How To Grow Carrots Quickly Organically

Quick growing carrots are a great addition to a new vegetable garden especially if you are growing with kids.

But not all carrots grow quickly and they can take an age if you miss out on on some key carrot growing tips.

So I have here must know advice on growing carrots quickly including :

1. How quickly can carrots grow
2. How to grow carrots faster
3. Best quick growing varieties
4. Planting carrots in pots, containers & raised beds
5. How to sow carrot seeds
6. Caring for carrots

I have also added my top tips on growing carrots organically.

I hope you enjoy a bumper harvest. Do bookmark this guide or save it on Pinterest for quick reference later.

How Quickly Can Carrots Grow

Traditionally grown carrots can take 3-4 months to grow - not super speedy!!

This is largely due to slow germinating seeds which can take up to 3 weeks but you can grow carrots in 6-8 weeks - much better - so let's find out how.

How To Grow Carrots Faster

My four top tips for successfully growing tasty carrots quickly are:

1. Sow at right time of year
2. Choose quick growing varieties
3. Speed up seed germination
4. Plant in pots & raised beds.

So let's dive down into each of these tips in turn to see how they help.

Best Time To Plant Carrots

Carrot seeds germinate best at temperatures between :

• 50f/10c
• 77f/24c

So carrots can be a great vegetable to plant in early spring or even late winter as long as you protect them from overnight temperatures and frost.

Don't worry if you don't have plant covers, you can easily whip up plant protection and DIY cloches.

Quick Growing Carrot Varieties

Carrots actually come in a variety of shapes and sizes and choosing the right varieties is critical if you want to grow your carrots quickly.

There are four basic types of quick growing carrot varieties:

1. Paris Market Carrots
2. Snub Nosed Carrots
3. Baby Chantenay Carrots
4. Early Growing Carrots

Paris Market Carrots

Paris market carrots are small ball or egg shaped vegetables more like a big radish than a conventional carrot.

They grow in 7 to 8 weeks and are a cute sweet variety to grow with kids.

Some seeds will just be marketed as "Paris Market" but these sub-varieties will all grow nice and quickly :

• Atlas
• Rondo
• Mercado de Paris 3
• Thumbelina
• Parisienne
• Parmex
• Romeo

Snub Nosed Carrots

Snub nosed carrots are carrots that look like they've lost the bottom two thirds of their growth. For fast growth pick these short snub nosed varieties :

• Oxheart
• Guerande

Baby Chantenay Carrots

Chantenay are the original baby carrots ready to harvest at just 2-3 inches long.

Chantenay carrots can be ready in 6 weeks but chubbier ones can take 10 so do check the seed packet and look out for these fast growing varieties :

• Little Fingers
• Babette
• Caracas

Early Growing Carrots

Chantenay, Paris Market and Snub Nose are all very small carrot varieties that grow fast but you can also grow these early planting varieties quickly :

• Adelaide
• Nantes 2
• Amsterdam Forcing

They can all be planted in early spring or even late winter to make the most of warmer wet weather in April and early May for quick growth.

Speeding Up Germination

Carrot seeds are slowish to germinate but we can speed things up by :

1. Soaking Carrot Seeds
2. Warm Watering Seeds
3. Pre-Sprouting Seeds

Soaking Carrot Seeds

2 to 5 days before sowing carrot seeds soak them for 1 hour in warm water. After soaking wrap up in a damp paper towel and keep in a plastic tub indoors until ready to sow.

Warm Watering Seeds

Carrot seeds need plenty of moisture to germinate and will germinate quick if watered with warm water.

Pre-Sprouting Seeds

To pre-sprout your carrot seeds :

1. Sprinkle carrot seeds over a thin layer of soil in a seed tray or tub.
2. Water with just boiled water.
3. Cover lightly with more soil.
4. Put seed tray in clear plastic bag.
5. Keep soil moist by spraying water.
6. Once seeds sprout plant out in drills as you would seeds.

Growing Carrots In Pots & Raised Beds

Carrots will typically grow quicker in pots and raised beds as you can :

1. Warm up the soil before planting.
2. Make the soil really nicely loose, crumbly and friable so young carrots push through it easily.
3. Easily protect the carrots from sudden drops in temperature and overnight frost.

Paris market, snub nosed and baby Chantenay carrots are perfect for growing in pots and containers as they will only grow to a few inches long and need much less space.

OK, now we have covered these top tips on growing carrots fast, let's look at how to actually sow carrot seeds ...

How To Sow Carrots

There are three key simple tricks to sowing carrot seeds successfully :

1. Preparing Carrot Soil
2. Picking Best Spot
3. Sowing Seeds Thinly

Prepare Carrot Soil

Carrots have a name for being fussy about soil but it just needs to be friable.

Friable soil is soft, loose and easily crumbled so carrot roots can push through. You can improve friability by :

1. Sieving soil to depth carrots will grow to remove stones and lumps.
2. Holding off on nitrogen heavy soil improvers that make it too rich.
3. Adding a little sand.

If you are gardening on heavy clay that won't stay friable to any depth then you will be better off growing :

• Paris Market or Snub Nose carrots
• And / or planting in containers.

Picking Best Spot

Carrots like a sunny spot early in the year but don't like hot sun later on.

So it is best to sow seeds with :

• Full sun in winter & early spring
• Afternoon shade in late spring.

If like me you are short on both sun in winter AND shade in late spring, plant your carrots in containers you can move round the garden as needed.

Sow Carrots Thinly

Carrot seeds are notoriously tiny so it can be hard to sow them thinly. If we don't sow the seeds with enough space, we will have to thin seeds which can:

• Attract pesky carrot flies
• Damage young roots.

So use the techniques below to sow thinly in a raised bed or in pots.

Sowing in Raised Beds

To sow your carrot seeds in a raised bed or other vegetable bed :

1. Mark out ½ inch deep trenches - known as drills - by pulling a pencil or stick through soil.
2. Each drill should be 6 inches apart.
3. Plant seeds 2 inches apart in drill.
4. Cover seeds lightly with soil.
5. Water gently with warm water.

Mixing seeds with a little sand makes it easier to sow them evenly along drill.

Sowing In Pots

To sow carrot seeds thinly in pots :

1. Cut out from an old box a circle the diameter of the top of your pot.
2. Mark with a pencil roughly 25 points 1-2 inches a part.
3. Poke hole through card at each point with a screwdriver.
4. Place card on top of pot.
5. Gently poke 1 carrot seed through each hole with a pencil or screwdriver to a depth of ½ inch.
6. Remove card.
7. Lightly cover with soil.
8. Water gently with warm water.

There's a video here of a very similar way to sow carrots thinly in pots.

How To Care For Carrot Plants

Carrots once planted really do not need much fuss or bother. You just need to know the basics of :

1. Watering Carrots
2. Thinning Carrots
3. Harvesting Carrots

Watering Carrots

Carrots need constant moisture whilst germinating especially if you're trying to grow them quickly. Once germinated be careful not to over water carrots as this can lead to roots cracking.

Typically carrots only need watering after germination in early and mid spring if there's a dry spell. Keep an eye on them in May as the weather warms up and dries out the soil quicker.

Thinning Carrots

If you didn't manage to sow seeds evenly you will need to thin out your carrots as they grow.

Start to thin carrots when green fronds reach 3 inches or so tall :

1. Thin initially to 1 inch apart.
2. Water soil lightly before thinning to help ease out tiny carrots without disturbing others.
3. After another few inches of growth, thin again to 2 inches apart.

If too bunched up to thin without disturbing all the carrots, cut stems and fronds off at ground level with fine scissors to limit further growth.

Do NOT waste your carrot trimmings!!

The tiny carrots and fronds make delicious garnish for soups and salads.

Keep an eye on weeds between carrot drills gently lifting as they appear.

Harvesting Carrots

Check your carrots are ready for harvesting from the minimum grow time on your seed packet by gently pushing away top soil if they haven't broken soil and looking for :

1. Nice bright carrot colour
2. Easy give if you gently tug them.
3. Good inch breadth of shoulder at the top of Chantenay carrots.

All quick growing carrots taste best fresh from the soil just before cooking or eating raw, so once you know they are starting to be ready harvest as needed over the next few weeks.

None of the quick growing carrots - whether Paris market, Chantenay or early growing - are optimised for long storage so do eat them fresh.

Growing Carrots Organically

Carrots like all vegetables can be vulnerable to some common pests but you can easily keep pests away growing carrots organically with :

• DIY Pest Control
• Best Carrot Companion Plants
• Simple Crop Rotation

DIY Pest Control

Carrots are typically most vulnerable to two different garden pests :

• Carrot Flies
• Green Fly

The larvae of the carrot fly eats the root itself causing them to blacken and rot whilst green fly feed on carrots leaves which can trigger black mould.

Both pests are attracted by the smell of the carrots when disturbed so do try sow them thinly to reduce disturbance.

You can keep flies off carrots physically by covering them with fine insect mesh which you can buy cheaply in rolls and cut to fit pots or raised beds.

Companion Plants

Growing companion plants with your carrots is another great way to keep carrot fly and aphids away. The smell of all of these companion plants masks the aroma of the carrot themselves :

• Chives
• Garlic
• Onion
• Leeks
• Rosemary
• Sage

Chives and garlic can be grow between carrot rows. Both will keep soil healthy whilst repelling flies and the pretty chives are small enough to interplant with carrots growing in pots.

Simple Crop Rotation

It is easy as a new gardener to think you have to keep feeding the soil but you can easily follow a simple crop rotation of complementary vegetables.

Early growing carrots like Nantes can be combined well with :

• Peas - a nitrogen feeder
• Collards - that won't compete for soil space or nutrients.

Whilst little Paris Market and Chantenay carrots thrive well with :

• Lettuce
• Spinach

And there you go. Everything you need to know about growing carrots quickly and organically. I hope you enjoy a bumper harvest.

Do bookmark the guide or save on Pinterest to come back to.

And for more simple grow your own tips check out my other gardening posts and follow me on Pinterest.