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  • From: "Bill Shoemaker" <wshoemak AT inil.com>
  • To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] carrots
  • Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2003 09:12:45 -0600

>Anyway, I didn't grow alot of carrots on the coast because it took so dang
>long for them to mature--the year long crop didn't fit into my "2 crops
from
>every sq ft" model. Now that I have horses I wanna grow lots of carrots
>(not to mention I have a huge market for horse carrots up here also).
>I'm going over specs in Johnny's & Cook's Garden. One says 1200 seeds
>plants 100' row, the other says 1200 seeds plants 25'. Which is right??
>I've got about 800 ft to plant.
>Liz Pike

Generally you can plant between 20 and 30 seeds per foot, depending on your
goals. If you want lots of small to medium sized carrots, plant thick. If
you want carrots that size up really well, keep them thinned out to about
15-20 per foot, depending on how big you want them to get. Horses like big
ones.

I've been working on a cultural system for carrots in heavy soils for a few
years. I'd like to be able to produce well-developed, straight carrots for
bunching in direct-markets. The system that seems to work here (Northern
Illinois, heavy silt loam soils) uses raised beds and drip irrigation. The
beds are about 6-8" deep and about 18-24" across the top. Two rows are
planted, each about 3-6" from one of the edges. A drip tube is laid between
the two rows. A Planet Jr with a scatter shoe creates a 2" band of seed
instead of a single line. Irrigating frequently allows good tap root
development. Creating a raised beds allows for softer, looser soil for the
taproot to grow into. Creating a deep, long taproot is essential for growing
high quality carrots. After a long taproot is established and a healthy top
forms, the carrot starts building storage tissue along the length of the
taproot. It's critical that good moisture is available during this period
because most of that tissue is water. Given time, very straight carrots will
develop. As they do, they actually push the sides of the raised beds out,
creating a crack along the row. This is good because the carrots have no
pressure against root development. At harvest they look right and are tender
and sweet.

This system may not work everywhere. But in the north where growers have
heavy soils I think it will improve the quality of carrots over raising them
in flat ground and no irrigation.

Bill Shoemaker
Sr Research Specialist, Food Crops
Univ of Illinois - St Charles Hort Research Center





  • Re: [Market-farming] carrots, Bill Shoemaker, 02/13/2003

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