Carrots are the most popular vegetable among consumers. It can be purchased on store shelves all year round. But the root vegetable will bring great benefits if you grow it yourself in your summer cottage. This can be done subject to certain rules for growing carrots.
Almost any crop needs to be fertilized before planting in the spring, and this can be done in the spring after planting at the dacha, or it can be fertilized later directly into the hole. We will tell you in the article how to properly care for carrots, how much and what kind of fertilizer to apply, little tricks for applying manure and humus, how to water frequently and how to love the plant.
Before sowing seeds in open ground, a gardener must decide why he is growing carrots and when he wants to get the harvest. Sowing time:
If you sow in all possible timing, then fresh vegetables will be on the table all year round.
During winter sowing, the formation of root crops occurs at a time when the carrot fly is just beginning its life activity. It is not yet capable of harming the harvest in the garden; the vegetables will be of better quality.
It's no secret that carrots are an unpretentious root vegetable, but to get a rich harvest you still need to create comfortable conditions. When choosing a location for garden beds, a gardener should consider:
Large root crops of regular shape grow on peat soils, which were formed after the swamps dried out. And on clay soil, carrots will take on an ugly shape due to strong resistance during growth.
Before frost, the area for vegetables must be dig up, remove roots and stones. But don’t drive the shovel too deep into the ground and destroy fertile layer. You should dig to a depth of about 0.3 meters. With the onset of spring, level and deeply loosen the surface.
Gardeners practice a variety of methods for planting carrots, all of which have their own advantages and disadvantages:
Regardless of the chosen planting method, it is better to sow seeds less often, so as not to have to thin out in the future.
You can have a garden bed cover with film for 2-3 weeks before the first shoots appear. Thus, weeds will not interfere with plant growth, and a crust will not form on the soil, preventing moisture from penetrating to the roots.
If dry soil is selected for sowing planting material, then additional preparation is required. You can disinfect it by soaking the seeds in water heated to 40 degrees. But it's better to hold them in a solution of potassium permanganate– 1 g of substance per 100 ml of liquid. The procedure time should not exceed 20 minutes, after which the seeds must be rinsed well clean water and dry.
Some gardeners use specialized plant growth stimulants already at the seed preparation stage. But to obtain environmentally clean harvest This is not recommended.
Carrots belong to difficult to germinate and slow growing vegetable crops. Don’t think that once you sow it, you can forget about the beds until harvest.
In order for the root crops to be strong and large and consistent with the varietal quality, they should be looked after.
A gardener will reap an average harvest in terms of quality and quantity if he limits himself to applying fertilizer during the autumn digging of the plot.
The plant needs feeding throughout the growing season.
So, first time feed the vegetable a month after entry. At 10 l. water dissolve 1 tbsp. l. nitrofoski – classic mineral fertilizer, containing nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. The same solution is also used in the second feeding after 2 weeks and on the third- at the beginning of August.
The best potassium fertilizer is this folk remedy How tincture of ash. To prepare it, you need to pour 150 g of dry ash in parts into a bucket of water. Stir the mixture until the ash is completely dissolved. At 10 l. dilute 1 liter of water. tincture and feed and water the root crops of carrots or beets with this liquid during the second half of the growing season.
When growing root vegetables special meaning The irrigation system is playing. After all, when insufficient humidity soil, the young roots of the plant will die, and overwatering the beds will lead to the fact that only livestock will be able to feed on the harvest.
Therefore, immediately after sowing, the period begins proper watering beds:
Before digging up root crops, it is advisable to moisten the soil a little. Thus, the process is facilitated, and the crop improves its ability to be stored fresh.
One of the least favorite things gardeners do is weeding their beds. But you can’t do without this tedious task, otherwise you can lose your entire harvest due to the “attack” of weeds.
On initial stage when the plants have not yet sprouted, an area with crops is recommended cover with several layers of newspapers and cover with film on top. With this method, the soil warms up well and retains moisture, but weeds cannot actively grow. After 2 weeks, the innovative shelter should be removed and wait for the emergence of seedlings.
After 10-15 days the plant appears first real leaf- this is a signal to start weeding. The procedure must be done very carefully so as not to capture the cultivated shoots along with the weeds.
When the 2nd leaf forms, weed combined with thinning, if sowing was carried out chaotically and the plantings were thickened. There should be a distance of 2-3 cm between plants. It is important to pull the sprouts up and not to the side, otherwise the root of the neighboring vegetable will be damaged.
The most convenient way to thin out is with the help of a female eyebrow plucking device - tweezers. It captures even the thinnest shoots without harming the rest of the plant.
During the entire growth period between the beds and plants, it is necessary to weed and loosen the soil. A month after the first thinning, repeat the procedure so that there is a distance of 4-5 cm between the root crops, but the already pulled vegetables can be eaten.
Growing carrots takes a lot of effort and time, but a rich and high-quality harvest of a healthy vegetable will cover all the inconveniences. The main thing is to follow the basic rules of planting and caring for plants. And then a tasty and crispy vegetable will be in the daily diet of the whole family, it will give all its nutrients and microelements.
It is advisable to plant carrots after onions, cabbage, early potatoes and beets and green manures sown after them (phacelia, mustard, winter rye). For early carrots, it is better to remove the mulch from the garden bed in the spring. Otherwise, the mulched soil will take much longer to warm up, the sowing date will have to be postponed, and the seeds will take longer to germinate.
Late varieties can be sown directly under green manure mulch when it dries and the soil under it warms up. Humus is also used for mulch. To prevent the root crop from branching, manure is applied no later than two years before sowing carrots.
Carrots are a cold-resistant crop: spring sowing begins when the soil at a depth of 5-7 cm warms up to 4-5° (usually in mid-April). Summer carrots are sown in the second ten days of June.
Most often, carrots are sown in rows (3-4 per ridge) with an interval of 15-20 cm and a row spacing of 45-60 cm. The furrows are made 1.5-2 cm deep and covered with humus or sand. When sprouts appear, they are thinned out, leaving 5 cm gaps between plants. If the seeds are of high quality, they are glued with a paste made of flour or starch at intervals of 5 cm onto a strip of soft paper, such as toilet paper. The strip is bent lengthwise to prevent the seeds from falling off.
In order not to have to thin out seedlings, gardeners also use the nesting method of sowing. For this purpose, small round holes with a diameter of 10-15 cm and a depth of 3 cm are made on the surface of a prepared and leveled ridge. Each nest is spilled generously with water, several granules of double superphosphate or complex organo-mineral fertilizer are placed in the center, 3-3 cm are sown to a depth of 1 cm. 4, usually coated seeds. The sowing is covered with a mixture of crushed coal and river sand and lightly compacted (rolled) with a hand or a plank.
Carrots must be protected from pests, soil crusts and spring drought. Several granules of double superphosphate or complex organo-phosphate are laid out around the nests and mulched.
In the phase of the beginning of root formation, carrots are sprayed on the leaves with a solution of humates (Rostock, Gumi, Gumat + 7), silicon-containing preparations (Ekost, Narcissus, Ecogel) and extracts of mycorrhizal fungi and medicinal plants(Emistim, Floravit) with a working fluid flow rate of 30 ml per 1 sq. m.
Proponents of organic farming add mulch to the rows several times a season. At classical way When growing between rows, until the tops close, they are regularly loosened to a depth of 5 cm on light soils and 10 cm on heavy soils. If the carrot head rises above the ground, the plantings need to be lightly hilled or mulched - in the light the root crop turns green and becomes tasteless.
Rows of carrots are thinned out twice - one and a half and three weeks after emergence, leaving a distance between neighboring plants of 2-3 cm and 5 cm, respectively. Doing so better in the morning. After which the bed is watered and sprinkled with ground hot red pepper to drown out the carrot smell, which attracts psyllids and. For the same purpose along the perimeter carrot beds rejected onions and marigolds are planted.
Young carrots should be watered abundantly, but rarely. When there is little moisture, root crops grow small. If it saturates only the surface layer of the soil, the carrots turn out to be horned. Therefore, to ensure uniform irrigation and save water, especially in the southern regions of the country, they use drip lines. They are laid simultaneously with sowing the seeds to a depth of 5 cm. At the height of summer, carrots are watered according to the weather, preventing the soil from drying out. At the end of the season, watering is stopped, otherwise many small roots grow on the root crops and the harvest turns out to be “hairy”.
Gardeners have noticed that carrot varieties grow best in our country Chantenay(conical root vegetables) and Nantaequay(long conical root vegetables - Anastasia, Riga, Samson, Nayarit, Baltimore, Bangor, Samant A).
Carrots are slow-witted: they sprout on the 14-21st day. This is due to the resinous essential substances contained in the seed coat. But while some gardeners prefer the natural course of events, others strive to help carrots grow faster.
There are several ways to do this:
When choosing carrots, remember: the more early ripening variety or hybrid, the shorter and smaller the root crop.
The earliest harvest is produced by carrots of the Parisian carotel variety with rounded short roots.
Carrot variety Flakke with cone-shaped blunt-ended cylindrical root crops - the latest, but also the most productive.
Not all varieties and hybrids of carrots can be stored for a long time in ordinary basements and cellars.
Varieties and hybrids for long-term winter storage
Among those suitable for winter storage are the following:
Selection of site and soil
It is better to place carrots in an open sunny place with good ventilation. It produces higher root crops commercial quality on sandy loam and light loamy soddy-podzolic soils. On heavy loams, the properties of carrots sharply decrease due to large quantity branched root vegetables.
Predecessors and neighbors
Good predecessors for carrots are cucumbers, early potatoes, tomatoes, and green crops. But it is best to place it after
onions and onion. Carrots sown after them become immune to white and gray rot diseases.
Seed preparation
It is advisable to use last year’s seeds for sowing; they must have at least the same germination capacity. 70%. They check it this way: rub a few seeds between your fingers - they should smell like fresh carrots.
There are many ways to prepare seeds for sowing. Good results gives the drug "Epin". In its solution (2 drops per 100 ml boiled water) the seeds are soaked for 4 hours. After drying, they are ready for sowing.
Sowing carrots
Sowing for long-term storage carried out in the second or third ten days of May. Carrots sown in summer (before June 15) are stored even better, but here it is necessary to use techniques that accelerate the emergence of seedlings, since the weather is often dry at this time. The seeds should be sprouted, and then
After sowing, it is necessary to water abundantly, and then cover the bed with span-bond.
When sowing carrots using the ridge method, two grooves are made at the top of the ridge at a distance of 8 cm from each other, 1-1.5 cm deep. The bottom is compacted with the back side of a metal rake, sowing is carried out, and then the seeds are covered loose soil. Seeding rate – 0.4 g/sq. m.
On flat surface You can use combined crops. Most a successful combination is forcing onions into the aisles of carrots. Salad is also suitable for these purposes. Carrot shoots develop slowly, and these crops can be used for food after a month. The furrows are cut with a row spacing of 45 cm. To avoid thickening, the seeds must be mixed with sifted peat, sand or lettuce seeds, the shoots of which will mark the rows of slowly germinating carrots. It is advisable to mulch the rows with sifted peat or humus after sowing. This technique prevents the formation of soil crust.
Particular attention should be paid to thinning carrots that do not tolerate thickening. The first time is thinned when the plants are 6-7 cm high, leaving 2-3 cm between them. The second time, when the root crop reaches the thickness of a pencil, a distance of 4-5 cm is left between the plants. It is advisable to thin out in the evening after abundant watering. The torn plants must be immediately removed from the garden bed so that their smell does not attract carrot fly.
© V. LEUNOV G. Fomenko, agronomist-vegetable grower
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Free shippingThere is no garden in Russia where carrots are not planted. For some, root vegetables are excellent, juicy, smooth, and sweet. Others are painful to look at, crooked squiggles, bitter, cracked. What is the secret of this orange beauty? Maybe in the choice of seeds? Hardly.
How to grow carrots in open ground so that she would thank her with a high harvest? It turns out that she is still that capricious girl. And we need a special approach to it. Just from the category of “dancing with a tambourine” and “what else do you need?”
Carrot is a stubborn girl. Anything that doesn’t suit her, she immediately turns up her nose. In other words, it begins to grow at random. It produces a lot of tails, but it does no good. That is, the soil should be as loose as possible. Just to make your foot sink. Therefore, the bed is prepared in advance, in the fall.
They dig deep, one and a half bayonets deep. So that there is room for carrots to grow. Otherwise, she will start to twist and turn.
She also loves to eat, hearty and hearty. But during growth it is inconvenient to feed it. Is it useless to pour from above when it still reaches the root? You can’t loosen the soil either, as there is a risk of damaging small roots. What to do? Apply fertilizers in advance.
In the fall, well-ripened humus is added, and more of it. No manure is brought in. Only if he is completely over-excited, and even then they abstain. Sand is poured, coarse, clean. Sawdust and shavings are not suitable. They strongly acidify the soil, and carrots do not like this. It is better to lime fluff, dolomite flour, and ash. Again, this is all - strictly before the winter digging.
Add mineral fertilizers. The orange beauty especially respects potassium and phosphorus. But he doesn’t like nitrogen. At all. The root vegetables are huge, but not sweet. They are only suitable for livestock feed.
And vice versa. If you plan to sow carrots in winter, then the bed is prepared in advance, in spring or mid-summer.
So what? If the garden bed is well cultivated, then why not? Seeds begin to germinate already at a soil temperature of +5°C. What if you arrive at the site much later? Besides, early carrots won’t hurt anyone, especially on the table. Another plus: by the time the weeds begin to sprout, the beauty will have grown a beautiful, lush braid. Therefore, she is not in danger of being killed.
Of course for long storage Such root vegetables are not suitable; they will have to sit for too long. But for early use - just right.
Principle winter sowing very simple. For this purpose, a bed is prepared in the summer. Around October, furrows are cut according to the usual pattern. And prepare dry soil in buckets. They are placed in the basement, cellar, barn. In a word, to a place where the earth does not freeze into a ball and remains loose.
When stable frosts set in, about -10°C, they come to the garden bed. Remove almost the entire layer of snow from it, leaving about 1-1.5 cm. Place carrot seeds in the prepared grooves directly on the snow. Sprinkle with soil prepared in buckets. And the removed snow is thrown back on top.
All. Now in the spring, as soon as the bed warms up to about +6°C, the carrots will begin to grow. IN middle lane it's about mid-April. And the usual method involves starting sowing only in the third decade.
Thus, winter planting allows you to get the harvest at least a month earlier.
Advice. The seeds must be completely dry! Wet ones will simply be killed by frost. Dry ones will calmly endure the harshest winter, if only there was more snow.
But not everyone risks planting carrots using the method described above. Most are accustomed to sowing it the old fashioned way, in the spring. Well, let's figure out how to do it right.
Seed preparation. Carrots have one peculiarity. Its seeds contain very great content essential oils. A kind of protective shell. It protects the seeds from the outside from exposure negative factors. But here's the rub. Same essential oil greatly complicates seed germination. Have you noticed how long it takes carrots to sprout?
To destroy this etheric shell, gardeners use the most various methods. Here are the most common:
All these methods speed up the germination of carrot seeds by approximately two times. That is, you will have to wait only a week for seedlings instead of the usual two.
By the way, there are now a lot of coated seeds on sale. The thing is convenient. Large balls are convenient to sow. The shell contains the entire complex of minerals so necessary for young sprouts. Some are even impregnated with a growth stimulant. The only disadvantage of such seeds is the presence of a large amount of moisture during germination. That is, the ground must be damp. You will have to spill it thoroughly. And in hot weather, you need to water the furrows again until the first loops appear.
But you can get by with ordinary carrot seeds. To make it convenient to plant them, gardeners have come up with a variety of in various ways. Let's check them each.
Paste. Make a regular paste of medium thickness. Pour the approximate amount of desired seeds into it and mix thoroughly. Then a furrow is simply drawn from a vessel with a thin spout. A teapot is good for this purpose.
The disadvantage of this method is that you still need to get the hang of pouring this mixture evenly along the entire length of the bed.
Sand. The seeds are mixed with clean, damp sand. The proportion is 1 to 1. And this mixture is sown in the furrows, as usual. This way the seeds fall less often.
Disadvantage of the method: older people no longer have the youthful sensitivity of their fingers. Therefore, sand is easily confused with seeds. The uniformity of planting will still be disrupted.
Bubble. Any bottle with a screw cap. A hole is made in it with an awl, slightly larger than a carrot seed. Pour raw materials inside. A sharp movement of the hand is made over the furrow - the seed flies out through the hole.
Disadvantage: the seed may simply not fall into the hole the first time. The second time, three pieces will fly out at once. Go ahead and shake the bottle like crazy.
Paper. In their free time, they take the cheapest toilet paper. Seeds are glued onto it using paste and a toothpick. Then, after drying, you just need to cut everything into strips. When planting, they are placed in furrows and covered with soil.
Minus: an activity for those who are very patient, because it is tedious, long and eye-breaking.
Use any one that suits you. Perhaps you will turn disadvantages into advantages. Just use the classic principle: water the furrow very heavily before laying the seeds. And sprinkle with loose, always dry soil.
This will prevent the formation of a thick earthen crust on the surface, and the seedlings will freely break through.
She is, of course, a girl. But she needs a little different care than a young girl.
Loosening. After each watering or rain, it is necessary to loosen the top layer of soil to a depth of no more than 2-2.5 cm. The crust must be broken so that the soil around the root crop does not compact. There's no point in going deeper. But between the furrows you can frolic with a hoe or flat cutter to your heart's content. This will reduce the soil pressure on the root crop and the small feeding roots will remain intact.
Watering. Carrots love to drink. A lot, rarely, but very regularly. Make yourself a rule: once a week on the same day, thoroughly water the soil in your plantings. You need to wet it to a depth of at least 20-22 cm.
If you water often and little by little, the root crop will be short and shaggy. And the very first mighty summer rain will cause severe cracking of the fruits.
If you don’t water it at all (let it grow on its own), then there is a high risk of getting woody and bitter dried fruit instead of a harvest. They don't look like carrots at all.
Feeding. No fertilizers are applied during the entire growing season! All fertilizers must be added to the soil in advance. If carrots receive external nutrition during growth, they will grow large. But it will have no taste. This is especially true for mineral fertilizers with a high nitrogen content.
Pests. In addition to people, the carrot fly loves to eat carrots. She especially respects young landings immediately after pulling out. Remember how far the aroma of the tops spreads at the end of the procedure.
To avoid such a problem, some sources recommend alternating furrows with onion plantings. There will undoubtedly be an effect. But very weak.
It's better to do this:
There is no need to fill it specifically. Onion infusion is very smelly, you only need a little of it. Just to cover up the carrot flavor. By the way, you can periodically spray carrots throughout the growing season. This will 100% protect the plantings from carrot flies. Other pests are quite indifferent to the orange beauty.
When should you start digging carrots? In principle, all information is always indicated in great detail on the seed packaging. Focus on it and you definitely won’t go wrong.
What to do if the seeds were given as a gift or you grew them yourself? Of course, you can pull out one root vegetable at a time and look at it for a long time. Is it time or should he sit in the ground yet? How to guess?
It turns out that everything is simple. Carrots begin to be harvested en masse when they turn yellow and begin to dry out 4-6 lower leaves. If they are still green and vigorous, then let them grow for now.
By the way, try not to dig up part of the bed. Trim the foliage with scissors or pruning shears to the very root. But don't touch the flesh. After about 2 days, when the top of the root crop dries, sprinkle it with soil all over the head. And forget it until spring.
As soon as the snow melts, feel free to take your pitchforks and dig out your experiment. By this time, the carrots in the cellar are already showing clear signs of wilting. And the one you left in the garden will be fresh, juicy and tasty.
Advice. Just be sure to compact the soil well around the remaining root vegetables. Straight with your feet and tighter. Mice also really love these carrots. And the trampled earth will prevent them from tasting the sweet pulp.
How to grow carrots in open ground? Actually, it's not that simple. Size is not the main advantage of the orange beauty. It is much more important to get juicy and sweet root vegetables with a minimum of costs. Take good care of your carrots and they won't rust.
Carrots are one of the most common vegetables in garden beds; they are grown in almost all areas. But every vegetable grower has different yields. What is this connected with? With violations of the rules for growing this healthy vegetable. Carrots grow best on lungs fertile soils, heavy soils cause improper development of the root crop, it bends, the lower end bifurcates. Such changes cause loss of the marketable appearance of the crop.
Acidity should be neutral, depth groundwater average. The best predecessors are legumes, grains, cabbage, and onions. Carrots are prohibited from being sown after parsley, dill, caraway seeds, and parsnips. This is not a monoculture; the plant can be returned to its original place no earlier than after three to four years. Otherwise, there is a high probability of plant disease; pathogens accumulate in the soil.
There are no strict restrictions on planting dates. If carrots are grown as a vitamin supplement for the table, then they should be sown as early as possible. Seeds can be sown at ground temperature at a depth of 2–5 cm, approximately +4–5°C. During winter sowing, growing conditions are as close to natural as possible.
In the fall, the seeds undergo vernalization, and next year it is possible to harvest the crop several weeks earlier than with spring sowing. But this method has a drawback - such carrots cannot be stored; they are intended for use or processing.
Spring sowing is recommended to be done immediately after the snow melts; the soil should have maximum moisture. If root crops are planned to be stored all winter, then sowing begins in the second half of May. Of course, these calendar dates are very arbitrary; each climate zone has its own requirements and restrictions.
Carrots are a rather demanding plant in terms of soil nutrition. Fertilizers can be applied as the plant grows or the soil can be prepared immediately before sowing. Both methods are equivalent and depend on what fertilizers you have. If organic fertilizers are available, they are applied immediately before sowing. Dose – approximately 2 kg of humus per 1 m2 of bed. If the soils are heavy clay, then simultaneously with the application of fertilizers you need to add river sand to improve the structure.
Very important. Never apply concentrated chicken manure or fresh manure as fertilizer. Chicken droppings will scorch the earth, it must be diluted at the rate of 10 liters of water per 1 kg of litter, and then this water must be diluted again in a ratio of 1:10. Fresh manure serves as a source of various weeds.
There are two problems with carrot seeds: they are very small (it is difficult to maintain the seeding rate) and they do not germinate well. They need to be prepared before sowing.
There are also quite exotic methods of preparing seeds in nutrient gel solutions and then sowing them using a culinary syringe or bag. We do not recommend using them, it’s more hassle than results. Soak in water or stimulant and you can sow.
Be sure to sow in moist soil. If there has been no rain for a long time, and time is running out, then the beds should be watered abundantly in the evening and fluffed up in the morning before sowing. Next, the process is performed according to the following algorithm.
Step 1. Make furrows in the beds. The depth is 2–3 cm, the distance between them is 25–30 cm. The grooves can be made with a simple ripper, a stick, etc. They will stick perfectly in wet soil and will not fall asleep ahead of time. If the bed is very wide, then make half furrows on one side and then on the other. It’s easier and faster this way, and the earth won’t be compacted once again.
Step 2. Carefully sow the prepared seeds into the cut grooves.
Practical advice. Try to choose calm weather. Carrot seeds are very light and can be carried throughout the garden by gusts of wind. In such cases, it is very difficult to find out where the grooves were.
Pre-glue the seeds to the rolls toilet paper- monkey's work. It is much easier to weed them later than to select and glue the seeds. Very economical growers can purchase pelleted seeds. The manufacturer packaged each seed in a separate gel shell containing water and nutrients. Due to this, the seeds have become large, they can be sown strictly at distances, and subsequent weeding is not required.
Step 3. After sowing, the furrows should be covered with soil as quickly as possible, this will prevent the soil and seeds from drying out. If the bed is wide, divide it into parts.
Very important. To speed up the emergence of seedlings and improve germination, the grooves need to be compacted. This can be done by hand or any simple device.
What does compaction give? The soil adheres more tightly to the seeds, they do not dry out, and the conditions for seedlings to emerge become favorable. But there is one condition - if the soil has sufficient moisture. Compacted soil releases moisture much faster (which is why the top layer is fluffed up); if there is no rain for several days after sowing, be sure to water the bed thoroughly.
Important. Watering should only be done by sprinkling; pouring water directly from a hose is prohibited. A strong stream of water will wash the small carrot seeds to the surface. Most of them will not sprout, but the rest will grow throughout the entire area.
Weed control can only begin after carrots have emerged, otherwise there is a high risk of damaging them. Perennial weeds have a very developed root system and, when removed from the ground, will certainly damage the tender roots of carrots. Now all that remains is to wait for germination and continue with agrotechnical cultivation techniques.
Important. Beds with carrots must be watered abundantly daily until resistant plants appear. How to find out the optimal amount of water per bed? Very simple. Pour the usual amount of water onto the ground, make a hole and see how deep the water has seeped. We guarantee that you will be unpleasantly surprised. After normal watering, moisture will seep to a depth of about 1–2 cm, which is very little. You need to water until the soil is wet to a depth of at least five centimeters. This will take a lot of time, be prepared for difficulties or do automatic watering.
Carrot seedlings have one unpleasant feature - uneven germination. All seeds were prepared for sowing in exactly the same way, sown at the same time and at the same depth, and the difference in the appearance of seedlings can reach a week. What this is connected with cannot even be explained experienced gardeners. But there is nothing to worry about if there are empty areas on the grooves. This is not a defect during sowing, this is a feature of the plant; over time, shoots will appear here too.
The first thinning and weeding should be done as soon as the height of the seedlings has reached 2–3 centimeters. During this period, it is already clearly visible where and in what condition they are cultivated plants, and where the weeds begin to clog the bed. Pull out the sprouts one at a time, try to make an even sowing line. The distance between the remaining carrot sprouts is about a centimeter, no more is needed. You will still have to do a second thinning, during which the distance will be set according to the requirements of agricultural technology.
Practical advice. Thinning, like weeding, is best done immediately after rain. If there is no precipitation and the plants are overgrown, then you need to water them abundantly in the evening, and in the morning carry out the planned work on the damp bed.
The second thinning should be done after a small root crop and real carrot tops appear. Thickened plants are the reason for a decrease in yield; some vegetable growers do not know this and try to leave it as more plants. This approach can only increase the number, but not the total weight of root vegetables. In addition, the yield of food products from small root vegetables is very small; peeling them is long and difficult.
Carrots have good natural properties protection from pests and diseases, and copes with most of them independently. Only the carrot fly can cause significant harm; plants need help fighting it. Currently in implementation there is big choice quite effective chemicals to combat this pest. But you can use them no later than two weeks before eating root vegetables. And housewives use carrots from their beds for cooking long before the final harvest. Some of them thin out plants in this way right up to the moment of mass harvesting.
There is an equally effective, but completely harmless way to combat carrot flies - ordinary ash obtained after burning firewood. Keep in mind, these are not black coals, but fluffy, almost weightless ash. gray. Pour it into a gauze bag and gently spread it over the carrot bed. Do not overdo the dose, ash is a very aggressive chemical compound (alkali). In addition to pest control, it is used as an effective natural fertilizer. Ash, by the way, repels not only the carrot fly, but also many other pests, including aphids.
As for moles and mice, it is useless to fight them. The most modern ultrasonic devices do a great job of saving money in your wallet; their effectiveness in garden beds is zero, you can trust experienced plant growers. What to do with them? It’s okay, in a year they will leave your site on their own because carrots are not the main thing for them food product. As soon as the moles “clean up” all the bugs on the site, the whole family will immediately move to another place.
As with all root crops, the amount of moisture has a direct impact on yield. Root system carrots are quite branched, water can be obtained from a depth of up to 40 centimeters. Such structural features of the plant put forward their own requirements for watering - this should be done rarely, but to a great depth. The top layer of soil perfectly protects the tops from drying out; it provides dense shade; the sun cannot reach the surface of the bed. Watering depth is at least ten centimeters. This needs to be checked using ordinary pits. Make them in the garden bed with a stick and see how deep the water seeps in after watering. Not enough - repeat watering with greater intensity.
It is recommended to harvest carrots during the dry period; if you dig them up after rains, storage problems will arise. To make it easier to pull plants from the ground, it is recommended to dig them up along the row with a bayonet shovel. Don't use a pitchfork as some people advise. The forks do not lift the ground and do not make root crops easier to harvest.
It is better not to cut the tops with a knife, but to “unscrew them”. Such folk way completely eliminates damage to the upper part of the root crop with a knife, increases the storage time of the crop. The tops are unscrewed very easily, and the process is much faster than working with a knife.
Carrots should be stored at a temperature of +5-7°C, air humidity at least 90%. To prevent moisture evaporation, root vegetables can be placed in plastic bags with small holes, boxes with sand or raw sawdust. By the way, the use of sawdust turned out to be the most effective method. Even next summer, the skin on the carrots is smooth, the fruit has not wrinkled or dried out. The difference from fresh is the presence small amount small white roots. If the air in the cellar is too dry, it is recommended to periodically moisten the sawdust with water.
The orange root vegetable is widely used in cooking, both raw and for preparing juices and various dishes. It is rich in vitamins, carotene and is very beneficial for the body. Growing carrots is a simple process, but there are some principles and rules that allow you to reap a consistently good harvest.
This is a herbaceous biennial plant; the root crop is formed in the first year of life. When planting carrots, you should know that proper cultivation and care in open ground implies the following:
Carrots are grown in beds where onions, cucumbers, potatoes or beets previously grew. For a rich harvest, lush soil is needed - for this purpose, the ground is dug up and leveled with a rake. To reduce acidity, ash is added to the soil. Growing carrots in the country is done from seeds; before planting, they are soaked for 3-4 days, then dried. Afterwards, beds are made 2 cm deep, into which the grains need to be placed. The seeds are very small, so that they lie flat and do not fall into one place, gardeners have come up with original ways:
Nurturing a crop in the ground after planting requires systematicity. How to grow large carrots in the garden:
For growing carrots, fertilizing is indispensable (2 times per season), for this purpose apply mineral compounds. The first application is made 3-4 weeks after the sprouts appear, the second - after a couple of months. It is advisable to use liquid fertilizers. To do this, put the following in a bucket of water:
Growing carrots is also important in greenhouse conditions. The advantage of this method is that vegetables will appear earlier than in the garden. For this purpose they are selected early varieties– Mokum, Ely Nantes, Amsterdam Forcing 3, Mokum. Where are carrots grown in such cases:
The main thing is to ensure that a lot of light enters the greenhouse and ventilation is provided. If the winter garden is heated, then planting can be done all year round. Carrots do not grow well in hard substrates; the soil for growing must be loose. Beds are made, seed planting scheme: 2 cm - depth; 20-25 cm - width. Rules of care early carrots coincide with growing vegetables in open ground and include watering, weeding, thinning and fertilizing. Thanks to the greenhouse, the harvest can be obtained without waiting for autumn. If you plant a bed in early April, the vegetable is harvested in May.
Vegetables grown on a windowsill can be available throughout the year. For home breeding Small varieties of carrots are suitable, for example, early Amsterdam. It produces small and sweet fruits. How to grow carrots in an apartment:
Those who know the secret of how to grow large carrots will be able to get a harvest of beautiful and even root crops:
Amateur gardener Galina Kizima offers her own sowing method, which protects vegetables from pests and diseases. Features of growing carrots according to its method:
Everyone is used to the fact that the bed is perfectly smoothed with a rake before planting, and you can plant vegetables in high ridges. At the same time, the root crops receive good lighting, which promotes good growth and the acquisition of immunity to diseases, after which the root crops are easier to harvest. Rules for growing carrots in Chinese:
The technology is similar to Chinese, the difference is in the height and width of the ridges. The Dutch way of growing carrots:
Improper watering of vegetable beds leads to the fact that the root crop grows crooked, hairy or cracked. This vegetable does not tolerate dryness or excess moisture. Lack of water causes the crop to become rough and lose its sweetness, and oversaturation causes excessive growth of tops. It is important to know how to water carrots correctly so that the root crops grow smooth and juicy. The moisture regime differs at different stages of seedling growth.
Immediately after sowing and before the initial shoots, high soil moisture is required. You need to water the garden bed using a watering can through a strainer so as not to wash out the seeds. When asked how often to water carrots, experienced gardeners give the following recommendations:
Often, plant moisture is difficult and is accompanied by many difficulties - financial, physical, organizational. Growing carrots without watering:
