Carrot Seeds in Ireland
Carrots suit the Irish climate better than most people expect, because they want a long cool growing season rather than heat. What ruins them here is carrot root fly, which is widespread across the country, and the heavy wet ground that most Irish gardens sit on. This page covers the sowing dates that work, the varieties worth choosing, how to actually keep the fly out, and where to buy the seed in Ireland.
Sowing and harvest calendar for Ireland
Months shaded below are the reliable windows for Irish conditions.
Quick facts
- Botanical name
- Daucus carota
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Hardiness
- Hardy, takes Irish frost
- In Ireland
- Cloche or fleece helps
- Germination
- 14 to 21 days at 7 to 25C
- Sowing depth
- 1cm
- Spacing
- 5cm apart, 25cm between rows
- Position
- Full sun
- Containers
- Grows well in pots
- Sowing to harvest
- 12 to 20 weeks
- Harvest
- June to November
Sowing depth and spacing
Drawn to scale from the figures in this guide.
How deep, seen from the side
How far apart, seen from above
The best carrot varieties for Irish gardens
Picked for how they perform in a cool, damp, short summer rather than for catalogue photos.
Nantes 2
Open pollinated / Nantes type, early maincrop
The carrot to grow if you only grow one: sweet, quick, reliable and forgiving of an average Irish summer.
Growing notes and stockistsAmsterdam Forcing 3
AGMOpen pollinated / Amsterdam type, first early
The one to sow first and eat first, and the best choice for a shallow container or a March cloche.
Growing notes and stockistsAutumn King 2
Open pollinated / Maincrop, storage
The maincrop worth the space if your soil is deep, and easily the best of the common types for storing.
Growing notes and stockistsFlyaway F1
AGMF1 hybrid / Nantes type, root fly tolerant
Worth growing where root fly has ruined crops before, but treat the resistance as a second line of defence, not a replacement for mesh.
Growing notes and stockistsChantenay Red Cored 2
Open pollinated / Chantenay type, early maincrop
The answer to heavy or shallow Irish ground, because it never needed the depth in the first place.
Growing notes and stockistsHow to sow carrot seed
Carrots are direct sown, always. The taproot forks the moment it is disturbed, so there is no module or transplant route, and the whole of a carrot’s success is decided by the soil you sow it into.
Prepare the bed by digging deeply and removing stones, then raking it to a fine crumb. Do not add manure. Ground that was manured for last year’s potatoes is ideal, and ground that was manured this spring will give you forked roots. If your soil is heavy clay or shallow over stone, build a raised bed 30cm deep and fill it with a mix of good topsoil and compost, or use a deep container.
Wait for soil that has warmed to about 7C. In practice that is late March on the south coast, April for most of the country, and it is worth putting a cloche or a sheet of fleece over the bed for a fortnight beforehand to take the chill off.
Draw a shallow drill about 1cm deep, water the bottom of it, and sow thinly along it. Sowing thinly is the single most useful habit in growing carrots, because it removes the need to thin, and thinning is what attracts carrot root fly. Cover with fine soil or sieved compost, firm gently, and label the row, since carrot seedlings take two to three weeks to appear and look very like grass when they do.
Sow a short row every three or four weeks from April to early July rather than one long row, so you have carrots to pull over months rather than a glut in September.
Growing on in Irish conditions
Cover the bed with insect mesh or fleece at sowing and leave it on. This is not optional in Ireland. Carrot root fly is present everywhere, the adult flies low, and a mesh cover over hoops with the edges buried or weighted keeps it out completely. A 60cm barrier of mesh around the bed works on the same principle if you would rather see the crop.
Keep the row weeded by hand while the seedlings are small, because carrots compete badly and a weedy row in May will never catch up. Once the foliage closes over, they largely look after themselves.
Water steadily in dry spells. Irish summers usually take care of this, but a dry June followed by a wet July is what splits carrots, so a soaking every few days through a dry fortnight is better than letting the bed swing between extremes.
If you do have to thin, wait for a still, damp evening, pull the seedlings rather than snapping the tops, put them straight into a bag, and water the row afterwards.
Harvesting and storing
Early carrots from an April sowing are usable from late June at finger size. Loosen the soil with a fork before pulling, since a carrot pulled hard out of dry ground tends to snap and leave the tip behind.
Maincrop carrots are ready from September. There is no need to wait for them to reach supermarket size, and roots left to size up further in October are more likely to split and to pick up slug damage.
Lift the maincrop before the ground goes properly wet, usually late October or early November. Twist or cut the tops off about 1cm above the crown, leave any soil on rather than washing them, discard anything damaged, and pack the sound roots in boxes of barely damp sand in a shed or garage. Stored that way they hold until March, which is a far better result in an Irish winter than leaving them in the bed.
What goes wrong with carrots in Ireland
Carrot root fly
Signs: Foliage taking on a red or bronze tinge and then wilting, and rusty brown tunnels running through the outside of the root when you lift it. Damage is usually only found at harvest.
What to do: The only reliable answer is a physical barrier. The adult fly is a weak, low flier, so a wall of insect mesh or fleece at least 60cm high around the bed, or a mesh cover laid over hoops and sealed down at every edge, keeps it out. Sowing after the last week of May misses the first generation of egg laying, which helps a lot with early carrots but does nothing about the second generation in August. Sow thinly so you barely need to thin, thin only on a still damp evening, take the thinnings off the plot, and water the row afterwards to settle the smell. Do not rely on onions or companion planting alone, because in a bad year it will not be enough.
Forked, stumpy or hairy roots
Signs: Roots that split into two or three legs, stop short at a stone, or grow a mass of fine side roots.
What to do: Almost always the ground rather than the seed. Carrots need deep, loose, stone-free soil, and much of Ireland offers heavy clay or a shallow stony layer instead. Build a raised bed, or grow in a deep container, or switch to a Chantenay type that only needs 15cm of decent soil. Never sow into ground manured the same year, since fresh manure causes both forking and hairy roots. Follow a crop that was manured the previous season instead.
Slow or patchy germination
Signs: Bare stretches of drill three weeks after sowing, or a thin scattered row.
What to do: Carrot seed is slow even in good conditions, taking two to three weeks, and it will simply sit there in cold soil. Wait until the soil has reached about 7C, which in most of Ireland means late March at the earliest and April in the north and midlands. Water the bottom of the drill before sowing rather than the surface after, cover with fine soil or sieved compost rather than clods, and keep the row damp until the seedlings appear. A sheet of fleece over the row speeds it up and keeps birds off.
Split roots
Signs: Long cracks down the length of otherwise good carrots, found at lifting.
What to do: This is heavy rain landing on roots that had gone dry, which is a very Irish sequence: three dry weeks in June followed by a wet fortnight. The root takes up water faster than the skin can stretch. Keep watering consistent through dry spells rather than leaving it to the weather, mulch between the rows, and lift maincrop carrots promptly once they are the size you want instead of leaving them to size up further.
Slugs and rot on overwintered carrots
Signs: Holes chewed into the shoulders of roots left in the ground, and soft brown rot spreading from the crown after Christmas.
What to do: Leaving carrots in the ground under straw is standard advice from drier countries and it works badly in Irish winters. Our soil stays wet, slugs stay active, and rot follows. Lift the crop in late autumn instead, cut the tops off about 1cm above the crown, and store the roots in boxes of just-damp sand in a shed or garage. They will keep until spring that way.
Where to buy carrot seeds in Ireland
Irish suppliers that stock this, so postage stays domestic and seed arrives in time to sow. These are plain links, not paid placements.
Order online
- Quickcrop Irish Sowing and harvest months listed on every packet, ships across Ireland Ballymote based, lists sowing and harvest months per product and ships across Ireland. Visit Quickcrop , Co. Sligo
- Brown Envelope Seeds Irish Organic seed grown and saved in West Cork Grows and saves its own certified organic seed in West Cork, so the varieties are already adapted to Irish conditions. Visit Brown Envelope Seeds , Co. Cork
- Seedaholic Irish Heirloom range with unusually detailed packet notes Family run in Clonbur since 2005, deep heirloom range with detailed growing notes on every packet. Visit Seedaholic , Co. Galway
Garden centres and mixed retailers
- Mr Middleton Irish The familiar named varieties, posted from Dublin Mail order arm of a long established Mary Street shop, carries the familiar named varieties the organic specialists skip. Visit Mr Middleton , Co. Dublin
- Johnstown Garden Centre Irish Widest branded range, near Naas in Co. Kildare Third generation family business near Naas with the widest branded range, though popular varieties sell out by midsummer. Visit Johnstown Garden Centre , Co. Kildare
- The Organic Centre Irish Organic vegetable seed from Rossinver, Co. Leitrim Registered Irish charity at Rossinver with a 19 acre demonstration garden behind the seed catalogue. Visit The Organic Centre , Co. Leitrim
Common questions
When should I sow carrot seeds in Ireland?
The main window is April to early June. March sowings are possible in the south and along the coast if you warm the soil with a cloche or fleece for a fortnight first, but seed sown into cold wet ground in March often rots rather than germinating. There is a strong argument for holding off until the first week of June for your main sowing, because that misses the first generation of carrot root fly entirely. A final sowing of a fast Amsterdam or Nantes type in early July gives small tender carrots in October.
How do I stop carrot root fly in Ireland?
Assume the fly is present, because it is widespread across the country, and build the barrier before you need it. The adult flies within about 45cm of the ground and does not go over obstacles, so either surround the bed with insect mesh or fleece at least 60cm high, or cover the bed completely with mesh over hoops with the edges buried or weighted down. The cover has to go on at sowing and stay on, since a fortnight of gaps is all it takes. Beyond that, sow thinly to avoid thinning, do any thinning on a still damp evening and remove the thinnings from the garden, and do not grow carrots in the same bed two years running because pupae overwinter in the soil.
Can I sow carrots in modules and plant them out?
No, or at least not with any success. A carrot is a single taproot and the moment that root tip is checked or bent it forks, so a transplanted carrot is usually a stunted, many-legged thing. Carrots have to be direct sown where they are to grow. If your soil is genuinely unworkable, the answer is a raised bed or a deep container of good compost, not modules.
Can carrots be grown in containers?
Very well, and in Ireland it solves two problems at once. A deep pot or trough filled with stone-free compost gives you the loose soil that heavy Irish ground does not, and if the container stands on a wall or table more than about 60cm up, most carrot root fly never find it. Use a container at least 30cm deep for maincrop types, or 20cm for Amsterdam and Chantenay types, sow thinly and never let it dry out.
Do carrots need thinning?
Only if you sowed too thickly, which is why the better strategy is to sow sparingly in the first place. Crushed carrot foliage releases the scent that draws carrot root fly from a distance, so every thinning session is an advertisement. If you must thin, do it on a still damp evening rather than a warm still one, pull rather than snap the seedlings, carry the thinnings away in a bag, and water the row afterwards to settle the soil and the smell.
Why should I not manure the bed before sowing carrots?
Fresh or recently applied manure makes carrots fork and produces a mass of fine hairy side roots, and it also encourages leafy top growth at the expense of the root. Carrots are one of the few vegetables that genuinely prefer poorer ground. Put them in a bed that was manured for a previous crop such as potatoes or beans, and add nothing but a light dressing of compost if the soil is very thin.
Can I leave carrots in the ground through an Irish winter?
You can, and gardeners in drier climates do it routinely, but it works poorly here. Irish soil stays saturated from October onwards, slugs remain active through most of our mild winters, and crown rot spreads quickly in wet ground. Lifting in late autumn and storing the roots in boxes of barely damp sand in a shed is more reliable and keeps them in good condition until spring.