- 17 minutes ago
Don’t plant carrots until you know the two mistakes that ruin most crops: hard soil and dry seed. Elias Yoder explains how to choose the right carrot type for your ground, loosen the bed deep and fine, sow shallow, and keep the seed moist until it sprouts so you get straighter, healthier carrots instead of forked, patchy rows.
He also shows the old board trick for germination, why thinning matters, and how to read common carrot problems like spindly roots, woody carrots, bolting, or hairy distortion. The advice works for backyard gardens, raised beds, and containers, with simple growing tips for spring and fall harvests, even storing carrots in the ground through cold weather.
Created for gardeners looking for carrot growing tips, vegetable garden advice, seed germination help, and practical backyard gardening guidance. Ideal for anyone searching for how to plant carrots, how to thin seedlings, and how to grow bigger carrots with a calm, old-fashioned farming method.
He also shows the old board trick for germination, why thinning matters, and how to read common carrot problems like spindly roots, woody carrots, bolting, or hairy distortion. The advice works for backyard gardens, raised beds, and containers, with simple growing tips for spring and fall harvests, even storing carrots in the ground through cold weather.
Created for gardeners looking for carrot growing tips, vegetable garden advice, seed germination help, and practical backyard gardening guidance. Ideal for anyone searching for how to plant carrots, how to thin seedlings, and how to grow bigger carrots with a calm, old-fashioned farming method.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Of all the vegetables in the garden, the carrot is the one that fools folks the most.
00:05It looks like it ought to be the simplest thing in the world,
00:08just poke a seed in the ground and pull a carrot,
00:11and yet more gardeners fail at carrots than at near anything else.
00:15They get a thin, patchy row that hardly comes up,
00:19or a tangle of little hairy forked runts not worth the pulling,
00:24and they decide they simply cannot grow carrots and give up.
00:28But here is the truth, it is almost never the gardener's green thumb at fault,
00:33and almost always just two plain mistakes made at two exact moments that ruin the whole crop.
00:41Get those two moments right,
00:43and carrots are one of the easiest and most rewarding things you can grow.
00:48Today I will show you those two mistakes and how to get past them,
00:52and then walk you through reading your carrots so you can tell at a glance
00:57what any trouble means and how to fix it.
01:01I am Elias, and I have grown carrots on this Lancaster County ground my whole life,
01:07long sweet ones we store down cellar in the sand to eat all winter.
01:12And I will tell you, carrots are no trouble at all once you know their two secrets,
01:18but a heartbreak until you do.
01:21So let me give you the secrets plain.
01:24Quick word before I go further.
01:27The old methods my family uses, there is more of it than fits in any one video.
01:32I gathered the whole of it into a book at EliasYoder.com.
01:38The book is the long version.
01:40If you want it, it is there.
01:42I will not mention it again.
01:44I remember the first carrots I ever grew on my own as a young man,
01:49and a sorrier row you never saw.
01:53A few thin threads come up where I had scattered a whole packet,
01:57and those few gone forked and hairy in the hard ground.
02:02I was ready to swear carrots could not be grown,
02:06and my father came and looked and only laughed kindly.
02:09You starved the seed and you fought the soil, Elias, he said.
02:15He showed me the board on the row and the loosening of the ground deep,
02:19the two things I am about to show you,
02:22and the very next season I pulled the finest carrots in the family.
02:27It was never that carrots are hard,
02:30only that no one had shown me the two moments that matter.
02:34Let me show you them now.
02:36Before the two mistakes, a quick word on which carrot to grow,
02:41for it matters more than folks think, and it is simple.
02:45Carrots come long and carrots come short and round,
02:49and the plain rule is match the carrot to your soil.
02:54If you have deep, loose, sandy soil,
02:57you can grow the long, slender kinds down deep and lovely.
03:02But if your ground is heavy or shallow or hard,
03:06do not fight it with a long carrot that will only stunt and fork.
03:11Grow instead one of the short, stubby or round kinds
03:15that do not need to drive down so deep,
03:18and they will do beautifully where a long one never could.
03:22The color, the orange or the yellow or the purple or the red,
03:27that is all just for your pleasure.
03:30They grow the same.
03:32So pick your kind by your soil,
03:34long for deep, loose ground,
03:37short and round for hard or shallow ground,
03:41and you have started right.
03:43Now to the soil itself,
03:45for this is where the first mistake lives,
03:48and it is the root of half the ugly carrots in the world.
03:52A carrot is a taproot, one single root driving straight down,
03:58and it can only grow as straight and long and fat as the soil will let it.
04:04Put a carrot seed in hard, packed, stony ground,
04:08and that poor root hits the hardness and the stones
04:12and cannot drive through clean,
04:15so it forks, it twists, it goes stubby and deformed,
04:19splitting around every pebble and clod,
04:23and you dig up those comical little forked and hairy runts folks laugh at.
04:28It was never the seed's fault, nor yours,
04:32it was the hard ground.
04:34So the first great secret is this.
04:37Loosen your soil deep and fine before you sow.
04:41Dig it over a good foot down, break up every clod,
04:46pick out the stones, and work it soft and crumbly and loose.
04:51And if your ground is heavy clay,
04:53work in plenty of sand and old compost to lighten it.
04:58You want a deep bed of soft, fine soil,
05:02with nothing to stop that root driving straight down.
05:06Do that and your carrots come up long and straight and smooth,
05:10for you have given the taproot a clear road down.
05:13This is why they say,
05:15the great prize carrots are grown in barrels of pure sand and compost,
05:21nothing at all to block the root.
05:23You need not go so far,
05:25but loosen deep and pick the stones,
05:27and you have won half the battle before you sow a seed.
05:31Now the sowing.
05:33And here is the second mistake,
05:35the biggest of all,
05:36the one that ruins more carrot patches than everything else combined,
05:40and it comes right after you plant.
05:43So mind this close.
05:46Carrot seed is tiny,
05:48near like dust,
05:49and you sow it shallow,
05:51only a quarter inch deep,
05:53barely covered,
05:54in a little furrow,
05:55scattered thin along the row.
05:57Water it in, gentle.
06:00And here is the thing folks do not know
06:02that costs them their whole crop.
06:05Carrot seed is slow,
06:07terribly slow to come up.
06:09It takes 10, 12, 15 days to sprout,
06:13far longer than most seeds.
06:15And all through those two weeks,
06:18the seed and the tiny sprout sit up there just under the surface,
06:22and they must be kept moist that entire time,
06:25every single day.
06:27And this is where it all goes wrong.
06:30Folks water once,
06:31and then the sun and the wind dry that thin top layer of soil,
06:36hard and crusty over a day or two,
06:39and the seed dries out.
06:41Or the little sprout just breaking through,
06:44dries and dies.
06:45And the gardener stands there weeks later,
06:48looking at a bare patchy row,
06:50wondering what went wrong.
06:52It was the drying.
06:54A carrot seed let dry once,
06:57during those two weeks of sprouting,
06:58is most often a carrot seed killed.
07:02So here is the old trick that solves it,
07:04simple as can be,
07:06and it near guarantees you a thick row every time.
07:10After you sow and water your carrot row,
07:13you lay a plain board right down flat on top of the row,
07:17an old plank, a 2x4, whatever you have,
07:20right on the soil over your seeds.
07:22That board shades the soil and holds the moisture in,
07:27keeping it dark and damp underneath,
07:29just the way the sprouting seed wants,
07:32so it cannot dry out,
07:34no matter how the sun beats down.
07:36You leave that board there through the sprouting time,
07:39and you peek under it every few days,
07:42and the very day you see the little sprouts
07:44just beginning to push up,
07:46you take the board off,
07:48and there is your thick even row of carrots,
07:51up and safe.
07:53That one board is the difference
07:55between a full row and a bare one.
07:58Do check under it every couple of days, mind,
08:01for you must not leave the board on once they sprout,
08:04or the little shoots will grow up pale and bent under it,
08:08looking for light.
08:09So it is a watching job,
08:11the board on to hold the moisture
08:13and off the moment you see green.
08:16And if you would rather not use a board,
08:18then you must water that row gentle every single day,
08:22sometimes twice on a hot, windy day,
08:25to keep the top just moist,
08:27never letting it crust and dry,
08:29and that will do it too.
08:31But the board is the surer way,
08:33for it does not forget on the day you are busy.
08:36Keep the seed moist till it sprouts,
08:39by the board or by faithful daily watering
08:42if you would rather,
08:43and you have beaten the great carrot mistake.
08:46Now once they are up,
08:48there is one more thing you must do,
08:50and it is the third that folks skip,
08:53and that is the thinning.
08:55When you sowed,
08:56you scattered the fine seed thicker than you need,
08:59so now your little carrots come up crowded close together in the row,
09:04shoulder to shoulder,
09:05and they cannot all grow.
09:07If you leave them crowded,
09:09they fight each other for room,
09:11and none of them can fatten,
09:13and you get a mess of thin little pencil roots
09:15instead of good fat carrots.
09:18So you must thin them,
09:20pull out the extra ones,
09:21cruel as it feels,
09:23until the ones left standing are about an inch or two apart,
09:27each with room to grow fat.
09:29Do this while they are still young,
09:32when the tops are just a few inches high.
09:34Now here is the sweet part.
09:36For you need not waste the ones you pull,
09:38for once they have grown a little,
09:41those thinnings are tiny baby carrots,
09:44tender and sweet,
09:45a delicacy for the table.
09:47So you thin your row,
09:49and get a first little harvest of baby carrots in the bargain.
09:53An inch or two apart for the little kinds,
09:55two or three for the big,
09:57and the ones you leave will swell up fat and fine.
10:00And a small kindness to the row when you thin,
10:04water it first so the soil is soft,
10:07and the ones you pull come away easy,
10:09without tearing the roots of the neighbors you mean to keep.
10:13And firm the soil back gentle around those that stay.
10:17And after that, carrots ask very little.
10:20Keep them watered steady,
10:22and even moisture,
10:23not drowning and not bone dry,
10:25for uneven water makes them woody or split.
10:28Grow them in the cooler parts of the season,
10:31spring and fall,
10:33for carrots love the cool and a touch of frost.
10:36Indeed a carrot sweetens wonderfully after the cold hits it.
10:40And here is a fine old thing.
10:43You can leave your carrots right in the ground into the cold,
10:46and even under the snow,
10:48for the cold ground keeps them like a cellar,
10:51nature's own root cellar,
10:52and you pull them sweet and fresh as you want them through the fall and winter.
10:57That is the whole of the growing.
10:59Loosen deep,
11:01keep the seed moist till it sprouts,
11:03thin them young,
11:05water even,
11:06grow them cool.
11:07Now let me give you a fine thing,
11:09how to read your carrots,
11:11for if ever they come out wrong,
11:13they will tell you exactly what went amiss,
11:16and now you will understand their language.
11:18If they came up thin and patchy,
11:21poor germination,
11:22the soil dried out during sprouting,
11:25so next time the board.
11:27If the roots are thin and spindly and small,
11:30you did not thin them enough,
11:32they were crowded.
11:33If they are woody and dry,
11:35you either left them in too long past ripe,
11:38or you watered them unevenly.
11:40If the tops shoot up a flower stalk,
11:43you left them far too long,
11:44and they have bolted to seed,
11:46and they will taste poor.
11:48If instead of one good taproot,
11:50you get a cluster of little forking hairy roots,
11:54you gave them too rich a soil,
11:56too much nitrogen,
11:57most often fresh manure,
11:59for carrots want a leaner, well loosened soil,
12:02never a heavily manured one,
12:04so no fresh manure on the carrot bed.
12:07If they come out short and stubby when they should be long,
12:11your soil was too hard,
12:13loosen it deeper next time.
12:15If they are stunted and small,
12:17likely too much heat,
12:19so grow them in the cooler season,
12:21or give them a little shade.
12:23And if they come up truly hairy and distorted and bitter,
12:26that is a disease carried by little hopping insects,
12:30and there is no cure for it,
12:31so you pull and destroy those,
12:34and keep your bed clean
12:35and your carrots covered from the insects to prevent it.
12:38Learn to read those signs,
12:40and your carrots will teach you to grow them better every season.
12:44Now let me say a small plain word,
12:46not a who-profits sermon,
12:48for the carrot is no one's scheme.
12:51But notice,
12:52there was nothing to buy in any of this.
12:54No special product,
12:56no miracle powder,
12:57no gadget.
12:58The whole secret of fine carrots was in the knowing,
13:01loosen the soil,
13:03keep the seed moist with an old board,
13:05thin them young.
13:07Just knowing,
13:08and a bit of care at the right moments.
13:10There is a whole world that would rather sell you a fix in a bottle,
13:13than teach you the plain free knowing that actually works.
13:17And so folks come to think good carrots take some secret product,
13:21when they take only an old plank and a little understanding.
13:24But now you have the understanding,
13:27and it is yours for good.
13:29So there is the whole of growing fine carrots.
13:32Match your kind to your soil.
13:34Loosen the ground deep and fine and stoneless.
13:37Sow shallow and thin,
13:39and above all keep that seed moist till it sprouts,
13:43the old board on the row.
13:45Thin them young to give them room,
13:47and eat the thinnings.
13:48Water even,
13:50grow them cool,
13:51and leave them in the cold ground to sweeten and keep.
13:54Do those few things at their few right moments,
13:57and you will pull long,
13:59sweet,
14:00straight carrots by the armful,
14:02and wonder you ever thought them hard.
14:05Now I want to hear from you.
14:07Tell me down below what your carrots have done,
14:10the bare rows,
14:11or the forked runts,
14:13or the fine fat ones,
14:14and now you will know just what each meant.
14:17And tell me your county and your soil,
14:21the heavy clay or the light sand,
14:23for the carrot is grown a little different in each.
14:26I read every one.
14:29Next time,
14:30I want to show you the keeping of your root crops through the winter,
14:33the old way to store your carrots and your beets and your turnips,
14:38down cellar in the sand and the cool,
14:40so they keep sweet and firm for months,
14:43and feed you clear through to spring,
14:46the way the old people filled their cellars.
14:49The old people grew their carrots and their roots
14:52by a few plain understandings handed down,
14:55no product nor secret,
14:58but the knowing of how a root wants to grow,
15:01and filled their cellars with sweet keeping food
15:04by that knowing alone.
15:06There is a quiet wisdom in understanding a plant deep enough
15:11to give it just what it needs,
15:13at just the right moment,
15:15and asking nothing of the store.
15:17The people who built this country with their hands knew that,
15:21and we are only just starting to remember it.
Comments