How Do You Know When to Harvest Carrots?

Growing carrots can be a study in patience. It's not that they're necessarily slow to grow. Most varieties, after all, will be ready to harvest in just two to three months. That's pretty dang fast in the gardening world.

It's more the uncertainty of what—if anything!—is happening down there. We gardeners are left waiting around, searching for signs aboveground that good things are, in fact, happening beneath the surface.

The excitement you'll feel when you finally get to pull up your little dirt-covered treasure will make all that waiting and guessing worth it.

So, how do you know when that magical moment has finally arrived? Look for these 3 signs.

You're within the window of the time guideline on your carrot seed packet

I know, this one seems obvious, but I have a bad habit of forgetting to check the back of the seed packet at the time of planting something. It's kind of like how I always think I can assemble furniture without reading the directions.

The time-to-harvest estimates from seed companies are usually pretty accurate within 10 days or so, especially when the weather has been ideal. Making note of this date on your calendar can give you a good idea of when to expect your first harvest. Carrots should be ready for harvest about 60-80 days after sowing seeds, depending on the variety. 

Let's say you're planting your first round of Danvers carrots in early March. You'll come out about 20 days later to thin carrot seedlings to give the remaining plants plenty of room to grow their taproots. You'll come back out about 45 days after planting to thin again, if needed. The seed packet says this variety reaches maturity in 65 to 75 days, so in early to mid-May, you should start checking on their growth.

Different types of carrots have different grow times, so be sure to check your packet to know when to harvest carrots.

The carrot greens above the soil have grown to be 10 to 12 inches tall

Looking at the greens on a plant can typically give you at least a hint as to what’s happening underground. In general, the root’s size imitates the growth aboveground. I look for plenty of stems that are starting to become nice and thick.

If you don't see a lot of green growth above the soil line, then there’s probably not much happening to your little carrot taproot below either. On the other hand, if one shoot has grown significantly taller than its neighbors, you can expect that carrot to be rather large for its age.

Fun fact:

Carrot greens are harvestable and edible almost as soon as they start growing.

The carrots pass the shoulder test

The shoulder of a carrot is the part that pushes up against the topsoil. It's the first part of a root crop that you see when you give the shoots overhead a good tug.

Use your finger to sweep around the base of the greens a bit to see if you can feel the shoulders. If you don’t feel anything, the carrot probably needs more time to develop, so just push the soil back in place and check back in a week or two. 

Ideally, the shoulders should be about 3/4 to 1 inch in diameter. You might also notice the color looks nice and vibrant.

Sometimes, carrots show you they’re ready to harvest by popping their shoulders above ground to say hi. They’re not likely to continue growing much once they’re bursting out of the ground, so that makes the decision to pull or not pull an easy one! 

3 Easy Steps to Harvest Carrots

Harvesting carrots is pretty easy. In fact, when two of my children were preschool age, they managed to harvest about 400 carrots all by their little selves while I was doing something in the kitchen.

Once you've decided your carrots are ready, here's what to do:

Step One

Water the garden well so the soil is nice and moist. Let the soil sit overnight.

Step Two

Come back out early in the morning. Use a hori hori or long trowel to dig around the base of the carrots to loosen the soil up a bit. This prevents the carrot tops from breaking off when you're pulling on them.

Step Three

Gently tug on the bottom of the stems to pull each carrot up. Shake your little orange treasure to free some of the dirt.

Why Are My Carrots Taking Forever to Grow?

If you keep checking for signs your carrots are ready to harvest and have long passed the expected time to harvest, there are a couple of things you can do to try to speed up root growth.

Provide More Space

First, check to make sure each root has enough room to swell and grow to its full potential. Ideally, you will have thinned your carrot seedlings as soon as their true leaves appeared. If you didn't, your little roots have probably been experiencing a prolonged state of stress over whether they will receive the nutrients and water they need.

It's not too late to thin again. In fact, many gardeners go through two or even three thinning rounds while their carrots grow to ensure their top carrot plants have plenty of room to themselves.

(Read more about thinning your plants.)

Water Consistently

Once you've thinned your carrots, be sure to maintain a consistent watering schedule for your root crops. If you allow carrots to dry out during their germination or early growth period, you can delay the growth of their roots by days or even weeks.

Increase Sunlight Hours

Finally, be certain the sunshine levels remain as high as possible for your carrots as they continue to grow. Days of growing under the shade of a larger plant can stunt and slow their growth. Ideally, carrots should feel at least 6 hours of sun shining on their leafy green tops.   

Can You Harvest a Carrot Too Soon?

You know those baby carrots at the grocery store? Well, there's no such thing as a baby carrot the way they sell them—those uniform little cylinders. Actual baby carrots are just smaller carrots that have the potential to grow into larger carrots. The picture below is a carrot that's been growing for about 2 months.

If you just want to have a little snack, then you could stop right here. Undersized carrots are completely edible, completely delicious. But if you leave them in the garden a little longer, they'll grow longer and/or thicker, depending on the variety you're growing.

What Happens if You Leave a Carrot in the Soil Too Long?

It's not as important to harvest carrots as soon as they're big enough to eat as it is with something like radishes, which can quickly become so starchy they're inedible.

Actually, it's a good idea to harvest only as many carrots as you can use and leave the rest in the soil a while longer. The garden is actually the best place to preserve them. Carrots can typically be left in the ground for about 4 weeks once they've matured.

(This is much better than being presented with 400 carrots that you have to use up within the next couple of weeks! Remember how my kids did a little carrot treasure hunt of their own? We were having carrot soufflé and carrot juice every day for months.)

After about 4 weeks, carrots left in the ground might become tough and woody instead of crunchy and crisp. Their flesh can also crack, which means they won't stay fresh long if you try to store them. Some of your little carrots might even try to develop side roots. Overall, it's best to stay within your window of opportunity for harvesting.

How to Store Carrots

Rinse your carrots in cold water and then dry them off completely. Trim off the carrot greens, leaving just an inch or so. (Time to make carrot top pesto or chimichurri!)

If you happen to have a root cellar (very fitting) or a basement that stays nice and cool and dry, you can pack your carrots in a container with some sand and then keep the lid ajar. Otherwise, your carrots will go in your fridge's produce drawer.

They'll last a few weeks before they decline in flavor and consistency. If your carrots look a little limp, try soaking them in cold water to revive them.

Enjoy Your Perfect Homegrown Carrots!

The first carrot I ever pulled up was lumpy and super bent, but to me, it was the most beautiful carrot ever.

Homegrown carrots are not perfectly smooth orange sticks. They come in all shapes and sizes (and colors!).

They have stretch marks and bumps, and they're covered in dirt and little white hairs (which are actually tiny roots).

And if they happened to encounter an obstacle underground like a rock or soil clump or root, they might even look a bit deformed. That's okay.

Pulling on the little stems to reveal each unique taproot is part of the fun of growing your own. No matter what they look like, they'll still taste incredible. They're still worthy of awe that so much has grown from such a tiny seed in just a couple months.

I hope this guide has you harvesting crisp and crunchy carrots of all different shapes and sizes in no time!