How to Grow Carrots From Carrot Tops: Step-by-Step

Discover a new way to cultivate fresh veggies at home and grow carrots without buying seeds! Here’s a beginner’s guide on how to grow carrots from carrot tops.

If you’re looking for a fun and unique gardening project, why not learn how to grow carrots from carrot tops? Not only is it an easy and affordable way to grow your own food, but it’s also a great way to reduce food waste. By using the tops of your carrots to grow new leaves and flowers, you can collect the seeds to create a new crop of tasty, nutritious carrots at home. In this article, we’ll guide you through the process of growing carrots from carrot tops.

How to Grow Carrots From Carrot Tops: Step-by-Step Instructions

Carrots are one of several vegetables you can grow from scraps and will grow healthy inside or outside. This project guides you through propagating the carrot top, which will grow leaves and flowers. The flowers will produce seeds you can collect and plant for a full vegetable harvest. If you’re keen to skip this step and get straight to regrowing whole vegetables, read our guides to learn how to regrow celery from scraps, how to regrow green onions from scraps and how to regrow romaine lettuce.

How to Regrow Carrots From Carrot Tops:

1. Cut the carrot about an inch from its top. Ideally, you want a healthy carrot with a few greens still attached.
2. Strip back the outer greens, leaving just the center ones.
3. Cut these greens so that they are left about an inch long.
4. Put the carrot tops in a bowl with a little room-temperature water. The water shouldn’t cover the greens.
5. Within a couple of days, you’ll see fresh sprouts coming from the center of the carrot top.
6. Change the water every other day.
7. You’ll see leaves five to six inches tall in just a few weeks.
8. You can now harvest some of your greens.
9. At this point, small white roots will extend from the underside of the carrot top.
10. Move your carrot top to a container of nutrient-rich soil where it will continue growing. It’s a pretty plant and looks a little like a fern. It will fare well in a container on your windowsill, garden or patio. 
11. Watch out for the lovely flowers. These will produce seeds. Then collect the seeds — these are what will yield your actual carrots. Plant the seeds and see if you get a carrot harvest.

Tip: When moving any plant from inside to outside, acclimatize it to its new environment slowly, for a few hours each day, to avoid shocking and harming it.

Another Way to Regrow Carrots

Our step-by-step guide is a great way to get creative with kitchen scraps and learn how to grow carrots from carrot tops. But there’s also a second method, and it’s a particularly fun activity to do with kids.

When growing your plants from carrot tops, use damp newspaper instead of a bowl of water. Soak some pages from a newspaper, then lay them on a plate. Place the carrot tops on the wet paper, with the crowns facing up. Mist them regularly to keep them slightly damp. In a few weeks, you’ll start to see roots.

Read more:

• How to Store Carrots & Make Them Last (3 Methods)
• How to Grow Your Own Avocado Tree
• Small Space Solutions: How to Grow Potatoes in a Bucket

Tags: Food Food Waste Guide How-To's Vegetables