I tried growing carrots last year closer than the required spacing and one of the problems it caused is hairy roots from the carrot. It can also cause carrots to be misshapen and to twist around each other. This is ok I suppose for ones own consumption but I don't think carrots that look funny would sell well at a farmers market.

Thanks for your comment Midnightgardener. What spacing did you use between each carrot?

I don't do a lot of carrot growing, but in the past using potting mix in a raised bed (native soil is too hard/rocky for carrots) I just scattered seed and thinned them to about 1" spacing. Carrots don't have to be ripe so you can just pull a few up every now and then to see how they are doing and eat them.

Probably 1.5 SQ inches each would be enough assuming enough water and nutrients.

When I was a stay-at-home mom, I had a large garden and even though I did not sell at market, I did have a little stand in my yard where I sold my extras. At the risk of sounding like a gloomy gus, I wonder about the value of growing carrots to a market gardener, who must plant, care for and harvest his crop by hand. Thanks to automated systems, I can buy a 3# bag for under $3.

When I was selling at my roadside stand, there were some things that I just would not sell. They are just too labor intensive and I did not want to dither over price with people who did not know or care that the price was a reflection of the time I was spending on the product. It occurs to me that carrots would fall into that category.

Just a thought, and not meant to discourage, just a glimpse of my experience...Kay.

I did Nantes last year according to Mel's instructions in my SQF: 9 per square. They did really well--I only had one conjoined twin (hahaha--it freaked me out so I froze it--couldn't eat the darn thing!). The foliage grew exceptionally thick--I'm not sure I'd do more than 12 for Nelson.

I'm also doing Short n' Sweet this year. Maybe I'll try squeezing a few more in a sq ft.

What Kay mentioned is an important consideration for me. Since I don't have much land to garden I need to maximize my yield per square foot and also take into consideration the market value of the crop. Combining these two factors gives a yield per square foot. If I only plant 9 carrots per square foot, I'm sure they will grow very well but this would give a very low yield per square foot. 16 square inches per carrot really seems very excessive by all the guidelines I've seen.

Justaguy2 writes above that a mere 1.5 square inches per plant would be enough. This is a huge difference and would yield (144/1.5) 96 carrots per square foot. Now that kind of number starts to make carrots look a little more profitable on a square foot basis! But is it realistic? :/ Maybe I'll just have to try a couple different plantings at different spacings and see how the carrot sizes and total yields compare... :)

Last year I planted carrots for the first time, mostly to entertain my horses. I tossed the seeds into a patch haphazardly (mostly rockets and little finger) and didn't bother to amend the soil. Even with close planting (1/2" sometimes) and poor soil I really only pulled up a few that were any more deformed than what you'd find at a grocery store.

Also, I know there are advantages to trimming, but consider leaving the tops on your carrots when you take them to market. Before I grew them at home, I'd always pick up some carrots with the tops on at the farmers market for my horses- they all seem to like the tops better than the carrot itself.

I did 3" apart and was great. If you are worry, then try 4"-5" inches.

Piantini, 4-5 inch spacing (16-25 square inches) is far more area than is necessary to grow one carrot. I want to grow the most carrots I can in the least amount of space so I want to plant them as close together as posssible without limiting their size too much. It actually isn't a bad thing if their size gets limited a little because fat oversized carrots are generally not as desirable to eat or sell.

Dutchess_9, you do make a good point. My calculation was based on an area of 1.5 square inches rather than an area of 2.25 square inches that a square 1.5x1.5 grid would yield. As I mentioned about, John Jeavons recommends using a hexagonal spacing to fit more plants in less space and to minimize the bare space where weeds might grow. So a 1.5 inch hexagonal spacing would fit 80 carrots per square foot. Here's a picture of a 1.5 inch center hexagonal grid of a 6 inch x 6 inch area drawn to scale. (A U.S. quarter is almost one inch in diameter.)

{{gwi:10095}}

This still seems like plenty of area to me. I don't really want my carrots to get much bigger than an inch in diameter anyway so maybe I really only want a 1 or 1.25 inch hexagonal spacing so that they will stop getting fatter when they reach my preferred size.

I just found an interesting web page that takes the concept of hexagonal spacing in another direction by combining companion plants like corn and beets.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hexagonal companion plant spacing

It depends, because a planting pattern like that will require a very strict fertilizing, water, and maintance regime.

I have always been very interested in saving space when planting. Do you have a fertilizer schedule for the carrots at hand?

Steve, I really do like how you're researching everything beforehand! You didn;t mention if you had experience with carrots. They take some patience. Seed germinate very slowly/erratically and plants need thinning out once or twice. I never envisioned carrots being something you would sell for profit, so I'm curious how it works out.

Are you planning this for a fall crop, or next spring maybe? In my experience, a 2-3" spacing seems to work out best, but don;t expect the carrots to all grow so they bump into their neighbor. There's going to be alot of variability in size and quality. I've grown Early Nelson in the past and have had good results. The tops are alot less vigorous than my other varieties.

I don't have Jeavons' book in front of me at the moment, but if I recall correctly, he admits that his spacing will produce the greatest yield overall, but not necessarily the largest plants. So basically, the size of each carrot will be smaller, but you'll get more of them, so the yield per acre or square foot will be higher.

I'm sure you already knew that, but anyway, I stick to the 3" spacing and always get good results with Nantes type carrots. Nice size with very little forking or hairy roots. Nelson is one of my favorite varieties - I'm sure you'll be happy with it.

-Diggity

Steve: You're OCDing over these carrots. Just plant 9 per square foot and be done already. They will be fine.

Prof

I think it's very impolite to accuse someone doing research of being Obsessive Compulsive. My goal, as I clearly stated above, is to maximize my value per square foot since I'm raising crops to sell at my local Farmers Market and have only a very limited amount of garden space available. Raising only 9 large carrots per square foot would not have nearly as high a market value per square foot as 36 or more medium sized carrots.

Do you have a plan to place each seed the correct distance? Certainly you can make a seed tape. I bought some from Burpee this year to try.

w/o a tape it's gonna be very tedious.

ps. I made a box up off the ground to grow carrots in. It keeps the slugs at bay and was sifted to remove all the rocks.

Steve, I know your original post was in January. Have you decided how to proceed with this? This will be a fall crop, or a spring crop next year?

well my experience with carrots has been in rows, usually have the rows, 8 inches to a foot apart. since you are out to maximize your production per sq.ft. my suggestion would be to plant a bit heavy and thin them out once they reach baby carrot size, wash bunch and sell with half the tops removed, then you can let the remainders get larger.

On March 4th, one month ago, I planted 24 square feet (4x6 foot area of raised bed) with Nelson carrots on 1.5 inch hexagonal spacing which used approximately 1536 pelletized seed (24 square feet x 64 seeds per foot). Two days later, on March 6th, I planted a 4x4 foot area on 1.5 inch hexagonal spacing and a 4x4 foot area on 2 inch hexagonal spacing. The first planting has germinated well (at least the 90% rate stated by Johnny's Select) and is now putting out their second set of leaves, (first set of true leaves.) The second plantings are farther behind probably because they weren't under a protective mini tunnel as the first crop was.

I planted these seeds all by hand which was very tedious. But I do have some ideas about how to speed this up. There is a pelletized carrot seed plate available from Johnnys Select seeds for the Earthway seeder but with the short runs in my raised beds I don't think it would work well. It also can't accurately do hexagonal spacing. This six row precision seeder might work better but is also very expensive. Another idea is to build a device similar to this homemade vacuum seeder but designed for outdoor use. I actually built a small prototype of this type device and it seemed to work but it caused my shopvac to overheat and I also didn't like the idea of dragging a small noisy vacuum machine around the garden. :(

The best idea I've come up with so far is a specialized device available for precision planting a whole flat of cell packs at once. I can't find the web site now but the operating principle if pretty simple. I think the method this device uses has good potential for adaptation to outdoor biointensive planting. Basically it's just a piece of flat plastic with precision drilled holes laid against another piece of flat plastic with offset holes. You scatter the seeds over the top plate and only one seed fits in each hole. You then tilt the tray slightly to slide the remaining seeds to one end, place the planter over a seed flat and then slide the bottom panel over a little bit and the seeds all drop through into the cell pack units. I've been thinking about how to adapt this idea for planting pelletized carrot seed but I haven't figured out what the best material to use would be. Plexiglass seems like the obvious choice but it also seems to crack readily when I try to drill it. Perhaps I just need a specialized bit? Any other suggestions for construction materials for this device are welcome!

I have been thinking about the very same thing this might help.
http://simple-green-frugal-co-op.blogspot.com/2009/04/planting-templates.html

Here is a link that might be useful: planting template

This was an interesting thread, thanks Steve. I have a small space too, and planted two long rows of carrot seeds this year (only my 2nd time growing carrots). The rows are only about 3" apart, and I was thinking I'd try to thin them to 2 - 3 " apart hexagonally as well. I hadn't read the book- just seemed to make sense to me to stagger them so they'd have more room in each direction.

Please keep us updated on how yours grow!

This is a great topic. Can anyone share what math they are using to get the numbers and the spacing.

Also, even though the number per sq foot is given how do you find out how many inches to the next row. ...regardless of hexagonal or row spacing the seeds get layed down by hand in rows across. I suppose this is important because I need to place a yard stick down to measure my spacing.

Very interesting topic.. and I can't add anything new as to spacing.. However, on the subject of planting precisely, in a straight line and exact spacing, I did not see any mention of transplanting seedlings..
Before anyone jumps on my head stating that you can't transplant carrots.. you can, and I do.. every year.
You must use a good seed raising mixture and keep lightly watered until the seedlings are about 1 1/2" tall..
I prepare the new bed by making a long narrow trench sufficient to lay the tiny carrot (car-ette??) against, spaced however you wish.. and then the soil pushed back AGAINST the seedling ( this prevents the root from becoming distorted) then just water in with a light spray. Note that the soil will tend to fall away from the seedling root completely but this will not stop it surviving the transplant process. I started doing this because my climate ( warm and dry in summer) made direct seeding more miss than hit.. and I began "shifting " seedlings to fill the gaps.. finding that the replants did just as well as the direct sowings..
Note also that his works just as well with parsnips, which gave me sleepless nights hoping the dratted seed WOULD germinte..
Have current crop photos if anyone interested..
For the record I space them 4" apart both in main beds and tubs.. but I grow for the table so size is not as important as supply.
Good topic..

Was hoping to hear an answer as to how Steve's carrot experiment turned out... or from anyone else who has packed them in from 1-2" spacing.

Thanks!

Patterson's intensive patterns include planting carrots in 1-inch by 1-inch spaces and growing tomatoes in 3-foot by 3-foot spaces. Growing vegetables and flowers together is also efficient.

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening/methods-grow-vegetables-and-flowers-small-spaces

Can a carrot really grow in a 1x1 inch or 1.5 x 1.5 inch space in a 4x4 ft bed? That means it's leaf will only really receive sunlight in a 1x1 inch space. Its leaf will also have to pack itself in that 1x1 inch space. I find it really hard to believe it. Of course, the leaf of those carrots at the sides of 4x4 ft bed can bend to occupy more space but those at the center must fit their leaf in that 1x1 inch space. Is this really possible? Or maybe those who say its possible never really planted it and just imagined the size of a carrot and forgot to consider the space that its leaf will occupy?