Growing carrots correctly to get a good harvest

Carrots are the most popular vegetable among consumers. It can be purchased on store shelves all year round. But the root crop will be of great benefit if you grow it yourself in a summer cottage. This can be done subject to certain rules for growing carrots.

Almost any crop must be fertilized before planting in the spring, and this can be done in the spring after planting in the country, or fertilized later directly into the hole. How to properly care for carrots, how much and what kind of fertilizer to apply, about the little tricks of applying manure and humus, how to water frequently and how to love the plant, we will tell you in the article.

Sowing dates for carrots in the open field

Before sowing seeds in open ground, the gardener must decide why he grows carrots and when he wants to get a harvest. Sowing dates:

1. Early spring sowing from April 15 to May 15... Throughout June, you can already collect carrots in a bunch, and with the arrival of August, enjoy sweet root vegetables.
2. Summer sowing from May 15 to June 10... Harvesting will take place at the end of September; these carrots are laid in the cellar for winter storage.
3. Winter sowing from October 20 to November 15 allows you to eat a young root crop before harvesting the main crop. The main thing is to choose the right place for the beds - it should be located on a hill so that the spring melting of snow does not drown the seeds.

If sowing is done at all possible times, then fresh vegetables will be on the table all year round.

With podzimny sowing, the formation of root crops occurs at a time when the carrot fly is just beginning its life. She is not yet capable of harming the harvest in the garden, the vegetables will be of better quality.

When planting in winter, the carrot harvest will be of better quality.

Choosing a place for a garden in the garden

It's no secret that carrots are an unpretentious root crop, but to get a rich harvest, you still need to create comfortable conditions. When choosing a place for the beds, the gardener must take into account:

• this vegetable crop is developing well on a lighted area;
• fertile loamy-sandy soil with 4% humus and neutral acidity 6-7 pH;
• previously, potatoes, tomatoes, maize and legumes were grown at the planting site;
• do not use for growing beds where spicy herbs previously grew (dill, parsley, fennel, etc.);
• it is forbidden plant a vegetable in the same area 2 years in a row.

Large, well-shaped roots grow on peat soilswhich were formed after the drying up of the swamps. And on clay soil, carrots will acquire an ugly shape due to strong resistance during growth.

Before freezing, the area for vegetables must be dig up, remove roots and stones... But do not drive the shovel too deep into the ground and destroy the fertile layer. Digging should be about 0.3 meters deep. With the onset of spring, smooth and deeply loosen the surface.

On peat soils, carrots will be large and regular in shape.

How to plant seeds to get good shoots

Gardeners practice a variety of methods of planting carrots, they all have their own advantages and disadvantages:

1. Sowing with seeds considered the fastest way. The gardener simply scatters the dry seed into the prepared beds. At the same time, the consumption of seeds cannot be called economical, and the seedlings will be too thick and uneven.
2. Dragee - these are seeds placed in a nutritious shell, seedlings are friendly and strong. Their sowing consists in spot distribution in small pits. The cost of pelleted seeds is higher, but there is no need to waste time on thinning.
3. Preliminary germinated seeds give quick shoots. But in the absence of rain, you will have to irrigate ahead of time, the shoots are too weak and unable to cope with the pressure of the earth.
4. Roll method involves sticking small seeds onto long strips of paper. To plant, you only need to spread the strips in the garden bed, dig in with earth and water and fertilize well. Seedlings will appear evenly, but a little later.
5. Liquid paste boil from potato starch, cool to room temperature and mix with mineral fertilizers. Pour seeds into the resulting liquid and mix quickly. Pour the paste evenly into the grooves. With this method, you do not have to thin out the plantings.

Regardless of the chosen planting method, it is better to sow seeds less often, so that in the future there is no thinning.

The garden can be cover with foil 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 planting material is selected for sowing, then additional preparation is required. You can disinfect by soaking the seeds in water heated to 40 degrees. But you better 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 with clean water and dried.

Some gardeners use specialized plant growth stimulants already at the stage of seed preparation. But it is not recommended to do this to obtain an environmentally friendly harvest.

Secrets of carrot care after planting

Carrots belong to poorly germinating and slow-growing vegetable crops. Do not think that by sowing it, you can forget about the beds until the very harvest.

In order for the roots to turn out strong and large and correspond to the varietal quality, they should be looked after.

Fertilizers, dressing and folk remedies

Proper feeding of carrots is necessary to get a good harvest.

The gardener will collect an average crop in terms of quality and quantity, if he restricts himself to fertilizing during the autumn digging of the site.

The plant needs feeding during the entire growing season.

So, first time feed the vegetable a month after the entries. In 10 liters. water dissolve 1 tbsp. l. nitrophosphate is a classic mineral fertilizer containing nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. The same solution is used and in the second feeding after 2 weeks and in the third - at the beginning of August.

The best potash fertilizer is such a folk remedy as ash tincture... For its preparation, it is necessary to pour parts of 150 g of dry ash into a bucket of water. Stir the mixture until the ash is completely dissolved. In 10 liters. dilute with 1 liter of water. tincture and this liquid, feed and water the root crops of carrots or beets during the second half of the growing season.

In addition, it is recommended to put foliar dressing during the formation and ripening of vegetables.Spray the green aboveground part of the plants with a solution of boric acid (1 tsp per 10 liters of water).

The best potash fertilizer is ash tincture

How to water during the growing season

When growing root crops special meaning watering system plays. Indeed, with insufficient soil moisture, the young roots of the plant will die, and the overflow of the beds will lead to the fact that only livestock can feed on the crop.

Therefore, immediately after sowing, the period of correct watering of the beds begins:

1. To stimulate the inputs, the method is used sprinkling (300-400 m3 / ha), and then - several receptions drip irrigation (20-30 m3 / ha).
2. After the appearance of the entrances, depending on weather conditions, watering is carried out every 2-3 days a small amount of water.
3. During the formation of root crops, the soil moisture regime changes - the frequency decreases, the volume of water increases.
4. The active growth of vegetables is accompanied by rare watering (once every 7-10 days), but moisture must penetrate into the ground to a depth of 10-15 cm.
5. Watering a month before harvest do not exercise even in the absence of rain... Excess moisture during this period will worsen the taste and keeping quality of vegetables.

Before digging up root crops, it is advisable to moisten the soil a little. Thus, the process is facilitated, and the yield improves the ability to keep fresh.

Correct weeding

One of the things gardeners don't like most is weeding the beds. But you cannot do without this tedious activity, otherwise you can lose the entire crop due to the "attack" of weeds.

At the initial stage, when the plants have not yet sprouted, a plot with crops is recommended cover in several layers with newspapers, and cover with foil on top... With this method, the soil warms up well and moisture is retained in it, but weeds cannot actively grow. After 2 weeks, the innovative shelter should be removed and the seedlings should be awaited.

After 10-15 days, the plant appears first real leaf - this is the 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 is formed, weeding combined with thinningif the sowing was carried out chaotically and the planting was thickened. There should be a distance of 2-3 cm between the plants. In this case, it is important to pull the sprouts up, and not to the side, otherwise the root of the neighboring vegetable will be damaged.

Weeding and thinning are necessary throughout the growing season

It is most convenient to thin out with the help of a female eyebrow plucker - tweezers... It captures even the thinnest sprouts without harming other plants.

Throughout the growing period between the beds and the 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 roots, but the vegetables that have already been pulled out can be eaten.

It takes a lot of time and effort to grow carrots, 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 delicious and crispy vegetable will be in the daily diet of the whole family, it will give all its nutrients and trace elements.

Carrots do not require special care, but the growing rules must be followed. It is a drought-resistant crop that tolerates frosts and prolonged cold snaps well. How to grow carrots? The secrets, like other vegetables, lie in the correct agricultural technology. It requires more maintenance than other crops. Let's take a closer look at how to grow carrots in your country house or garden plot with your own hands.

Soil preparation

It is required to choose a bright spot before growing carrots. The secrets lie in the fact that with a lack of sunlight due to a falling shadow or an uneven surface of the garden, the roots lose their sugar content and mass.

Before you can grow a good crop of carrots, you need to choose a light and level soil. It should be sandy loam, light loamy, with good drainage. In dense loam, the fruits grow small, during storage they are quickly affected by rot. Carrots should not be planted in acidic soils. It requires a neutral or slightly acidic environment.

Before growing good carrots, you need to prepare the soil. The garden bed is prepared in the fall so that it settles. It is made loose. To do this, add sawdust, humus, peat or sand. For liming, chalk, lime, dolomite, ash are used. You should not use manure for growing carrots, since you get not very beautiful and poorly stored root crops. Humus should be introduced into poor soil - a bucket per square meter. If the groundwater is close, the bed is made high.

The arable layer is well formed with the help of green manure roots - plants that create a good soil structure. They are sown in the garden in the fall, in order to plant carrots in this place in the spring. Also, worms and microorganisms create a good soil structure.

Carrot beds should be constantly changed. The predecessors should be garlic, onions, cabbage, potatoes. How to grow large carrots if you have to grow the same crop in one place? This will help the introduction of wood ash twice a year in the amount of 0.2 kg / m2, followed by digging.

In the spring, a week before planting, the bed is leveled, loosened, treated with a 0.3% solution of vitriol, watered with warm water, and then covered with polyethylene film. During this time, it will retain moisture and warm up well in the sun.

How to prepare seeds for sowing

The germination rate of carrot seeds is small - 55-75%. In this regard, the seeds should be taken fresh. In addition, carrots do not germinate evenly. The first shoots should appear in 2-3 weeks. Seeds germinate for a long time due to the presence of essential oils on their surface, which slow down the penetration of moisture.

Before growing good carrots, the seeds must be prepared for sowing. Let's consider several ways to pre-germinate them.

Soak

The seeds are poured into cloth bags and kept in warm water for 24 hours. The water must be changed every four hours. A nutrient solution can be made from it by adding wood ash (30 g / l). After that, the seeds must be rinsed.

The method will be more effective if additionally hardened. Seeds in wet bags are placed in the refrigerator for 2-5 days.

Soak with nutrient solution

Use a weak solution of potassium permanganate with the addition of ½ teaspoon of fertilizer per liter of water or a mixture of nitrophoska and boric acid (1/3 teaspoon and 1/2 teaspoon per liter of water, respectively). The seeds are scattered on a gauze folded several times, and also covered with it on top and poured with a solution for a day. The liquid level should be just above the fabric. Then they are washed with water and refrigerated for three to four days.

If the weather does not allow planting seeds, they are left on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator, keeping them hydrated all the time. In this case, you need to ensure that they do not germinate more than 0.5 cm.

Heat treatment

Heat treatment of seeds consists in their successive immersion in hot and cold water. They are poured into a bag and rinsed at a temperature of 50 degrees, and then dipped in a humate solution and kept warm for two days. As a result, the germination of not only carrots, but also parsley and dill is accelerated.

Bubbling

Sparging speeds up the seed preparation process. An air or oxygen supply hose with an emery stone filter at the end is brought to the bottom of a non-metallic container with water. A mesh with seeds is placed on top.

In the process of bubbling, the water is saturated with air. At home, a small aquarium compressor is enough for this. The time for bubbling carrot seeds is 17-24 hours.After that, the material is removed to the middle shelf of the refrigerator, where it is stored for 3-5 days. Before sowing, the seeds are dried for 12 hours to make them free-flowing, and sown.

Burying seeds in the soil

Dry seeds are placed in cloth bags and buried in the ground with a shovel to the depth of one bayonet, where they should be for at least 10-12 days. Then they are taken out and sown in the garden. After such treatment, seedlings should appear in five days.

Another method is to mix the seeds with moist peat and keep them in a warm place for at least one week. During this period, they have time to germinate, after which they are sown. Before planting in the ground, the seeds are dried for 20-25 minutes on parchment or cloth at room temperature.

How to grow carrots. Sowing and Care Secrets

Before planting, seeds are selected and purchased that are most suitable for a particular region. You can also get them yourself. Before growing carrot seeds, find a good and large root vegetable and then plant it in the spring. It will ripen by autumn.

Carrots grow for about three months. To get a harvest in September, planting should be done no later than May. Sowing dates are from late April to early June. Landing before May 5 is considered optimal.

Before winter, carrots are planted when the soil becomes cold enough. This can be from late October to early November. Sowing and harvesting times depend on the variety and region. Northern varieties should not be planted in the south as they will grow slowly. If southern varieties are grown in the middle lane, they give abundant tops, and root crops do not develop at the same time. Some varieties bred abroad are poorly stored.

Harvesting should be done on time, otherwise the beneficial properties and keeping quality of root crops may deteriorate.

Small carrot seeds should be spread evenly in the groove. Therefore, they are mixed with sand or peat and sown in a garden bed.

How to properly grow carrots so that neighboring rows do not interfere with growing? To ensure sufficient illumination, it is better to make the beds narrow - no more than four rows of carrots. Bumpers are made along the edge to prevent water from flowing off. The distance between the rows should be 15 cm, and for late varieties - 20 cm. The bed is watered and sprinkled with ash. The seeds are placed in the grooves at a distance of about 2.5 cm.

In spring-summer plantings, the swollen seeds are planted shallowly - by 3-4 cm. They should be sprinkled with very light soil, which is used as black soil, mixed with peat, sand or humus. Then a ventilation gap is made of film over the bed at a distance of about 12-15 cm.

The first shoots in warm weather appear in a week. If the temperature is below 12 degrees, the time is doubled. If there are vacant places, additional sowing is done.

For many gardeners, the question of how to grow early carrots is a problem. In fact, it is not difficult. In the fall, early varieties of carrots are sown to a depth of 2 cm, and then sprinkled with mulch to a height of 3-4 cm. In this case, the soil temperature should be below +5 degrees. When there is little snow in winter, the beds are additionally covered with it to a height of 50 cm. With this method of planting, the crop is harvested earlier than usual for 2-3 weeks.

Thinning of plants

How to grow a good harvest of carrots if they sprout perfectly? To do this, you need to do a thorough thinning of the seedlings after the appearance of the third leaf. All this is not as simple as it seems at first glance. For the plants to be well removed, the garden should be watered, and the soil should be carefully loosened. In addition, the operation should be performed during the day, so as not to attract a pest - a carrot fly that flies in the evening.

The sprouts should be removed with tweezers, leaving a distance of at least 2 cm. The smallest shoots are removed. The tops are thrown away from the garden.In no case should you leave it nearby, so as not to attract pests. Onion shooters, which are chopped up and scattered around the garden, are a good deterrent. You can cover crops with special material. The ground around the plants is slightly crushed. After 20 days, the thinning is repeated. At the same time, a distance of 6 cm is left between the carrots.

Row spacings need to be loosened and weeded (at least once a week) so that the roots receive a sufficient amount of oxygen. After thinning the aisles, mulch with compost or sawdust soaked for several weeks in a 2-3% urea solution.

How to grow large carrots? The correct dosage of fertilizers is needed here. They cannot be applied in large quantities at once. Carrot beds begin to fertilize with mineral water when 5-6 sheets appear. The frequency of feeding is 2-4 weeks. This culture is particularly disliked by excess nitrogen.

As it grows, the top of the root crop comes out of the ground and turns green. It doesn't hurt, but it tastes worse. How to grow sweet carrots so that they do not lose their taste? When root crops appear from the ground, they are huddled, raking up the earth on them with a height of about 50 mm.

Watering carrot beds

Poor germination of carrots is primarily associated with drying out of the soil. Until she has risen, the top layer of the bed should be constantly wet. Sometimes the soil should be watered even several times a day. Granular seeds are especially difficult to germinate. Immediately after sowing, the bed is protected with a foil so that the top layer does not dry out.

Until the roots appear, watering is done after 3-4 days, 3-4 buckets per 1 m2. At the same time, they grow independently in depth and find moisture. Therefore, watering is carried out once a week at 1-2 buckets per m2, and from the end of August - once every 1.5-2 weeks at 8-10 liters per square. The beds are kept for two weeks without watering until harvest.

Rough root vegetables are an indicator that they lacked moisture. With its overabundance, the fruits grow small. Also, sharp drops from drying to excess moisture are harmful, leading to cracking of the carrot and subsequent poor preservation.

Carrots are not afraid of cold weather, but at temperatures below 8 degrees, starch in root crops turns into sugar, keeping quality of root crops worsens. In the middle lane, the crop is harvested at the end of September in dry weather.

The harvested carrots are dried for 1.5-2 hours, and then the tops are cut off. The harvest is sorted, even carrots are placed in a ventilated box in a dark and cool place. This can be a cellar or basement.

Conclusion

You can never get a good harvest if you don't know how to grow carrots. The secrets of agricultural technology lie in the correct preparation of the soil, competent planting and care. As a result, you will get large and even root crops in the fall.

Carrots are a popular and favorite vegetable crop in every summer cottage. Rich in trace elements, carotene, vitamins, substances that increase immunity and help to heal many ailments. Carrots are one of the main crops in baby foods. And it is very sad when the labors spent on its cultivation end in crooked, ugly squiggles of dubious taste, because in the case of carrots, the external corresponds to the internal content. How to grow carrots even, large, tasty, with a high content of nutrients? We'll figure out.

Carrot

Content:

• Conditions for a good harvest of carrots
• The main reasons for small carrots
• How to get large carrots?
• How to improve the taste of a root crop?
• Watering carrots
• Carrot thinning rules
• Carrot varieties

Conditions for a good harvest of carrots

Carrots are a frost-resistant crop that can be sown before winter and at several times from early spring. In the southern regions, it is sown in warm winter (February) windows and an early harvest of a delicious vegetable is obtained. Carrots are not afraid of frost.

To grow a decent harvest, you need to pay attention to:

• biological characteristics of carrots,
• compliance with the requirements of growing technology,
• soil structure and fertility, its preparation for sowing,
• acidity of soil,
• features of providing moisture.

The main reasons for small carrots

• Carrots do not tolerate swampy lowland areas, closely located fruit and forest tree crops. It will not be even and graceful, and even more so when grown in the shade, under the canopy of the garden.
• The culture needs a deep-loosened nutrient soil, air and permeable. The presence of fine gravel, pebbles, rhizomes and other inclusions in the soil causes curvature and crushing of the carrot root crop.
• The root crop needs bright lighting. The carrot beds are positioned so that each plant receives adequate lighting. Tall crops (tomatoes, eggplants) should not shade the carrot tops. Carrots are best located south of tall neighbors.
• Carrots will not bear fruit in acidified soils. Therefore, a year before sowing crops, the soil is deoxidized by the introduction of humus, chalk, lime, dolomite flour. The soil under the carrots should be neutral with zero acidity in the range of pH = 6-7.
• Ugly, branched, burst carrot root crops and small root crops are obtained with poor soil preparation, spring pre-sowing soil deoxidation, the use of chlorine-containing fertilizers, with an excess of nitrogen fertilizers, thickened crops.
• The value of carrots is determined by the amount of nutrients that are formed in the root crop as a result of metabolic processes with the timely receipt of moisture and nutrients. Therefore, the lack of moisture and nutrition at the beginning and their excess at the end of the growing season of carrots will change not only the external forms and characteristics, but also significantly reduce the taste.

How to get large carrots?

Choosing a site for sowing carrots and predecessors

The site must be leveled, without a slope, and evenly lit. Good predecessors and neighbors are zucchini and other pumpkin seeds, legumes, onions for turnips, garlic, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants. Celery, parsley, dill, and other umbellates are unwanted neighbors and predecessors. In the culture rotation, carrots return to their original place in the 4th – 5th year.

Healthy carrot tops

Preparing the soil for sowing carrots

The soil for sowing carrots is prepared in the fall. After harvesting the previous crop, the tops are removed from the site, watering is provoked to obtain an autumn wave of weed seedlings. If the site is unsuccessful, they clean it of stones, rhizomes, dig it onto a shovel bayonet. Spread a mixture or complex fertilizers that do not contain chloride forms. Fertilizers are embedded in the soil with simultaneous crushing of coarse clods of earth and leveling the surface of the site with a rake.

Important! Do not apply deoxidizers (dolomite flour or lime) and fertilizers at the same time. These two preparation techniques are spaced apart in time. You can add deoxidizers in the fall (if necessary), and in the spring - fertilizers, 2-3 weeks before sowing.

In the spring, the bed for carrots is once again dug deeply, especially if the soil is heavy clay and loamy in composition. To fluff them, perlite or vermiculite, sand can be added to the root layer.

Fertilizing carrots

From mineral fertilizers during the basic preparation of the soil, nitrogen-phosphorus fats are applied at the rate of 50-60 and 40-50 g / sq., Respectively. m. on medium-fertile soils. You can add nitrophos, ammophos at a dose of 60-80 g / sq. m. or fertilizer vegetable mixture in the same dose. Fertilizers can be applied for digging or during the final preparation of the site (for raking).

On highly fertile soils, 1 / 2-1 / 3 parts of the above-mentioned doses of fertilizers are applied under carrots, sometimes they only manage by adding ash - a glass per square meter. m and subsequent dressings during the growing season.On marginal soils, the main dose of fertilizers is not increased, but reinforced top dressing is used in the first half of the carrot growing season.

Sowing dates for carrots

Carrot is a frost-resistant culture. Seedlings can withstand temperatures down to -2 ° C. Developed plants do not die in short-term frost down to -4 ° C. Using these properties, some gardeners sow the crop as soon as the soil warms up to + 3 ... + 4 ° С. But for such early crops, as well as for subwinter crops, you need to choose early ripening varieties of carrots. And they get seedlings on the 20th - 30th day.

It is still considered the best for sowing carrots to warm up 10-15 cm of the soil layer to + 8 ... + 10 ° С. In this case, seedlings appear on the 12th - 15th day. If the initial period of carrot development takes place at low temperatures, the plants will bloom in the first year, and the root crop will be rough and tasteless. The optimum temperature ranges from + 17 ... + 24 ° С. With an increase of more than + 25 ° C, metabolic processes in the root crop slow down, the carrot root crop becomes fibrous. It is necessary to reduce the temperature of the soil by irrigation and mulching, and the temperature of the air - by fine spraying (fog-like irrigation).

With a properly prepared plot, the taste of carrot root crops depends on the supply of basic nutrients (and their proper ratio), microelements, moisture, stand density and varieties during the growing season.

Top dressing carrots

Carrots do not tolerate overfeeding and reacts to it with a decrease in the quality of root crops, especially when there is an excess of nitrogen fertilizers. The root vegetable pulp becomes tasteless. But carrots need a good supply of potassium, which contributes to the accumulation of sugars in root crops, increases the shelf life and overall yield. Of potash fertilizers, it is better to use kalimag. It is chlorine-free.

During the warm period, carrots are fed 2-3 times, sometimes on depleted soils - 4 times.

The first feeding of carrots

3 weeks after sprouting of carrots - with a solution of kalimag and urea (15 g / 10 l of water each). You can add 20 g of superphosphate to the solution. With sufficient filling of the soil with fertilizers in the autumn-spring preparation, the first top dressing can be carried out later, in the phase of 5-6 leaves.

Second feeding of carrots

After 2-3 weeks, the second top dressing is performed by introducing kemira-wagon (50-60 g / sq. M), nitrophoska, Rost-2, soluble in the same dose.

The third feeding of carrots

The next top dressing is carried out after 2-3 weeks (in the growth phase of the root crop) with ash (on wet soil) at the rate of 20 g / sq. m or a mixture of trace elements. The growth phase of the root crop occurs at the end of June – July.

For the fruits to be sweet with tender pulp between 2 and 3 feeding, foliar boric acid solution (2 g / 10 l of water) is effective. Potassium is very important in the composition of elements, which contributes to the delivery of nutrients to root crops. Therefore, 3 top dressing can be carried out with phosphorus-potassium fats at the rate of 30 and 40 g / sq., Respectively. m.

Fourth feeding of carrots

On depleted soils, if required, the 4th top dressing is carried out, which falls on the ripening phase of the root crop. It is, most often, carried out with the aim of enlarging the fruit. It is usually carried out in early to mid September (depending on the ripening period of the variety). This top dressing can be carried out with the same fats and doses as the third, or in a different combination, but excluding nitrogen fertilizers.

Dense planting of carrots

Small, bitter, woody fruits of carrots are obtained with a lack of moisture, especially during the period from sowing to germination, and in the phase of intensive growth of root crops. Before germination, the topsoil is made constantly wet. Watering during this period is best done in the evening, mulch aisles with fine mulch no higher than 2–3 cm. If the humidity regime fluctuates and excessively abundant watering, carrots can form a large root crop, but it will be tasteless and full of cracks.

After germination, the culture is watered weekly until the root crops grow, and then they switch to watering 2-3 times a month, but the irrigation rate is increased. Mulching the carrots is mandatory after each watering. It prevents crust formation and reduces the temperature of the topsoil. Watering is stopped 2 weeks before harvesting.

Carrot thinning rules

Aligned carrot roots grow with the correct 2-3-fold thinning. The first thinning is carried out after the appearance of the 3rd leaf. Before thinning, the aisles are loosened and watering is carried out. The sprouts are removed with plucking or tweezers, but do not pull out, so as not to disturb the root system of the remaining plants.

Waste is removed away from the garden so as not to attract a carrot fly. To scare it away after thinning in the aisles, you can scatter onion arrows or cover the plants. After 2.5-3.0 weeks, the crops are thinned again, increasing the distance between the plants from 2 to 6 cm.

The 3rd thinning is actually the sampling of the first crop. Carrots are demanding on the air regime of the soil. Once every 7-10 days, the aisles of the carrots are loosened, stirring up the mulch.

Carrot varieties

To grow sweet carrots, you need to pick up a zoned variety with a certain quality of the root crop. Breeders offer a wide range of seeds of early, medium and late ripening periods with a high content of sugars, characterized by dessert taste, long shelf life and other qualities.

For growing in the country, you can recommend universal varieties: Chantane, Nantes-4, Karotelka. Resistant, unpretentious varieties. Nantes-4 can be used for winter crops. For all regions of Russia, the Moscow winter A-545 variety is suitable. The early ripening variety Polar cranberry forms a harvest in 2 months and is recommended for cultivation in northern latitudes due to its qualities.

In families with small children, the following varieties are irreplaceable: Vitamin-6, Viking and Sugar gourmet, Children's sweetness, which are characterized by a high content of carotene and sugar. Sugar gourmet is one of the sweetest varieties of carrots. Baby sweetness keeps well until the next harvest. If necessary, in the annual catalog of varieties and hybrids, you can pick up a root crop with the desired quality.

Growing carrots in the country, at first glance, is not at all a difficult task, but experienced gardeners know that this is not always the case. Today I will share the secrets of growing carrots and how to grow large and sweet root vegetables.

Like other cultures, this underground beauty has a number of specific requirements. So, carrots are very demanding on light and cannot stand even a little shading. Compared to other root crops, it is a more drought-resistant plant. But at the same time, carrots are a cold-resistant crop. It retains its viability even during prolonged cold weather and easily tolerates frost.

The quality of root crops directly depends on the type of soil. Therefore, for carrots they choose fertile, light-textured soils with a deep "arable layer" and good drainage. The most suitable are soils of sandy loam and light loamy type with a slightly acidic or close to neutral environment.

By the way, do you know why the "arable layer" is in quotation marks? Yes, because in eco-agriculture this layer is formed not under the influence of deep plowing or digging, but with the help of the roots of green manure, weeds and cultivated plants, worms, as well as microorganisms. The eco-farmer's helpers structure the soil so thoroughly that no plow and shovel can match them.

Well, this is a small digression, but now I continue on how to grow carrots.

Carrots, unlike other vegetable crops, are unpretentious to the previous owners of the garden. However, the best precursors to carrots are cucumber, squash, tomato, cabbage, potatoes, garlic, onions, all legumes.

In the same place, carrots should be grown for no more than 3 years.

VERY IMPORTANT! This article provides information on growing carrots in a relatively traditional way (only mineral fertilizers are replaced with organic ones). But in the article “Choosing carrot neighbors for a good harvest. Growing carrot seeds ”a video is given where it is very well told about how to grow excellent root crops using the most natural organic farming. In addition, you will also learn about the cultivation of onions, celery and radishes. So after reading this article, I advise you to watch that video as well.

Soil preparation
The garden for growing carrots is prepared in the fall. For this, stones are selected from the soil that will interfere with the growth of root crops. Compost or humus (10 liters per 1 m2) is introduced into poor soils, chalk into acidic soils, peat, river sand and sawdust into heavy soils. You can cover the garden with mulch or sow green manure.

In the spring, 7-10 days before sowing, use a rake to break up the lumps (if any) and level the surface of the ridge. Then it is spilled with water (+ 30 ... + 40 ° С) and covered with a film that will protect the soil from drying out and allow it to warm up well.

Preparing carrot seeds for sowing

Well, preparing a bed is only half the battle. The preparation of the seeds themselves is also important.

The peculiarity of carrot seeds is that they have a low germination rate (only 55-75%) and lose it quite quickly. Therefore, it is better to take fresh seeds for sowing. When using 2-4 year old seeds, the seeds should be tested for germination.

Seedlings of carrots appear long and uneventfully, about 15-20 days after sowing. This is due to the presence of essential oils in the seeds, which prevent the penetration of moisture, as a result of which the processes of swelling and germination of seeds are slowed down. The seeds germinate after the essential oils have been washed off the shell. If the spring is dry, then the germination of carrots may be delayed. Therefore, carrot seeds need preliminary preparation, which is carried out immediately before sowing.

Pre-sowing seed preparation methods:

Soak
Tissue bags with seeds are immersed in warm water (+ 30 ° C) for a day, changing it every 4 hours.

For soaking, you can use a nutrient solution of wood ash in water (1 tablespoon per 1 liter). After soaking, the seeds are rinsed in clean water.

Good results are obtained when steeping and hardening are combined. To do this, wet bags with seeds are kept in the refrigerator for 2-5 days.

Heat treatment of carrot seeds
The bags with seeds are immersed in hot water (+ 50 ° С) for 20 minutes, and then in cold water for 2 minutes.

Bubbling
How bubbling is carried out has already been described in an article on growing cucumber seedlings.

Burying in the soil
Cloth bags with dry seeds are buried for 10-12 days in cold soil on the bayonet of a shovel. Seeds processed in this way sprout in 4-5 days.

You can also mix carrot seeds with wet peat. The mixture is placed in heat for a week until the seeds germinate and then sown as usual.

After using one of the listed methods, the seeds are slightly dried at room temperature (20-25 minutes) to make it easier to sow and sow in the ground.

Sowing carrots

Growing carrots is carried out in a seedless way. The timing of sowing carrots in open ground is as follows:

• in spring: late April - early May and the first decade of June;
• for the winter: the second half of October - early November and early December (on frozen ground).

Carrot seeds are small and difficult to sow. A little trick will help to avoid thickening of crops. To do this, mix 1 teaspoon of carrot seeds (without a slide) with 1 glass of sand and sow an area of ​​10 m2.

For carrots, it is better to use narrow beds, in which no more than 4 grooves are usually made.

If you plan to grow only one carrot in the garden, then the sowing technology will be as follows.In the spring, before sowing, grooves are cut on the prepared ridge at a distance of 15 cm (for early and middle varieties) and 20 cm (for late varieties). The grooves are spilled with water (in colder regions with hot water (+ 45 ... + 50 ° С)), powdered with ash, and seeds are sown in them with a step of 1 cm.

The condition of the seeds and the seeding depth depend on the season. For spring and summer crops, swollen seeds are used, which are sown to a depth of 3-4 cm. The grooves are sprinkled with soil, and on top with mulch (peat or humus). After sowing, the bed is covered with a film (it is placed on bricks) at a level of 5 cm from the surface of the ridge.

When sowing carrots before winter, dry seeds of early varieties are used, which are sown to a depth of 1-2 cm.The thickness of the mulching layer is 3-4 cm.

Sowing for the winter is carried out when the soil temperature drops below + 5 ° C. In winters with little snow, ridges with podzimny crops of carrots are additionally covered with snow (if it turns out to organize a layer of snow 40-50 cm - good). Such crops yield a harvest 2 weeks earlier.

Care when growing carrots

Carrot care is organized taking into account the following requirements:

Temperature regime
Carrot seeds germinate at a temperature of + 3 ... + 5 ° C. Temperature + 20 ... + 22 ° С ensures normal growth and formation of root crops and is considered optimal for carrots.

Young plants can withstand frosts down to -3 ... -4 ° С, dying at temperatures below -6 ° С for a long period. Leaves of mature plants freeze at -8 ° C.

Watering
The frequency and amount of watering depends on the age of the plants and weather conditions. Usually, carrots are watered once a week:

• at the beginning of the growing season, plants are watered at the rate of 3 liters of water per 1 m2;
• after the second thinning, the volume is increased to 10 liters per 1 m2;
• during the growth of root crops - 20 liters per 1 m2.

1.5-2 months before harvesting root crops, watering is carried out once every 1.5-2 weeks at the rate of 10 liters per 1 m2, and 2-3 weeks before harvesting, watering is completely stopped.

When growing this crop, it is very important to monitor soil moisture, avoiding excess and lack of moisture. Even for a short time, carrots cannot tolerate excessive moisture, which causes root decay. With prolonged drought, carrot root crops do not develop, which leads to a decrease in yield.

On the other hand, you can do almost without watering carrots. When exactly? Watch the video:

(you may have already seen the same video in the article on storing carrots, but I decided to give it here as well).

Weeding
Seedlings of carrots develop slowly and are quickly covered by weeds. To prevent weeds from inhibiting the growth and development of young plants, they must be removed. The first weeding is carried out after about 10-12 days, when the first true leaf appears in the plants. The second - after 8-10 days, when the next true leaf appears.

Weeding is carried out after watering or rain and is combined with thinning seedlings and loosening the soil.

Top dressing
3-4 weeks after the germination of seeds and the appearance of the first shoots, the first feeding is carried out with an aqueous solution of mullein, chicken droppings, ash or humus (1:10). If necessary, during the period of plant growth and the formation of root crops, feeding is repeated. If you have been using organic farming for several years and a good layer of humus has formed on the beds, then you can do without top dressing.

Thickened crops of carrots are thinned out twice: 10-12 and 18-22 days after germination. After the first thinning, the distance between neighboring plants should be 2-3 cm, after the second - 4-5 cm. It is recommended to thin out in the morning. After thinning, the garden bed is watered. It is also useful to treat the soil with ground red pepper (hot, pungent or bitter). This will muffle the smell of the carrots and protect the plants from carrot flies. Another way to protect yourself from carrot flies can provide a combined planting with onions, but that's another story, which I'll tell you about in the next article.

And do not neglect mulching, as it will save you time and effort.

How to grow a good harvest of carrots
To get good carrots, it is necessary to strictly observe the agricultural technology of this crop.

Many factors influence the quality of root crops during cultivation. For example:

• with a lack of light, carrots form small roots;
• dense, stony and heavy clay soils prevent root crops from developing normally. Root vegetables are ugly in shape and taste rough;
• carrots grown in acidic soils have no sweetness;
• excessive moisture and thinned crops lead to overgrowth of root crops, they are deformed and coarse, which reduces their quality. Therefore, you should not chase large carrots;
• with prolonged drought, carrots become coarse and less juicy;
• if prolonged rains come to replace a prolonged drought, massive cracking and deformation of root crops is observed;
• damage to roots during thinning, as well as the introduction of fresh manure into the soil, cause branching and curvature of root crops.

Growing carrots shouldn't be too difficult for you. At least I talked about many factors that can in one way or another affect the cultivation of carrots and the quality of its root crops. Given this information, you are more likely to grow a good crop.

I wish you large and sweet root vegetables!

I advise, dear readers, not to miss the publication of new materials on this blog.

Best wishes, Gardensha