Carrots In Containers
I’ve recently caught the container gardening bug. I want to get some edibles growing but not expand past my current garden borders (My wife and I have an agreement on my desires to turn the Backyard into a micro farm). Container gardening seems to fit bill perfectly. I settled on carrots because they grow well in partial shade and I can keep them out of my wife’s sight.
Picking A Variety
There are many varieties of carrots. Instead of a traditional long and skinny carrot I chose a variety more suitable to the small planter boxes I have to work with. I went with the Petite and Sweet from Burpee. One thing I can tell you is carrot seeds are small! My sausage link fingers had trouble with these.
Planting
I filled my two planter boxes with Mel’s Mix ( equal parts compost, peat moss, and coarse vermiculite). I spaced my seeds like I would if I was planting in a Square Foot Garden. So I’ve got 16 plantings in each box.
Waiting Is The Hardest Part
I’m going to keep a close eye on these as I’ve never planted carrots before. With them being in containers I can move them around to gauge where in my yard they will do best.
Update 9/13/11
I pulled up my carrots today. I was pretty happy with these. They weren’t as big as I had hoped for but, for growing in containers in the shade I’ll take them. They were tasty!
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U sound like a handsome man
Thanks, but lets try to stay on topic-Mike
How long do carrots take to grow?
60 to 70 days depending on the kind. The ones I planted should be ready in 65 days.
do you get alot of carrots from that one pack of seeds?
Christine!!!! Yes, the packet has about 250 seeds in it. Figure on a 95% germination rate on a fresh packet.
Awesome! The tops are good in soups and stews, they taste like carroty parsley and you can dehydrate them.
I didn’t know that about the tops, thanks for the tip.
Neat to grow them in a container… you can keep carrots in there into the fall and even winter. You could easily take some coat hangers and make a tube cover on that container to keep greens longer as well. Nice! Oh ya.. .and there’s nothing better than a fresh carrot right out the garden ;o)