Carrots are my youngest child’s favorite thing to grow and eat.    It’s fun to watch him excitedly pull the carrots out of the ground when they are ready to harvest.  The first time he helped me with the garden, he was two years old.  When he harvested his first carrot, he ran to my husband and said, “Daddy! Look what I made!”   Container gardening is such a rewarding experience for me.  Not only is it fun to actually make food, from seed to dinner, it’s such a delight to see my little one’s wonder and excitement.

Growing Carrots in a Container

A lot of gardeners will tell you that carrots need to be in sown directly in the ground in order to grow.   My home-grown salads and I are here to tell you otherwise.   

Carrots are root vegetables. This means that the edible part is grown beneath the surface of the earth.  Because they grow downward, it’s important to keep their length in mind when deciding to grow carrots in a container garden.    When you purchase your carrot seeds, be sure to pick one that is compatible with the containers you have on hand.  (Alternately, you could buy your seeds, then purchase a container that will accomodate the length of the carrots you chose.)   To be on the safe side, use a container that is two inches deeper than the length of a full grown carrot (which ever variety you choose).

Use a potting soil that’s made for vegetables.  These are specially formulated to give vegetable plants the nutrients they need to grow nutritious vegetables.

Fill your container (pot, planter, bucket, box, bin…whatEVER you want to) with potting soil.  Stop about 2″ from the top of the container, so that you don’t lose any soil when you water (or when it rains).    Use your finger to make small trenches in the surface of the soil, and sow the carrot seeds.   Brush the soil back into the trenches to cover the seeds.   Water very gently for the first couple of weeks, because you don’t want those tiny little seeds to wash away.

When to Plant Carrots in Containers, and When to Harvest

Carrots are very hardy plants, and can withstand very cold temperatures and some frost.    In colder climates, you have a double growing season for carrots grown in containers.   Sow a crop in the spring (two weeks after the last frost), and harvest during the late spring or early summer.   Sew another crop in late summer or early fall, and harvest in late fall.    If the weather gets too cold for this second crop, just pile some mulch on top of the container, or move the container to a covered, warmer area of your yard.

Originally posted 2009-08-28 03:22:03. Republished by Blog Post Promoter