Leaving Carrots in the Ground For Winter: How to Overwinter Carrots

If growing in a colder region, you may know that cold winter temperatures beautifully sweeten carrots. If you’ve never experienced the crunchy, candy-like sweetness of overwintered carrots, join organic farmer Jenna Rich for some tips and tricks on how to have success doing so.

Written by Jenna Rich Horticulture review by Sarah Jay Last updated: November 15, 2024 | 6 min read

A close-up shows ripening carrots in a winter garden with a hint of orange shoulders emerging from the soil.

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If you’ve purchased carrots from a local farmer or grown them yourself, you may know there’s a flavor difference between a sweet carrot and a winter-sweetened carrot. Have you ever wondered why winter roots are so much sweeter?

Like other crops, carrots convert starches into sugar when the days shorten and the temperatures cool. These starches are used as their energy source and support growth during the summer, whereas during winter, they serve as a natural anti-freeze, preventing them from winter damage and cracking.

So, while these roots don’t have a higher sugar content, they are more concentrated, giving our taste buds a run for their money. A similar process occurs in hardy greens like collards, kale, and lettuce and when sweet potatoes are cured. Following a few easy steps, you can prepare for a supply of winter-sweetened carrots. Harvest them as needed through winter, or save them all for a spring harvest.

Let’s discuss how to overwinter carrots successfully and the steps to take when leaving them in the ground.

Select A Suitable Winter-Hardy Variety

A bunch of freshly harvested carrots with long, slender roots showing fine, earthy tendrils and vibrant orange skin, topped with lush, feathery green leaves in a woman's hands. — Select cold-hardy varieties for a successful harvest.

All carrots may survive winter, but some varieties will yield better results. Select storage varieties that are bred and prized for their ability to tolerate cold temperatures. Here are a few I recommend:

‘Scarlet Nantes’ is a lovely seven-inch Nantes-type and an excellent winter carrot.
‘Mokum’ is a slender, pointed Amsterdam-type carrot with a high sugar content. Select this variety if you have hot summers; it performs well, and the flavor is not negatively affected.
‘Danvers 126’ is a delectable heirloom with high fiber content and crack resistance.
‘Bolero’ is a consistently shaped and sized Nantes carrot type with an excellent disease-resistance package, sweet flavor, and high storability.
‘Hercules’ is more of a blocky, cone-shaped carrot that performs well in rocky soil but is adaptable to various soil types.
‘Narvik’ has a long harvest window and a small core, which is ideal for raw eating.

I’ve had great success with these varieties, with ‘Bolero’ and ‘Danvers 126’ being the standouts for northern growers because of their reliability, flavor, consistent shape and color, and extended storage.

Time The Sowing Just Right

A close-up of small, rough-textured seeds in a hand, displaying their tiny, curved ridges and earthy brown hue. — Sow seeds early for the best late-season harvest.

Like other overwintered crops, you want your carrots to have enough time to grow in the summer and fall to survive the winter months. Those sown before the summer solstice in June have the best chance of surviving the winter.

Refer to the seed packet for the days to maturity and work backward to find the ideal sowing date. Carrots are a great crop to sow in successions, but when growing them with the intent of overwintering, it’s best to do one big sowing in the summer. An excellent way to remember which roots are for overwintering is to grow different varieties for summer harvesting. Ensure they’re all adequately labeled since carrot tops all look similar!

Prepare Your Plot

A gardener in high rubber boots presses a garden fork into the soil, turning up rich, dark earth in a neat garden bed. — Well-draining, rich soil ensures healthy root development.

Carrots require well-draining, rich soil to allow their roots to grow thick and healthy. If you have rocky soil, as we do here in New Hampshire, consider growing them in a metal raised bed or selecting a variety known to succeed in rocky soil. Loose, composted soil will yield the best results and likely the best-looking carrots. Your carrot plot should receive full sun and have a soil pH between 6.0 and 6.8.

Pro tip: Rotate carrots every three years to prevent Alternaria and Cercospora blight, or apply copper fungicides preventatively.

Sowing

A hand in a black and blue glove carefully drops tiny seeds into a shallow furrow in the garden soil. — Use pelleted seeds for easier and more efficient sowing.

I recommend using a mechanical seeder when sowing carrots because their seeds are oddly shaped, and most varieties don’t offer great germination rates. Over-seeding in tightly spaced rows is commonplace, so you end up with the seedlings you planned for after thinning and accounting for those that fail to germinate. Pelleted seeds’ consistent shape and size work well in mechanical seeders and make hand-counting quicker.

If sowing by hand, drop about 16 seeds per foot ¼ to ½ inches deep or in a two-inch band. Cover them with soil and gently tamp them down. Allow 16 to 24 inches between rows for proper growth. Thin to one seedling every ¾ to two inches once they’ve grown to two to three inches. Any sooner, you risk pulling out more seedings than you planned.

Water Consistently

A drip irrigation system with thin black tubing runs across a vegetable bed in a sunny garden, evenly moistening the soil around the emerging green tops. — Keep soil moist for successful seed germination and growth.

Carrots are finicky to germinate, so don’t be discouraged if you’re new to growing them and don’t succeed immediately. After years of growing this crop all year and noting failures, I’ve learned that covering beds of newly sown carrot seeds with row cover and watering daily drastically improves germination rates. The row cover holds in the moisture and keeps the soil surface wet.

Germination rates will decrease if the soil dries up and a crust forms. Remember, these roots love sandy soil, but since moisture will dry quickly in this soil type, we must keep it moist for the carrot seeds.

Add irrigation drip lines for deep watering and set it to a timer if you’re forgetful. Plan to water them early before the summer sun becomes too hot. Doing so allows the water to seep into the soil where it’s needed and not evaporated.

Keep Weeds At Bay

A woman in an orange glove carefully pulls weeds from the soil around tender green shoots. — Minimize weed pressure for successful germination and growth.

Since carrots take up to three weeks to germinate, keeping weed pressure down is crucial. Otherwise, when they sprout, they’ll be surrounded by weeds taller than them, resulting in a nightmare of a weeding session.

Pro tip: Add a few radish seeds to the end of your carrot bed on sowing day. When the radishes germinate, flame weed the carrot bed to kill any tiny germinated weeds, giving your carrots a weed-free bed to wake up to. The radishes serve as an “indicator seed” as they sprout a day or two beforehand.

Generously Mulch

A woman's hand in a turquoise glove spreads dry grass mulch around delicate shoots emerging from the soil. — Mulching protects crops and promotes healthier winter survival.

If your region experiences harsh winters, you’ll want to mulch any remaining carrots in the ground that you plan to overwinter. Even if they are considered cold-hardy, mulching keeps the soil at a more consistent temperature, reducing the stress experienced by plants. Stress redirects energy the plant should save for surviving winter, warding off disease, and healing wounds. Your job is to set it up for success the best you can.

When overwintering carrots in growing zones 1 to 5, mulch them heavily, especially your first time, then adjust as needed. When using mulched leaves, grass clippings, or organic straw, you can always use extra elsewhere or repurpose it for pathways when you remove it in the spring.

Beware of Pests and Critters

A small carrot rust fly worm burrows into the orange flesh of a carrot root, leaving visible damage on the surface. — Protect your crops from pests and critters effectively.

Carrots don’t have many pests, but when overwintering them, you may experience spring pests that you’ve never seen before, like the carrot rust fly and cutworms. Cutworms are a considerable danger to young seedlings and aren’t picky about what’s for dinner, so if you see them in one spot of your garden, they’re likely widespread. They do exactly as the name suggests: cutting off the plant at the surface level, most often killing it.

The adult carrot rust fly lays eggs on crops like parsley, parsnips, and celery. The larvae hatch out in the spring and burrow into the orange roots, leaving tunnels and rusty holes, making them unmarketable and seemingly unappetizing. While cutting around the damage and consuming the root is acceptable, the ability to store long-term decreases.

Protect your carrot patch from winter-dwelling critters like rabbits, mice, deer, and voles by:

Setting traps
Companion planting onions and garlic
Fencing
Spreading natural deterrents like coyote urine or homemade garlic spray
Position motion-activated lights or sprinklers nearby
Cover the plot with insect netting or row cover
String lights or scaretape on wooden stakes across the plot

If all else fails, consider adopting a barn cat. Contact your local extension office, pest control, or gardening club members for further assistance.

Harvesting Overwintered Carrots

A woman holds a vibrant bunch of freshly picked, multi-colored root vegetables with green tops in her hand against the backdrop of a winter garden. — Harvest roots after frost for sweeter, more flavorful results.

One of my favorite things about overwintering carrots is that you can leave them in the ground until spring or harvest them as needed through the winter. Once the roots are established, they hold pretty well in the ground, so don’t feel rushed to get them out. Just remember they should all be harvested before the temperatures increase and the pests come out to play.

When the carrot tops die back, the sugars have begun to concentrate. Carrots harvested after this stage will be sweeter than summer types. Wait for several consecutive days with temperatures between 32 and 40°F (0 to 4°C) before harvesting. If you wait until the spring to harvest, remove the mulch and harvest them all simultaneously. Allowing any regrowth of the tops will cause woodiness and a lack of flavor in the root.

Pro tip: Invest in a high-quality digging fork and use it when harvesting. Always fork straight down several inches away from the row of carrots to avoid cutting into them.

Properly Store

A cardboard box is filled with vibrant orange root vegetables, their elongated, tapered shapes varying from slender to stout, all nestled closely together. — Store unwashed roots in a cool, dry place for freshness.

Unwashed root crops store best. Remove any remaining tops and stack them in a loose kitchen towel or cloth. If you place them in a plastic bag, add a paper towel or dishcloth to wick away moisture that will decrease their storability. Put them in your crisper refrigerator drawer at 32 to 40°F (0 to 4°C).

Add roots to a plastic container layered with sand if you have a root cellar or basement without a lid. Alternatively, add them to a cardboard or wooden box filled with straw, newspaper, or sawdust to keep them cool and fresh. When done correctly, carrots will store for up to six months.