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Published on 09/06/01

In South Georgia, Fall Sweet for Carrots

Georgia farmers now grow more than 4,000 acres of carrots, a great fall-garden crop. Gardeners can grow them, too.

South Georgia gardeners can direct-seed carrots in the garden until the end of November. In north Georgia, though, you'll have to wait until spring.

When you plant, keep the ground evenly moist, which may require watering several times a day. Carrots have small seeds that are sown shallow, so they're susceptible to drying out.

Go easy on the fertilizer. Give carrots light feedings throughout the winter with only 0.5 pounds per 100 square feet of 13-0-44 at any one feeding. Keep them evenly moist while they're growing, too. This will help prevent cracking in the carrots.

Growing carrots in the winter produces an added bonus: it enhances the flavor. The warm days and cool nights so typical of south Georgia in the winter are ideal to develop a really sweet carrot.

George Boyhan is a Cooperative Extension horticulturist with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences