Vegetable · Apiaceae
When to plant carrots
Direct sow only. Carrots will not transplant, and germination is the hardest part.
Sow direct
3 weeks before
Counted from your last spring frost.
Days to maturity
60-80
From sowing to a first picking.
Frost tolerance
Hardy
How much cold the plant itself will take.
Those weeks become real dates once you name a place.
Timing, in frost-relative terms
Seed packets rarely give calendar dates, because a date that suits one latitude is wrong at another. They give offsets from the last spring frost instead, and those offsets are what make carrots plantable anywhere.
- Sow direct 3 weeks before the last frost.
- Expect 60–80 days to maturity, counted from sowing.
- Sow again every 21 days for a continuous supply.
- Can also be sown in late summer for an autumn crop or to overwinter.
Getting the timing right
Sow from three weeks before last frost. Keep the seedbed continuously damp for the two to three weeks germination takes - this single detail decides most carrot crops.
Frost tolerance
Seedlings tolerate -6C. Mature roots can be left in the ground under mulch and lifted through winter in all but the coldest zones.
Classified as hardy, with damage expected below -6°C (21.2°F)21.2°F (-6°C).