What it is
Carrot (Daucus carota sativus) is in the Apiaceae (Carrot) family. Loose deep soil is the whole secret. Rocky or compacted ground gives you forked, stubby roots.
How to grow it
It wants full sun to part shade, water it even — never let it crust, and give it loose, deep, stone-free soil. Target a soil pH around 6.0–6.8. Space plants about 2–3 in apart. Expect roughly 60–80. Cool-season.
How it's used
Carrot is used: raw, roasted, juiced, stored.
🔎 How to identify it
- Ferny lacy foliage
- Smells distinctly of carrot when crushed
- Tap root swells underground
Edibility
How to grow & propagate carrot
Everything I've worked out about starting this one, keeping it alive through a Texas year, and turning one plant into many — free.
How to propagate carrot
The carrot family carries a long taproot and does not want to be moved, so sow it in place. The seed is slow and needs steady moisture to germinate — never let the top of the soil dry out during those first two weeks. Let one plant bolt and flower and it'll hand you next year's seed in those lacy umbels, plus feed every beneficial insect in the yard.
Growing carrot in Texas
Give it full sun to part shade and loose, deep, stone-free soil. Match the spot to the plant and most of the battle is already won.
This is a cool-season crop. On the Texas Gulf Coast that means your real windows are fall and late winter, not summer — sow as the heat breaks in September–October and again in late winter, and you'll harvest through our mild winters while the rest of the country is frozen out.
Keep moisture even, especially while it's young — deep, less-frequent soaks build better roots than a daily sprinkle.
Harvesting
Figure on roughly 60–80 before you're harvesting. Harvest at peak and keep harvesting — most vegetables produce harder the more you pick, and one left to over-mature tells the plant its job is done. The part you're after: root; tops edible.
Making more for free
Every seed we sell is open-pollinated, which means you can save your own from the best plants and it'll grow true next year. Let a few of your strongest plants finish and go to seed, dry it fully, and store it cool and dark. That's the whole point of heirlooms — buy once, grow forever.
Part of the free Texas Roots plant database, compiled by Jordan Polasek from his greenhouse in El Campo, Texas. Free to read and share. If it helped, the best thanks is to grow something.