Carrots, Carrots, Carrots

By Jos Van Hage

 Carrots are a staple in many local gardens as they are easy to grow and are tasty raw, cooked, or juiced. They are usually orange but 10 centuries ago they came in colors of purple, yellow, red and white and it wasn’t until the 1600’s when the Dutch growers worked on improving the yellow types and then the red types and then crossing the best of both to create an orange carrot which is what we know today. (There is still a red variety of carrot available and I grew them one year but went back to my orange varieties the following year.) In the early 1900’s the Dutch were known as leaders in the breeding of carrots and produced 4 basic types of orange carrots of which many of the modern varieties are derived from today.

There are a number of varieties to choose from and I always like to try them out but I always go back to planting ‘Nantes’ ( shown at right) as they are very tasty and will keep in the root cellar till at least March. A tasty baby carrot is the ‘Little Finger’, or ‘Amsterdam’, and these can be quite tiny depending on how close you plant them together. Other varieties that are popular are the Chantenay, Danvers, and Imperator.

Growing carrots are quite easy but they need to planted in a deeply tilled (12-18 inches) soil so that the roots can go down and the soil should be well drained. If the soil is heavy or compacted the carrots will become distorted. Carrots are a hardy crop and so can be planted anytime from mid-May on. You may want to plant them 2-3 times in 2-3 week intervals so that you can have baby carrots for a longer period of time.

When I plant carrots I dig a slight trench of 10 mm and sprinkle the seeds in the trench and then cover them with loose soil. I like to plant more than one row and space the rows about 12-18 inches apart, enough room to easily get a hoe between the rows for easy weeding. Carrots will take about 14 days to germinate and during that time the soil should remain moist for the best germination. The soil should be kept loose as carrots seeds need to germinate through the soil. After they have come up you need to thin them out to 3-5 cm apart for larger sized carrots and if you want baby carrots then 2-3 cm apart.

A common complaint when growing carrots is the carrot rust fly which lays eggs in the soil that hatch into larva which tunnel into the carrot leaving dark tunnels in the carrot. If you had this problem last year you will have it again this year so you will need to take some precautionary measures.

First of all, you should never plant carrots in the same spot in the garden two years in a row.

Always rotate your crops as this will provide a healthier crop because not only should it help in pest control but different vegetables take up different minerals from the soil and so by rotating your crops the soil will not become depleted of certain minerals.

Next you should cover the area where you seeded your carrots with Reemay which is a frost protection blanket that allows moisture and sun to go through it. In this case you are not trying to keep out the frost but instead preventing the carrot rust fly from laying its eggs on the surface of the soil. If the carrot rust fly cannot lay its eggs then there will be no larva that will tunnel into the carrot. Keep the reemay cloth over the carrots until mid-season when the carrot rust fly is no longer around.

During the growing season if the soil becomes very dry give the carrots a good thorough watering. You want to water to go deep so water less often but for a longer period of time.

Sometimes carrots get a red or purple crown and this is caused from the sunlight so you should cover any exposed crowns with soil to prevent this.

Carrots can be harvested throughout the season but need to come out of the garden before the frost goes into the ground, around the end of September, mid-October. They can be stored by placing them in a cold area such as a cold room or the fridge. Store them in an open plastic bag so that they do not dry out but also do not get too moist and rot. Carrots can also be processed for the freezer.

-Jos

Jos Van Hage owns two  Art Knapp Garden Centres in the Prince George area:

Highway 16 West at Kimball Road

Highway 97 North at Northwood Pulpmill Road

Email | Print | Facebook | Twitter | Digg | Del.icio.us