5 Types of Carrots to Grow This Year
To decide what type of carrot you should grow this year, you want to consider how you want to use your carrots.
Do you want a carrot for snacking? For canning or freezing? For juicing? For roasting? This is always how I decide which carrots to grow.
Types of Carrots to Grow
Best Snacking Carrots - Imperator Varieties
Best Canning and Freezing Carrots - Chantenay Varieties
Best Juicing Carrots - Nantes Varieties
Best Roasting Carrots - Ball Varieties
Most Exciting For Kids - Ball Varieties
Most Versatile Carrots - Danvers Variety
How Many Types of Carrots Are There?
There are 5 types of carrots and within those categories, there are over 500 different varieties.
Different Types of Carrots
Imperator Carrots
When you think of a carrot, you probably imagine an imperator. These are the ones you’ve seen in the grocery store your entire life. They are long, have stocky shoulders, and have a tapered root that ends in a tip.
Imperator carrots have a fibrous texture and high sugar content. The Tendersweet is a classic orange, super-sweet, heirloom variety of this type and is a great snacking carrot. Other common varieties of Imperator carrots include the Autumn King and the Atomic Red. These carrots also store well if you’re planning on keeping them.
Imperators do best in sandy loam soil because they have deep roots up to 10” long. If you plant them in hard clay or rocky soil, they will twist and come out stumpy. I did this my first year and some of them looked like a corkscrew. They still taste great, but you won’t get the look.
I buy all my seeds from Botanical Interests. They have a great selection of heirloom and organic seeds, plus they have the best customer service. Here is a link to their carrot catalog.
Nantes Carrots
Nantes carrots are an heirloom variety from France. Unlike Imperators, Nantes carrots form a blunt end instead of a pointed tip. Other than that, they’re nearly the same diameter, only shorter (about 5-7” long).
These carrots are nearly coreless, and have a sweet flavor and crisp texture. If you’re looking for the best juicing carrot, it’s a Nantes hands down. I do find however that they don’t store as well as Imperators.
The Scarlet Nantes is the oldest and most well-known variety of this type. It has a deep orange color. Other varieties include Little Fingers, Bolero, Yaya, Napa, Touchon, Prano, Kaleidoscope, White Satin, Merida, Purple Dragon, and the Cosmic Purple.
This is the easiest carrot I’ve grown and performs well every year. I prefer to grow it in my raised beds, but it does great in heavy rocky soils as well. I find that it doesn’t twist and fork as much as Imperators or even Chantenay types.
Little fingers are a perfect carrot to grow in containers because they can grow closer together and they don’t need deep soil. They only grow about 4-5” long.
Chantenay Carrots
Chantenay carrots are shaped like cones with broad shoulders and blunt tips. They are light orange in color with a deep orange, almost red, core. Most Chantenay carrots are about 5” long.
If you’re looking for a carrot to freeze or for canning, this is your carrot. They have a rich, sweet flavor and store well like their Imperator cousins.
These carrots are a little more difficult to grow because you have to harvest them right away or they turn wood-tasting fast. They are much less forgiving than Nantes.
Like the Nantes types, they too can power through clay and rocky soils better than most other carrots, but not as well as Nantes in my experience.
Common varieties of Chantenay Carrots include the Red Cored Chantenay and the Hercules.
I also find that the Japanese variety, Shin Kuroda, is best for snacking and juicing. Plus I live in the inland parts of Southern California and I’ve found this variety in particular to be a bit more heat tolerant.
Danvers Carrots
Danvers carrots have a thick cylinder-like shape with a yellowish core. They’re about the same length as Nantes carrots, usually about 6-7” long. They have rounded shoulders and pointed ends.
Danvers carrots are very versatile. They’re good for snacking, canning, and juicing. It’s what I call a renaissance carrot.
They have a deep orange color and near coreless root with a rich sweet flavor.
Every year I grow Danvers 126 because you never know when you might need a good carrot for something.
Ball Carrots
Sometimes these are referred to as baby carrots (but not the ones you think of at the store). Ball carrots have a short taproot and are shaped like a radish. They can be about 4” long and have a crisp texture. They are quite sweet when mature.
They tend to have limited storage potential, so be sure to eat them right away. Many chefs like to roast or braise them as they are very sweet when cooked this way. Kids also love them for snacking because they look like, well, little carrot balls.
These do best in well-draining soil and are a great choice if you have limited space. They don’t take up much room to grow because they are so small.
The most common varieties of ball carrots are Babette, Romeo, and Paris Market. I personally like to grow the Tonda di Parigi variety.
Other Hybrid Carrot Varieties
So those are the five types of carrots, but there are others that are hybrids of those types. Here are some that I have grown.
Rainbow Carrots (Nantes, Imperator Hybrid)
What Carrot is Found In Grocery Stores?
Imperator carrots are found in grocery stores across the country. They store well and transport well, and they are traditional snacking carrots.
What Carrot Tastes the Best?
Talk about starting an argument. I suppose it depends on who you speak with, but depending on what you want to use your carrots for, here’s what I think.
Best Snacking Carrots - Imperator Varieties
Best Canning and Freezing Carrots - Chantenay Varieties
Best Juicing Carrots - Nantes Varieties
Best Roasting Carrots - Ball Varieties
Most Exciting For Kids - Ball Varieties
Most Versatile Carrots - Danvers Variety
What Carrots Are the Easiest To Grow
Nantes carrots are the easiest carrots to grow. They can grow in almost any soil without twisting and forking as much as other types. You can grow them in clay, rocky soils, or even in a raised bed or container.
How Are Baby Carrots Made?
One thing I always wondered was, how those baby carrots are made at the grocery store. They’re not a smaller variety of carrots. They’re actually Imperator carrots cut using a machine. The machine can make about 4 or 5 baby carrots from one carrot.
And all this time, I thought I was eating a miniature rounded carrot. How disappointing. If that was what you thought too, welcome to the club.
What Carrot is the Most Heat Resistant?
The two most heat-resistant carrots I’ve found are the Shin Kuroda (Chantenay Carrot) and the Romance (hybrid Nantes Carrot).
Overall Nantes carrots and baby ball carrots have shorter growing periods, so they often perform better in the South where we get hot summers.
Best Carrot for Clay Soil
Both the Nantes and Chantenay carrot types fare better in clay soils and rocky soils as they tend not to twist as much. Their broader taproot helps them power through the soil much better compared to Imperators.
Best Carrot for Canning
The best carrot for canning is hands down the Chantenay carrot.
