Carrot: Kuroda

Description

Carrots are basic, right? Well, not really – once you have grown your own, and tasted them fresh out the garden and straight onto your plate, you’ll be wary of buying them in the shops. 

You’ll notice that carrot seeds are very fine – so mix them with sand or the seed of a quick-growing plant like radish so that you don’t need to do much thinning. Make sure that the bed isn’t well composted as you don’t want the roots to become distorted as the plant seeks out those lovely nutrients. Sow in drills of 2 mm – press the soil down over the seeds. Keep the seeds damp for the first week and then water well when the soil becomes drier. 

Carrots take a few months to get to size. If you let a few go you’ll find the most delightful flowers popping up and from those you’ll eventually be able to collect seed.

Did you know? Carrots originated in Iran and were originally white, purple and yellow. When they reached the Netherlands, the orange colour was developed through judicious breeding and became the standard with additional nutrients contained in the betacarotene.