Carrots

Daucus carota (sativus variety) (Apiaceae or carrot family)

Production, Full Size

---

Soil preparation

• Carrots should not follow other members of the carrot family. They do well after a winter cover crop of oats and peas, or when no cover crop was planted the previous fall. Late-planted carrots do well after an early crop of lettuce or greens.
• Carrots like clean conditions free of weed seeds and fresh organic matter. Avoid planting them after crops that produced seed rain, left the soil compacted or required mulch. While nematodes are a primary cause of forking, raw organic matter can also cause it. Check for a possible plow pan with a penetrometer. 
• Total nutrient uptake is 145 lbs. of N, 25 lbs. of P and 150 lbs. of K, which varies greatly based on yield.
• Apply compost and other amendments based on the results of a soil test.
• Spread lime as needed to increase both the pH and Ca levels. Dolomite lime will also increase Mg levels. Spread gypsum when calcium levels are low but pH is correct.
• A fertilizer company can add OMRI-listed potassium sulfate to compost if it doesn't have enough K to meet the crop’s needs. If this isn’t possible, spread the correct amount of fertilizer and incorporate it before planting. Alternatively, you can side-dress it during cultivation. Divide the recommended rate of the soil test in half if side-dressing. 
• If a plow pan is present, subsoiling before planting will improve root quality and yield. Carrots do well on sandy soils but can thrive on a variety of other soil types as long as the field is well drained and there isn’t a plow pan to restrict rooting depth.
• Work in compost and plant carrots in raised beds or ridges. On shallow soils, ridges allow for deeper rooting, which leads to increased yields.
• Carrots require a fine and relatively firm seedbed. If you require deep tillage, prepare the land a few weeks in advance to allow the soil to settle. This also provides the opportunity for some initial weed control via shallow cultivation or flaming.
• Alternatively, place a silage tarp over the prepared and irrigated seedbed 3–5 weeks in advance of the seeding date, depending on the time of year. This will flush many annual weed seeds and reduce weed pressure. Remove the tarp when the weeds have died. 

Common recommended fertilizer rates¹

Nitrogen	Phosphorus	Potassium	pH
90	0-160	0-200	6.0-6.4
1Rates are for New York and are from Cornell University’s Nutrient Guidelines for Commercial Vegetable Production (2019). Check the Cornell website for updated guidelines, or consult with local experts for recommended rates outside New York.

Varieties

• New York variety trials: 2015 and 2016
• New York variety trial of non-orange carrots
• Washington State, Oregon, Wisconsin and Minnesota variety trial
• Michigan variety trial of multiple vegetables, including carrots: 2021 and 2022
• Other varieties popular with organic growers are Bolero, Purple Elite, Rainbow, Dulcinea, Sugarsnax, and Yaya

Direct seeding information for row spacing of 12-18 inches

Seeder	Rows	Seeds per foot	Seed plate no.	Depth (inches)	Sprocket setting	Notes
Planet Jr.	3	25-50	Plate 5	1/4-1/2		Irrigate before seeding.
MaterMacc	3	20	192 H 0.8	1/4-1/2	22-17
Jang	3	30	XY-24 or X24; pelleted carrots: MJ-24	1/4-1/2	Front 14/rear 10

Seeding time and number of successions

• Irrigate your field to full capacity before planting, but take care to use a system that doesn’t cause soil crusting. Also, account for any rain in the weather forecast. Soil crusting due to heavy irrigation or rainfall will reduce emergence. Inverted mini sprinklers that water at a low volume can reduce soil crusting. However, it’s also important to ensure that germinating seeds don’t dry out, as this causes desiccation.
• Plant immediately after flame weeding.
• Spread plantings out over several seedings. For best storage quality in the northern United States, start in April and end by mid-July. In southern states you can start planting the fall crop in early August and harvest later into the fall.
• Carrots germinate best when soil temperatures are above 40° and below 80°. Ideal soil temperatures are typically 55°–65°.

Cultivation procedures

• Flame weed 5 days after seeding or right before carrots emerge. For accurate timing, put a glass plate over a small area of 1 row just after seeding. It’s time to flame weed when the seedlings under the glass emerge.
• Use a basket weeder or wheel hoe when weeds are in the white thread stage, without burying the young crop. Weed control is more effective when you eliminate weeds before they emerge. 
• Some people will basket weed before seeds have emerged, a practice known as blind cultivation. You can do this successfully if the planter’s wheel tracks are still visible when you want to cultivate, because the tractor operator will know where the rows are.
• Hand weed meticulously to avoid having to pull large weeds, as this will also uproot tender carrot seedlings.
• Use torsion weeders with rear-mounted side knives for a second cultivation. After this, hand weed again.
• For a final cultivation, use sweeps with spring hoes or Hak hillers.

Deer, insect, and disease prevention

• To prevent deer damage, build a temporary fence using 4-foot fiberglass posts and attach 1 clearly visible wire like IntelliTape at about knee height. Build a second fence inside the first fence, but attach 2 wires or twine whereby the top line is about 7-feet tall. Deer don’t have very good depth perception and won’t attempt to jump this fence without checking out the first fence, so electrifying the second fence is often not needed. Bait the outside deer fence with peanut butter and electrify it. Make sure you build the fences, bait and electrify on the same day. The surprise effect is what matters most with this particular deer control.
• To prevent Alternaria (leaf blight that also affects the roots by forming black spots on the surface), use tolerant varieties and expose seed to hot water treatment. Good short-season varieties (like some of the Chantenay types) that can be seeded late are another remedy. Timing irrigation by only water during the day helps limit the spores’ ability to incubate.
• To prevent carrot fly infestations: In the Northeast, planting after the end of May can prevent the first generation of egg-laying flies. Harvesting an early planting by mid-June will get carrots out before the larvae enter the taproot or grow large enough to be noticed. Harvest early plantings in blocks and be sure to harvest the crop completely so that the area doesn’t produce second-generation flies. Adjust these dates according to your location. 
• Covering with insect netting or a floating row cover is the most effective method to prevent a carrot fly infestation. However, floating row covers will increase the temperature underneath, which isn’t always desired. 

Other cultural practices

• Irrigate frequently for optimum yield and plant health. Frequency depends on soil type, evaporation, precipitation and the particular needs of the crop. 

Double cropping and/or cover cropping

• You can plant a short-season vegetable crop like salad mix or arugula after early-planted carrots.
• For later dates, work under any harvest remains to avoid insect or pathogen buildup, and plant a cover crop. In the northern United States and Canada, you can follow summer- and early-fall-harvested carrots with a cover crop of oats and peas in September, or rye and vetch planted at later dates. Adjust accordingly in other regions.
• Storage carrots are generally not overseeded or followed by a cover crop unless you harvest by the end of October. Interseeding with rye or vetch isn’t successful, as digging up the carrots disturbs the root system of the cover crop.

Additional resources

• The Midwest Veg Guide 2024 provides some information on what type of carrots do best in different soil types commonly found across the Midwest.
• Organic production and IPM guide for carrots

Production, Baby or Bunching

---

Varieties

• Yaya, Nelson or Mokum for baby carrots
• Naval for longer carrots

Direct seeding information

Seeder	Rows	Seeds per foot	Seed plate no.	Depth (inches)	Sprocket setting	Notes
Planet Jr.	5	25-50	5	1/4-1/2		Irrigate before and after seeding.
MaterMacc	5	32	8	1/4-1/2		Use a speed of 0.8 mph.
Jang	5	32	X-24	1/4-1/2	Front 14/rear 9

Number of successions

• Plant as soon as the soil warms up, approximately in April. Soil temperatures should be above 40°, and ideally 55°–65° for the best germination rate. 
• For a continuous supply, plant carrots after cotyledons have emerged. 

Cultivation procedures

• Only choose your cleanest ground for early seeding of baby carrots.
• Alternatively, prepare ground for the first planting of carrots in the fall and cover with a silage tarp. 
• Otherwise, follow all other cultural practices as in Carrots, Full Size.

Harvest, Bunching with Tops

---

Ready-to-harvest and quality indicators

• Carrots have healthy, green tops, and carrots are typically 5–7 inches long (depending on variety), with filled tips.
• Always wait until they are sweet. Don’t allow carrots to become over mature and grow fine root hairs. (This can be caused by over-fertilization or a nematode infection as well.)
• For best quality, plant several successions and harvest in a timely manner. Mature carrots suffer from Alternaria in the leaves, and the roots might get affected by carrot flies, which reduces flavor and quality. 

Harvest procedures

• Wash hands before harvesting carrots.
• Harvest in the morning as soon as foliage is dry from any dew that collected on leaf surfaces overnight. 
• Carrots are usually dug up with a bed lifter or tractor-drawn undercutter.
• If conditions don’t allow for machine harvest, use digging forks or shovels to loosen the soil and pull up the carrots. Two people dig up the carrots while the rest of the crew pulls the carrots out of the ground and bunches them. Dig far enough away that you don’t damage the carrots.
• Try to pull out enough carrots for 1 bunch with each pull. Remove any forked or misshapen carrots. Clean off any brown leaves. 
• Put 6–8 carrots in each bunch (depending on variety), but make sure all bunches are similar in size, weigh 0.75 lbs, and that carrots are at least 5-inches long with a diameter of ½–¾ inch. Make sure the tops of the carrots are even with each other, and wrap a twist tie around the stems just above the carrots. Then twist the bunch to tighten the twist tie. It is important to have a neat and tight bunch for washing and distribution. If the bunches are loose, the carrots will break off during washing. 
• When carrots are small, deviate from the standard of 6–8 carrots to ensure 0.75 lbs of carrots per bunch.
• Place bunches in piles of 6 to facilitate an even count of 12 or 24 to a box. If packing individually, orient carrots so they are parallel to each other in the container to avoid breaking carrots and to fill the container efficiently.

Washing procedures 

• Wash hands and rinse boots before entering the wash-and-pack shed, and cover up field clothes with a bib. If a long-sleeve shirt contains soil, remove this as well. 
• Clean bunching carrots by hand with a handheld nozzle and a wire mesh table. Some growers have connected a valve operated by a foot pedal to a stationary nozzle to free up a hand, which increases efficiency.
•  Or run them through a rinse conveyor washer. Make sure you use the appropriate pressure on the nozzles to avoid crop damage. When carrots are very dirty remove the bottom pan at the infeed chain. Add a sanitizer like hydrogen peroxide and peracetic acid to the circulating tank. 

Additional resources

• Production Guide for Storage of Organic Fruits and Vegetables 

Packing and storage summary for bunching carrots

Cleaning in the field	Remove forked or diseased carrots, and dead and yellow leaves.
Packing in the field	12 or 24 bunches in plastic crates
Packing for delivery	Pack roots with ice in ventilated containers for transport if not using a refrigerated truck. Don’t allow foliage to come in contact with ice. See the International Federation for Produce Standards for the correct PLU code. Add the prefix 9 for organic crops.
Storage	At 32°–41° and 95–100% humidity. Carrot roots will retain more moisture if the tops are cut, leaving about 3 inches of foliage attached to the crown.

Harvest, Storage

---

Ready-to-harvest quality indicators

• Carrots are full size, straight and without forks or eating damage due to carrot flies, other insects or other defects.
• When tops are not as healthy looking as bunched carrots, this might not affect hand harvesting but will greatly affect the efficiency of a mechanical harvester that depends on healthy tops. Damaged or deteriorating tops have a significant effect on the efficiency of mechanical harvesters.

Harvest procedures: hand harvesting

• Wash hands before harvesting.
• Undercut carrots with a tractor and bedlifter.
• Make sure the blade is set at a downward angle to lift the carrots and is let down deep enough to avoid cutting the carrots.
• After lifting, grab a bunch of carrots and place them in your lap to remove tops. Place a bucket in front of you so you don’t have to twist your body to put them in a bucket.
• Only take straight carrots with no forks. Leave stunted, diseased, forked and split carrots in the field. A good crop rotation should prevent disease inoculum from remaining in the soil.
• Small carrots don’t store well, so discard those or distribute them immediately as baby carrots.
• If harvesting for bulk and storage, empty the buckets into a 20-bushel bulk bin. When all the buckets are full, drive the tractor with the bulk bin down the driving lane and carefully dump the carrots into the bin. The buckets are laid out over the full length of the bed so the entire crop from one bed is dumped into the bin at one time.
• Leave the buckets in the same place to be filled up with carrots from the next bed. Drive the tractor with the bin in the bed next to the harvested bed to facilitate easy loading.

Harvest procedures: machine harvesting

• Speeds of conveyors and components will vary a great deal with field conditions. There is no prescribed speed at which to set the flow controls. However, there is an approximate start-up setting, and the operator needs to adjust as needed for conditions.
• Most small carrot harvesters don’t allow for a sorting platform. Most likely, you’ll need to do additional sorting before long-term storage. Use a conveyor sorting belt to remove any carrots that are forked or damaged by either the harvester or pests.

Washing procedures

• Don’t wash carrots until you’re ready to deliver them. Put them through a barrel washer to clean. This barrel washer works best if filled up with approximately 300 lbs. of carrots.
• Hose the carrots with potable water before entering the washer, so any dirt on the carrots is soft.
• Sorting is done on the receiving end. The barrel washer should have a well-lit sorting table at the end.
• Remove any damaged or diseased carrots that were previously overlooked. Sort carrots by root length into separate bins if needed. 

Additional resources

• U.S. Grade for Carrots
• Postharvest Factsheet Carrots
• Production Guide for Storage of Organic Fruits and Vegetables

Packing and storage summary for storage carrots

Cleaning in the field	Remove tops; discard forked or diseased carrots
Packing in the field	45 lbs. per plastic box or 800 lbs. per 20-bushel bulk bin
Packing for delivery	25 lbs. per plastic bag. See the International Federation for Produce Standards for the correct PLU code. Add the prefix 9 for organic crops.
Storage	At 32°–41° and 95–100% humidity. Pack in closed containers or bags for long-term storage. Carrots are sensitive to ethylene damage (they turn bitter), so store them away from crops that produce ethylene, such as apples, tomatoes and melons.

This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture through the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. Government determination or policy.