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When to plant Carrots

Computed from land-grant Extension planting-window rules (cited below), localized to real ZIP-level median frost dates, not a single national guess. These are national-generic rules by hardiness class; individual state Extension offices layer their own regional adjustment on top (earlier in the Deep South, later in the Upper Midwest). Enter your ZIP for your own dates, or read the four representative locations below.

Planting windows and crop timing here are computed from USDA/NOAA climate data and the university extension sources cited below, not a site visit or soil test. Treat this as a starting point: local conditions vary, and a local nursery or extension office can advise on your exact site. See our full Disclaimer.

Representative timing, by climate band

When to plant Carrots in four US climates

Each column is the most nursery-dense location in our directory within that USDA zone band, computed from that location's own real median frost dates, not a made-up example.

Stage Zones 1-5 (cold winters)
Fort Plain, NY 		Zones 6-7 (temperate)
McMinnville, TN 		Zones 8-9 (warm)
Apopka, FL 		Zones 10-13 (hot, frost rare or absent)
Loxahatchee, FL
Start seed indoors Not available Not available Not available –
Direct-sow outside Apr 8–May 6 Mar 10–Apr 7 Jan 27–Feb 24 –
Transplant outside Not available Not available Not available –
Fall planting Not available Not available Not available –
Expected harvest Jun 17–Jul 30 May 19–Jul 1 Apr 7–May 20 –

Zones 10-13 (hot, frost rare or absent) (Loxahatchee, FL): Frost is rare here (about 359 frost-free days a year); most years see little or no hard freeze. This is a semi hardy crop. In climates like this one, hardy and semi-hardy crops typically go in during the cooler months (fall through late winter), not on a frost-relative schedule.

Carrots go into the ground anywhere from four weeks before your last frost to right at it. Colorado State University Extension's semi-hardy rule (Fact Sheet 7.212) calls for direct-seeding zero to two weeks before frost; Purdue Extension (HO-186-W) reads the same semi-hardy tier two to four weeks before, a real two-week gap in where the two anchor sources set that tier's boundary, not just a wording difference. This page publishes the full four-to-zero-week range both allow.

Soil temperature at seeding should reach 40°F, a figure Colorado State and Purdue state independently and identically. Days to maturity run 70 to 85, from Colorado State's 70, NC State's 75 to 80, and Missouri Extension's 70 to 85.

Carrots are direct-seeded, not transplanted, in every source held for this crop. In a cold-winter climate the earlier end of that four-week window still means seeding into cool soil, which carrots tolerate; in a mild-winter climate the window compresses toward the frost date itself, and carrots there run more on a fall-and-winter calendar.

Carrots are a seed-only crop at the nursery. No viable transplant format exists for a root crop grown from a single taproot, so look for it in the seed racks rather than the six-pack trays.

Frost hardiness

Semi-hardy. Tolerates light frost. Best planted close to the last frost date.

Minimum soil temperature

40°F

For direct sowing/germination, where an Extension source stated it.

Days to maturity

70–85

Sourcing notes

From direct seed. CSU's semi-hardy rule is 0-2wk before frost; PURDUE's semi-hardy rule is 2-4wk before frost - a real ~2wk gap between the two anchor sources' tier boundaries, not just a label difference. Used the union (4-2wk before) and flagged. CSU and PURDUE soil-temp minimums agree exactly at 40F. DTM: CSU 70, NCSU 75-80, MOEXT 70-85 - combined range.

Related crops

Growing zones for this crop

Nurseries near these locations

Sources