall they will get most if not all of a 4'x10' bed after potatoes are harvested. What carrots are left after Thanksgiving I will harvest and store in my garage in 5 gallon buckets in alternating layers of sand and carrots. When I use them they look and taste just as good as when they were harvested.

I like Little Finger and Scarlet Nantes in the spring, Napoli and Bolero do better for me in the fall because they are more cold hardy and better for storage.

2'x2' would be sufficient, but I was thinking more like 3'x10' :-)

Sand?? Never heard of that before. I don't think I grow enough carrots to do that, but good to know.

I think I have some Scarlet Nantes left, and I'm gonna try White Satin this year.

Jack has the right idea, I am going for carrots/lettuce/spinach/Brussels sprouts for my Fall crops this year, heavy on the carrots. The only other things I think that could be successful are peas, which give a pitiful harvest in the Fall for me, and greens that we don't really like. IDK Maybe I will try some broccoli too, but I am concerned it is not going to head.

Thinking back about storing in sand, I suppose a plastic kiddie wading pool would be ideal! Better than a bucket. The carrots could be laid out in a single layer, covered in sand then another layer of carrots ect. Easy to store and get at a lot of carrrots that way! Beats digging all the way to the bottom of 5 gallon buckets to find the last of the carrots and not be spilling out all the sand.

I guess a kiddie pool would work if you have enough sand and have a lot of carrots to store. I only have maybe 10 lbs. of carrots left by the end of November so a couple buckets is all I need. I remove the excess sand as I go only leaving a few inches on top so not much digging required. A 10-15 gallon plastic tote would also work well.

I just got back from a trip to my favorite seed store to get some more 4" pots and also picked up a pack of Danvers Half Long pelleted carrot seed to plant this fall. I've never planted with pelleted carrot seed but it sure will be nice not to have to thin them! I'll plant these in the middle of the bed where it is a bit more trouble to reach when thinning.

if you have issues with carrots getting bugbites on ive noticed that Cosmic Purples get far less damaged than other types, while Lunar White gets most pests. We are growing three types of purples this year for that reason, adding Purple 68 and Pusa Asita