Most gardeners have had trouble getting a good carrot crop. Carrots are somewhat finicky plants and require specific conditions to grow well. Although soil is most important for every plant, it’s doubly so for carrots. This is why they actually grow better and more plentiful in containers in a controlled soil environment.
Containers have the advantage of having great soil (since you only put the best in there) that is free of large rocks and other impediments to straight carrot growth. The soil is also loose and airy, helping the carrots dig deeper more easily.
Soil for Container Carrots
You should use the best potting soil you can muster. It should be loose, but not sandy. Good compost mixed with good, loose topsoil, purchased potting mixes, a peat mix, or any other mix that is high in nutrients and free of rocks and disease will work well.
Nearly every time, you’ll have weed-free growing and few (if any) pest problems when growing in pots. The containers do need to be fairly deep in order to allow the carrots to grow down. Pots at least a foot deep are best.
Carrot Varieties to Grow in Containers
Most carrot types will grow well in containers. In shorter containers, try Parmex, which grows in a roundish ball. Kinbi is a yellow variety that is relatively short as is Nelson, which is a Nantes variety that grows only about six inches long and has a lot of flavor – a favorite amongst juicers. Most varieties don’t grow longer than 1 foot, but you’ll want to stick with those that are in the 6-9 inch range if you can.
How and When to Plant and Harvest Container Carrots
Planting can be done at any time the weather will be warm enough for the carrots to grow. Many container growers have their containers on wheeled carts or able to be lifted with a hand truck and will grow indoors, taking them outside during the day and back in over the frosty night. This can allow most people to grow all year round.
Plant as you would in the ground, following the packet instructions. Most carrot seeds are “drilled” into the ground about a quarter of an inch or so. Then watered carefully. You can also “broadcast” plant carrot seeds and cover them with a thin layer of soil or vermiculate.
Once the seedlings are sprouted and about an inch high, begin thinning. You can pull them or cut them back, but thin them down to about one or two inches apart. These sprouts can be eaten as any other sprout and are great salad toppers, so don’t throw them out!
When the carrot reach the young “baby carrot” stage where the plants are about six or seven inches high and the root is about two or three inches long, thin them again. You want to leave the remainder about six inches apart. These baby carrots that you’ve pulled are excellent eating and are young and tender.
Carrots will need fertilizer every couple of weeks. This can be a good compost tea, commercial potting plant fertilizer, or whatever you’d prefer. It should be a basically even mix (10-10-10). They will need water regularly – about every two or three days, depending on your climate.
You can harvest at about 70 days. If you plant your carrots in rotation in containers, you can have a continual harvest all year!
Want to learn more about growing carrots in containers?
Check out these helpful resources:
Container Garden
Container Vegetable Gardening
Great tips for an easy container crop. Bonus tips about how to keep a steady crop. Thanks.
Container gardening makes most things easier, and I suppose if you can grow a raddish or potato in a container, then a carrot would work just as well! http://bit.ly/1rn7Qkt
Absolutely have! Carrots are one of my top 10 veggies to grow in pots and if you click the link in my profile, you can see the other 9 items… http://bit.ly/1rn7Qkt
How do you tell when a carrot is ripe for harvest (without yanking it out to see)?
Guess these guys don’t read their messages. So why even HAVE this here?
Thank you for saying so Annie, I’m just going to put that question on a search line. Thank you for asking the ? Am going to try to grow carrots for the first time next spring if all goes well. 🙂
For Annie: Full-sized carrots mature in 50 to 80 days. The specific carrot variety determines the time to maturity and the ideal size at harvest.
Record the planting date for the carrots. Calculate the general time of harvest based on the variety. For example, short varieties like “Tiny Sweet” mature in about 60 days. Count ahead the number of days required for maturity to estimate the harvest date.
Brush the soil back at the top of the carrot to check the thickness. Check for a diameter between 3/4 inch and 1 inch at the top of a mature full-sized carrot.
Wet the soil around the carrots before pulling some test carrots out of the ground. The moist soil allows the carrots to come out of the ground easier.
Dig back the soil around one or two carrots to check the size of the roots. Loosening the soil with a garden trowel or fork allows you to easily pull up the carrots without separating the root from the green tops.
Compare the size of the carrots to the expected size for the variety. For example, half-long carrots like “Gold King” are mature at 5 to 6 inches, while standard carrots like “Tendersweet” are ready at 7 to 9 inches. If the test carrots you dig are in the expected range, harvest additional carrots as needed.
Can you grow carrots from the top of the stalk vs seeds?
https://www.gardeningchannel.com/carrots-regrown-from-tops/