When and How to Plant Carrots

If you want carrot seed you need to over-winter the carrot and collect the seeds the next year. The seeds will then form around mid June in year two. Collect the seeds when they are fat but dry and before they fall to the ground. Don't bother collecting seed from F1 carrots, they will not come true to type.

When To Plant Carrots
Carrots are best sown over a long period to ensure that they are ready for eating from early June to October (longer if stored correctly). The table below shows when to sow carrots (early and maincrop varieties) and when the will be ready for harvest. Note that (as with all GardenAction pages) if you have set your weather settings (see main menu at top), the months below will be automatically adjusted for your area - if not, the months shown below will be average dates.

How To Plant Carrots
Using a trowel, dig out narrow drills 2cm (3/4inch) deep and 12cm (8inches) apart.  Carrot seed is fine - the easiest way to sow is to empty some seed from the packet into the palm of your left hand and and take small pinches of seed with your right hand fingers, dropping a couple of seeds every 2.5cm (1 inch) along the narrow drills. Sow the seed thinly to avoid too much thinning out later. Cover the seeds with fine soil very gently firming it down. Water with a fine spray if the conditions are dry. The seedlings should start to appear 15 to 20 days later.

Seed tapes or pelleted seed is now available from many seed merchants, and this makes the job far easier. If you can't find any, click here to go to Suttons Seeds and then type "seed tape" into their search box.