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Carrots are one of the most popular seeds around! They are well suited to Irish weather and Irish dinners! Carrots are great for your health, containing Vitamin A, calcium and other important nutrients.

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Sow

• Choose a site or pot with loose, moist but well-drained soil, in full sun. Remove any stones or other obstructions which could cause the roots to fork.

• Don’t add a lot of fresh manure or plant food at the point of sowing as it will lead them to grow too many leaves and misshapen roots. Instead prepare your bed the previous autumn/winter.

• Sow from March (under cover) or April in rows 15-20cm apart and 1cm depth on very fine soil, they will take up to a month to germinate. Ideally sow where you plan to grow them as moving them can result in wonky veg!

• Succession sow for multiple harvests! Later sowing (May) minimizes risk of carrot fly attack. 

 

Care

• The seeds are so small that you’ll probably sow a lot more than you intend to – thin them out by removing enough to leave the best seedlings 5 cm apart. You can eat the thinned out seedlings!

• If the conditions are right and you protect the plants from hard frosts with a deep mulch, in August you can sow them under cover for an autumn/winter harvest of carrots.

• Weed regularly until established. Minimise disturbance of soil to avoid attracting carrot fly. You could also add a mesh cover to prevent attack. 

 

Harvest

• Harvest about 3 months after sowing.  Or you can leave in the soil but lift or mulch heavily before frosts. Harvest in the evening to avoid carrot fly.

• When harvesting, loosen the soil around them and pull by hand. Remove all but half a cm of the leaves, and store in cool dark conditions or in moist sandy soil if not eating right away.