Carrot Nandor F1 - Daucus carota

The Nandor F1 carrot is a semi-long variety, ideal for growing young carrots in pots. The skin is thin and light, with a small round root. Perfect as a raw snack or lightly steamed, it has a sweet flavor. Sow from March to July and harvest from June to November.

The carrot is a biennial herbaceous plant, grown as an annual, belonging to the Apiaceae family. It is cultivated as a vegetable for its edible, fleshy, and generally orange-coloured taproots. Carrots are rich in carotene. They can typically reach a height of 30 cm (12in). Carrots are not very demanding in terms of soil type. However, the best roots are harvested in rich, light, and deep soil. Therefore, it is important to prepare the soil properly by deep digging in autumn, incorporating 2 to 3 kg of well-decomposed manure or compost. All stones should be removed during this operation. Before sowing, the soil should be well crumbled and fertilized with a base fertilizer, then left as is for about fifteen days. Sowing can then take place.

Harvest: during the season, harvest carrots as needed. To extract the roots from the soil, use a fork-spade, taking care not to damage the root. Injuries to the roots can lead to carrot rot during storage.
Yields can be estimated based on the type of cultivation and carrot. As a guide, plan for between 1 and 1.5 kg/m² for early cultivation; approximately 3 kg/m² for seasonal cultivation of a semi-long variety, and up to 5 kg for late cultivation of long carrots.

Storage: it can be done in the ground, on the cultivation site, but this ties up space in the vegetable garden. In winter, in this case, the roots will need to be protected from frost with a good layer of dead leaves. Indoor storage is an excellent long-term solution. In a frost-free and well-ventilated place, cut the foliage down to the collar and place the roots next to each other on a bed of moist sand. Cover them with a 2 cm (1in) layer of sand and lay the next row.

Gardener's tips:
Sowing radishes and carrots on the same row and at the same time naturally distances the carrot seeds. Once the radishes are harvested, it leaves space for the carrots to grow. It's a win-win thinning technique!
Sowing carrots near a row of leeks helps protect them both from carrot fly and leek moth.