Growing Greenup Growing Your Own Carrots

Growing Greenup

Growing Your Own Carrots

Anne Stephens

For The Ashland Beacon

Do you like to garden and grow some of your own food? For me, I’m more of a flower grower but usually add some tomatoes, squash, and sweet peppers in the summertime. Not much, but a few plants for my own family’s consumption. I am a better customer at the Greenup County Farmers Market than I am a farmer. You can be a customer too through the end of September on Saturdays 9 a.m. – 2 p.m., and Tuesdays 3 p.m.  – 7 p.m.

For those of you who answered yes to that beginning question, the rest of this week’s column is for you!

Growing Your Own – A Beginner’s Guide to Gardening: Carrots

Carrots are a sweet and tasty cool-season vegetable. They have a lot of vitamin A, which is good for your eyes. Also, pulling fresh carrots out of the ground is always fun for kids—and adults.

Varieties

Carrot varieties are split into several groups that describe their shape. The part you eat is the root. Nantes types are shaped like little sausages, straight and blunt ended. There are many good Nantes varieties:

• Bolero has thick roots that grow seven to eight inches long. They taste good fresh and after storage. It is a good type to grow in the fall and store over the winter.

 • Little Finger is a baby-type carrot with sweet, orange, three-to-six-inch roots.

 • Mokum is an early carrot that grows slender pencil-like roots that are five to six inches long. It is known to keep its sweet flavor even in the heat of summer.

 • Napoli is an early carrot that can also be grown as a fall crop. It can grow up to seven inches long.

 • Yaya is an early-season carrot with mild, crisp, and juicy five-to-six-inch roots.

 Imperator types are long, slender, and tapered. They need loose, well-worked soil to grow straight and long. Try one of these varieties:

 • Purple Haze has dark-purple skin with bright orange inside. It has great flavor raw or cooked and grows seven to-eight-inch roots.

• Sugarsnax has dark-orange, slender, and tender roots that grow nine to ten inches long.

Danvers varieties are medium-long and have wider shoulders, like a classic carrot shape. The “shoulder” or crown is the round top where the stems meet the root. Chantenay types are short and rounder. Many kinds of carrots can grow well in Kentucky.

How much to plant

You can harvest about one pound of carrots for every foot of row planted. Plant 5 to 10 feet for a single person, or 20 to 40 feet for a family of four.

How and when to plant

Carrots most often are direct seeded from mid-March until early May. They grow better in spring but can also be planted in August and September for a fall crop.

Carrots form long roots in loose, well-draining soil. Mix in compost to clay soils to loosen and improve drainage.

Plant seed one-quarter inch deep in rows 18 inches or more apart. Carrot seed is slow to germinate, so be sure to keep the soil moist until the carrots start to grow. Thin carrots to two to three inches between plants once the seedlings are one to two inches tall. The “thinnings,” or baby carrots that you remove, can be added to soups or eaten raw.

Radish seed can be mixed with the carrot seed to improve germination. The radishes will break the soil and mark the row, making it easier for the carrots to grow. Harvest or remove the radishes before they compete with the carrots.

Pests and diseases

Carrots only have a few pests. Carrot rust flies (or root maggots) are attracted to the smell of the leaves. They lay their eggs in the crown of the plant. When they hatch, the small white maggots will then eat holes in the carrot roots. The next season, plant a different vegetable in their space to reduce their numbers.

Aphids can also attack carrots in warmer weather. Knock off aphids with a hard spray of water or squish them by hand. Flea beetles, sowbugs, and cutworms can also be. Please see UK Cooperative Extension publication Home Vegetable Gardening in Kentucky (ID-128) at https:// publications.ca.uky.edu/id-128, or contact your county Extension agent for help in dealing with pests.

The caterpillars of black swallowtail butterflies feed on carrot leaves. Children may enjoy their brightly striped bodies and watching them grow and produce a chrysalis. These caterpillars are often not harmful to the carrots unless there are a lot of them. If there seem to be too many, simply remove them.

Harvesting

Carrots should be harvested when they reach the ideal size for the type grown. If left to grow larger, they get woody and tough. If needed, gently pull back the soil to look at the shoulders of the carrots. See how big they have grown. When they are wide enough (one-half inch to one inch, based on the type), they are ready to harvest. The shoulders may turn green if above the soil, but this is not harmful. The biggest roots can be pulled first, and smaller roots can be left to grow larger. Harvest fall-planted car rots before freezing weather. Remove tops after harvest to keep roots crisp.

Serving

Carrots are fat-free, cholesterol-free, low in sodium, and an excellent source of vitamin A, which is an important vitamin for eye health. Carrots can be eaten raw or cooked. Rinse and remove the ends, and peel if desired. Use them raw in salads, serve them with dips, or eat them plain as a snack. For cooking, whole or cut carrots can be steamed, boiled, microwaved, or roasted. They can also be added to stir-fries, soups, stews, and casseroles.

Storing

Wash carrot roots and trim tops to one-half inch long. Store in a loose plastic bag in the refrigerator or a cool, moist cellar. Carrots will keep for two to four months. Do not store carrots in the same space as apples and other fruit. Fruits give off a gas that will make carrots bitter.

Clean up

Harvest plants before the ground freezes. Compost healthy plant material. Throw away any diseased plants.

Authors: Erika Olsen, Extension Associate Rick Durham, Extension Consumer Horticulture Specialist Rachel Rudolph, Extension Vegetable Specialist Contributors Jann Knappage, Food System Specialist Rita May, Senior Extension Associate Michele West, Marketing and Media Specialist

For more information, contact Anne Stephens, Agent for Community Arts and Development in Greenup County. 606.836.0201 anne.stephens@uky.edu 35 Wurtland Avenue, Wurtland, KY 41144 The Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment is an Equal Opportunity Organization with respect to education and employment and authorization to provide research, education information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function without regard to economic or social status and will not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnic origin, national origin, creed, religion, political belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, marital status, genetic information, age, veteran status, physical or mental disability or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity. University of Kentucky, Kentucky State University, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Kentucky counties, cooperating.