Harvest

When to harvest carrots

The short answer

Carrots are ready about 12 to 16 weeks after sowing. Lift them as soon as they are large enough to use, rather than waiting for the biggest roots, which lose flavour. Main-season carrots crop through summer into early autumn, and can stand in the ground into winter under straw or cardboard.

There is no single ripe moment for a carrot. A root pulled young is sweet and crunchy; one left to grow huge is not better, just bigger. The useful questions are how young is worth it, and how long they can wait in the ground.

When it's ready in the UK

RHS gives about 12 to 16 weeks from sowing, with main-season carrots cropping through summer into early autumn. Baby carrots a month or two old are also full of flavour, and spring sowings in particular are best picked young.

Vercro's catalogue allows a little less, 10 to 11 weeks from sowing to the first harvest, which is closer to the baby end of the range.

Carrots: sowing, planting and harvest months in Vercro's catalogue
Window	J	F	M	A	M	J	J	A	S	O	N	D
Carrot: sow outsideMarch to July	January: no	February: no	March: yes	April: yes	May: yes	June: yes	July: yes	August: no	September: no	October: no	November: no	December: no
Carrot: harvestJune to November	January: no	February: no	March: no	April: no	May: no	June: yes	July: yes	August: yes	September: yes	October: yes	November: yes	December: no

Months from Vercro's crop catalogue, the data the Vercro app plans with. It allows about 10 to 11 weeks from sowing to the first harvest. Weather, variety and where you garden move every one of these.

262 UK gardeners had recorded carrot in Vercro by 19 September 2026. What Vercro gardens are growing.

How to tell it's ready

The roots are large enough to use. Don’t aim for the biggest roots.(RHS)
Baby carrots count. Carrots just a month or two old are full of flavour.(RHS)

How to harvest

Lift a few at a time, whenever you need them, and leave the rest to grow on.(RHS)
Lift them carefully with a fork so the roots don’t snap.(RHS)
Twist the leaves off rather than cutting them.(Garden Organic)

What moves the date

When you sowed. Spring sowings in particular are best picked young, sweet and crunchy.(RHS)
Wet soil. If your soil gets waterlogged in winter, lift and store the roots rather than leaving them in.(RHS)

If you leave it too long

Flavour declines in very large roots.(RHS)
Roots split when moisture levels vary a lot.(RHS)

After picking

Leave them in the ground over winter, covered with straw or cardboard to protect the roots from frost.(RHS)
Or store them in boxes, in layers of moist sand or peat-free substitute, somewhere dark and frost-free, so they don’t shrivel.(RHS)

Boxes, sand and clamps: how to store root vegetables in sand. Short on ground? Carrots grow well in deep pots.

Keep a record of what each bed gave

Log what you pick, and how much, bed by bed. Vercro keeps the record, so next year you know what worked where, and Today shows what your crops need next.

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Where this comes from

Crop windows, growing times and plant families come from Vercro's own curated crop catalogue, the same data the Vercro app uses. Where a published source says something different, we show both rather than choosing the convenient one. Reviewed 19 September 2026.

Carrots: grow your own, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.
Carrot, Garden Organic. Read 19 September 2026.
Root Vegetables: Storing, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.