Pest
Aphids
Signs · Small green insects on young leaves in January–February; leaves curl and yellow.
Manage · Spray neem oil at the first colonies; use imidacloprid only if they spread — as per label / your KVK, respecting the waiting period.
All crops
Vegetable · Apiaceae (carrot family)
Carrot
Gajar · गाजर · Daucus carota
Loose, stone-free soil and even watering grow straight, deep-red roots.
The deep-red Asiatic carrot is a North Indian winter favourite — eaten raw, cooked into gajar halwa and pressed into kanji. Its quality is decided underground: a root that meets a clod, a stone or fresh manure forks, and one that gets uneven water cracks.
- Sowing
- 1 Sep – 31 Oct
- Harvest
- 25 Nov – 28 Feb
- Duration
- 85–110 days
- Yield
- 81–121 q/acre
- 200–300 q/ha
Harvest-ready · roots shown through the soil
At a glance
Carrot in one look
Asiatic red carrots handle the warm days of September sowing. Deep red colour develops best between 15 and 20 °C.
Sowing time
1 Sep – 31 Oct
Harvest
25 Nov – 28 Feb
85–110 days from sowing
Temperature
15–20 °C to grow
18–28 °C at sowing
Soil
Deep, loose sandy loam or loam
pH 6–7.5
Seed rate
2.4–4 kg/acre
6–10 kg/ha
Spacing
45 × 8 cm
1–1.5 cm deep
Irrigations
6–9
3 critical stages
Yield
81–121 q/acre
200–300 q/ha
Season
AugSepOctNovDecJanFebMarAprMayJun
Grown most inHaryanaPunjabUttar PradeshMadhya PradeshBihar
Stones, clods, a hard pan or fresh manure make roots fork and grow hairy. Soil must be loose to at least 30 cm.
Seed to harvest
Watch carrot grow, stage by stage
Scroll through the season. The plant in the glass tank grows to each stage — roots and all — and every card says what the crop is doing and what you should do in the field that week.
Stage 1 of 7
Sowing
Day 0–7
- 1Day 0–7
Sowing
Soaked seed is sown shallow on moist ridges.
Your job · Keep the ridge top moist with light irrigations.
- 2Day 7–15
Germination
Thin, grass-like seed leaves appear — slowly, over 1–2 weeks.
Your job · Do not let the surface crust or dry out.
- 3Day 15–30
Seedling
Fern-like true leaves open and a thin taproot dives down.
Your job · Weed by hand and thin plants to 7–8 cm.
- 4Day 30–50
Leaf growth
The leafy top fills out while the root lengthens.
Your job · Top-dress nitrogen, earth up and irrigate.
- 5Day 50–65
Root thickening
The root starts to widen and colour from the shoulder down.
Your job · Keep moisture steady; keep shoulders covered.
- 6Day 65–90
Root bulking
Roots fill out and turn deep red as nights get cold.
Your job · Even irrigations; watch for aphids and leaf blight.
- 7Day 90–110
Harvest-ready
Roots reach full length and colour.
Your job · Dig on time — late roots turn woody and crack.
The seed
Good seed is half the harvest
Use certified seed of a variety bred for your region, at the right rate, and treat it before sowing.
One seed
≈ 3 mm
Seed rate
2.4–4 kg/acre
6–10 kg/ha
1000-seed weight
—
Recommended varieties
Pusa RudhiraAsiatic red; long, deep-red roots, sown mid-September to October.
Pusa KesarAsiatic red-orange type for September–October sowing.
Pusa MeghaliAsiatic orange type with high carotene.
Punjab Carrot RedPAU red carrot for Punjab, good for juice and halwa.
Punjab Black BeautyPAU black carrot, rich in anthocyanins, used for kanji.
Seed treatment
- 1Rub the seed gently to remove its bristles so it flows evenly.
- 2Soak it in water for 12–24 hours before sowing — carrot seed is slow to germinate.
- 3Treat with thiram or captan at 2–3 g per kg seed against seed rots.
Field & sowing
Prepare the land, then sow at the right gap and depth
Line sowing on ridges
Layout
Ridges & furrows
Row to row
45 cm
Plant to plant
8 cm
Depth
1–1.5 cm
Land preparation
- 1Plough deep (25–30 cm) and then 2–3 more times to a fine, loose tilth.
- 2Pick out stones and break every clod.
- 3Add only well-rotted manure (15–20 tonnes per hectare); fresh manure forks the roots.
- 4Make ridges 45 cm apart.
Sowing, step by step
- 1Make ridges 45 cm apart and sow 1–2 lines on top of each ridge.
- 2Mix the small seed with fine sand or dry soil so it spreads evenly.
- 3Sow shallow, 1–1.5 cm deep, and cover lightly.
- 4Keep the ridge top moist with light irrigations until seedlings are up — this can take 1–2 weeks.
- 5Thin plants to 7–8 cm apart 3–4 weeks after sowing.
Feeding the crop
How much fertiliser, and when
These are the standard doses for a medium-fertility field. Your Soil Health Card can raise or lower them — test first, then feed.
Nutrient dose
Nitrogen (N)24 kg/acre · 60 kg/ha
Phosphorus (P₂O₅)16 kg/acre · 40 kg/ha
Potassium (K₂O)20 kg/acre · 50 kg/ha
Plus 15 t/ha (6.1 t/acre) of well-rotted farmyard manure or compost.
When to apply
- 1At sowing: half the nitrogen with all the phosphorus and potash.
- 2Top-dress the rest of the nitrogen 30–35 days after sowing, then earth up the ridges.
Micronutrients, sulphur & biofertilisers
- 1Boron: cracked roots with a hollow core point to boron shortage — 10 kg borax per hectare at sowing in boron-poor soils.
Bags for your field
For 1 acre of Carrot
What to buy
Urea
1
bag · 39 kg
DAP
0.5
bags · 35 kg
MOP
0.5
bags · 34 kg
Nutrients in it: N 24 kg · P₂O₅ 16 kg · K₂O 20 kg
Also add farmyard manure or compost: 6.1 t
- Don't put it all in at once: follow the timing on the Carrot page.
- Your Soil Health Card can raise or lower these amounts. If you have one, follow it.
- Using SSP, NPK complexes or gypsum instead changes these amounts; the nutrient dose is what matters.
Not yet checked against a package of practices. Confirm the dose with your KVK before you buy.
Urea has 46 % N; DAP 18 % N and 46 % P₂O₅; MOP 60 % K₂O. Urea comes in 45 kg bags, DAP and MOP in 50 kg.
Water
6–9 irrigations — never miss the critical ones
A crop forgives a late irrigation at some stages and punishes it at others. These are the days that decide yield.
Day 7
Day 50
Day 70
SowingDay 110
Critical irrigations
- Day 7Germination
- Day 50Root thickening begins
- Day 70Root bulking
Watering tips
- 1Light irrigations every 4–6 days until germination, then every 10–15 days.
- 2Keep the furrows half full so water seeps into the ridge without covering the top.
- 3Dry spells followed by heavy watering crack the roots.
- 4A light irrigation 2–3 days before digging makes pulling easy.
Protection
Weeds, pests and diseases to watch for
Walk the field every week. Most problems are cheap to stop early and expensive to fix late. For any spray, follow the label dose and check with your KVK.
Pest
Root-knot nematode
Signs · Small knots (galls) on roots, hairy or forked carrots, stunted plants.
Manage · Deep summer ploughing, rotation with wheat or marigold, and neem cake in the soil. Do not grow carrot in the same field year after year.
Disease
Leaf blight (Alternaria)
Signs · Dark brown spots on leaf edges that join up; leaves dry from the tips.
Manage · Clean seed and rotation. Spray mancozeb at 2.5 g per litre at first spots — as per label / your KVK.
Disease
Powdery mildew
Signs · White powdery coating on leaves, mostly in February–March.
Manage · Avoid late sowing; spray wettable sulphur if it spreads — as per label / your KVK.
Disorder
Forked roots
Signs · Roots split into two or more legs.
Manage · Loose, stone-free soil, no fresh manure, control nematodes and thin plants on time.
Disorder
Root cracking
Signs · Long splits along the root.
Manage · Irrigate evenly, harvest on time and correct boron shortage.
Disorder
Green shoulders
Signs · The top of the root turns green where it pokes out of the soil.
Manage · Earth up the ridges so the shoulders stay covered.
Weeds
Common · Bathua (Chenopodium), krishneel (Anagallis), gajri (Fumaria), motha (Cyperus)
- 1Carrot sprouts slowly, so weeds race ahead. Spray pendimethalin within 48 hours of sowing — as per label / your KVK.
- 2Weed by hand once or twice in the first 5 weeks, and earth up with the top-dressing.
Harvest
Harvest on time, dry it well, store it safe
A good crop gives
81–121q/acre
200–300 quintal per hectare
When is it ready?
- 1Roots are 2.5–4 cm thick at the shoulder with full colour.
- 2Usually 85–100 days after sowing for Asiatic types.
- 3A few lower leaves start turning yellow.
Harvesting
- 1Give a light irrigation 2–3 days before so the soil is soft.
- 2Pull by hand or lift with a khurpa or carrot digger without breaking roots.
- 3Cut off the tops, leaving a short stub.
After harvest & storage
- 1Wash in water or a drum washer and remove hairy, forked and cracked roots.
- 2Grade by size and pack in jute bags or crates.
- 3Store at 0–1 °C and high humidity for a few weeks.
Golden rules for carrot
- 1Loose, stone-free soil is half the crop.
- 2Never use fresh manure — it forks roots.
- 3Thin on time; crowded carrots stay thin and twisted.
- 4Water little and often; dry-then-flood cracks roots.
- 5Do not leave carrots in the ground too long — they turn woody.