Carrots are super rich in antioxidants and betacarotene, which is known to protect your eyes against macular degeneration, a progressive disease that can lead to blindness if you do not manage it carefully. However, if you have never grown carrots before, then now is the time to consider that – and there are several things you need to know first. It is essential to pay attention to the spacing between the carrots, as they all need a small space where they can get their nutrients and water from, and if you do not provide your carrots with enough room to grow and thrive, then the entire harvest may be compromised. Aside from that, this tutorial will provide you with several other useful tips and hints on how to plant and harvest the carrots, when it is the right time to pull them out, how to keep them healthy and so forth. These tips are gathered from professional gardeners!
Set Up the Area:
The best place to begin when growing carrots is making sure the area where they are going to grow is ideal. That means plenty of compost mixed with something that makes the soil friable.
This is very important because if the soil gets too compacted, you will get thick, short and stubby carrots. While those carrots are still edible, what you really want are nice long and thick carrots.
I like to use peat or coir with my compost to make sure the soil is very loose. The soil should crumble through fingers when you pick it up.
Spacing:
There is no need to start your seeds indoors. Carrots grow best when they are direct sowed into your garden bed.
Make sure, when planting your carrot seeds, that you space them out eight to twelve inches. You may be able to get away with less, but if you want carrots that are large, thick and healthy, give them some room.
Care:
As mentioned earlier, carrots do very well even when they receive very little care. If you want great carrots though, show them a little love. Make sure to keep their soil moist, not saturated and free of weeds. I like to feed my carrots every two weeks with some compost tea.
Harvest:
This to me is the million dollar question. How do you know when they are ready to harvest since you can’t actually see the carrot?
Most carrot varieties reach full maturity in 60 days. That does not mean if you pick your carrots before that time they will be bad or even less tasty, it just means they should reach a good size at that time.
But in all honesty, you can pick carrots as soon as 30 days. They will be a bit smaller, and with some varieties like little finger and tender sweet, they will have a nice sweet flavor to them. Almost like candy!
Credits go out to: http://prepared-housewives.com/growing-carrots/
