Autumn King 2
The maincrop worth the space if your soil is deep, and easily the best of the common types for storing.
Autumn King is the big late carrot, with long tapering deep orange roots that keep bulking up into October and store better than anything else in general circulation. It needs deep, stone-free, well worked soil and a full twenty weeks, so it is not the variety for a shallow bed or a late start. Where the ground suits it, one row will fill boxes of sand in the shed and keep a household in carrots until spring.
Quick facts
- Botanical name
- Daucus carota
- Type
- Open pollinated
- Category
- Maincrop, storage
- 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
- September to November
Sowing and harvest calendar for Autumn King 2
Months shaded below are the reliable windows for Irish conditions.
Where to buy Autumn King 2 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.
Garden centres and mixed retailers
- Mr Middleton Irish 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
Why it suits Ireland
Our growing season is long even if it is never hot, and a maincrop carrot uses all of it. Autumn King keeps adding weight through September and October when a Nantes has already finished, which suits a climate where the light fades slowly and hard frost arrives late.
The roots also stand cold well, so a crop is not lost to a sharp night in October the way tender crops are. What it will not survive is our winter soil, which stays wet from October to March. Treat it as a crop to lift and store rather than one to leave in the ground.
The one real limitation is depth. If your garden is clay over stone, be honest about it before committing a bed to a variety that wants 30cm of loose soil.
Growing notes
Sow direct from April to early June in drills 1cm deep and 30cm apart, which is wider than for an early type because the tops get big. Do not manure the bed, and follow a crop that was manured the previous year.
Thin to about 7 to 8cm between plants if you sowed thickly, since maincrop roots need the room to reach full size. Do the thinning on a still damp evening, remove the thinnings from the garden, and water the row afterwards.
Keep insect mesh or fleece over the bed from sowing until lifting. A maincrop is in the ground through both generations of carrot root fly, so it has the longest exposure of any carrot you can grow, and an unprotected row in an Irish garden is usually a disappointment at harvest.
Water through dry spells rather than letting the bed swing between dry and drenched, which is what splits the roots.
Common questions
How deep does my soil need to be for Autumn King?
At least 30cm of loose, stone-free soil, and preferably more. The roots run long and any stone or hard pan in the way produces a forked or stunted carrot. In a lot of Irish gardens that means building a raised bed rather than sowing into what is already there. If you cannot give it that depth, grow Chantenay Red Cored 2 instead, which was bred for exactly this problem.
When should I lift Autumn King in Ireland?
Late October or early November in most of the country. It will stand a good deal of frost and the roots continue to size up through September and October, but Irish soil turns saturated from mid autumn and that is when slugs and crown rot do their damage. Lifting before the ground goes properly wet, then storing in sand, gives a far better result than leaving the crop in the bed under straw.
How do I store Autumn King carrots?
Lift on a dry day, cut the tops off about 1cm above the crown, and do not wash them. Discard anything with slug holes or split skin, because damaged roots rot and spread it. Pack the sound ones in layers in a box of barely damp sand or old compost, not touching each other, and keep the box somewhere cool, dark and frost free such as a shed or garage. Stored that way they hold their texture into March.
More carrots to consider
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 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 stockists