Preparing To Plant Carrots

Vegetable Prodution

- Bill Kerr

Carrots have a very deep root system and a mass of fine feeder roots. I have found carrot roots 2m down, and they can extend even deeper under the right conditions. This root system enables the plant to source nutrients that are out of reach of most other vegetable crops. But the nutrients have to be there in the first place!

Lands that have been well fertilised for other vegetables usually contain enough nutrients for the carrot roots to scavenge. If this is not the case in your land, you’ll need to fertilise according to the results of a soil analysis.

Carrots are well adapted to a wide range of soils. Many farmers think that carrots cannot be planted in clay. This is not necessarily true; it depends on the type of clay soil.