Why the duck cant I grow carrots!!!

I have been gardening on my own now for 10 years. My mother for 20 years and my Grandma for longer then time. I had realized a few years back that none of us grow carrots. I thought well why are we buying them from the store when we grow everything else? Mom says there just cheaper to buy then to grow for her and that's valid. Grandma just grows daisy's these days.  But I still want to grow rather then buy so I add them to the list for seeds and stuff to plant thinking nothing much of it.
For the FORTH year in a row now I have tried and failed to grow the little buggers. I just harvested 4 carrots from LAST years bed!!! Apparently the seeds decided to finally germinate. I will mention just to sooth my own ego they were picture perfect carrots but a year to late and only 4. Iv grown tomatoes, squash, potatoes, dragon fruit, beets, radishes, onions and so on no problem!!! They seem to be the only thing I cant grow and now we really want carrots cause they were really good!!! I've tried presprouting them, seeding them under burlap to keep them moist, changing locations, seed and soil. But They normally never even germinate!  We live in zone 4 of Iowa with good soil and I dont think its the garden or seeds at this point I think its me lol. Please tell me your carrot growing ways!

I feel your pain.
I love Carrots, but they have always been a very difficult crop for me - for more than a decade.

I've tried making a corn starch gel to mix the seeds into - to keep the seeds even spaced and hydrated.
I've tried mixing the seed with fine soil and sprinkling that in the planting furrows - to keep good spacing.
I've tried keeping a board over the planted row until they emerge- to keep the bed from drying out.
I've tried germinating them in a plastic bag, on rolled up strips of paper towels...
I understand that these methods work very well for many people, yet I rarely get very many full-grown carrots.

The best results I have is by replanting the top portion of store-bought carrots.
One thing I've learned is that their seeds often take a long time to germinate - two weeks sometimes.
Keeping the rows moist during that time seems to be essential, from what I've read.

I get a mental block about fiddling around with tiny seeds though, and that probably doesn't help.
I won't give up though, and I hope you don't either - good luck!

You are not alone Sam. I never ever managed to grow a single carrot. I have planted thousands of seeds of various  types and at various times of the year and in various locations on my land.

Carrots need me to water every day, maybe every other day, and I put boards on top of them to germinate them. They are planted super shallowly can't can't be allowed to dry out at all.  They also germinate better before last frost, when the ground is warming but not yet hot. I find sowing carrots in summer for fall harvests much more challenging.

My procedure is to scrape a furrow with a stick, maybe 1/2" deep, plant the carrot seed, then sprinkle lightly with dry crumbled soil just until I came no longer see the seeds, so the carrots are still in a bit of a depression to hold water, cover with a board, and wait. The burlap trick isn't enough for reliable germination with how often I water.

I now get good germination... Until I deviate even slightly from that procedure.

Oh, and fork the soil before you plant them, too, if you can. My new garden was rototilled this spring so I didn't fork the ground. The carrots all grew to the depth of the tiller and stopped.

The only thing I've not seen posted is the addition of creek sand to the carrot growing beds.  I also would place the seeds as thin as possible and use the edge of the board to lightly press in the tiny seeds into contact with the soil.  Water well and then cover with the rough cut board and wait!!!  Some years it would take weeks for any to appear.

I did not save seed from the carrots, I bought fresh seed for each year, Danvers or Nantes and from bio-dynamic growers.  And always had fair to good results, except for the spacing thing.  Some years here in zone 7 we did not pull our carrots, just covered them with leaves and straw for the winter.

I hope you will keep trying, as there is nothing in the stores like home grown carrots!!!

Heddwch

Just maybe the problem is soil that is "too heavy"  Seems that carrots like a sandy soil to grow properly.  I've finally cracked it - bought in some garden soil from the local landscape centre, which had a fair proportion on sand in it.  I planted a whole packet of a variety that had round carrots - a bit like the shape of radishes - and what do you know, the little marvels have ALL grown, and I'd sown them thickly in anticipation of minimal germination.  So, anyone who has success with carrots, can I thin out and transplant them?  Please. . .

I used to really struggle with growing carrots, now they are one of our staple crops. Here’s what I do to make them grow more reliably:

• Plant them deeper than everyone says. I plant at around 3/4” deep. I use an earthway seeder, but you can just carefully sow them by hand if you don’t have one.

• Water them every day if it’s not raining until they come up. It can take up to 3 weeks sometimes.

• Around a week or two after they’re up, start thinning them so they are around 4” apart in the row. It’s important to be absolutely ruthless with this, if they are crowded then you won’t get more carrots, you’ll just get heaps of tiny things that are too small to eat.

• If weeds are taking over the bed, do some hoeing. I usually only need to weed once or twice early on.

• Mine take around 5 months to grow to a decent size. In my zone 8 or 9 climate, they can stay in the soil all winter without problems.

• Kuroda is my favourite variety, Koral has grown well here too.

sandy soil, way over seed, thin like crazy.

If doing heavier soils expect way lower success rates and choose short fat varieties.

Its nice to hear that Im not the only one that has troubles with carrots. From what I see I'm planting them a little to late in the spring and they are most likely drying out in our clay soil. I think Il try three beds this year in different styles and see if I cant crack the code. Can you sow them in winter like I do with spinach and lettuce seeds? The melting snow keeps them moist and happy so around February on a relatively warm day I plant them on the north side of the house and get a good crop that way come spring. It wouldn't be to hard to prep a bed in fall and throw in the seeds then. Or maybe around the same time I get potatoes in...  

Hello Sam!


One easy way is to replant the top of another carrot.  That seems to work pretty well.  

If you do want to grow from seed, the way that works for me is to not burry the seed at all.  I just press the seed into the moist, rich soil and cover with fresh grass clippings.  I water the seeds a couple times per day.   This technique woks well for me even in heavy clay soil.    If you can get them to germinate, the rest of the growing should be easy.

  This is the first year I tried carrots.  What do you all use for companion planting with carrots?
  From what I've read here, I need to plant in sandier soil, which will be easy to do here on Long Island.  I'll seed more heavily too.
   I harvested one carrot this year, and it was somewhat embarrassing!  Keep in mind my husband is a urologist, so it it quite appropriate.

Clay soil makes it difficult.  You want a coarser well drained sand ideally.

I have clay soil and find that it is possible to grow carrots, if the right variety is selected, and some organic matter is added.

I like growing these.    They will be fine in heavy soil.
https://www.rareseeds.com/carrot-parisienne

I seem to have no trouble growing Queen Anne’s Lace (wild carrot), nor parsnips and marshmallow. Cultivated carrots always turn out small, but they are better the more I ignore them, grow them in natural soils, and treat them as wild. Probably, this increases their soil moisture.

I have tried wild carrots for the first time and love the richness of flavor and aroma. They are abundant in my low nitrogen, high carbon soils. I also like the seeds as a nibble and sometimes as flavoring. But they are nowhere near as big and substantial as the cultivated kind can get, and of course in my soil they don’t get very big either (though decent if I treat them right). Parsnips (wild) therefore form the staple root.

On another note, Paul Stamets has grown king oyster parasitically on carrots. They grow natively on the roots of wild Apiaceae, he writes, especially Eryngium.