Need carrot help

I planted carrots in a little raised bed along with tomatoes, bee balm, basil, and marigolds. (Based this on Louise Riotte's works.) I did not particularly plant the carrots with a view to a harvest, but more to dig down in the soil and do it some good. (Why do builders do what they do to soil?)

ANYWAY... the carrots are just gorgeous from what I can see of them, and I certainly wouldn't mind harvesting some. So, of course, the question is this: how do you know when they're ready to be harvested? I didn't plant enough to be able to pull one up now and then to check.

And by the way, the companion planting seems to be working (plus I paid strict attention to gardening by the moon on this bed) as the tomatoes are over 2' high and at least as wide; I've counted at least a half dozen tomatoes, now bigger than golf balls. The bee balm is so big it almost scares me, the basil is thriving, and the marigolds are threatening to bloom!

Well you just said you cannot pull one, but that is the best way I know to find out if one is ready. Although sometimes they can be deceiving. You can get a large plume of leaves and there is only a small root underground. Or sometimes you get a smaller plume and there is actually a whopper of a carrot underground.

if you have any doubt about your carrots being ready, I would probably leave them for a few more weeks. The foliage on mine when I finally harvested them was over a foot tall and I got some awesome carrots.

These were Red Cored Chantenay, a half-length carrot variety. It's hard to tell, but there are actually several layers of carrots in that bowl, one on top of the other. I had enough carrots for 3 quart size zipper lock bags.

This message was edited Apr 22, 2008 11:17 AM

B-lily, depending on what kind you sowed will help you determine if they are ready or not. Some types are long and skinny, some short and blunt, etc.

What would be easiest for you is to lightly dust away a bit of the topsoil around the top of the root and see how wide the top of the carrot is. If it is one of the short, blocky types and the root is nice and wide you just might be ready to go. If it is the same kind but the top is a bit on the skinny side then give it a while longer to fatten up.

The color of the carrot top (root, not foliage) is also an indication. If it is nice and bright orange you are getting ready for a delish carrot; if it shows hints of green streaks or yellowish-ness it will need a bit longer. If you are seeing cracks in the carrot then it is time to pull it, no matter what. (Those cracks may be due to being over-mature, to lack of water, stress, etc. Best bet would be to pull it before it gets so woody a beaver's teeth could break thru it.)

Hope this helps.
Shoe

Thanks, y'all! Just what I needed to know!

I just got a new food dehydrator and I'm thinking next spring I'll put in a lot more veggies than I have. I thank heaven daily for DGrs like you!

Ann

My clay fire pit just got turned into a carrot patch. It is just perfect for the shorter carrots. I did drill a hole in the bottom and put some sand in the potting soil, and a wave petunia to drape over the edge. I'm thinking of putting a cucumber next to a small climbing rose bush and have them share the trellis. Will this work?

I don't recall whether cukes and roses are good companions or not. Anybody have "carrots love tomatoes" handy? I'll check mine at home tonight, though.

I've seen that book mentioned so often, I went out to amazon and bought a used copy today, can't wait to get it.

It has some great advice. I did check in mine, and it doesn't mention cukes with roses one way or the other. I think I'd just be worried about what would happen to the roses when I pulled the cukes up at the end of the harvest. Disturbed roots and all that.

I checked out the planting calendars for this area, and apparently the only way I'll have luck with carrots is to plant them in the fall. Of course, as I said, I planted them more to aerate the soil than to harvest carrots, but fresh carrots... yummm...