Grow Your Own Carrots from Seed

A carrot is one of the most magical things you can grow in the kitchen garden, and all of that magic—the long taproot underground and the feathery green tops—comes from just one teeny tiny seed.

Each little carrot you pull from your garden may be a wondrous thing, but you're going to need to plant a lot of these wondrous things if you plan to pop carrot sticks in your kids' lunch boxes for snack time or roast carrots as a side dish for the entire family. This might sound obvious, but for those of us who are used to growing prolific zucchini plants or cherry tomatoes, it bears reminding that root crops like carrots are a one-to-one ratio. For every seed you plant, you get exactly one carrot.

All right, so now that we've established that you're going to need to plant a lot of carrot seeds, let's look at spacing for your seeds.

Carrot Seed Spacing

Planting root crops too close together can prevent them from growing to their full potential. The best spacing to give your carrots depends not only on the carrot variety you're growing, but also the size of the carrots you'd like to harvest.

Let's say you're growing Little Finger carrots and your plan is to harvest them when they're small and crisp—the perfect snacking size. You might only space them 1 inch apart. If you're growing Danvers carrots that you want to grow a little larger so you can juice them, you might give each carrot 2 inches of space. If you're growing a large carrot type that has really wide shoulders when mature, you might space each seed 3 inches apart.

Even if you space each carrot three inches apart, you can still plant 16 carrots in just 1 square foot of garden space.

If, once your carrots pop up, you realize you planted them a little too close together, you can thin them to make sure each seedling has the space it needs to grow a nice, plump root. We'll talk more about thinning in a bit.

Carrot Growing Recommendations

Before you sow you carrot seeds, keep these three things in mind.

One: Direct Sow Your Carrot Seeds

Young carrots are delicate little things, and they really don't like their taproot to be disturbed once they've started growing. Moving them can stunt their growth. This is why I don't recommend starting carrot seeds indoors and then transplanting them out to the garden space. I also don't recommend buying carrot seedlings from the garden store. Buy yourself some seeds and plant them directly where they'll grow.

Two: Grow Your Carrots in a Raised Garden Bed

Carrots need a lot of vertical depth to stretch down their roots. Raised beds that are at least 12 inches deep are the ideal growing space to give carrots plenty of room, plus good drainage. Carrots do best when they receive at least 6 hours of sun per day, so make sure you're giving them a spot in the garden bed where they won't be shaded by taller plants (either plants that are already established or plants that will pop up from seed much faster than carrots). I like to give carrots an entire bed to themselves or a space right along the edge of the raised bed.

Three: Plant Your Carrots During the Cool Season

Carrots are a cool season crop. They grow best when temps range from 45°F to 75°F, though they can actually handle a little frost. You definitely don't want to grow carrots in the middle of a heat spell. The ideal time to grow carrots for many gardeners is during the spring and fall, but those of you in warmer climates might actually grow them over your winter. Check your weather forecast; if you've got a period of 60 to 90 days with nice, cool weather, you're good to grow carrots.

Step 1: Prepare the Soil

Carrots need the soil to be nice and loose so their taproots can expand without feeling too much pressure. I typically don’t turn my soil much in my garden, but I do before I plant members of the carrot family.

With a hori hori or a long trowel, loosen the soil up using what I call "the stab and twist." That sounds grim, but all you have to do is stab the soil about 6 to 8 inches deep, twist your gardening tool, and pull it back up. Repeat across the entire planting area. (It's a bit of a wrist workout.) This is especially important in a shallow raised bed.

Make sure you're breaking up large soil clumps and removing any pebbles you find. That way, carrots don’t have to fight to send their roots down deep. 

Then, you can add some compost, which can improve the soil structure and give your carrots a nice little nutritional kickstart. If you're worried about drainage in your raised bed, you can also add a little bit of coarse sand and work it into the soil.

Go over the soil surface with a hand rake and then press it flat with your trowel or hori hori to create a smooth planting surface.

Step Two: Sow Carrot Seeds

As I said, carrot seeds are ridiculously tiny, so tiny that separating them out can be difficult. You can handle them in one of two ways: take time now to space them out or do something called broadcast them, which basically just means toss them out. The second method requires you to come back later and thin them.

Let's look at each method.

Method One: Space Carrot Seeds Out

I can't recommend a planting ruler enough if you're going to use this method. These rulers have holes at each inch mark to help you space out seeds as you go. Simply press the ruler into the soil and then place a carrot seed in every hole or every other hole, depending on how large you'd like your carrots to be at harvest time.

My trick to pick up one carrot seed at a time is to lick my index finger. If that grosses you out, just do your best to grab one or two seeds. Place one carrot seed per hole.

Use the edge of your spacing ruler or something flat to push seeds down to ensure they have good soil contact. Cover them with a light layer of soil or compost.

Method Two: Broadcast Carrot Seeds

For this method, it’s a great idea to use some stakes and twine to help you get a straight planting line. Use the sharp tip of a hori hori or trowel to dig a shallow trench along the straight line you’ve created with your stakes and twine.  

Put some carrots seeds in the palm of your hand and pick up a couple between your thumb and index finger. Rub your fingers together as you move your hand down the line.

Space your next row about 2 to 3 inches from your first row of carrots, and repeat. 

Wait until you've sown all your seeds before you cover them up. These seeds are so tiny they only need to be planted ¼ inch deep, so you can just gently pinch the edges of the trench you made back in place.

You'll learn by trial and error which method you prefer.

Step Three: Water the Planting Area

Use a soft setting on your hose to water the seeds in. Try to mimic gentle rainfall so as not to displace all those teeny tiny carrot seeds. 

Carrots can take a long time to germinate, sometimes up to three weeks. It is a bit of a waiting game, and while you’re waiting, you need to be watering. Do not let your carrot seed dry out before they sprout. Do not let the soil surface become dry enough to form a crust that the little carrot seedlings can't break through. Keep the planting area well watered. 

Some gardeners place burlap over the planting area to hold in moisture. The burlap is basically like a little blanket to keep the carrot seeds from drying out before they germinate. The one thing I don’t love about this is I’ve had the little squares in the burlap pull up seedlings when I removed the cloth, which kinda defeats the purpose, you know? 

If you’re not covering the planting area, make sure to mark where you’ve sown carrot seeds so you don’t forget and plant something else there while you’re waiting for the baby carrots to pop up. 

As long as the temperatures remain in the optimal range, you can plant new carrot seeds every two weeks during the growing period. That way, you'll have a more continuous carrot harvest.

How to Thin Carrot Seedlings

Once your carrot seedlings begin to sprout, you’ll see how well you did spacing each seed using either method. If seedlings are crowding each other, it’s time to thin. Look for two seedlings too close together and pick one of those to remove, ideally whichever one seems a little more spindly or less hardy than its neighbor. 

To thin, you can either pull the entire seedling out, root and all, or you can trim the extra seedling at the soil level with a pair of scissors. The second is less likely to damage the root of the remaining plant. (Learn more about thinning seedlings.)

Time to Sow Some Carrot Seeds!

Once planted, watered in, and thinned, carrots require little from you. This is a great crop to grow if you're about to head out of town or if you only have a couple minutes to garden each week.

And once you see a tiny seed turn into this sweet, juicy root that you pull from the ground, you’ll be eager to start the next round of seeds so you can feel the rush of growing your own carrots all over again.

Thanks for being here and helping to make gardening ordinary again!