Best Carrot Variety

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jenhillphoto Danbury, CT(Zone 6a) Feb 23, 2007

Last year, I grew some carrots and they sure looked nice, but the taste was a bit bland for me. I'm wondering if anyone can share with me, their favorite carrot.

I already bought seeds for Purple Haze, and Sugarsnax. Both from Johnny's select seeds. I'm going to give them a try either way. But I'm really curious if experienced carrot growers out there (farmerdill perhaps? and others too!) can tell me what kind they like. Don't let the fact that I already have seeds stop you from commenting. I will gladly buy more if it sounds good! =)

Dreaming of spring on a cold windy winter day in CT.

Jen

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renwings Sultan, WA(Zone 8a) Feb 23, 2007

I've mentioned just a bit ago that I was disenchanted with purple haze. Is there a secret to growing really good carrots? I leave them in the ground and let the frost touch them before digging them up, that seems to help with the flavor. They overwinter well, just get them all before the spring or they go bitter.

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Farmerdill Augusta, GA(Zone 8a) Feb 23, 2007

The Cornell site has grower ratings. http://vegvariety.cce.cornell.edu/mainSearch/showAll.php?ID=12&sortBy=overallrating&order=DESC&searchIn=1 There are even less growers posting in Plantfiles http://davesgarden.com/pf/adv_search.php?searcher%5Bcommon%5D=Carrot&searcher%5Bfamily%5D=&searcher%5Bgenus%5D=&searcher%5Bspecies%5D=&searcher%5Bcultivar%5D=&searcher%5Bhybridizer%5D=&search_prefs%5Bsort_by%5D=rating&images_prefs=with&Search=Search. There are few people growing and talking about carrots at either site.

Carrots are at best a sideline with me. I have not spent a lot of effort evaluating cultivars except to match types with soils. Short carrots for clay soils, half longs for medium soils and the long slim types for deep or sandy soils. I think the long types are more tender but I have not tried a good sampling of cultivars. The short and half long types that I have tried tend to be the older cultivars that get woody as they age. Purple Haze did ok for me. Nelson and Sugarsnax (Johnny's) get good ratings. Sweet Bites ( Stokes) sounds good. My trial cultivar for this year is Creme Delite

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Indy Alexandria, IN(Zone 6a) Feb 23, 2007

I raise Kuroda which is a juicy blocky carrot. It can be very difficult to match the sweetness of some of the commercial offerings ironicly.

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johnsonjrbm Olympia, WA(Zone 7b) Feb 23, 2007

Mokum is very good and sweet. It has to be hand-dug, however, as it's fairly brittle - so you won't be seeing it in grocery stores.

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