So that the carrot grows big what to do. Growing carrots: the secrets of fruitful beds

Carrots are the most popular vegetable among consumers. It can be purchased on store shelves all year round. But the root crop 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 in the country, or fertilized later directly into the hole. We will talk about how to properly care for carrots, how much and what kind of fertilizer to apply, about the little tricks of manure and humus, how to carry out frequent watering and how to love a plant we will tell in the article.

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

1. early spring sowing April 15 to May 15. Throughout June, you can already collect carrots in a bunch, and with the advent of August, enjoy sweet root crops.
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. Podzimny sowing from October 20 to November 15 allows you to use a young root crop before the main harvest. The main thing is to choose the right place for the beds - it should be on a hill so that the spring snowmelt does not drown the seeds.

If you sow at all possible times, 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. She is not yet able to harm the crop in the garden, the vegetables will be better.

Choosing a place for a garden bed

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 beds, the gardener should consider:

• This vegetable crop is growing very well. in a bright area;
• fertile loamy-sandy soil with 4% humus and neutral acidity 6-7 pH;
• previously, potatoes, tomatoes, corn and legumes were grown at the place of sowing;
• do not use beds for growing, where spicy herbs grew before (dill, parsley, fennel, etc.);
• it is forbidden plant a vegetable in the same area 2 consecutive years.

Large root crops of the correct form grow on peat soils, which were formed after the drying of the marshes. And on clay soil, carrots will take on an ugly shape due to strong growth resistance.

Before freezing, a plot for vegetables is necessary dig, remove roots and stones. But do not drive the shovel too deep into the ground and destroy the fertile layer. Dig should be to a depth of about 0.3 meters. With the onset of spring, level and loosen the surface deeply.

How to plant seeds for good seedlings

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

1. Sowing seeds considered the fastest way. The gardener simply scatters the dry seed into the prepared beds. At the same time, seed consumption cannot be called economical, and seedlings will be too thick and uneven.
2. Dragee- these are seeds placed in a nutrient shell, seedlings are friendly and strong. Their sowing consists in point distribution in small pits. The cost of pelleted seeds is higher, but you don’t have to spend time on thinning.
3. Pre germinated seeds give rapid growth. But in the absence of rain, you will have to water ahead of time, the sprouts are too weak and unable to cope with the pressure of the earth.
4. Roll method involves gluing small seeds onto long strips of paper. To plant, you only need to spread the strips in the garden, dig in with earth and water well and fertilize. Shoots will appear evenly, but a little later.
5. Liquid paste cook from potato starch, cool to room temperature and mix with mineral fertilizers. Pour the 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 landings.

Regardless of the chosen method of planting, it is better to sow the seeds less often, so that further thinning is not carried out.

You can cover with foil for 2-3 weeks before the appearance of the first shoots. Thus, weeds will not interfere with the growth of plants, and a crust will not form on the soil, preventing the penetration of moisture 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 it's better to keep 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 already at the stage of seed preparation use specialized plant growth stimulants. But to obtain an environmentally friendly crop, this is not recommended.

Carrot care tips after planting

Carrot belongs to tight growing and slow growing vegetable crops. Do not think that after sowing it, you can forget about the beds until the harvest.

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

Fertilizers, dressings and folk remedies

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

The plant needs top dressing during the entire growing season.

So, first time feed the vegetable a month after the inputs. At 10 l. water dissolve 1 tbsp. l. nitrophoska is a classic mineral fertilizer containing nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. The same solution is used 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 tincture of ash. To prepare it, it is necessary to pour 150 g of dry ash into a bucket of water in parts. Stir the mixture until the ashes are completely dissolved. At 10 l. dilute 1 liter of water. tinctures and this liquid to feed and water the roots of carrots or beets during the second half of the growing season.

How to water during growing season

When growing roots special meaning the irrigation system plays. Indeed, with insufficient soil moisture, the young roots of the plant will die, and overflowing the beds will lead to the fact that only livestock can eat the crop.

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

1. The method used to stimulate inputs is sprinkling(300-400 m3/ha), and after - several tricks drip irrigation(20-30 m3/ha).
2. After the appearance of the entrances, depending on the 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 (1 time in 7-10 days), but moisture should 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 desirable to moisten the soil a little. In this way, the process is facilitated and the harvest improves the ability to keep fresh.

Correct weeding

One of the most disliked things gardeners do is weeding beds. But you can’t do without this tedious task, 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 lay 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 wait for the emergence of seedlings.

After 10-15 days, the plant appears first true leaf- This is a signal to start weeding. The procedure must be done very carefully so as not to capture cultural sprouts along with weeds.

When the 2nd leaf is formed, weeding combined with thinning if the sowing was carried out chaotically and the plantings were thickened. There should be a distance of 2-3 cm between 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.

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

During the entire period of growth between the beds and plants, weeds must be weeded and the soil loosened. A month after the first thinning, repeat the procedure so that there is a distance of 4-5 cm between the root crops, but already pulled vegetables 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 tasty and crispy vegetable will be in the daily diet of the whole family, it will give all its nutrients and trace elements.

Even experienced gardeners have incidents with carrots - either they didn’t sprout, or they disfigured them badly, or even the root crops turned out to be ugly and tasteless. Growing carrots is a delicate matter and, despite its apparent simplicity, is replete with many nuances. With this vegetable, a negative result can be evidence of both a lack of care and excessive diligence. We propose to consider what mistakes in the cultivation of crops are made most often and how to avoid them.

Carrots are delicate!

Site selection and garden preparation

The climatic conditions of Central Russia are ideal for growing carrots in the open field - it turns out dense, juicy, sweet. For crops, an open area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe garden is chosen so that a lot of sun falls on it - in the shade, the plants stretch out, grow with large tops and small root crops. The earth needs loose, sandy loam is better, with a neutral reaction of the soil solution. Considering that ideal conditions are rare in nature, you can make a fruitful bed yourself. Clay soils are loosened and enriched - humus, compost, peat, leafy soil, river sand are added to them.

When deciding where to grow carrots, advanced gardeners create special organic beds, with an airy structure, very light. The soil is dug up before winter, acidity is reduced by liming, mineral fertilizers are applied: nitrogen (20–30 g / m²), superphosphate (40–50 g / m²), potassium salt (40–50 g / m²). With organic matter, you need to be more careful, because root crops cannot stand fresh manure. They are suitable for areas fertilized a year earlier - after cucumber, zucchini, potatoes, cabbage. Typical mistakes:

• Digging is carried out in the spring. This violates the structure, reduces the natural moisture content of the soil. Seeds, being at a depth of 2–3 cm, do not receive capillary moisture and significantly lose their germination capacity.
• They add a lot of nitrogen. Carrots overfed with nitrogen contain a lot of nitrates, taste worse, and are poorly stored.

It is important! No matter how hard you try, but on acidic soil (pH below 6-6.5) you will not be able to grow sweet carrots. An acidic environment prevents the absorption of valuable trace elements, including phosphorus and potassium. Given the characteristics of the culture, liming the soil can only be carried out in winter - before the autumn digging.

seed requirements

Efficient carrot cultivation technologies are unthinkable without high-quality seed material. When choosing a variety or hybrid, pay attention to the ripening time, soil requirements, moisture, correlate this with the conditions of your region. Coated seeds do not need additional preparation, but they have a feature - watering the soil before and after sowing. It is necessary that the multi-layered shell be able to get wet, without this the seed will not receive the necessary nutrition and water, respectively, will not germinate. Encrusted and primed seeds are sown dry. But the usual ones need to be prepared for sowing - pre-soak, disinfect, stimulate with growth regulators. There are many procedures, their main function is to accelerate the emergence of seedlings.

Typical mistakes:

• Sowing with dry untreated seeds. They sprout for a long time, and if they have sown in the cold ground, they can sprout.
• Dried seeds do not germinate. There is not enough moisture to dissolve the granule.

The subtleties of sowing

The secrets of growing carrots at this stage are in the correct determination of the timing and sowing technology. To get an early harvest for summer consumption, carrots are sown as soon as the soil is shaken and warmed up to 6–8⁰ C. With winter sowing, the ripening time can be accelerated by 1–2 weeks. In order to get high-quality and long-term root crops for laying for the winter, the sowing dates are shifted by about 1–1.5 months - by the first decade of June.

Sow carrots shallowly (1.5–2 cm), placing them in rows, 12–15 cm ribbons or wide ridges. The bottom of the seed furrow must be compacted, moistened, and only after that the seeds are laid out. From above they are covered with a dry substrate - earth from the garden, humus, mulch from rotted organic matter. Sowing methods for growing carrots recommend sparse or precise. They require extra cost and patience, but they will pay off handsomely at harvest time and save you time on thinning.

Typical mistakes:

• The furrows were cut, but not compacted, not watered. The seeds lay unevenly, rolled under clods of earth, did not receive the necessary moisture - seedlings are uneven, unfriendly. The tip of the root died from drying out - a forked root crop will grow.

From seeding to seedlings

The main thing in growing carrots from sowing to shoots is to save moisture. Beginning gardeners, seeing that seedlings do not appear, resort to watering. A crust forms on top of the soil, then it becomes covered with cracks, through which water evaporates intensively. How to deal with it? Firstly, if the principle of “dry on wet” is observed during sowing, then the top layer will reliably retain moisture. Secondly, when a crust appears, surface loosening is carried out with a rake. To make rows of carrots appear earlier, mix radishes, lettuce, spinach with seeds - they will act as beacons.

Typical mistakes:

• Watering until shoots. The achene does not have enough strength to break through the formed crust - shoots are weak, uneven, delayed.

plant care

The technology of growing carrots at the care stage includes such mandatory activities as weeding, loosening, thinning, watering and fertilizing. The thinning procedure is excluded if sparse or precision sowing was used. In this case, if there is a need, the density is adjusted during weeding.

thinning

The first thinning is carried out with the formation of 2-3 leaves. Weaker shoots are removed, leaving an interval of 2 cm between the remaining ones. The carrots are broken for the second time when the root crop grows up to 1.2–1.5 cm in diameter, leaving the plants after 4–6 cm. How to grow large and even carrots depends , including from the secrets of thinning.

• You need to pull out the excess carefully, without damaging the growing seedling nearby. A damaged root crop starts a new root at the site of injury, that is, it bifurcates.
• If you like large carrots, leave the plants less often. To get aligned root crops, they must sit shoulder to shoulder in the ground.
• Carry out any weeding on soft soil - after rain or watering.

Note! During thinning, a spicy aroma rises above the bed, attracting carrot flies. To protect plantings from the pest, remove weeding waste in a timely manner, work early in the morning or in the evening.

Typical mistakes:

• Thickened crop. Instead of high-quality root crops, you will get “mouse tails”.
• Sparse sowing. Non-standard products, large specimens can produce side shoots, growths.

Watering

How to water carrots is the most controversial issue in crop cultivation technology. Supporters of traditional farming recommend doing this infrequently - 4-5 times per season, but plentifully. Water should wet the soil by 40 centimeters, which is 50-60 l / m². The first watering is carried out immediately after the shoots, then - approximately every 15-20 days. In natural farming, watering is not welcome. Seedlings need abundant moisture until 5-6 true leaves appear. After the first thinning, the beds are mulched with a layer of 5-7 cm and not watered at all or extremely rarely - in the case of a dry summer. There is an explanation for this - the roots of carrots (not to be confused with the root crop!) Reach 2–2.5 m and can provide themselves with the necessary moisture.

In any case, watering must be stopped completely at least a month before harvesting.

Note! How to grow large carrots, if there is no way without watering, but there is no water? Plant late-ripening varieties. In autumn it will rain, dew will fall, fogs will fall and the root crop will have time to catch up.

Typical mistakes:

• Frequent but shallow watering. The root crop, in order to receive moisture and nutrition from the upper layers of the soil, begins to grow lateral roots. As a result, "hairy" carrots grow.
• Uneven hydration. If after a long period of drought, give abundant watering, there is a high probability of longitudinal cracking of root crops.

top dressing

Root feeding of carrots is necessary if the full rate of fertilizer was not applied before sowing. They are effective in combination with watering. They are timed to coincide with the end of the breakthrough, that is, 2-3 times per season. We need balanced fertilizers for root crops, such as Agricola, Bona Forte, Fertika (universal).

Typical mistakes:

• Lack of fertilizer. In depleted soil, the roots will be small, from a lack of potassium, the pulp becomes dense and hard, without phosphorus, it will not pick up sweetness.

Cleaning

The answer to the question of how to grow sweet carrots often depends on the nuances of harvesting. It is impossible to dig out early, because in the last month of the growing season, the vegetable is intensively gaining sugar. But it is even more dangerous to overexpose carrots in the garden. A root crop that has sat in the ground begins to grow young roots, becomes hard, and begins to taste bitter. To avoid such mistakes, when sowing, pay attention to the growing season of the variety and stick to them.

Typical mistakes:

• Early planting varieties with a short growing season. If the ripening dates came by the end of August, and the root crops were removed a month later, you will get woody, hairy from the roots and tasteless carrots.

Covered ground technologies

Being a plant with a long daylight hours, carrots are not the most popular indoor crop. Nevertheless, growing carrots in a greenhouse allows you to get additional crops of a vitamin vegetable out of season.

What nuances should be remembered?

1. Early ripe varieties with a short growing season are suitable for sowing in greenhouse conditions, for example, Minicor (88–90 days), Saturno F1 (50–55), Amsterdam (80–85).
2. If you sow carrots in February-March, the roots will ripen by May. The second time is planted no earlier than August and the vitamin harvest is taken during December-January.
3. Until mid-February, while daylight hours last less than 10 hours, additional lighting with fluorescent lamps must be used.

Otherwise, care is not much different from open ground technologies. Although you should not count on high yields in a greenhouse, young vegetables with tender, crispy flesh diversify your table and eliminate the need for long-term storage.

Carrots in high beds:

Carrots are a rather finicky vegetable that is able to respond to unaccounted for nuances in the growing process with a strange-looking crop and disappointingly low yield. Carrot care in the open field implies a strict sequence in each of the points of the successive stages of root development, and missing one of the points means jeopardizing all the work expended. How to care for carrots correctly?

How to grow carrots the right way? High yields begin with the preparation of the soil for planting, and initial preparations should be made in the fall. A flat place is chosen in the garden, sufficiently illuminated by the sun during daylight hours and, preferably, previously used for planting cucumbers, white cabbage or cereals. Depending on what kind of soil carrots like, namely, neutral or slightly acidic, the alkaline balance of the soil is regulated.

First, you need to assess whether the soil is suitable for carrots in terms of this indicator. The easiest way is to collect a pinch of earth from the desired area on a piece of clean glass and pour it with table vinegar. Alkaline and slightly acidic environments will react with strong or moderate protrusion of foam (as when soda is extinguished), while acidic ones will not show changes.

You can also pay attention to the clogging of the area with grass:

• neutral soils are rich in lush long vegetation: nettle, quinoa, clover;
• acidic soils, on which it is impossible to grow sweet carrots, will abound in mint, horsetail, violet and buttercup;
• on the ground with low acidity, there will be burdock, alfalfa, small pharmacy chamomile and thistle;
• alkaline environment, the poorest and also not very suitable for growing carrots in the open ground, as well as acidic, it is characterized by: poppy, sweet clover, bindweed.

The second task in the question of how to grow a good crop of carrots is to create conditions for saturating the soil with oxygen. This is required so that the carrot tastes sweet and grows slender in length, and does not go horned and squirm in all directions, bumping into the firmament of unloosened earth. A clumsy carrot occurs when a vegetable begins to branch out in search of a convenient direction and softer soil, and not sweet - due to lack of air.

Light fluffy soil, not clogged with clay, is enough to work out with a garden rake, and hard, caked layers must be completely broken by deep digging.

How to plant carrots

How to grow carrots in even rows and evenly distributed along the groove? In order to get a good harvest, the vegetables should not sit tight to each other, which means that a distance must be maintained between the seeds that is convenient for thinning later. There are many such convenient ways in agricultural technology:

• with a mixture of flour and water, to a strip from a paper towel or napkin, the seeds are glued at a distance of 2-3 cm from each other, then these tapes are inserted directly into the grooves after preplant irrigation;
• combine the contents of a bag of seeds with 1 glass of clean sand, mix everything and this mass is injected into a dug groove in a thin stream;
• two tablespoons of starch are boiled in a liter of water and this barely warm substance, with the seeds added to it, is poured into the prepared grooves;
• most gardeners, when planting this crop, traditionally plant seeds in the soil with a distance of about 4 cm and a gap between rows of 15 cm.

What to do immediately after landing? The bed is covered with polyethylene, which is held until the first shoots appear. The vegetable is quite tolerant of low temperatures and even soil frosts, but prolonged cold is the reason why carrots go to the arrow to the detriment of root development.

Watering carrots

Carrots in the open field do not require as much regular as uniform watering - it does not matter to the plant how often the soil is moistened, but the moisture level should be constant and unchanged. Deviation from the level of water saturation in the soil that is comfortable for the root crop leads to pathologies of root formation:

• surface and slight soil moisture leads to the formation of a woody rhizome - the pale core of such a vegetable tastes bitter, and the carrot itself sometimes grows to bulky shapeless balls;
• when growing carrots, it is also dangerous to oversaturate the soil with watering - there is a risk of getting nondescript twisted freaks with branchy tops.

One of the signs of improper and uneven watering is a horned carrot that has two or more root forks. To avoid mistakes of this kind, it is better to water the root crops, adhering to the approximate scheme:

• when the first shoots appear, 7-8 irrigations are carried out during the month, 6 liters of water per 1 m 2 of the plot;
• in the first month of summer, the rate increases to 11-12 liters, multiplied by 5-6 irrigations;
• in July, there should be only about five waterings, but 13-15 liters per square meter;
• the onset of August entails a decrease in water consumption and labor costs - carrots are already growing on two irrigations of 6 liters of water each.

14-20 days before the day scheduled for harvesting, watering is stopped. Then a single moistening of the soil is carried out to facilitate the digging process.

Weeding and thinning carrots

Growing carrots in the open field should be accompanied by repeated weeding, especially in the period before germination, when weeds with powerful rhizomes may not allow the vegetable crop to sprout. Weeds should not be allowed to grow too tall - late weeding is one of the reasons why gardeners do not count subsequently a useful crop, because along with the grass, young tops of a vegetable that has not been grown are also in the common heap.

How to get high yields with regular weeding? There are two theories equally substantiated by the experience of gardeners on how to weed a vegetable:

• after watering or rain - thus, the weeds are easily pulled out with the entire root system;
• before watering, when the ground is dry - in this case, thin grass roots remain in the ground and dry out, which prevents the germination of new weeds.

Another mandatory procedure, without which the cultivation and care of this crop in the open field is impossible, is the competent thinning of plants in the garden. When the seeds are initially planted with the same distance from each other of 2-3 cm, thinning is a rather corrective procedure and is not always necessary. Solid sowing in any of the ways, when the seeds went randomly into the furrow, in the long term always means one or two stages of breaking through the excess shoots. Should it be done? Necessarily. The first thinning is carried out immediately, as soon as individual leaves can be distinguished from the hatched greens.

Often the answer to the question: why do carrots grow ugly lies precisely in the wrong actions when removing extra sprouts.

There are certain secrets of how to perform this simple operation correctly.

What to do and in what sequence to perform actions:

• before thinning, the beds should be shed abundantly from a garden watering can;
• the sprout should not be pulled, but pulled straight up from the ground, without swinging it;
• it is necessary that there be a distance of 3 or 4 cm between the saved bushes;
• immediately after the procedure, the garden is watered with warm water.

At the same stage, it is customary to carry out the first hilling of carrots and the first loosening between rows. And, if the second part of the algorithm does not raise big questions, a lot of controversy arises about the first.

So - do you need to spud carrots?

We spud correctly

Often, even from experienced gardeners, you can hear that carrots are not spudded. However, if you are not too lazy to do this painstaking work at least three times during the development of the vegetable, you can protect the future harvest from three misfortunes at once:

• from the defeat of the open part of the root by a carrot fly, which loves to lay eggs at the base of the vegetable;
• from the protrusion of greenery at the top of the rhizome;
• from exposure to direct sunlight, which leave burns on the surface of the root near the tops.

Mulching a vegetable

How to grow large carrots and at the same time knowingly eliminate the risk of overdrying the soil, the danger of pest invasion, and also significantly reduce the number of weeding and loosening? To do this, there is a technology for covering the soil with mulch, and the technique itself is called "mulching".

How to mulch a carrot bed? The most common way to mulch a garden bed is to cover the space between the rows of planted vegetables with hay, straw or sawdust. The latter option is preferable, since the shelter with sawdust retains moisture longer and is a more reliable shield against the invasion of cabbage and other pests.

Covering the soil with sawdust has another important advantage over grass flooring - weeds do not germinate through it, while the dried grass itself can by default have mature and ready-to-sprout seeds that will sprout when in contact with moisture. The same properties, along with sawdust, have small chips.

It is recommended to mulch carrots when the outer part of the plant reaches 14-16 cm, and the vegetable itself will be about 7-8 cm in diameter at the widest part of the root. Is it possible to mulch late varieties of root crops? It is not only possible, but also necessary, since the shelter retains the temperature for a long time, which it receives from the sun during the daytime, and as a result, the roots are juicy and not cracked.

There are often complaints on the forums, such as the following: “I mulch a vegetable crop according to all the rules, but the vegetable wilts, the tops fall, and the result is a horned or otherwise ugly carrot that does not have sweetness.” An important condition before the procedure is the drying of the material. Whatever mulching is done, the cover should not rot and thus serve as a habitat for the reproduction of harmful microorganisms. And the secret of the withering, falling tops is the rotting of the root, to which oxygen does not reach through the dense crust of damp mulch. That's all the secrets of proper mulching.

Common Mistakes

Let's name the most common mistakes of gardeners, answering the most frequent complaints why carrots do not grow:

• the seeds were planted without prior soaking or in insufficiently heated soil (the norm is 7-9 C);
• too deep sowing or incorrect formation of a furrow (it is necessary to deepen the groove by 2 cm, then tamp its bottom with a palm edge or a chopper handle);
• lack of watering before or after planting, or watering with cold water;
• abundant watering of the soil during the time until the sprouts have hatched out of the soil (until the green brush of sprouted plants appears on the garden bed, you cannot water the garden);

Carrots, as one of the most popular root crops, are cultivated everywhere. When growing it, it is important to follow the basic rules of agricultural technology and crop rotation. Only this approach will allow you to grow large and even carrots in the garden. Of course, every farmer has his own secrets of cultivating this vegetable crop, but in the end, everything is aimed at creating the most favorable conditions for the growth and development of fruits.

What varieties of carrots are best to plant

To grow sweet carrots in the country, you should give preference to zoned varieties with high palatability. In specialized outlets, there is a huge selection of seed material of different ripening periods (early, medium, late), sugar content, and storage time.

The secret to successful cultivation of carrots is a well-chosen variety:

1. Nantes-4, Shantane, Karotelka are representatives of universal variants, which have a high immunity to diseases and harmful insects. They are characterized by unpretentious care and resistance to negative environmental factors.
2. Moscow winter A-545 is suitable for cultivation in all regions of Russia.
3. The polar cranberry is characterized by a very early ripening period, the ability to produce a crop in 2 months of growth, it can be planted in northern latitudes.
4. If the culture is planned to be included in the diet of young children, you should pay attention to Vitamin-6, Viking, Children's sweetness, Sugar gourmet. They contain a lot of carotene, sugar. The latter is especially sweet. The advantage of Children's sweets is a long shelf life, up to a new harvest.

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Shantane
Carotel
Moscow winter

polar cranberry
viking
Vitamin 6

Children's sweetness
Moscow winter
Nantes 4

Thanks to breeders who are constantly working on the creation of new varieties and hybrids, choosing the best option is not difficult.

Conditions for a good harvest of carrots

To get a high-quality and tasty harvest, you need to know how to plant carrots in the garden. When choosing a place for planting, it is better to give preference to soils rich in humus. Carrots love sandy soil, loam, drained peat bogs. Most gardeners are sure that the culture grows well on such land. On dense clay soil and heavy chernozem, it is unlikely that it will be possible to obtain even fruits, since the vegetable practically cannot overcome the resistance of the soil.

It is better to plan a garden bed in areas where cucumbers, potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes, garlic, and onions grew before.

Long and large carrots can be grown at a temperature of 18-25 ° C; in heat conditions, metabolic processes inside the root crops slow down. For seeds, the optimum temperature is 3°C. The culture is characterized by sufficient cold resistance and drought resistance, its seedlings can withstand frosts of -2°C, and adult plantings can withstand a drop of -4°C.

Soil Requirements

Land for sowing should be prepared in the fall. On the site, all the tops remaining after harvesting are harvested. If there are stones, rhizomes at the site of the proposed bed, it is necessary to dig the soil onto the bayonet of a shovel. The soil must be fertilized with complex compounds that do not contain chloride forms. The nutrient mixture is introduced into the soil with simultaneous grinding of its large lumps, after which the area is leveled with a rake. The soil for carrots should be enriched with useful trace elements.

If there is a need to introduce deoxidizers in the form of dolomite flour and lime, they are added to the soil in the fall. Fertilizers are best used 2-3 weeks before laying seeds in the soil. To grow large root crops, it is recommended to add sand, perlite, vermiculite to the garden.

Sowing dates for carrots

For growing good carrots, sowing is done when the earth warms up to 3-4 ° C. Such work should be carried out only with varieties of early ripening. The appearance of the first shoots is expected already on the 20-30th day. But it is best to plant a crop at a soil temperature of + 8-10 ° C. Seedlings grow on the 12-15th day.

Before winter, it is better to sow carrots in the last days of October - in early November. Such terms are relevant for central Russia. It is not recommended to lay the seed material in the ground at earlier dates so that it does not germinate and does not die during frosts.

Agrotechnical practices to increase yield and palatability

Not all novice gardeners know how to grow a good and tasty crop of carrots. But there are basic techniques that allow you to achieve high results. First of all, while the plants are still young and weak (in June), they need to be watered several times. In July, irrigation should be temporarily stopped, which will stimulate the root crops to grow deeper in search of moisture.

It is very important to add mulch every week. If there is such a covering layer, there is no need to loosen the soil and remove weeds.

When growing carrots, every gardener wants to know how to get high yields from this crop. For the correct formation of root crops, an excess of nutrients and moisture in the soil should be avoided. Better to underfeed than to overfeed. It is not recommended to add fresh manure, lime to the beds, regularly add wood ash, nitrogen compounds. Providing plantings with comfortable growing conditions, the farmer promotes the growth of fruits in breadth, sideways. Particular attention should be paid to checking plantings for diseases and pests.

Among gardeners there is an opinion that it is necessary to cut the tops at the last stage of fruit ripening. It is important to understand here that the process of photosynthesis is still ongoing in green leaves and stems, therefore, such a manipulation is not worth doing. Otherwise, the growth of carrots stops.

Sowing features

Before laying seeds in the ground, they are recommended to be disinfected, soaked and germinated. Already processed material is dried and sown. This technique allows you to get shoots after 6-10 days. If dry seeds are planted in insufficiently moistened soil, their germination can be expected only after 40 days.

The bed before sowing also needs to be prepared. To do this, the earth is loosened 10-15 cm deep, after which the surface is leveled and grooves are made 5 cm wide and 2 cm deep. You should not deepen the seeds too much, as this significantly slows down their germination. The grooves are made at a distance of 25-30 cm from each other.

To obtain friendly shoots, the depth in the grooves must be the same. Seeds are sown in moist soil, maintaining a gap between them of 1.5-2 cm. It is very important to know at what distance to plant a crop in order to avoid thinning carrots in the future.

Watering and hilling

When growing carrots in open ground, special attention should be paid to the irrigation system. If there is not enough moisture, young plants will simply die. Overflow contributes to the growth of root crops, their taste deteriorates, such a crop is more suitable for feeding livestock. Based on this, watering should be carried out according to the following scheme:

• To improve the growth of young seedlings, the sprinkling method is used at the rate of 300-400 m3/ha, then drip irrigation is used at a rate of 20-30 m3/ha. The frequency of the procedure is every 2-3 days, everything will depend on the weather conditions.
• When the fruit formation period begins, the frequency of watering should be reduced, and the volume of water should be increased. Irrigation is done 1 time in 7-10 days. The earth should be moistened to a depth of 10-15 cm.
• Watering is stopped 1 month before harvest. Otherwise, excessive moisture worsens the taste of root crops and reduces shelf life. To facilitate the process of digging carrots, the bed should be slightly moistened.

Such a technique as hilling protects plantings from exposure to ultraviolet radiation, reduces the likelihood of plants getting sunburn. In addition, it will be possible to avoid greening of the root crop. Manipulation is desirable to carry out in cloudy weather or in the evening.

Top dressing carrots

In order for carrots to be sweet and juicy, nutrient compounds should be periodically applied to the soil. The number of dressings per season - 2. The first procedure is performed 3-4 weeks after germination, and the next - after 2 months. It is convenient and effective to use fertilizers in liquid form. There are several options for such dressings, where the selected ingredient is diluted in 10 liters of water:

• 1 st. l. nitrophoska;
• 2 cups wood ash;
• a mixture of potassium nitrate (20 g), urea (15 g) and double superphosphate (15 g).

Folk remedies

Considering that the culture grows better on neutral or slightly acidic soil, ground, crushed chalk is used when planting if the earth is too acidic. Ash, dolomite, lime are also suitable for these purposes. To enrich the soil, it is recommended to use organic fertilizer at the rate of 1 bucket per 1 sq. m.

For growing large root crops, you can use not only ready-made store dressings, but also folk remedies. Three-component fertilizer has gained popularity: nettle, yeast and wood ash. First, the container is filled ¾ of the volume with phyto raw materials, then yeast and ash are added. After keeping in the sun, the mixture is used in the proportion of 1 liter of fertilizer per 10 liters of water. On average, one bucket of nutrient mixture is consumed per bed.

Carrot is a relatively unpretentious plant with a lot of useful properties and excellent taste. That is why it occupies one of the main places in any garden. This root crop has been used in cooking for more than 500 years: at first, its “tops” were used, and now “roots” can be found in almost any dish. Buying it in a store is always quite expensive for the wallet of zealous housewives, and therefore those who have their own garden plots are sure to grow carrots. This is a simple task that even a beginner in the world of gardening can do.

Compared to tomatoes, peppers or other vegetable crops, carrots really are not a whimsical plant. But, preparing for its landing, you should consider a few simple rules:

1. Carrots love light and warmth, so choose a location for your garden equipment in a sunny area of ​​the garden. In a shaded place, the plant will be stunted and will give frail fruits.

   

2. Prepare the soil for planting seeds: it should be loose and fertile. Sandy loams and loams with an acidity of 6-7 are suitable for growing carrots.
3. Remember what was grown in these beds before carrots. Good predecessors for a root crop are legumes, cruciferous, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers. But where carrots, parsley, cumin, dill or parsnip grew, it is better not to plant carrots.
4. Observe crop rotation, as carrots grown constantly in the same place are more at risk of getting sick.

   

5. Landing in the ground of spring varieties is carried out after the air temperature is set at least +8 degrees outside. Usually it is produced in April-May, depending on the region and weather conditions.

Attention! The timing of planting carrots often depends on its variety. There are those who sow before winter. They tend to yield earlier than spring varieties, but are not suitable for storage.

We prepare the soil

“Prepare a sleigh in the summer,” says folk wisdom. And the beds for carrots are being prepared in the fall. The soil should be carefully dug up after the crop has been harvested from the site. The depth of digging the soil should be at least one and a half bayonets of a shovel. If the soil is dense, then it will be very difficult for sprouts to break through it in spring, and large-sized carrots will grow crookedly. In the spring, it is enough to process the loose soil a little with a rake.

Before planting the seeds, you need to feed the soil a little. To do this, compost or humus is added to the soil at the rate of half a bucket per 1 sq.m. area.

Attention! If you fertilize the soil with fresh manure, then you will not be happy with the harvest: the fruits will be tasteless, small, but the tops will grow.

If the soil is too dense, then add a little sawdust to it - about 3 liters. per square metre.

In highly acidic soils, a little ash or lime should be added to create the optimal pH level for carrots. Ideally, most carrot bed fertilizers are best applied in the fall when the soil is being digged.

Adding lime to deoxidize the earth

Don't forget good soil moisture. It is advisable to plant carrots before the onset of prolonged rains.

Choosing a variety and preparing seeds

How quickly carrots will grow and what fruits you get depends largely not only on growing conditions, but also on which variety you have chosen. There are a lot of them on the shelves of stores now. At the same time, carrots can be grown even in unusual colors: not only orange, but also white, black, purple, and so on.

Variety type	Description	Titles
precocious	The ripening period from the moment the first shoots appear is from 70 to 100 days. In some cases, the first crop appears after 50 days. As a rule, it is characterized by a small fruit size. Varieties are ideal for early sale and summer eating.	Tushon, Fairy, Mars, Kinby, Fun, Alenka, Artek
mid-season	The aging period is from 100 to 120 days. The fruits are perfectly stored, suitable both for use in preparations and for eating raw. medium sized carrots	Olympian, Rex, Nectar, Nantes, Callisto, Vitamin 6
Late ripe	Ripening time - from 120 to 150 days. They are distinguished by good keeping quality, perfectly stored until spring, suitable for use in blanks. Medium and large fruits, less often - small	Tinga, Java, Vita Longa, Selecta, Tinga F1, Kardame F1

Sometimes, medium-early, medium-late types of varieties are added to the classification of seeds according to the rate of ripening. They are also divided according to the shape and size of root crops - cylindrical, conical and others.

So, you have decided which variety you will grow in your area and have already purchased seeds. Now it's time to start preparing them for landing.

1. Pour the seeds out of the paper bag.
2. Soak them for 2-3 hours in warm water.
3. After this time, we take out the seeds and lay them out on a clean, damp cloth.
4. From above, the seeds must be covered with another piece of cloth, also moistened.
5. Seeds should be kept indoors at room temperature. They need to be stirred periodically.
6. If the fabric dries out, use a spray bottle to moisten it with water.
7. Wait until the seeds swell and begin to hatch.
8. After that, it is necessary to harden them by placing them in the refrigerator for 8-10 days.
9. After hardening, seeds can be sown immediately in prepared open ground.

Carrot tricks

In order for seedlings to appear as early as possible, and the ripening period to decrease as much as possible, some experienced gardeners use various tricks during the preparation of seeds for planting.

How to plant seeds

Planting carrot seeds in the ground is very simple - anyone can handle it. The main thing is not to forget to prepare the soil and seeds, and then success is guaranteed.

Rub the seeds with your hands before planting - this will remove the bristles from their surface.

1. In order to sow seeds, shallow grooves (2 cm) are made on loosened and leveled soil, the distance between which should be at least 15-20 cm.
2. Carefully place the seeds in the grooves 5 cm apart and cover with soil. The first shoots, as a rule, appear in 10-15 days.

Since carrot seeds are very small, this causes certain difficulties when planting them in the ground. To simplify their task, summer residents figured out how to make planting seeds faster and more convenient.

We take care of the beds

To get a good harvest in the fall, it is important to properly care for carrot seedlings. When the first true leaves appear, it is necessary to thin out (if the seeds were planted close to each other) so that a distance of at least 3 cm remains between the sprouts. About a month later, another thinning is done - this time the distance between shoots should be at least 6-7 cm. If this is neglected, then the fruits will be frail and small and partially lose their taste.

After each watering or rainfall, it is necessary to loosen the soil so that a sufficient amount of air enters the root crops. Watering carrot beds is carried out often, but in small portions preferably in the evening (at the rate of 3-15 liters per 1 sq.m., depending on the stage of growth). It is especially important to observe the humidity regime during the first stage of cultivation, when the seeds are just germinating, as well as during the period when the fruits enter the phase of active growth and development.

It is important to stop watering carrots a couple of weeks before harvest to avoid cracking the fruit.

Well, if you find time to spud the grown bushes a little - then the top of the fruit will not turn green and remain as sweet and tasty as the carrot itself. Weeding the beds is also important - weeds can crush young plants and pull out all the nutrients from the soil.

Pest and disease control

Pests and disease	Image	Fighting methods
carrot fly		The most dangerous and widespread pest of carrots is the carrot fly. But to cope with it is quite simple: place the garden bed where the breeze blows - the insect does not like it. It is advisable to sow onions near the carrots, which repels aphids and carrot flies. Also, this pest does not like the smell of pepper and ash - they can sprinkle the soil a little. Carrot crops can also be treated with special biological products.
Rot		To avoid rot, do not add fresh manure to the soil as fertilizer. It is also necessary to disinfect the seeds before sowing.
wireworm		To cope with the wireworm, it is necessary to dig cut potato fruits into the soil and dig them out after a few days - all the larvae will gather there, which are now quite simple to destroy

Video - Sowing carrots in open ground

Video - Care for sown carrots