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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-250
Carrot
Daucus carota subsp. sativus
Carrot is an autumn-and-winter crop here, not a spring one: it is frost tolerant and actually sweetens in cold, so sown from late August through November it gives a six-month harvest running December to May, while a spring sowing runs straight into the heat that turns roots woody and makes the plant bolt. The right shape matters as much as the season - a short, broad-shouldered type bred for heavy ground will crop in an amended clay bed where a long slender type just forks and stunts. Left unharvested past its first year it bolts and flowers, drawing hoverflies and parasitic wasps whose larvae eat garden pests - a deliberate trade against the root harvest, since only a few need to be left for it. The roots also make a genuine livestock feed once culled or surplus, rich in beta-carotene, though they need to be introduced to stock gradually to avoid an upset gut.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 2–11
- Soil
- Sand · Loam
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moderate
Vertical layer
Herbaceous- Soil pH
- 6–6.8
- Plant type
- Biennial
- Mature height
- 12–18 in
- Mature spread
- 2–3 in
- Plant spacing
- 3 in
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- None
Keep exploring
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Vigna angularis (Willd.) Ohwi & H.Ohashi
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African Eggplant
Solanum aethiopicum
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Alfalfa
Medicago sativa
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Aloe Vera
Aloe vera
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Alsike Clover
Trifolium hybridum
Alsike Clover fixes nitrogen in wet, acid ground too cold and heavy for red clover to thrive in, and its flowers keep bees working all season…
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Amaranth Greens
Amaranthus tricolor
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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