CARROT

Black Nebula (110 days) Pitch black 10 inch roots. Gourmet type best used for cooking or eaten fresh young.

#9916 Packet  $6.50 Approximately 500 seeds
#Bm-9916  Bulk seed     1,000 seeds    $14.50

Cosmic Purple (50-65 days) 8-1/2 inch x 1-1/2 inch purple roots have yellow interior. Very sweet.

#4565 Packet  $5.50 Approximately 500 seeds
#B1z-4565  Bulk seed     1 oz.    $25.50
#B4z-4565  Bulk seed     4oz  $60.50
#B1-4565  Bulk seed     1 lb.   $165.00

  Danvers Half Long (75 days)  Red -orange roots with blunted ends are uniform.  Excellent storage variety.

#1245 Packet   $3.50 Approximately 500 seeds
#B1z-1245  Bulk seed     1 oz.    $6.50
#B4z-1245  Bulk seed     4 oz.    $15.50
#B1-1245  Bulk seed     1 lb.   $32.50

Imperator (65 days) Long tapered roots with blunted ends have no cores and are sweet and crisp.

#12356 Packet   $3.50 Approximately 500 seeds
#B1z-12356  Bulk seed     1 oz.    $7.50
#B4z-12356  Bulk seed     4oz  $16.50
#B1-12356  Bulk seed     1 lb.  $33.50

Kuttiger (70 days)  This thick white carrot is very similar to those prized in the vegetable markets of Europe in the 1700s.  Roots measure 6-8 inches long and have a mild flavor.  Store very well.

#679  Packet   $5.50 Approximately 100 seeds

Little Finger (50-65 days) The perfect variety for baby carrots, this early golden orange French Nantes type has almost no core and is great for canning, freezing, pickling, or eating. Pick young for baby carrots

#220 Packet  $3.50 Approximately 300 seeds
#B1z-220  Bulk seed     1 oz.    $10.50
#B4z-220  Bulk seed     4oz  $25.50
#B1-220  Bulk seed     1 lb.   $35.50

Lunar White (60 days) Lon white roots are nearly coreless, are sweet and crunchy. Great for canning, freezing, pickling, or eating fresh.

#11246 Packet  $5.50 Approximately 500 seeds
#B1z-11246  Bulk seed     1 oz.    $20.50
#B4z-11246  Bulk seed     4oz  $60.50
#B1-11246  Bulk seed     1 lb.   $162.50

Parisienne (60 days) French market carrot with short rounded roots, suitable for any soil type, including heavy clays and shallow soils. Provide adequate moisture throughout the growing season for rounded shape - dry weather will cvause the roots to elongate.

#9918 Packet  $4.50 Approximately 1000 seeds
#B5m-9918  Bulk seed     5,000 seeds    $12.50

  Purple Haze (65 days)  Purple skin and a bright orange interior make this one of the prettiest carrots ever.  Unlike earlier varieties bred for high beta carotene content, this one is sweet and juicy, with a slight spicy flavor.

#4060  Packet  $6.50  Approximately 100 seeds
#B4z-4060  Bulk seed     4oz  $83.33
#B1-4060  Bulk seed     1 lb.   $193.33

Scarlet Nantes (65-75 days)  Good as a fresh eating carrot, this pretty carrot is long and is nearly coreless.  Good keeper.

#428  Packet   $3.50 Approximately 500 seeds
#B1z-428  Bulk seed     1 oz.    $7.50
#B4z-428  Bulk seed     4oz   $14.50
#B1-428  Bulk seed     1 lb.   $27.50

  Yellowstone (75 days) HYBRID - Yellow roots are 9 inches long and have an excellent flavor.  Stores in the ground until mid-winter.

#427  Packet   $5.50 Approximately 500 seeds

Rich Earth Carrot Mix - All colors and sizes

#12357  Packet   $4.50 Approximately 500 seeds

There is great diversity in the vegetable varieties that we offer; which makes the general information provided only valuable as adjustable guidelines. This may also affect your seed planting and propagation strategies and the germination rates under your planting conditions may vary from the seed lot test results. The following soil temperature data is for carrots in general. Temperatures are average daytime from planting to emergence. Percentage is average germination rate. Days is number of days to emergence.
41ºF x 48% x 51 days; 50ºF x 93% x 17 days; 59ºF x 95% x 10 days; 68ºF x 96% x 7 days; 77ºF x 96% x 6 days; 86ºF x 95% x 6 days; 95ºF x 74% x 9 days; 

CULTIVATION

The common garden carrot is a member of the family Umbellilerae (sny. Apiaceae) and is thought to have originated in central Asia.  Garden carrots, along with their wild counterparts (such as Queen Anne's Lace and Ammi majis), are biennial plants.   The leaves are fine and fernlike and blooms are white and lacey, a large bloom being made up of hundreds of tiny individual flowers.  First cultivation for their seeds and leaves (some carrot relatives such as parsley and cilantro are still grown for leaves and seeds), the modern carrot has been bred for its roots, which are orange, red, white or purple depending on variety, which are very high in beta carotene and lutein and Vitamin A.

Carrots, like other root crops need deep fertile friable soil in which to grow properly.   Rocky and hard clay soils will produce smaller misshapen roots.  The best areas for growing carrots would have a generous dressing of well rotted compost forked into the ground to loosen it and add nutirients.  A dressing of manure worked into the soil the previous fall or long enough for the manure to have decayed can be used as well, but don't grow root crops in areas that have freshly been manured.  It can be a serious health risk.  Carrots can be sown as soon as the ground thaws and the soil worked.    Sandy or loose soils are best.  If your soil is heavy clay, work compost or peat moss and sand into the area to break it up.  Soil should drain well and a pH of 6 to 6.8.  Avoid sowing in soil newly tilled on sod to reduce the risk of wireworms attacking the roots.  Rows should be laid off about 15-24 inches apart.  Plant 1 seed per inch in the row and cover.  An early sowing when the soil is still cold should be planted at about 1/4 inch deep, when the soil is warmer, seeds can be planted about 1/2 inch deep. Many gardeners sow a few  radish seeds with the carrots to use as a 'marker'.  Many weeds are faster to emerge than carrots and can make cultivation difficult and the radishes, which germinate very quickly, can show where your carrots are planted and allow better cultivation,  Keep the rows watered until germination.  If it dries out, it is harder for the tiny seedlings to emerge. After emergence, thin seedlings to 2inches apart, 3 inches for larger root varieties.  Keep the rows weed free.  Keep root shoulders covered to prevent greening.  To grow carrots for winter storage, plant in early summer to harvest in fall.

HARVEST:  Dig carrots anytime after they attain a bright orange or size and before the roots mature to the point where they crack and become pithy.  (For storage carrots, plan for about 100 days of growth before harvet) Clean the roots and store at 32F and 95% humidity.  An old method of keeping was to bury them in a completely dry sheltered place separated by layers of sand.

Both the young leaves and the roots of carrots eaten.  More beta carotene is released after cooking than when eating raw carrots. . 

SEED SPECS:  Approximately 11,000 seeds per ounce

SEEDING RATE: 1,000 seeds per 33ft; 720,000 per acre at 30 seeds per foot in rows 24 inches apart

TIPS: A KITCHEN-GARDEN PHILOSOPHY My Grandfather formed a partnership in 1928 with his brother to operate a farm on the Rio Grande. The first year he flew to New York to arrange for the orange crop to be transported to market by air. When he returned to the farm he found that his brother had received shipment of $10,000 worth of seed and had put it in an open and unwatched barn for storage. When he told me the story, he said that he had seriously considered dissolving the partnership that day. I do a lot of thinking in my Kitchen-Garden which is smaller scale than my Grandfather's farm, but I take the risk management very seriously. I pat myself on the back for being able to see the larger picture, even as the picture changes, and what was I thinking? Now it's right, pat pat. When I was first married, my beautiful young wife asked me to turn over the dirt in the back yard with my shovel so she could plant beans. I said "Don't you know that the store down the street has canned beans on sale every year." At my job wage rate we could fill another house with cans for the same time that I would spend in this garden. But she said that they tasted better and I enjoyed spending the time with her. I've been enjoying that time and that taste for a lot of years now, and just as hard as measuring quality time or a taste, is quantifying security issues and food quality health issues that I have come to appreciate. I feel productive as I hoe and pull weeds and wonder why I paid for so many years to go to the gym and why I mowed grass on this spot. But the big picture is that this garden is about my enjoyment and my health, and I have come to feel that the main health benefit is the enjoyment. So why do I fret so much when I must thin out the carrot row. Between the weather and the birds, counting on a good crop of carrots can be more risky if you don't plant a little close. But now I am doing murder. Chopping out the weeds is good farming and citizenship, but pulling a carrot hurts. Till I found from my constant study of other people's experiences, that the "weed" had value too, and I was already guilty of boticide.   One year I had to leave town on important business and fretted the whole trip that the beans in the Kitchen-Garden were not going to be picked in time. But there were still plenty in the freezer. Now I have plenty of gardener friends who think the same things are important in Kitchen-Gardening methods that I do.  I know more about the foods that I eat and possible good food sources are becoming more available again. Come home, feed the beans to the cows, and get over it. NEXT TIP

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