Part of our heritage week focus on creating a traditional Irish kitchen garden
How to grow and harvest Carrots.
Nothing tastes quite as good as homegrown carrots and they really are super easy to grow. Preparing the ground to remove blockages will help ensure the roots grown long and straight. Carrots are easily grown from seed or transplants both of which we sell here at Springmount.
Carrots should be sown from mid Spring - it is an idea to wait until the end of May to avoid the first season of root fly. Carrots need transplanting which also can attract carrot fly thus it is wise to cover the bed with a micromesh cover. Carrots will grow best if watered consistently as stopping and starting can result in split carrots. Little and often is key.
Most carrots take 60 to 75 days to mature, depending on the variety. You can check the top of the carrot by moving the soil around it and, if it is more than a half inch across it is ready for harvesting. Be careful when pulling up the carrots if the soil is not light and sandy - best to use a fork to dig them up then.
You can enjoy freshly harvested carrots right into autumn if you sow them in succession (once a month from early spring to midsummer) and if you wish to store them you can do so by first cutting the leaves about a half inch from the top of the carrot root and placing them in a box of sand stored within a cool, frost free & dark place such as a shed where they'll keep for a couple of months.
Enjoy!