The easy way to grow carrots
So, after a few years of failure, I'd stop growing them for a while. Then I'd decide to try again, because I really do love carrots - in soups and stews, with roasts, in stir-fries, and especially as a side dish with brown sugar and butter.
But the results were usually disappointing - again.
One year, the dozen or so carrots I did manage to grow were so stunted and branched that they looked as though they had arms and legs. I lined them up on the patio and took a picture because they reminded me of a chorus line.
That picture pretty much sums up my history with carrots.
My accidental success with carrots
Then a couple of years ago, something completely unexpected happened.
I accidentally discovered the easiest way I've ever grown carrots - and the secret to better carrot seed germination.
I didn't suddenly become a better gardener. I didn't discover a magic carrot variety. In fact, I can't even tell you which variety I'm growing now because I've tried so many over the years, hoping to find one that would just plain grow for me. (I'll give you more information about the seeds in a bit, so keep reading.)
I wasn't even trying to solve my carrot-growing problem, but this little garden experiment completely changed the way I grow carrots.
The facts about carrot seed germination
Carrot seeds are super tiny. They’re slow to germinate, taking 1-3 weeks to germinate under ideal conditions. They just didn’t sprout well for me.
Another frustration is that carrot seed doesn't stay viable as long as many other vegetable seeds, just 1-3 years on average. I don’t use an entire packet in one year, and it seemed like buying another packet every year and throwing out last year’s leftovers was so wasteful.
Carrots also need consistent moisture, especially when first planted. Here in Oklahoma, I can’t keep the soil moist for more than 20 minutes in the heat.
Some gardeners have had success by covering the newly-planted seeds with a board to help hold the moisture in the soil, so I tried that.
And it worked, sort of. I had a few germinate - which was sort of a success in my eyes - but there were only a few.
How do carrots produce seeds? Our experiment
But since I had a few carrots that actually grew - not enough to have a great harvest - I decided to show my grandson, who was about 5 years old at the time, how carrots make seeds.
He’s always enjoyed helping me water the garden and eating freshly-picked cherry tomatoes, and now that he’s a little older I’m sneaking in a few lessons about where our food comes from and why organic gardening is important, and I want to foster a sense of wonder and experimentation too.
Carrots aren’t like tomatoes and peppers that have seeds inside, obviously. Carrot plants are biennial, which means they take two years to grow from seed and then produce flowers and seeds. So most people never get to see a carrot’s full lifecycle.
So that fall, since I had a few carrots growing, I left a couple in the ground and told him we’d let them overwinter and grow next year, and see what happened.
What happened to the carrots in their second year
In spring those carrots began growing green stems and leaves again. Soon the flower stalks began shooting upwards. I’d expected one flower stalk per plant - like an onion plant produces - but each plant grew several stalks and many flower clusters.
The stalks grew much taller than I’d expected too, up to 3 feet tall.
You've probably guessed by now that I’d never witnessed the full life cycle of a carrot either, even though I knew it in theory. This was fascinating. (Maybe I suggested this experiment because I was curious too…)
Those stalks each grew several large clusters of tiny white flowers. Those flower clusters bloomed and then they began to change shape and curl inward.
They began to look like little bird nests, and then eventually they dried out completely along with the rest of the plant.
Along the way I discovered something: It turns out that carrot flowers are pollinator magnets!
Pollinators love carrot flowers
Those carrot flower clusters are insect magnets! Every time I walked through the garden I stopped and looked to see who was visiting. I’ve found tiny wasps, lady beetles, hoverflies, ants, bees, and more. There’s always some kind of beneficial insect on those flowers, no matter what time of day it is.
The carrot flowers became one of the busiest spots in my entire garden. That reason alone is worth leaving a few carrots to flower every summer. Those pollinators and beneficial insects will visit other flowers in the garden too, because they were attracted by the carrot flowers.
I haven’t ever mentioned carrot flowers as a companion plant before, but from now on they will be growing in my garden.
Planting my homegrown carrot seeds
One day in midsummer I clipped off one of the dried flower heads and carried it to a bare patch of soil in another raised bed. I tapped the dried flower head over the soil and let the tiny seeds fall where they landed.
They were so tiny I couldn't even see them, but I had faith that they were falling from the flower head onto the soil.
I didn't clean the seed. I didn't separate them from the dried flower. I didn't put them in an envelope to save for later. I simply tapped that dry flower head over the soil and walked away.
I really didn’t pay much attention to them after that either. There were still lots of dried flowerheads on the carrot plants and I planned to save those for spring. I watered the garden as usual, including the bare soil where I’d tapped that dried-out seedhead.
And about two weeks later, I noticed carrot seedlings coming up. I hadn’t used a board to hold moisture over those seeds in the hot summer weather. I hadn’t babied them at all. I just watered the garden like I normally did.
There weren't just a few seedlings either, but masses of tiny plants - it was a very high germination rate!
I had spent years struggling to get carrots started, and here they were, growing all on their own.
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| There were masses of carrot seedlings growing where I'd tapped the dry seed head. |
Of course, I had to thin them aggressively because so many seeds had sprouted and they had no room to spread out and grow unless they were thinned out. It's a tedious job - but that’s a nice problem to have!
And you DO have to thin carrots. If you don’t, you’ll harvest a gajillion tiny little carrots, maybe two inches long and as skinny as toothpicks. They just don’t have enough room to grow when they’re crowded. So make sure you do it - thinning is a chore, but it’s necessary.
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| Thinning carrot seedlings |
They grew into the nicest carrots I’ve ever grown. Pulling those first carrots out of the ground was amazing! They were straight, well-shaped, and beautifully colored. Most importantly, they tasted great too.
After years of wondering whether carrots just weren't meant to grow in my garden, there they were - proof that sometimes one little change really can make all the difference.
The secret to better carrot germination
Now, WHY did these carrot seeds germinate so easily?
First, the seed was incredibly fresh - right off the plant! Fresh seed makes a tremendous difference with carrots. Those seeds hadn’t been packaged up and shipped across the country, or stored in a warehouse until spring.
They went from the plant to the soil in my own garden. You can’t get much fresher than that.
Second, the seeds germinated when the weather and moisture levels suited them. That really shouldn't have surprised me. I've seen volunteer tomatoes, basil, borage - even little garlic corms I’d accidentally left in the garden - come up exactly when conditions were right. Nature has been figuring this out for a very long time.
Grow open-pollinated vegetables if you want to save seeds
Now, there’s something very important that I have to tell you about the seeds.
Even though I might not be able to remember what variety of carrot seeds I’m currently growing, I do know that they are open-pollinated, heirloom seeds. I plant open-pollinated seeds exclusively.
These seeds can be saved and planted again, and as long as they haven't cross-pollinated with another variety, they'll grow true to type.
You just can’t rely on hybrid seeds. They’ve been selectively bred for a specific reason, whether it’s for early maturity, or heat resistance or size or color or some other reason.
The problem comes when you save seed from a hybrid and grow it the next year. Hybrid varieties don't reliably grow true to type in the next generation. You may get carrots that look or taste different, mature differently, or have other characteristics you weren't expecting.
If your goal is to grow your own dependable supply of carrot seed year after year, that's not what you want. So choose an open-pollinated variety if you plan to save your carrot seed. Heirloom varieties are open-pollinated, and that's what I personally grow.
Hybrid varieties are usually identified in seed catalogs as F1, and the listing should tell you whether a variety is hybrid or open-pollinated.
There are two seed companies that I purchase seeds from, that sell only open-pollinated heirloom varieties, Mary’s Heirloom Seeds and Baker Creek Seeds.
One other note: open-pollinated carrot seeds could conceivably cross-pollinate with other carrot varieties and even wild carrot varieties such as Queen Anne’s lace, so be aware of what’s growing nearby.
If you’re interested in learning more about heirlooms vs hybrids - whether you’re growing carrots or tomatoes or beans - check out my podcast episode where I answered a reader’s question on this topic, or read Why Gardening With Heirloom Seeds is Important, which talks about this topic in depth.
Also, my article on survival seeds talks about heirloom seeds vs hybrids, and why this difference is important.
Why I Stopped Buying Carrot Seeds
Two years later, my current carrot flowers are blooming right now, and some have already dried up into those little bird nests full of seeds.
Last week I tapped a dried flower head over a bare patch of soil and am letting those seeds do what they've been designed to do.
These seedlings will grow through the cooler fall weather, rest over winter, and then really take off again next spring.
And I'll leave a couple of them in the ground so they'll produce the following year's seed.
At this point, I honestly don't see myself buying carrot seed very often anymore - and I’ll always be planting the freshest carrot seeds possible.
When the plants can produce fresh seed for free, and that seed has given me the best germination I've ever had, it's hard to argue with success.
For years I thought growing carrots just wasn’t going to work for me. I was trying every trick I could find.
The biggest improvement came when I stepped back and let the carrots do what carrots have been doing for hundreds of years. They flowered. They made seeds. They dropped that seed where it wanted to grow (and I made sure the dried blossoms dropped seed where *I* wanted it to grow too!)
The plants are producing more than enough for us. I don’t have to store carrot seeds over the winter. I don’t have to put a board over the newly-planted seeds to try to keep the moisture level consistent.
I just tap a dry seedhead where I want my carrots to grow, water the garden as usual, and make sure to thin that mass of carrot seedlings so they’ll have room to grow. That’s the only work required of me.
Sometimes we accidently discover the perfect hack for our garden, just be running a simple experiment.
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Kathi Rodgers is the gardener and writer behind Oak Hill Homestead (est. 2006) and the host of HOMEGROWN: Your Backyard Garden Podcast. With over 30 years of gardening experience in a variety of climates and soils, she helps new and aspiring gardeners grow healthy, organic food right in their own backyards.
A passionate advocate for simple, self-reliant living, Kathi is the author of multiple ebooks, a published magazine contributor, and shares practical advice with readers who want real-life solutions they can trust.
Kathi lives in Oklahoma, where she grows more cherry tomatoes than she can count and keeps a watchful eye on tornado season. A proud grandma and great-grandma, she believes that wisdom - like a bountiful garden harvest - should be shared.
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