Hi I am Angel your carrot steward this year. Please use this post to share your progress, successes or questions about growing them. Feel free to post your pictures and suggestions. Happy growing!
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My first self-directed grex creation project.
I started with carrots after reading Joseph’s book last year, and collected seeds from a few colorful heirloom/OP varieties that I had interest in and added them to some old Danvers seed I had from years ago. It was a little late in my season by the time I got around to planting (late June/July, heading right into our summer drought), so most of them didn’t have time to fully mature before selection/overwintering. In retrospect I would have preferred to grow out the varieties in individual rows just for this first season so I would know what was growing where and could do some thinning without worrying about culling out varieties that had lower germination rates—a learning experience. Regardless, I planted out a few of the best roots from each variety this spring and they’re leafing out nicely and preparing to bolt. I moved them from the food production beds I grew them in last summer to an ornamental bed with other flowers and fully intermixed the varieties for maximum crossing.
Goal for this first cycle was just to get some of each variety to maturity and increase seed while encouraging crossing. I also collected a few more varieties from seed swaps and am growing out a second batch of carrots with those plus the remainder of my original seed mix. As far as I know, there shouldn’t be any CMS in any of these lines. My intent was just to collect seed this first year and begin mass direct seeding next year, but if I get enough seed and there’s interest, I’ll be happy to contribute to the 2026 GTS mix, too.
Varieties included in the initial grow out:
Uzbek golden (Baker Creek)
Lila Lu sang (Baker Creek)
Longue rouge sang (Deep Harvest Farm)
Danvers (very old SSE seed)
Gniff (Baker Creek)
Kyoto red (Baker Creek)
Black nebula (Strictly Medicinal Seeds) - I only got one carrot to germinate from the pack and it died after planting out again in the spring, so I decided to give it another shot with seed from a different source.
Additional seed added for 2025 (direct seeded rows are just germinating now):
Black nebula (Baker Creek)
WI-OSC Purple Carrot (EFN)
“Giant of Comte” - I got this from a local seed swap but was not able to talk with the grower who collected it. I can’t find anything online about the variety and am wondering if it might be mislabeled Giant of Colmar. Regardless, I was excited to find locally saved seed and am growing it in a separate row so I can observe it carefully before including in a seed grow out.
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Well done! I have a special spot in my heart for the yellow and ombrey ones. can’t wait to see the resulting mix..
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There are literally two surviving carrots from the summer. I did not dig and replant, they over summered, grew during winter, and are trying to seed. One has its leaves continuously eaten by a nesting hen, the other lives with a cactus in a pot. Slight hope for seed this year…
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My hens love carrot tops too. Hope she lets you get some seeds. She’s very pretty by the way.
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That hen is a real good mother too, this is her second clutch of eggs for brooding this year. I thought the carrot green tops were dying over the winter, nope, its chickens eating them off. Hoping for seeds.
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The sole surviving carrot, about to flower. And it wasnt planted into this pot, it is a volunteer. I think its root is red…
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I’ve been waiting for mine to pop above the ground. I think the gophers got most of my seed crop.
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It’s so disappointing to watch everything grow beautifully and then to get eaten. Its always something eating the garden. I dont poison them, my dogs are important to me, nor do I want to affect the birds of prey. Two years ago the gophers ate every fennel plant and chewed into the plug trays to eat the transplants…thats crazy.
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I have exactly the same issues, my dogs get some of them so no poison. The gophers also got my new grape vine and killed my cherry tree. 
I am trying gophers stakes and a gopher hawk trap.
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…I tried a scarecrow too, home made with streamers extending from the hands and double sided dvd’s too…something to creat morion from the wind. Bright reflections of light seem to work. BUT, the sun destroys all of it after a season. So, now I have grown with companion herbs. They like fennel way better than the carrots so I plant fennel away from the carrots to draw them from the patch. And, I grow carrots in containers too. Old water troughs, basically anything the gophers cant chew their way into. Ive also planted carrots in like 6 or seven different patches to try to confuse the rodents and surround all with mint, basils, fennel, chamomile and nettles.
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Yeesh. Sounds like you may need clay pots with thick walls to keep them out. Or maybe wire mesh baskets dug into the soil?
Your animal pressure is crazy!
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It is the bane of my garden existence. No more pots, at some point they are just too heavy to move around, too fill and the soil gets too hot over the summer. Growing in the ground is my way forward. But I keep planting, something does make seeds through it all…its just difficult to scale up, its only just me who cares for it. Its veryy discouraging sometimes, but then I walk around and some seeds have managed to form. We like diversity to eat as well. So there is always a collection of things to harvest and eat. I easily spend six hours daily or more inside the garden, organizing seed, and participating on this forum. Its my happy place to grow food and save seed 
.
I do know, if I dont put seed into the ground, nothing will be harvested. I fully understand the environment can not be controlled, even in my small garden space. I just keep planting, its the journey that makes it all wonderfull. The aroma of flowers and healthy soil is always comforting.
Have you grown carrots? If so what varieties and how did your harvest go? Any seeds?
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So far, I have successfully grown the occasional orange carrot – and I grew one yellow carrot once, and was so bummed out when I realized I had accidentally harvested it! (Laugh.)
I’m trying to breed carrots that are super drought tolerant and can be sown in my yard instead of in my garden beds, so my success has been limited so far, but not nonexistent!
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A good project to grow. Any chance you looked into getting drought tolerate seed from GRIN? Or maybe start with varieties that are grown in semi arid climates? Have you found seed that has been grown under drought conditions? Are you irrigating or strictly dry farming? Can you obtain wild carrot seed, they might have tolerance to drought conditions. What seed are you plsnning on starting with?
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Right now, I’m just planting any carrot seeds that come my way except for Queen Anne’s Lace . . . I want colorful carrots. 
I pick up carrot seeds from my local seed library, I get some from neighbors who have saved seeds, I get packets of free carrot seeds from Baker Creek along with other orders, I nab a few from the Serendipity Seed Swap whenever it comes my way, and of course I always save my own.
I’m not collecting any specific carrot varieties right now, but now that you mention it, I could. GRIN’s probably out of the picture (it’s been DOGEd 
), but buying some domesticated varieties that are used to being dry-farmed in arid summers would be a great idea. Do you have any suggestions?
To answer your question, I’m irrigating carrots if they happen to grow in my garden beds, just by virtue of watering the other things there (which I do maybe once every two weeks). The ones in my lawn aren’t getting any water in summer at all. Usually the ones in my garden beds do a lot better (no surprise 
). But I do get a few in my lawn. Once I’ve killed off the grass, I plan to fill the lawn with loads of drought tolerant edible species that have different growth habits, and I bet the carrots will do better in those conditions, because there will be summer plants besides bindweed, thank you that are growing leaves around the carrots and covering the soil, keeping it moister.
(My grasses are all local species, either winter annuals or perennials, so they’re dead all summer unless they get watered, which they don’t. They’re theoretically edible but don’t taste particularly good, and the seed heads are prickly, so I want them dead, and I’m gonna plant awnless winter wheat in their place. Same ecosystem niche, and I’d much rather have a grain I would enjoy eating!)
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There was a farmer, on Youtube who exclusively dry farms carrots. He has been growing for over ten years. He had a variety from Johnnys Seed company, but doesn’t save seeds. If your soil is compact choose Oxheart types or shorter root varieties. They will help break the soil. I would utilize the bindweed as a cover crop. Chop and drop it, then plant seeds…by mowing or rolling. What is the size of your carrot patch? Maybe mow the bindweed a few times before you plant, cover with a tarp too before planting. Let the bindweed die without sun.
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4 posts were merged into an existing topic: Is there value in bindweed?