When you were young, did you ever watched Bugs Bunny and get fascinated with the cute carrots with the carrot tops? Probably not. But the point is, carrots are cool! And it’s very cool to see them grow.
Let’s get a myth out of the way first! A lot of people say that you can grow a new carrot just from cut carrot tops, but sadly it is not possible. Yes, if you let the carrot tops sprout in water, the greens will grow but an entire carrot will not grow. Our best bet at growing carrots at home is from the seed!
Now let’s get started!
Take a container at least 10 to 12 inches deep. The carrots will need a lot of space to grow. Make sure the containers have a lot of drainage holes.
Now for the potting mix, you can use good quality compost for most of the mix and add some sand as well. Carrots need very fluffy, light soil. If you notice that your potting mix has too many lumps or tree bark or any bumpy pieces, a good tip would be to put the mix through a sieve. It doesn’t have to be a very fine sieve, just enough to pick out the really big lumps.
Fill your container up and leave just a few inches off the top.
You can get your seeds from any local shop or online, but make sure the seeds are of good quality.
You can sow the seeds with 2 inches gap between each seed. You can add a lot of seeds and then weed out the ones that don’t grow well, but why waste the seeds? Also, carrots don’t like being transplanted hence sow limited in a small and final container.
After sowing the seeds, cover them with just an inch of more potting mix. Water the seeds thoroughly after sowing. Keep the soil slightly moist until shoots start sprouting up. Keep the pot in a bright spot with partial direct sunlight.
After 2 or 3 weeks, you’ll start seeing baby seedlings shoot out. Carrots do take some time to germinate.
After around 2 months you’ll see considerable foliage on the top. You’ll see around 12 inches tall sprouts now. After the 2-month mark, the growth really starts speeding up.
After around 3 months, you can just see the tops of the carrots just ever so slightly peeking out of the ground. This is when you can slowly dig around the surface and see the fully-grown carrots.
You can wait till you see flowers blooming on the carrot tops, save and dry the flowers and then harvest the seeds from those as well.
It is now time to harvest these babies. You can grab the top of the carrot and slightly nudge and twist to loosen the soil around it and then pull the carrots out. And you’re done! You have a lovely home-grown carrots!
Until next time,
Have a lovely day and Happy Planting!!
Gayatri Vaidya©
