Problem with Carrots

[Shellyann36]

No matter what I do I cannot get carrots to grow! I live in the SE US and it gets warm rather quickly so I plant them early with lots of mulch so that they don't freeze or we use our cold frame. For some reason I cannot get them to grow into a healthy size. I know that I will never be able to accomplish what I can buy from the grocery store but I would like for my carrots to be larger than a pencil!!

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[headfullofbees]

It may just be your climate, there are possibly many things which you can grow, but climate precludes me from growing.

How about you try the small, but delicious, fast-maturing chantennay or spherical varieties?

 

[Chuck]

No matter what I do I cannot get carrots to grow! I live in the SE US and it gets warm rather quickly so I plant them early with lots of mulch so that they don't freeze or we use our cold frame. For some reason I cannot get them to grow into a healthy size. I know that I will never be able to accomplish what I can buy from the grocery store but I would like for my carrots to be larger than a pencil!!

Anyone have any suggestions?

About the only thing that will stop carrots is under thinning and under feeding. Carrots are cold hardy. It has to be real cold to hurt them. I sow carrot seeds in the fall and we have a similar climate. Also I have had better luck with the Nantes type than with the Danvers type

 

[firelily99]

As headfullofbees mentioned trying some varieties that are more specific to your temp zone might help. Perhaps planting them in the fall like Chuck does is an option. Could it be your soil?

 

[Tommyotommy]

No matter what I do I cannot get carrots to grow! I live in the SE US and it gets warm rather quickly so I plant them early with lots of mulch so that they don't freeze or we use our cold frame. For some reason I cannot get them to grow into a healthy size. I know that I will never be able to accomplish what I can buy from the grocery store but I would like for my carrots to be larger than a pencil!!

Anyone have any suggestions?

I tried carrots last year and they did better than I expected. You have to work the ground at least 6 inches adding peat moss type filling to the existing soil so it's loose and airy. That way the carrots can grow really deep in the soil. My soil has a lot of clay. You also have to thin out the seedlings so they're not too close and crowd each other. My carrots only got to 3 or4 inches long but that was fine. They were very tender.

 

[Rosyrain]

They grow wonderfully in NW US. Have you asked a local nursery to see if they can grow in your area. Maybe you are just not growing at the right time of year. Good luck.

 

[Tommyotommy]

They grow wonderfully in NW US. Have you asked a local nursery to see if they can grow in your area. Maybe you are just not growing at the right time of year. Good luck.

Here in south Louisiana, carrots are mostly a fall crop. I would think similar to florida. We're lucky we can pretty much have something growing all year if you want. I don't like weeding and grooming in the garden much when its cold, but considering that, I do ok. My vegetable garden isn't taken care of meticulously though, winter or summer. The most grooming it gets is in early spring and fall here.

 

[Shellyann36]

It may just be your climate, there are possibly many things which you can grow, but climate precludes me from growing.

How about you try the small, but delicious, fast-maturing chantennay or spherical varieties?

I will look into the smaller varieties. Thanks for the input.

About the only thing that will stop carrots is under thinning and under feeding. Carrots are cold hardy. It has to be real cold to hurt them. I sow carrot seeds in the fall and we have a similar climate. Also I have had better luck with the Nantes type than with the Danvers type

Chuck how cold is real cold? I live in NC and we get freezing weather throughout the winter months. I will check out the Nantes type.

@firelily99 the soil is not bad. We mix in our composted material with the soil and it is pretty fertile. I do think that it probably does need to be more airy and light as someone else mentioned above.

@Rosyrain thank you for the input.

@Tommyotommy How late in the fall do you plant yours? Our cooler weather does not normally start until the middle of October and sometimes even later. Do you also overwinter them or do you pick them during the fall? I have wondered about overwintering them as well as garlic and onions for next year. I think I do need to make my soil lighter. I will look into that more.

 

[Chuck]

I will look into the smaller varieties. Thanks for the input.



Chuck how cold is real cold? I live in NC and we get freezing weather throughout the winter months. I will check out the Nantes type.

@firelily99 the soil is not bad. We mix in our composted material with the soil and it is pretty fertile. I do think that it probably does need to be more airy and light as someone else mentioned above.

@Rosyrain thank you for the input.

@Tommyotommy How late in the fall do you plant yours? Our cooler weather does not normally start until the middle of October and sometimes even later. Do you also overwinter them or do you pick them during the fall? I have wondered about overwintering them as well as garlic and onions for next year. I think I do need to make my soil lighter. I will look into that more.

Carrots will survive just fine into low to mid teens Frequently is in the teens here with a lot of 20's. Sometimes the tip of the greens will burn but as long as the soil doesn't freeze deep they will be OK. Carrots like to be fed regularly and do not like to get dry. I plant mine when the weather starts to cool and let them grow until spring or whenever I want to harvest some of them.

 

[Tommyotommy]

I will look into the smaller varieties. Thanks for the input.



Chuck how cold is real cold? I live in NC and we get freezing weather throughout the winter months. I will check out the Nantes type.

@firelily99 the soil is not bad. We mix in our composted material with the soil and it is pretty fertile. I do think that it probably does need to be more airy and light as someone else mentioned above.

@Rosyrain thank you for the input.

@Tommyotommy How late in the fall do you plant yours? Our cooler weather does not normally start until the middle of October and sometimes even later. Do you also overwinter them or do you pick them during the fall? I have wondered about overwintering them as well as garlic and onions for next year. I think I do need to make my soil lighter. I will look into that more.

I'm gonna try those smaller types too. Didn't really know they had those. Here in south Louisiana we plant them 1/15-3/1 for spring crop or 9/1-11/1 for fall crop....NC would be colder though. I'm using a book for Louisiana.

 

[happyflowerlady]

I have not had any luck with carrots here either, and I am in Alabama, so just about the same climate as you have , Shelly. I think that trying a fall crop might be what will work for me, too, and maybe the same idea will also work for beets. This spring has just been rain, rain, rain for us here, and my tomatoes are as stringy as can be, looking for any little bit of sunshine.
I think the carrots and bets and lettuce just got washed away in the rain, but since it is still pretty cool here, I am going to try planting them again (once the rain quits pouring down so I can at least get out in the yard and garden). If that doesn't take, then I will try it again in mid-september, and try for a fall-winter crop.

 

[Shellyann36]

@Chuck thanks for the input. I will try over wintering them this year to see how it goes.

@Tommyotommy Feel free to share with us which ones you try out of the smaller kind.

@happyflowerlady Last year was our year for rain and flooding. Our entire garden area was damp even in the summer time. I hope the rain lightens up and lets you dry up enough to get some planting done. Good luck with the fall-winter crops!

 

[happyflowerlady]

Thank you Shellyann ! It has finally stopped raining, at least for the time being, and the dirt is still soft enough for me to dig, so if I can now get out there before it turns too hot to be outside; then I can get things planted again, and hopefully, they will grow this time.
At least some of the things that I planted that like water, have started to come up, like the elephant ears. My castor beans came up, but then disappeared, so I think that the squirrels must have eaten them when they sprouted. I am going to replant those as well.

 

[Shellyann36]

Thank you Shellyann ! It has finally stopped raining, at least for the time being, and the dirt is still soft enough for me to dig, so if I can now get out there before it turns too hot to be outside; then I can get things planted again, and hopefully, they will grow this time.
At least some of the things that I planted that like water, have started to come up, like the elephant ears. My castor beans came up, but then disappeared, so I think that the squirrels must have eaten them when they sprouted. I am going to replant those as well.

The squirrels seem to be a huge problem for several people this year. I hope you are able to really get your garden going!

 

[Whitewolf2578]

I have only tried to grow Carrots once in my life, not really a fan of root vegetables as you can only harvest them once and then you have to replant them. It is probably the weather though, as it kind of needs to be cool for them. My carrots didn't come out well, they looked like baby carrots. So disappointing.