Content
One of the most popular and common types of vegetables is carrots. This root vegetable is among the ten most economically important and useful crops in our vast world. It is widely distributed in Mediterranean countries such as Africa, New Zealand, Australia and America, as well as throughout Europe.
Carrots are a biennial herb. Grows in height up to 30 cm. Possesses the most useful and medicinal propertiesessential for the human body. Its rich composition contains:
- vitamins: groups B, PP, C, E, K;
- the substance keratin, which in the human body turns into vitamin A.
- minerals necessary for the human body: potassium, iron, phosphorus, copper, iodine, etc.;
- essential oils that give the vegetable a strong flavor.
Soil preparation
This plant is unpretentious in cultivation, prefers non-acidic, loose, loamy and sandy soil. In such soil the root vegetable becomes sweet, juicy and tasty... Before planting carrots, the soil is treated twice a year - in the fall, after harvest, and in the spring, before planting.
In the autumn period, the earth is dug up to a depth of about 10 cm and at the same time leveled with a rake - this is necessary to saturate it with oxygen before wintering. In the spring, it is enough just to loosen the soil, after which it is saturated with organic matter... It is also important to choose the right place for sowing the crop, since this type of culture loves the sun very much, but does not like excessive moisture. Therefore, the best place is where there is access to the sun's rays.
The process of planting carrots on the tape
To facilitate planting, as well as for harvesting, gardeners can use ready-made planting paper. The material used for planting the vegetable is a paper strip that comes with the seeds of the root vegetable. In finished form, it is sold long and narrow at about 2 cm wide. This is convenient for optimal and high-quality development of the fetus, and besides, there is no need for thinning seedlings and laborious weeding. You can also make your own planting tape, while using, for example, toilet paper.
Using the landing tape
The finished planting belt is convenient because the seeds are located on it at an optimal distance from each other. This saves the gardener time when planting carrots. The tape must be placed in the ready-made grooves and sprinkled with earth.
Landing on toilet paper
Before planting carrots on toilet paper, you need to grease them with a paste that can be cooked from a mixture of starch and water or flour and hot water, then sprinkle carrot seeds on toilet paper. Seeds pre washed with clean water and dried... This ready-made tape should be laid on grooves prepared in the ground with a distance of 20-25 cm from each other, while the depth should be about 3 cm.
Before planting, the land is leveled and loosened a couple of days before sowing, then watered with a small amount of water. It is imperative to control the moisture content of the soil, for this it is advisable to use a covering material.In this way, moisture and heat are retained, which is necessary for the growth of the root crop. And most importantly, no additional feeding is required in the process of growing a vegetable.
Carrot Tips
When the carrots begin to sprout, the covering material that was used to retain heat and moisture can be removed. After that, you need to carefully loosen the ground. Sprinkle moderately and evenly with water.
But if toilet paper was used, then thinning of the plant is also necessary, as soon as germinated plants have the first leaves... If necessary, this method is used to thin out young shoots of carrots several times. After this procedure, watered with a small amount of water and weeded periodically.
Harvesting and storage
There are different varieties of carrots depending on the timing of the harvest:
- Early variety;
- Medium grade;
- Late grade.
Carrot seeds with an early ripening period are sown before winter and harvesting is done closer to the middle of summer. Such a fruit can be harvested when it already reaches a diameter of about 1 cm. The vegetable thus turns out to be very sweet and juicy. To preserve the most useful properties and pleasant taste of an early harvest, you need to harvest it on time. The only drawback is that it is unsuitable for long storage.
Gross harvest of average fruit ripening harvested from 80 to 110 days, no more, since the root crop will be tasteless and friable. Another feature that speaks of the ripening of this variety is yellowed leaves.
Late harvest is considered closer to mid-September. The main thing is that after the root crop has been harvested, cut off the green tops, this is necessary for long storage.
There are many ways to store plants. In order to preserve the crop as best as possible, the main thing is to harvest it on time and then store it cool: in the refrigerator, cellar or on the balcony at approximately 0-5 degrees.
Vegetable pests and diseases
Unfortunately, the plant is exposed to various infectious diseases. For example, such as white rot, which destroys the entire plant, after which you cannot eat and store the vegetable... This type of rot, such as gray, causes diseases during the storage period of the root crop. Felt rot appears on carrots not only during storage, but also during ripening. And there are many other types of disease.
Carrots can be affected by several pests at the same time. This happens not only during the ripening period of the plant, but also after harvest and during storage of the vegetable... The most dangerous pests are carrot flies and their larvae, carrot flies and moths. Large insects can include a bear, naked slugs and a wireworm (yellow worm).
But if you follow certain rules when planting and caring for different varieties of vegetables, then the carrots will grow large, juicy, tasty, healthy and can be stored for a long time.
Not only in Russia, but also in America, Africa and many other countries, a vegetable with a juicy, tasty and vitamin root vegetable - carrots - is widely grown. The popularity of this unpretentious herbaceous plant is explained by the fact that it can be used to prepare a wide variety of dishes, and root vegetables contain many useful substances and are stored for a long time. A good harvest and the size of the root crops of a vitamin vegetable directly depends on the timing and correct planting of carrots. In this article, we will describe when to seed carrots outdoors and how to plant the plant. When to plant carrots according to the lunar calendar this year, you can find out if you go to the highlighted link.
When can you plant carrots?
For germination, carrot seeds need a soil temperature of at least +4 degrees, so in warm regions, crops can be sown in early April, in central Russia - around the end of April, and in Siberia and other colder regions - in May.
If the soil in the garden is light, then carrots can be planted until the end of May.On beds with medium soil, crops are sown until mid-May.
Planting methods for carrots
Since carrots have very small seeds, planting them so as not to thin out is quite problematic. Therefore, home craftsmen have come up with several tricky planting methods, the use of which makes it much easier for gardeners to take care of crops.
Planting carrots on paper
With the help of toilet paper, crops are produced as follows:
- Cut the paper lengthwise along the width of the bed. The width of the paper itself should be about 20 mm.
- Prepare paste from starch (1 tsp) and a glass of water.
- Grease paper with paste.
- Glue the seeds at the required distance from each other.
- Wait for the paste to dry and roll up the paper.
- Place paper with seeds in grooves about 3 cm and roll out the rolls.
- The crops are covered with soil and watered with warm water from a watering can with a shower head.
This method is convenient because the seeds can be glued to paper at home, and in the garden it is easy and quick to unfold the roll.
Instead of toilet paper, you can use duct tape sold in specialty stores.
Planting carrots in egg trays
This method is good because with the help of the cells you can make even rows and holes in which the seeds are placed. To do this, one cardboard cell is inserted into another and pressed into the previously dug soil. It is convenient to plant planting material in the form of pills in the resulting even holes.
Sowing carrots with sand
To plant roots evenly and not too often, mix a tablespoon of planting material with ½ a bucket of sand. The resulting mixture is moistened and distributed over the grooves in the garden bed. The crops are covered with earth and watered.
Using paste
It is very convenient to use a paste made from water, starch and flour. It is preliminarily recommended to dilute a few granules of mineral fertilizers in water. You should get a jelly, into which (when it cools down) the planting material is poured and mixed well.
The paste is poured into a ketchup bottle or large syringe and squeezed into the grooves. The seeds mixed in such jelly will keep at a distance from each other, as a result of which the plants will sprout so that they do not need to be thinned out.
You can sow seeds using special seeders, which are sold in the store.
Now you know how to sow carrots so as not to thin out. All that remains is to prepare the garden bed and start sowing.
How to plant carrots outdoors?
Seed treatment
Today, many people use pelleted planting material, which does not need to be soaked and disinfected before planting. It is recommended to process simple vegetable seeds before sowing:
- Soak the seeds for a day in warm water, changing the water every four hours. Ash can be added to the water to form a nutrient solution (1 tablespoon per 1 liter of water).
- Rinse the planting material under running water.
- Place the seeds in a cloth and refrigerate in the vegetable section for several days.
Faster processing method:
- place the seeds in a cloth bag in a thermos with water, the temperature of which is +50 degrees;
- after 20 minutes, cool the planting material by holding it for three minutes in cold water.
Soil for carrots
It is recommended to dig up a garden bed for planting vegetables in the fall. Since the roots can be large, the soil should be dug into the depth of one and a half bayonet of a shovel.
Before processing, fertilizers are applied to the site, together with which they dig up the soil. For each square meter of the garden you will need:
- humus - 2 kg;
- nitrogen and potash fertilizers - 15 grams each;
- superphosphate - 25 grams.
The finished bed is leveled in the spring and grooves are made on it with a depth of 2-3 cm.If the soil on the site is rather heavy, then the grooves are made less deep (about one and a half centimeters). The seeds in the grooves are distributed at a distance of three or four centimeters from each other. The recommended distance between the rows is 20 cm.
After which you can plant carrots?
For planting crops, it is recommended to choose a site where they grew last year:
- tomatoes;
- cabbage;
- cucumbers;
- potato;
- onion and garlic;
- zucchini.
So that the harvest is good and the plants do not get sick, you need to observe the crop rotation and not plant carrots after beans, dill and parsley, parsnips and fennel, actually carrots and caraway seeds.
Do not forget that the vitamin vegetable loves good lighting, so the garden should be located in a sunny area.
When the bed is ready and the seeds are processed, you can sow using one of the above methods.
Carrots: growing and care
Carrot care includes the following activities:
- watering;
- weeding and loosening;
- thinning;
- top dressing;
- treatment against pests and diseases.
How to water carrots?
Proper watering is very important for carrots, otherwise the roots may turn out to be bitter and lethargic.
Watering the carrots after planting is carried out as the soil dries, pouring three liters of water per square meter. The more plants grow, the more water will be needed:
- after the second thinning - 10 liters per square meter;
- after the growth of leaves - 20 liters each;
- a month and a half before harvesting - 10 liters (once every 10 days);
- half a month before harvesting, watering is stopped.
Watering carrots is usually done once a week. If it rains regularly, you can water the plants less often.
Important! Carrots do not like not only drought, but also waterlogging of the soil! Constantly wet soil can cause root crops to crack.
Weeding and loosening
Planting vegetables must be regularly cleaned of weeds. Particularly often and thoroughly weeding are done while the plants are still young, otherwise the weeds can "crush" them. In addition, weeds are the cause of many diseases and pests.
It is recommended to do weeding after rains or watering. The area cleared of weeds is loosened in the aisles.
Thinning
If the seeds have been sown too often, the first thinning will need to be done when two true leaves appear. And when another pair of leaves appears, the bushes are thinned out so that the distance between them is 4-5 cm.
Thinning is best done on wet soil, that is, after watering. If, when sowing carrots, you used one of the above methods, then you will not need to thin out the plants.
Fertilizing carrots
Code and how to fertilize carrots? For fertilizing vegetables, it is recommended to use the following nutrient composition, diluted in a bucket of water:
- urea and superphosphate - 15 grams each;
- potassium nitrate - 20 grams;
- nitrophoska - one tablespoon;
- wood ash - two glasses.
The first time the crops are fed after the appearance of seedlings. Two months after the first feeding, the plantings are re-fertilized.
Diseases and pests of carrots
The culture is slightly susceptible to diseases, but can be affected phomosis, black and gray rot, bacteriosis or alternaria... These bacterial diseases can be avoided by removing plant residues from the beds in the fall, treating the planting material before sowing, not applying a lot of nitrogen fertilizers to the soil, observing crop rotation and liming the acidic soil. You can treat the area with a 1% solution of Bordeaux liquid, which will significantly reduce the risk of disease.
Of all the pests, carrots are most annoyed by the carrot fly. The reason for its appearance can be excessively moistened soil and thickened plantings. To avoid the appearance of pests, you can plant onions between the roots. Get rid of carrot flies using insecticidal preparations (Actellik, Intavir, etc.).
Correct planting and carrot care performed on time are the key to a good harvest. You can start picking vegetables as early as summer. First, young sweet and juicy roots are pulled out, and the rest are harvested in the fall.So that the roots do not remain in the soil, it is recommended to dig them in with a shovel, and then pull them out by the tops. The harvested crop should be well dried before storage.
Carrot - a vegetable crop, tasty and healthy, it is grown by every gardener on his site.
Let's consider in detail: secrets of proper preparation of carrot seeds for sowing, sowing options for carrots, feeding and caring for carrots in the open field.
Content:
Preparing the garden for planting carrots
Seed sowing time
- Video - Carrots, the secret of a rich harvest
Seed preparation before sowing
Popular ways of sowing carrot seeds
- Video - Options for sowing carrots, seed preparation
Carrots are unpretentious in cultivation, but in order to obtain a high-quality harvest, they need proper care. When grown, carrots are demanding on fertilizing during growth and on nutrient soil.
Preparing the garden for planting carrots
Do not fertilize with fresh manure, the roots will grow irregular and ugly. Manure must be applied under its predecessor.
The place for planting is suitable open, sunny, it is better to arrange the beds along the length from North to South, this is how uniform illumination of the plantings occurs.
Precursors for planting carrots - tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, potatoes, peas. Do not plant carrots for 2 years in a row in the same place, as well as after celery, parsley, dill.
Plant onions, garlic or marigolds next to carrot beds for carrot fly control.
Before planting, add wood ash to the soil, enriching it with nutrients.
Seed sowing time
The correct time is considered to be the time when the soil will thaw and the earth will warm up a little. But it is wrong to plant carrots very early, in the cold ground the seeds will simply lie and then sprout for a long time.
The weather should remain warm, up to +13 degrees during the day, the soil should warm up to +7. Approximate sowing time second half of April - early May, it all depends on the weather in your area.
Video - Carrots, the secret of a rich harvest
Seed preparation before sowing
Carrot seeds sprout for a very long time, so pre-soak them in a thermos with a temperature 50 degrees for 20 minutesthen cool sharply in cold water. Through this procedure, you break down essential oils.
Read also - Preparing carrot seeds before sowing
Popular ways of sowing carrot seeds
1 way - the simplest, sowing dry seeds in the grooves. With this method of sowing, a lot of seeds are poured, carrots sprout very densely and then it takes a long time to thin out the seedlings. Another disadvantage is that you need to wait a long time for the seedlings themselves.
2 way - sowing with germinated seeds. With this sowing option, you need to monitor the soil moisture, it must be increased, otherwise the carrots will die. With this method, the seeds germinate faster.
3 way - planting carrots in a bag. To do this, in early spring, dig a hole on the bayonet of a shovel, moisten the seeds with water and put them in this hole. Cover the hole with earth and sprinkle it with snow on top. After 10 days, the seeds hatch, mix them with sand and distribute them over the garden.
4 way - a convenient and economical option. You need to mix 1-2 tbsp. l. carrot seeds with a bucket of sand (incomplete 1 liter bucket) and scatter this mixture into the furrows on the plot. It is important that the sand is dry to mix the seeds evenly.
Then it is good to spill the beds with water and sprinkle with a small layer of soil. With this method, you will not have to thin out the beds.
5 way - mixed sowing method. Mix radish and carrot seeds, add a little dry sand and spread into the grooves. The radish rises quickly and is gradually eaten, leaving all the free space for the carrots. You will not have to thin out such a bed. Radish can be replaced with another rapidly ripening plant - lettuce, spinach.
6 way - gluing seeds. Today, a very popular method is gluing seeds to tape.There are such seeds on the tape on sale, but you can stick carrot seeds yourself with a paste with a distance of 3 cm.
This technology of planting carrots is very convenient, the prepared tape (you can use cut toilet paper) just need to be pulled along the furrow and sprinkled with earth.
7 way - purchase of pelleted carrot seeds. Each carrot seed is in a dragee made from dry hydrogel and fertilizers with microelements. Dragee of bright color, clearly visible when sowing and can be laid where needed.
8 way - liquid. Take water and dissolve mineral complex fertilizers in it. Cook in this water, adding flour or starch, paste and let the solution cool.
Pour the prepared carrot seeds (2 packs of 2 g per 1 liter of finished paste, you can add radish seeds) and mix.
Pour the finished mixture into a plastic bottle, make a hole in the lid and, after shaking, distribute it evenly into the grooves. The seed paste lays down smoothly and easily.
Carrot seeds are sown in grooves up to 1.5 cm deep.Leave about 30 cm between rows.
Do not forget that the maximum shelf life of carrot seeds is 2 years. Water the carrots only until 3 true leaves appear.
Video - Options for sowing carrots, seed preparation
Harvesting carrots is carried out 90 days after germination, do not overdo it, otherwise the root will grow further and the middle will become yellow and tough. Follow the recommendations given and the carrots will thank you with an excellent harvest of sweet fruits.
Carrots are one of the most common crops in any home garden. This is an unpretentious plant that gives a high yield even in the most unfavorable conditions. If agricultural technology is not followed, root crops develop slowly and lose their commercial qualities. In this article, we will look at the key features of planting and caring for carrots outdoors.
Variety selection
Depending on the shape of the root crop, all varieties of carrots are conventionally divided into cone-shaped, cylindrical and round. The first type is the most common, more resistant to diseases and unpretentious in care. According to the ripening period, the varieties are divided into early, middle and late ripening.
When choosing carrots for planting in the open field, you need to focus on the climate in the region, the composition and quality of the soil, as well as the purpose of growing. For fresh consumption in summer, it is best to plant early varieties, and later varieties are suitable for long-term storage.
Seed preparation
Carrot seeds are small in size, which makes it difficult to comply with the sowing rate, and also do not germinate well even in fertile soil. Before planting, they must be processed.
Planting material preparation scheme:
- Soak the seeds in warm water for 24 hours, changing the water several times throughout the day.
- For stratification, the seeds after soaking must be placed in the refrigerator or put outside for 1-2 days.
- To increase germination, seeds must first be treated in boiling water (up to 50 ° C) for several minutes, and then rinsed thoroughly with cold water.
- It is recommended to carry out bubbling with growth stimulants. For this purpose, use Kornevin, Epin or Zircon.
Seeds are prepared for planting a few days before being directly placed in open ground. If a long time passes after the treatment, the effectiveness of the procedure is significantly reduced.
Landing dates
It is possible to sow seed into the soil when the earth warms up to 4-6 ° C, in conditions of middle latitudes this temperature is observed closer to the end of April, in colder regions planting can be postponed for several weeks, until the second decade of May.
Carrots are a frost-resistant crop, so seeds that have already been planted in the soil can survive night frosts down to -4 ° C, but to improve germination, the planting can be covered in case of a sharp cold snap.
It is also important to take into account the characteristics of the variety.For example, late to mid-late varieties should be planted slightly later than early varieties. The recommended planting period for them is mid-May.
Some varieties of root crops can be planted in late autumn, usually before the first snowfall. In this case, it must be taken into account that the variety is frost-resistant and late. This planting method allows you to get an early harvest by mid-summer.
Site selection and soil preparation
It is best to choose a site for planting carrots in a well-lit area, without a strong slope of the surface. It is not recommended to use beds where umbrella crops were previously located - parsley, caraway seeds, dill and fennel. Failure to comply with crop rotation leads to the development of serious diseases. The best precursors are cucumbers, tomatoes, legumes, and grains.
Processing and feeding the soil on the site depends on the timing of planting. For spring planting, fertilizer must be applied in the fall. To do this, you need to dig a bed to the depth of a shovel bayonet, completely remove plant roots and weeds.
Carrots do not tolerate acidic soils well, therefore, to adjust the acid balance, it is recommended to add wood ash, dolomite flour or lime at the rate of 0.5 kg per 1 m2. It is best to use potash or phosphorus compositions as mineral fertilizers, since nitrogen fertilization of the soil leads to the active growth of the green part, and not to the formation of a root crop.
How to plant?
After preparing the seeds and soil, you can start sowing carrots. It is advisable to carry out the procedure in the first half of the day in sunny weather.
How to grow and plant carrots:
- Seeds are planted in rows with a distance of up to 20 cm from each other, the planting depth should not exceed 2 cm in heavy soil and 3 cm in loose fertile soil.
- The optimum distance between seeds is 3-4 cm.
- After planting the planting material in the ground, the rows are covered with soil and watered abundantly with water.
- To avoid weeds and root formation on the topsoil, mulching should be carried out. The recommended thickness is 3-4 cm. Sawdust, peat or straw are used as material.
Since the seeds are very small, they use a roll planting method. To do this, drops of starch paste are applied to a narrow strip of toilet paper, and then planting material is placed on it at the rate of 2-3 seeds per drop of adhesive. After that, the tape is dried and placed in the ground. The subsequent landing algorithm is identical.
Thinning of seedlings
All varieties of carrots show uneven germination, the difference between the appearance of seedlings can be more than a week. The first thinning and weeding is recommended when the seedlings have reached a height of up to 2-3 cm. Young plants are pulled out one piece at a time, trying to create the most even line. It is advisable to leave the distance between the remaining shoots no more than 2-3 cm.
The second thinning is best done when a small root crop and a healthy green portion of the carrot have developed. Severe neglect of sowing harms the yield, so you need to keep the distance between each plant. The optimal distance between carrot bushes after the second weeding is 4-5 cm.
Care
In addition to thinning, simple maintenance rules must be followed to increase yields and maintain plant health.
The main ones are:
- Throughout the entire period of growth, moderate watering is required at the rate of 10 liters of water per 1 m2; it must be completely stopped a few weeks before harvesting.
- Top dressing is carried out twice a season - during the formation of seedlings, and also for 2-3 months after planting. It is recommended to use a complex mixture. In 10 liters of water, 1 tbsp is diluted. l. nitrophosphate, 1 tbsp. wood ash, 20 g of potassium nitrate and 15 g of double superphosphate.
- Weeding should be done as the weeds grow, usually 2-3 times per season. Using mulch reduces the growth of other plants in the garden.
- Treatment from pests and diseases is carried out only in case of infection, since carrots have strong immunity, and also repels most insects. The most common diseases are bacteriosis, white and black rot, and septoria. The most dangerous pests are carrot flies and moles.
One of the important points of carrot care is loosening. Without this procedure, the roots grow small and twisted. Loosening is usually combined with weeding or thinning.
Carrots are one of the most common and important crops. It is a fast growing plant that takes root well in any soil. That is why most gardeners try to plant it with seeds in open ground. The quality and quantity of the crop depends not only on the variety, the correct preparation of the seeds, but also on the observance of agricultural technology.
