GardenCarrot variety
Thumbelina Carrot
✓ In your garden
Thumbelina is an orange ball carrot, ready in about 70 days. Small and sweet — a good pick for containers, shallow soil, and snacking. Carrots want loose, stone-free soil to grow straight — sow the seed directly (they hate transplanting) and thin the seedlings so each has room.
“A small, quick carrot for containers and snacking.”
Growing basics — shared by every carrot
Thumbelina grows like any other carrot. The full picture — how deep to plant, spacing, feeding, pests, harvest — lives on the Carrot page so it's maintained in one place.
- Sun
- Full Sun
- Spacing (in row)
- 2–3 in
- Row spacing
- 12–18 in
- Planting depth
- 0.25–0.5 in
- Soil pH
- 6–7
- Water
- Moderate
What is Thumbelina good for?
- Fresh & snackingSweetest straight from the ground. Great
- Cooking & roastingRoasts up sweet. Great
- StorageSmall types are best eaten fresh. Skip it
From how it grows — kitchens vary.
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Want the full 10/50/90% odds + nearest stations? Open the frost tool →When to plant Thumbelina in your zone
Zone 6bGreenhouse or cover on: your start slides ~4 weeks earlier and your harvest stretches ~3 weeks later (shown striped).
Planting seeds straight in the ground only works where the season's long and warm — most gardeners start seeds indoors or buy young plants, or you'd pick your first tomato right as frost hits.
Comfortable — first ripe fruit lands around early Jun, well before your typical frost (~late Oct).
- Plant seeds outside
- late Mar – early Apr
- Growing
- early Apr – early Jun
- Picking
- early Jun – mid Jun
Typical dates for zone 6b — set your zone or ZIP above for yours.
What to plant near Thumbelina — and what to keep away
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Onions & garlicTrialed
Interplanted onions confused carrot rust fly in some trials and did nothing in others. Worth a try, not a bet.
-
LettucePractical
Quick lettuce fills the row while slow carrots take their time.
-
RadishPractical
Radishes sprout in days, mark your carrot row, and are gone before carrots need the space.
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PeasTraditional
The classic cool-season pair.
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TomatoTraditional
'Carrots Love Tomatoes' is a book title, not a trial. They coexist fine — just expect the tomato to shade them by August.
-
DillTraditional
Same family, same pests, and mature dill is said to stunt carrots. 'Said' is doing some work there — but why risk it.
The badge is the honesty. Trialed = a published field trial · Practical = a real mechanism · Traditional = companion-chart lore. These pairings hold for every carrot.
Pairings compiled from University of Minnesota Extension, West Virginia University Extension.
Growing Thumbelina — the things that trip people up
- Straight carrots need loose, stone-free soil — dig it deep and skip fresh manure (it makes them fork). In heavy or rocky ground, grow a short, stubby type or use a raised bed.
- Carrot seed is slow and fussy to sprout: keep the top of the soil damp for two to three weeks, and thin the seedlings so each root has room to size up.
Thumbelina carrot at a glance
| Type | Ball |
|---|---|
| Days to ripe | 70 days after you plant it outside |
| Color | Orange |
| Fruit size | Small |
Extra fields from seed-catalog listings and university growing guides. Days to ripe and disease resistance shift with your climate and seed source — double-check with your local extension office before you buy.
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Common questions about Thumbelina
How long does Thumbelina take to grow?
About 70 days from sowing to a pullable root. You can pull them younger as sweet baby carrots.
What color is Thumbelina?
Orange. The color runs right through the root and holds when cooked.
Can I grow Thumbelina in a container?
Yes — it’s a small type that’s ideal for pots and shallow beds.
Browse more carrot varieties →