How to Grow Carrots at Home In Pots: 5 Essential Steps

Thứ ba - 13/08/2024 02:50

Growing carrots at home in pots isn't overly difficult; it just requires a few steps to ensure the plants develop and form roots. This guide from Veque will provide more detailed instructions.

1. Information to Know Before Planting Carrots

For many, successfully growing carrots can be a challenge. However, the reward is always sweet. Here’s some important information about this vegetable:

Carrots take a long time to germinate: typically 12-15 days if the weather is cool, like in early spring. So, don’t give up if you don’t see seedlings right away.
Carrots take time to harvest: 3-4 months. Although you can harvest carrots at any time, the best size is around the length of your middle finger.
Carrots don’t require much space. This means you can fit them into any available spot in your garden. A tip: carrots and tomatoes like to be near each other. Check out 8 companion plants for more ideas.
Carrots attract caterpillars because they eat the carrot tops. Since eating the tops doesn’t damage the carrot itself and can be beneficial to the garden, let nature take its course.

>>>Read more about growing vegetables HERE

2. Detailed Guide on Growing Carrots from Seeds at Home In Pots

Carrots can be a challenge for gardeners but are always a favorite vegetable for children. So, check out these tips on growing carrots to give your kids the chance to enjoy the freshest carrots.

2.1. Choosing the Location, Preparing the Soil, and Selecting Carrot Seeds

Planting Location: Choose a garden bed with good drainage in a spot with full or partial sun (at least 6 hours of sunlight per day).
Carrots thrive in deep, fertile, and loose soil. To prepare the soil, mix in compost and worm castings two weeks before sowing carrot seeds. Then, work the soil to ensure it is loose.
Since carrots prefer deep soil, you can also grow them in containers. Choose containers that are at least 25 cm deep if you want to grow them.

See More: How to grow eggplant from seeds in pots at home

2.2. Choosing Carrot Seeds

You can buy carrot seeds from stores or online. However, it is best to get seeds from your local area. Nothing beats local, native varieties of vegetables.

2.3. What to Grow Carrots With?

We previously mentioned growing carrots alongside tomatoes. Additionally, you can plant carrots with onions, rosemary, or sage. These plants will help repel pests that feed on carrots.

2.4. Best Time to Plant Carrots

Carrots need warm temperatures to germinate, around 21°C or warmer. However, once they develop into roots, they prefer cooler temperatures, around 15-18°C. Refer to the planting schedule below for more details.

To grow carrots year-round, sow seeds every 3 weeks from spring equinox (mid-March) to autumn equinox (mid-September). Carrots are harvested every 3-4 months.

Spring: Start sowing around the spring equinox (mid-March). When you sow your first batch of carrot seeds in March, you’ll need to wait 3-4 months for the first harvest. Remember that carrots germinate slowly and grow in the cold spring soil. After sowing, cover the seeds with straw to keep the young plants warm (if the weather is cold). Continue sowing carrots every three weeks (one row at a time) to maintain a continuous harvest.
Summer: After harvesting your first batch of carrots, around the summer solstice (mid-June), mix some compost into the rows and sow additional seeds.
Winter: Harvest the remaining carrots around the winter solstice (mid-December), or leave some to continue harvesting until the spring equinox (mid-March), depending on your climate.

2.5. Why Watering Carrots is Important

A helpful tip for carrot germination is to provide a bit of moist water after sowing the seeds. Watering once after sowing will help stimulate good growth. After that, you can water normally.

Growing carrots is a rewarding experience. Basically, you need patience because carrots take their time to mature. We hope these tips will help you grow some truly sweet carrots!

Tags: HOW TO GROW VEGETABLES