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Learn the exact date to plant carrots for your growing zone!
Because carrots are a cool-season crop, they can grow in both spring and fall in most regions. This also makes carrots an excellent vegetable to grow in cooler growing zones with shorter growing seasons. If you’re curious when to plant your carrot crop, use our easy calculators to find out.
Carrots need a soil temperature of 65-80°F to germinate, so you can plant your carrots as soon as you can work the ground in early spring. That time will vary from year to year, but for a general rule of thumb, check your local frost dates for your growing zone and plant your carrot seeds three weeks before the last frost date.
In many growing zones, you can also grow carrots in fall by planting in early fall or late summer. Plant your carrot seeds eight weeks before your first frost date.
In many growing zones, fall-planted carrots can hold in the garden for many weeks past a hard frost. In fact, most carrots have a sweeter taste after going through a freeze or two! Just give them a heavy blanket of mulch to insulate them. Continue to harvest until the ground is too frozen to pull the roots.
Carrots are a great option for overwintering in all except the coldest of growing zones. To overwinter for spring harvest, plant carrot seeds four to six weeks before your first fall frost. Once the cold sets in for the fall, cover the carrots in a thick layer of mulch (3-4″ in mild climates, 6+” in colder climates). Come spring, as the soil and air temperatures warm up, your carrots will start to regrow quickly, and you’ll be harvesting carrots before you know it!
When overwintering your carrots, don’t be worried if the carrot tops die back! The roots are still growing strong and will produce fresh foliage when the weather warms.
