Planting Carrots

I've been working steady every afternoon to get the Fall/Winter garden in and one of the items I was planting on Sep 16th was carrots.  We love carrots.  We'll eat them raw.  I like them dipped in hummus.  We'll cook them with butter, in chicken pot pies, soups, fried rice, in egg rolls and other dishes.  We plant more than we can eat at one time so we can a bunch of sliced carrots and we will also blanch and freeze carrots so that we can enjoy them all year long.

According the the Louisiana Vegetable Planting Guide you can access here:  LSU AgCenter Louisiana Vegetable Planting Guide, the information regarding carrots are as follows:

• Fall Planting dates for carrots are 9/1 - 11/1
• Planting Depth: 1/8 inch
• Space between plants: 1 - 2 inches
• Days to Harvest: 70 - 75

I purchase several types of carrots for our garden.  I like weird stuff, bright colors, and like to plant different varieties.  I've had great success with the following:
Atomic Red Carrot: as the name suggests a bright red carrot on the outside. The inside of the carrot is orange.
Cosmic Purple Carrot: a bright purple carrot on the outside. The inside of the carrot is orange.
Berlicum 2 Carrot: a normally colored (inside and out) nice sized carrot.
Parisienne Carrot: a round carrot about the size of a golf ball (perfect for dropping in stews whole).

Our 2013 Carrot Varieties

I like to order my heirloom seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  Their catalogue is simply a work of art that can be used as a coffee table book or just something to pass the time perusing during those dreary, wet, winter months when you are sitting by the fireplace thinking about the Spring Garden!  Another thing you'll notice is that the Parisienne Carrot seeds were a free gift from Baker Creek.  Most times when you make an order they'll throw in a free packet of seeds as lagniappe (a little something extra)!  I like doing business with them.

So I pulled back the hay that had been mulching my rows and positioned that hay in the valley between the rows.  That hay will discourage weed growth, provide mulch to help retain moisture in the soil, and will ultimately become organic matter in next year's garden.  Then I lightly work up the very top of the soil in the exposed rows.

Ready to plant

Carrot seeds are very small and they make several tools to help you plant and space out the seeds, but I just use the palm of my left hand to hold the seeds and the thumb and index finger of my right hand to sprinkle the seeds in the tiny furrows I've made.  I then lightly cover the seeds with just a tiny amount of soil and keep the soil moist.  Carrots take a long time to germinate - anywhere from 14 - 21 days.

Then all I do is make my little row markers so that I know which variety is on certain rows along with the date of planting.

That's all there is to it.  Except for the waiting, that is!  70 - 75 days until harvest.  Our experience is it takes a little longer than that.  Patience, they say, is a virtue!