If your garden space is small like ours, you can use containers to cultivate this delicious crop.
In fact, growing carrots, in containers is a relatively easy way to grow your own fresh assortment of this tasty root vegetable.
With a series of succession planting, you can enjoy them throughout the growing season and have some saved up in the freezer for soups and stews come fall and winter.
Growing in containers can be easier than growing in the ground. Pests are easier to control, harvesting them is easier on the back, and storage is relatively easy as well.
This article will explain the best growing method so that you and your family can enjoy the crop for the season.
What Variety of Carrots are Best for Container Gardening?
There are so many varieties to choose from here. My advise to you is to choose the variety that you want to eat!
Baker Creek has a great selection to choose from. As long as you have ample depth to your container, you’re not really limited here. We like to grow our family favorites like Amarillo and explore and try new types each year.
Container Set Up
Carrots need well draining soil. Choose a container that has adequate drainage or make some yourself.
You can drill 1/2″ holes at the bottom of any plastic container. In fact, many containers have predetermined areas marked with and “x” where you can make the holes. Four-five holes are enough.
Next, choose an organic and nutrient rich potting soil. We recommend anything by FoxFarms.
The potting soil should be airy. Carrots need light soil to grow in so that the vegetable doesn’t grow in misshapen or odd shapes.
For this reason, we do not recommend using garden soil. This type of soil holds rocks and various debris. Not to mention, it will compact and harden over time.
Planting Carrots in Containers
Once you have your container picked, you will want to fill it to the top with organic potting soil. Your next step is to moisten the soil. You want to give it a good watering before you plant.
Once the soil is ready, sprinkle the seeds evenly over the top of the soil. Some people recommend covering the seed with a little bit of soil but we find the germination rate is better if you just pat them down and leave them be.
Carrots can be directly sowed or winter sowed to get a head start. We will give the seeds a light watering and then let mother nature do its thing. Seeds usually germinate in 14 days.
Seedling Care
Once your seeds germinate, its time to thin the plants out. Luckily, carrots grow rather thin so you can pack a lot of plant in each container. Once the plants develop their true leaves, you will want to snip away some of their neighbors. Choose the strongest ones to keep and get rid of some of the weaker neighbors. Generally, keep them about 3-4″ apart.
Continue watering your carrots when needed. You don’t want to overwater them though. Wait for the top layer to dry out and then give them a good soaking.
What Fertilizer Should I Use?
In our opinion, the most important part of growing carrots in containers is the potting soil you use. If you chose an organically rich potting soil to begin with, you wont have to worry about fertilizer for a few weeks into the growth of your crop. After that, it’s a good idea to use an organic, non-synthetic, fertilizer.
We really love Bumper Crop Tomato and Vegetable fertilizer. This is a staple in our gardening arsenal and feed all of our veggies this brand. You can of course use any brand you prefer. We do recommend sticking with the organics.
Follow the directions on the bag for your container size.
When to Harvest Carrots
Carrots are usually ready to harvest between 75-100 days after planting. Each variety differs so you will want to read the back of your seed packet to have a better idea.
We always pull out a test carrot to see if our carrots are ready. If you have little children, they love to volunteer for this very important job.
Once you have determined your carrots are ready, you can pull them all or pull them as needed.
Final Thoughts
Growing carrots in containers is a fun and reliable way to add this root vegetable to your pantry. Give it a try this spring and let us know how you do.
