The International Carrot Day or the Carrot Day is celebrated every year on 4th April and is the pinnacle for carrot lovers all around the world. It only seemed right to share our Head Gardener's Carrot Growing Guide with you!
Carrot Growing Guide
Fresh carrots from the garden are delicious and packed with goodness, with the weather slowly warming up now is great time to start thinking about the first sowing. We use a good disease resistant variety called “Eskimo F1” in the gardens, it can be sown early to be used for baby carrots or later in the summer as a main crop to be left in the ground over the winter months, Eskimo is also quite frost resistant.
If your ground is heavy and full of stones growing carrots can be quite tricky, they tend to “fang” as they grow instead of producing long straight roots, digging over the ground well before sowing will help, alternatively grow some in large pots or containers with a mix of sieved garden soil and potting compost.
For best results sow directly into the ground, taking out a shallow drill ¾ inch deep, seeds are best sown thinly to avoid congestion and having to thin them out, this helps reduce problems with carrot fly which is a common pest, rows can also be covered with fleece or try companion planting with Spring Onions, Garlic etc.
The seedlings will emerge in a few weeks, keep them watered as they start to grow, small weeds can be left in the rows to avoid disturbing the ground, larger ones should be removed firming the ground well after taking them out.
A sowing in early April should give a first crop in June, harvest by pulling up a few plants from all along the rows to give the rest more room to grow and keep sowing small amounts every few weeks, for a winter crop sow by the end of July, later sown crops are also less prone to common pests.
BBC Gardeners world website has some great tips on how to keep carrot fly away: https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/10-ways-to-avoid-carrot-root-fly/