Growing carrots is easy, but, harvesting them can be tricky especially for beginner gardeners. A lot of gardeners tend to either harvest carrots early or leave them under the soil for too long until they get woody. Therefore, in this post, we will provide you with several techniques that you could use to know when to harvest carrots.
1. Calculate 70 days from planting
The average time that carrots need to mature and ripe varies between 60 and 70 days. If you are growing carrots in a warm climate you should able to harvest your plants in no longer than 70 days. However, if you are growing carrots in a cooler climate, you should wait 100 days after planting to pick up your carrots.
2. check the size of the carrots
The size of your carrots can be an indication of whether to harvest or not. Therefore you should keep your seed packet to know the average size of the variety you are growing since different varieties have different sizes.
3. Check the diameter of the carrots
This is the easiest and the most effective way to know when to harvest carrots. You should check the top of the carrot to determine how big it is. The diameter of mature carrots usually varies between ¾ to an inch in circumference. Once your carrots reach this diameter, you can pull them out the ground.
4. Check the top of the carrot
Some expert gardeners argue that one can tell when to harvest carrots from their tops. If the top of the plant is at least 4 inches in height, it means that the carrot is fully ripe and mature enough to be harvested. When the top of the carrot is 4 inches long, it is estimated that the length of the carrot will range from 3 to 4 inches.
5. Harvesting carrots
Learning when to harvest carrots is not enough as long as you don’t know how to harvest carrots. Harvesting carrots is a quite easy task. Many beginner gardeners tend to pull out the carrots by pulling the foliage. This is a poor way to harvest carrots as it will result in a hand full of foliage without carrots.
The right way to harvest carrots is to first loosen the soil. Afterword, dig a bit around the soil then pull out the carrots. If you are going to store your carrots you should cut off the top and let the roots dry.
Follow these techniques and you will able to harvest your carrots in the right time before they get woody. Don’t forget to keep your seed pack as it is useful to know when to harvest carrots.
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Enjoy your delicious sweet carrots