At first glance, growing carrots is quite simple - dig up a bed, sow seeds, water a couple of times and wait for the harvest. Alas, this is not so, and such "lazy" agricultural technology will lead to crooked and tasteless fruits. You also need to know how to plant carrots correctly.
Where to plant carrots
Beds for spring sowing of carrots should be prepared in the fall. This root crop does not have many requirements, but it is worth observing them all, since an incorrectly chosen place will lead to a decrease in the yield and taste of carrots.
Choosing a place for carrots
Carrots are one of those vegetables that should be in direct sunlight all day long. Therefore, the most illuminated place on the site should be allocated for the beds. In addition, it prefers loose neutral soils, and on heavy or acidic soil it becomes covered with a "beard" and deformed.
Preparing a bed for carrots
After you have decided on the planting site, you need to take care of the quality of the soil for carrots. This is done in September and consists of several stages:
- removing weeds and plant residues from previous plantings;
- digging up the bed;
- applying organic loosening agents (peat, sand, humus);
- deoxidizing the soil if necessary with dolomite flour, slaked lime (fluff) or ash.
Important! Carrots do not tolerate fresh manure, it makes them bitter, with a thick skin and grows mainly tops, not roots.
Planting carrots
The correct timing of sowing carrots affects not only the harvest time, but also its quality. There is no single sowing date that would suit all varieties and regions, so you need to understand what kind of variety you are planting and how you expect to use it.
When to sow carrots
The sowing time for carrots should always be indicated on the seed packet, but if you grew the seeds yourself or bought them second-hand, focus on the following periods.
Carrots for fresh consumption in summer ("bunch products") are sown in early spring, as soon as the top layer of soil warms up and dries, or before winter. However, winter sowing is only suitable for residents of those regions where winters are not frosty and with heavy snowfalls - otherwise the seeds will die even under a thick layer of mulch.
Carrots for storage should be sown in the second half of May, when the air warms up to a stable 15-18°C, and night frosts have passed, or in the 20th of June (by the way, with such late sowing, the carrot fly does not damage the plants).
Preparing and sowing seeds
Pre-sowing preparation of carrot seeds is quite simple, but it allows you to speed up the emergence of seedlings by 5-7 days. First, discard the illiquid seeds by pouring warm water over the seeds and leaving them for 10 hours. Those that float on the surface after the expiration date are unsuitable for sowing and can be thrown away.
High-quality seeds should be laid out on wet gauze or a cotton pad and left for 2-3 days, periodically re-moistening. After this, the seeds will develop small roots, and they will be ready for sowing.
The carrot bed should be loosened in advance, rake holes 2-3 cm deep, 15 cm apart and watered. Then you can start sowing, choosing warm, windless weather for this. Some gardeners try to immediately spread the seeds at a distance of 2-3 cm from each other, while others sow as they come. In the second case, the carrots will need to be thinned out at least twice per season. After sowing, the holes are covered with soil or peat, watered again and in cool weather covered with film or spunbond until shoots appear.
Carrot care
The most destructive thing for carrot shoots is the proximity of weeds and the crust that forms on the ground. Both can significantly spoil your harvest even before the first carrot leaves appear above the ground. To avoid this, weed and loosen the bed if you see that it is overgrown with grass or has become hard. By the way, you need to loosen the carrots often, because beautiful, even root crops can only be obtained in light soil.
Watering
Without watering, carrots become lethargic and bitter, and they react negatively to both constant under-watering and periodic droughts. However, they will not be happy with the appearance of a "swamp" either - this crop prefers stability and moderation.
To prevent your carrots from drying out right in the bed and from cracking from an abundance of moisture, make it a rule to water them once every 5-7 days to a depth corresponding to the length of the root crop. While the carrots are young and thin, it is enough to soak the soil to a depth of 5-7 cm, but adult carrots need to be watered so that 30 cm from the soil surface is moistened.
Carrot fertilizing
In normal soil, it is enough to fertilize carrots twice per season - the first time 3 weeks after emergence, the second time - a month after the first. For normal growth of the root crop, any of the following fertilizing is suitable:
- 1 tbsp. nitrophoska per 10 liters of water;
- 2 cups of wood ash per 10 liters of water;
- 20 g of potassium nitrate, 15 g of urea and 15 g of double superphosphate per 10 liters of water.
Carrot thinning
In order for carrots to grow large, the distance between root crops must be constantly monitored, preventing the plantings from becoming too dense. The first thinning of carrots is carried out in the phase of appearance of the first pair of true leaves, leaving 3 cm between the shoots.
The second time, carrots are thinned when they have developed 2 pairs of full leaves. Then the distance between the plants is about 6 cm.
Diseases and pests of carrots
Most often, carrots are damaged by the carrot fly, which is attracted by the aromatic tops of this crop. Prevention of the invasion is proper cultivation, sparse plantings, and the absence of stagnant moisture in the soil. If this does not help and the carrot leaves begin to curl, which is the first sign of the appearance of a pest, you need to treat the plantings with Inta-Vir, Iskra or Fufanon-Nova according to the instructions.
The most common carrot diseases are various types of rot: phomosis, sclerotinia, alternaria, botrytium and bacteriosis. Prevention of these diseases is careful crop rotation and removal of plant debris from the beds, but each disease has its own treatment.
Storing carrots
In order for carrots to last all winter, you need to not only choose the right variety, but also properly organize the harvesting and storage of the crop. A month before harvesting, stop watering the root crops, and choose a dry, warm day for the process itself.
The root crops are carefully dug up with a pitchfork, dried in the shade, shaken off the soil and cut off the tops, leaving literally a couple of millimeters. A storage with a stable temperature of 0-2 ° C and high humidity is suitable for carrots.
The harvested root crops are laid in layers in boxes, sprinkled with sand or sawdust so that they do not touch, or stored in bags. Remember that at the slightest increase in temperature, the carrots will begin to sprout, so periodically inspect your supplies and remove those fruits that can no longer be stored.