Technology, features of planting and growing carrots in the open field: step-by-step agricultural technology. How to grow carrots: the secrets of a good harvest What you need for a good carrot harvest

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 the plant we will tell in the article.

Terms of sowing carrots in open ground

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.

With winter planting, the carrot crop will be of better quality

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.

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

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

To get a good harvest, proper feeding of carrots is necessary.

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.

The best potash fertilizer is ash tincture

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 doses 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.

Weeding and thinning is essential throughout the growing season

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.

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

Soil preparation

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

Before you grow a good crop of carrots, you need to choose a light and even soil. It should be sandy, 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 on acidic soils. It requires a neutral or slightly acidic environment.

Before you grow good carrots, you need to prepare the soil. The bed is prepared in the fall so that it settles down. It is made loose. To do this, add sawdust, humus, peat or sand. Chalk, lime, dolomite, ash are used for liming. Manure for growing carrots should not be used, because it turns out not very beautiful and poorly stored root crops. Humus should be applied to poor soil - a bucket per square meter. If 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. Worms and microorganisms also create good soil structure.

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

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 a polyethylene film. During this time, it will retain moisture and warm up well in the sun.

How to prepare seeds for sowing

Germination of carrot seeds is small - 55-75%. In this regard, the seeds should be taken fresh. In addition, carrots do not differ in uniform germination. After 2-3 weeks, the first shoots should appear. 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. Consider several ways to pre-germinate them.

Soak

Seeds are poured into cloth bags and kept overnight in warm water. Water must be changed every four hours. It can be made into a nutrient solution by adding wood ash (30 g/l). After the seeds must be washed.

The method will be more effective if additional hardening is performed. Seeds in wet bags are placed in the refrigerator for 2-5 days.

Soaking 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). Seeds are scattered on gauze folded several times, and also covered with it from above and poured with a solution for a day. The liquid level should be just above the tissue. Then they are washed with water and put in the refrigerator 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 moist 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 solution of humate and kept warm for two days. As a result, the germination of not only carrots, but also parsley and dill is accelerated.

bubbling

Bubbling 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.

During the bubbling process, the water is saturated with air. At home, a small aquarium compressor is enough for this. Bubbling time for carrot seeds is 17-24 hours. After 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 so that they become 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 a depth of one bayonet, where they should be 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 way 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. Secrets of sowing and care

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, you should find a good and large root crop, and then plant it in the spring. By autumn it will be ripe.

Carrots grow for about three months. To get a harvest in September, planting should be done no later than May. Sowing dates cover the period from the end of April to the first decade of June. Landing before May 5 is considered optimal.

Before winter, carrots are planted when the soil becomes cold enough. It can be from the end of October to the beginning of November. Sowing and harvesting times vary by variety and region. Northern varieties should not be planted in the south, as they will grow slowly. If you grow southern varieties in the middle lane, they give abundant tops, while root crops do not develop. Some varieties bred abroad are poorly stored.

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

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

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

During spring-summer plantings, 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 from the film above 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 empty places, additional sowing is done.

For many gardeners, the question of how to grow early carrots is problematic. Actually, it's easy. In autumn, carrots of early varieties are sown to a depth of 2 cm, and then sprinkled with mulch to a height of 3-4 cm. At the same time, the soil temperature should be below +5 degrees. When there is little snow in winter, the beds are additionally covered with them to a height of up to 50 cm. With this method of planting, the crop is harvested earlier than usual by 2-3 weeks.

Plant thinning

How to grow a good crop of carrots if it has risen well? To do this, you need to do a thorough thinning of seedlings after the appearance of the third leaf. All this is not as simple as it seems at first glance. In order for the plants to be well removed, the bed should be watered and the soil carefully loosened. In addition, the operation should be performed during the day so as not to attract a pest - a carrot fly flying in the evening.

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 beds. In no case should you leave it nearby, so as not to attract pests. A good deterrent is onion arrows, which are crushed and scattered in the garden. You can cover the crops with special material. The earth around the plants is slightly crushed. After 20 days, thinning is repeated. At the same time, a distance of 6 cm is left between the carrots.

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

How to grow large carrots? Here you need the right dosage of fertilizers. 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 especially does not like excess nitrogen.

In the process of growth, the upper part of the root crop comes out of the ground and turns green. It does no harm, but the taste gets worse. How to grow sweet carrots so that they do not lose their taste? When root crops appear from the ground, they are spudded, raking the ground on them with a height of about 50 mm.

Watering carrot beds

Poor germination of carrots is associated primarily with the drying of the soil. Until she has risen, the top layer of the bed should be constantly wet. Sometimes the earth should be watered even several times a day. Granular seeds germinate especially hard. Immediately after sowing, the bed is protected with a film 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 independently grow in depth and find moisture. Therefore, watering is done once a week, 1-2 buckets per m2, and from the end of August - once every 1.5-2 weeks, 8-10 liters per square. Two weeks the beds are kept without watering until harvest.

Rough root crops are an indicator that they lacked moisture. With its excess, the fruits grow small. Sharp changes from drying to excess moisture are also 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, and the keeping quality of root crops deteriorates. In the middle lane, the crop is harvested at the end of September in dry weather.

The collected carrots are dried for 1.5-2 hours, and then the tops are cut off. The crop is sorted, flat carrots are placed in a ventilated box in a dark and cool place. It could be a cellar or basement.

Conclusion

You will never be able to reap a good harvest if you do not know how to grow carrots. The secrets of agricultural technology lie in the proper preparation of the soil, proper planting and care. As a result, in the fall you will get large and even root crops.

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

• How to get large carrots?
• How to improve the taste of the root crop?
• Watering carrots
• Rules for thinning carrots
• 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 crop, you need to pay attention to:

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

The main causes of small-fruited carrots

• Carrots do not tolerate swampy lowland areas, closely spaced fruit and forest tree crops. It will not be smooth and graceful, and even more so when grown in the shade, under the canopy of the garden.
• The culture needs a deep loose nutrient soil, air and water permeable. The presence of small gravel, pebbles, rhizomes and other inclusions in the soil causes distortion and crushing of the carrot root.
• The root crop needs bright lighting. Beds with carrots are arranged so that each plant receives sufficient lighting. Tall crops (tomatoes, eggplants) should not shade the tops of carrots. Carrots are best located south of tall neighbors.
• Carrots will not bear fruit in acidic soils. Therefore, a year before sowing a crop on a selected bed, the soil is deoxidized by introducing humus, chalk, lime, dolomite flour. The soil under carrots should be neutral with zero acidity within pH = 6-7.
• Ugly, branchy, bursting carrot roots and small root crops are obtained with poor soil preparation, spring pre-sowing deoxidation of the soil, the use of fertilizers containing chlorine, with an excess of nitrogen fertilizers, thickened crops.
• The value of carrots is determined by the amount of useful substances 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?

Selection of a plot for sowing carrots and predecessors

The site should be leveled, without a slope, evenly lit. Good predecessors and neighbors are zucchini and other pumpkin, legumes, turnip onions, garlic, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants. Celery, parsley, dill, other umbrellas are unwanted neighbors and predecessors. In the cultural turnover, carrots return to their original place in the 4th–5th year.

Healthy tops of carrots. © Bill Heavey

Soil preparation for sowing carrots

The soil for sowing carrots has been prepared since autumn. After harvesting the previous crop, the tops are taken out of the site, provoked by irrigation to receive an autumn wave of weed shoots. If the site is unfavorable, they clean it of stones, rhizomes, dig a shovel onto a bayonet. Scatter a mixture or complex fertilizers that do not contain chloride forms. Fertilizers are embedded in the soil while crushing coarse clods of earth and leveling the surface of the site with a rake.

Important! It is impossible to simultaneously make deoxidizers (dolomite flour or lime) and fertilizers. These two methods of preparation are spaced apart in time. You can apply deoxidizers in the fall (if necessary), and fertilizers in the spring, 2-3 weeks before sowing.

In the spring, a bed for carrots is once again deeply dug up, especially if the soils are heavy clay and loamy in composition. To fluff them, you can add perlite or vermiculite, sand to the root layer.

Fertilizing carrots

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

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

Sowing dates for carrots

Carrots are frost-resistant crops. Seedlings can withstand temperatures as low as -2°C. Developed plants do not die during 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 winter crops, you need to choose early ripe varieties of carrots. Yes, and shoots are obtained on the 20th - 30th day.

The best for sowing carrots is still considered to be warming up 10-15 cm of the soil layer to + 8 ... + 10 ° С. Shoots at the same time appear on the 12th - 15th day. If the initial period of development of carrots is held at low temperatures, the plants will bloom in the first year, and the root crop will be rough and tasteless. Optimum temperatures fluctuate within +17…+24°С. With an increase of more than + 25 ° C, the metabolic processes in the root slow down, the carrot root becomes fibrous. It is necessary to reduce the temperature of the soil by watering and mulching, and the air - by fine spraying (foggy irrigation).

Thinning carrots. © Terese How to increase the taste of a root crop?

With a properly prepared site, the taste qualities of carrot roots depend on the availability of basic nutrients during the growing season (and their proper ratio), microelements, moisture, standing density and varieties.

Top dressing carrots

Carrots do not tolerate overfeeding and react to it with a decrease in the quality of root crops, especially with an excess of nitrogen fats. The flesh of the root crop 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.

First dressing of carrots

3 weeks after the shoots of carrots - a solution of kalimag and urea (15 g / 10 l of water). 20 g of superphosphate can be added 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.

The second dressing of carrots

After 2-3 weeks, the second top dressing is performed by adding Kemira-universal (50-60 g / sq. M), nitrophoska, Rost-2, solute in the same dose.

The third dressing of carrots

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

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

Fourth dressing of carrots

On depleted soils, if required, the 4th top dressing is also carried out, which falls on the phase of root ripening. It is most often carried out in order to enlarge the fruit. Usually it is 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 another combination, but excluding nitrogen fertilizers.

Dense planting of carrots. © Dorling Kindersley Watering 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 kept constantly moist. Watering during this period is best done in the evening, mulching the aisles with fine mulch no higher than 2-3 cm. With fluctuations in the humidity regime and excessively abundant watering, carrots can form a large root crop, but it will be tasteless and replete with 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 increase the watering rate. After each watering, mulching carrots is a must. It prevents the formation of a crust and reduces the temperature of the topsoil. Stop watering 2 weeks before harvest.

Rules for thinning carrots

Aligned carrot roots grow with the correct 2-3-fold thinning. The first thinning is carried out after the appearance of the 3rd sheet. Before thinning, the aisles are loosened and watered. Sprouts are removed by pinching or tweezers, but not pulled 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 out again, increasing the distance between 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, turning the mulch.

Carrot varieties

To grow sweet carrots, you need to select a zoned variety with a certain root quality. Breeders offer a wide range of seeds of early, middle and late ripening with a high content of sugars, which are distinguished by dessert taste, long shelf life and other qualities.

For growing in the country, you can recommend universal varieties: Shantane, 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 ripe variety Polar cranberry forms a crop in 2 months and is recommended for cultivation in northern latitudes due to its qualities.

In families with small children, varieties are indispensable: Vitamin-6, Viking and Sugar gourmet, Children's sweetness, which are distinguished by a high content of carotene and sugar. Sugar gourmet is one of the sweetest varieties of carrots. Children's sweets are perfectly stored until the next harvest. If necessary, in the annual catalog of varieties and hybrids, you can choose 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 crops.

Like other cultures, this underground beauty has a number of specific requirements. So, carrots are very demanding on light and cannot stand even a slight shading. Compared to other root vegetables, it is more drought tolerant. But at the same time, carrots are a cold-resistant crop. It remains viable even with a prolonged cold snap and easily tolerates frosts.

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

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

Well, this is a small digression, and 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, zucchini, tomato, cabbage, potatoes, garlic, onions, all legumes.

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

VERY IMPORTANT! This article provides information about growing carrots in a relatively traditional way (only mineral fertilizers are replaced by organic ones). But in the article “Choosing carrot neighbors for a good harvest. We grow 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 growing onions, celery and radishes. So I advise you to watch that video after reading this article.

Soil preparation
A bed for growing carrots has been prepared since autumn. To do 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 added to poor soils, chalk to acidic soils, peat, river sand and sawdust to heavy soils. You can cover the bed with mulch or sow green manure.

In the spring, 7-10 days before sowing, with the help of a rake, break up lumps (if any) and level the surface of the ridge. Then it is shed with water (+30 ... + 40 ° C) 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. Seed preparation is also important.

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

Shoots of carrots appear long and unfriendly, 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 slow down. The seeds germinate after the essential oils are 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.

Methods of pre-sowing preparation of seeds:

Soak
Fabric bags with seeds are dipped for a day in warm water (+30°C), 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 by combining soaking with hardening. To do this, wet bags with seeds are kept in the refrigerator for 2-5 days.

Heat treatment of carrot seeds
Seed bags are dipped in hot water (+50°C) 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 seedlings of cucumbers.

Digging into the soil
Fabric bags with dry seeds are buried for 10-12 days in cold soil on a spade bayonet. Seeds treated in this way germinate 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 sown in the ground.

Sowing carrots

Growing carrots is carried out in a seedless way. The dates for sowing carrots in open ground are as follows:

• in spring: end of April - beginning of May and the first ten days of June;
• for the winter: the second half of October - the beginning of November and the beginning of 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, on 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 medium varieties) and 20 cm (for late ones). The grooves are shed with water (in colder regions with hot water (+45 ... + 50 ° C)), powdered with ash and seeds are sown in them in 1 cm increments.

Seed condition and sowing depth depend on the time of year. 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 mulch 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 winter crops of carrots are additionally covered with snow (if you manage to organize a layer of snow of 40-50 cm, it’s good). Such crops give 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°C ensures normal growth and formation of root crops and is considered optimal for carrots.

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

Watering
The frequency and volume 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 increase the volume to 10 liters per 1 m2;
• during the period of 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 rotting of root crops. With a prolonged drought, carrot roots 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 about storing carrots, but I decided to give it here too).

Weeding
Carrot sprouts develop slowly and are quickly covered with weeds. So that weeds do not inhibit 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 seed germination and the appearance of the first shoots, the first top dressing is carried out with an aqueous solution of mullein, chicken manure, ash or humus (1:10). If necessary, during the period of plant growth and the formation of root crops, top dressing 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 adjacent plants should be 2-3 cm, after the second - 4-5 cm. Thinning is recommended in the morning. After thinning, the bed is watered. It is also useful to treat the soil with ground red pepper (hot, hot or bitter). This will muffle the smell of the carrots and protect the plants from the carrot fly. Another way to protect against a carrot fly can be provided by a combined landing with an onion, but that's another story, which I'll talk about in the next article.

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

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

The quality of root crops during cultivation is influenced by many factors. For example:

• with a lack of light, carrots form small root crops;
• dense, stony and heavy clay soils do not allow root crops to develop normally. Root crops have ugly shapes and a rough taste;
• carrots grown in acidic soils have no sweetness;
• excessive moisture and sparse crops lead to the growth of root crops, they become deformed and coarsen, which reduces their quality. Therefore, do not chase large carrots;
• with prolonged drought, carrots become coarse and less juicy;
• if prolonged drought is replaced by prolonged rains, mass cracking and deformation of root crops is observed;
• damage to the roots during thinning, as well as the introduction of fresh manure into the soil, causes branching and curvature of root crops.

Growing carrots shouldn't be too difficult for you. At least I talked about many factors that can somehow 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 crops!

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

Best Regards Gardensha

Carrots are one of the most popular vegetables. Even novice gardeners try to grow it. But in order for the harvest to be rich, the root crops to be even and juicy, it is necessary to adhere to the rules of cultivation.

Video about the main secrets of growing. Seven rules for a rich harvest of carrots:

Preparatory work for planting carrots

Before you start sowing seeds, you need to choose the right place on the site:

• It must be kept in direct sunlight at all times. Carrots do not like shade;
• You can not plant in the place where parsley, celery, dill, parsnip grew a year ago;
• Carrots feel good after potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, garlic, cabbage;
• Well, if where carrots will grow 1-2 years ago, manure was introduced into the soil;
• The soil should be fertile, loose, waterproof, light. They carefully dig it up in the fall, and in the spring it needs to be loosened;
• It is necessary to clear the place of weeds in advance.

IMPORTANT: Carrots can grow at temperatures from - 4 to + 25 degrees.

Selection and preparation of seeds

The choice of varieties will depend on when they plan to harvest. So, to obtain "beam" carrots, early ripening varieties are used. They are not afraid of the cold that may return. But such varieties are not suitable for harvesting for the winter.

If they plan to store carrots for some time, then those types of carrots that have a long ripening period are chosen.

It is worth paying attention to the preparation of seeds - this will get rid of defective ones. You need to do the following:

• Pour the seeds with warm water for 10 hours. What pops up can be safely thrown away;
• Then the seeds are laid out on damp cotton wool or cloth and left at a temperature of +20 to +24 degrees for several days.

So the carrots wake up faster.

Planting carrots:

Landing

Before sowing, the bed must be loosened and shallow (up to 2 cm) furrows should be made. The width of such recesses should be no more than 5 cm. They are moistened and seeds are carefully laid to a depth of 2 cm.

The distance between the furrows is 25 - 30 cm.

But carrot seeds are very small, so it is difficult to sow them. You can use the following methods:

• Sowing with sand. Mix the seeds with 1 cup of sand;
• Planting with radishes or lettuce. These plants sprout faster and will show the gardener the location of the carrots;
• Liquid seeding. Sprouted seeds are mixed with a paste made from potato starch. Then carefully poured from the kettle directly onto the bed.

From above, the seeds are covered with a mixture of peat and sand.

ATTENTION: Watering from above the bed is not necessary, as the seeds may move deeper in the ground.

Conditions for growing carrots in open ground

Carrots require attention during their growth. So, you need to immediately pluck the weeds, not giving them the opportunity to grow. You also need to take care of the soil. It must be constantly loose, otherwise the plant will be ugly.

After the appearance of the first two true leaves, the rows of carrots are thinned out. The distance between vegetables should be at least 3 cm. When two more leaves appear, this figure is doubled.

Watering

Carrots need to be watered a lot and carefully at all stages of its growth. At what it is necessary to moisten the soil for the entire length of the root crop. So, an adult plant is watered in such a way that the soil is wet up to 30 cm deep.

top dressing

The root crop is fed only twice. The first - 3 weeks after germination. The second - when another two months have passed.

In a bucket of water, you can add one of the drugs:

• A tablespoon of nitrophoska;
• 2 cups wood ash;
• A mixture of 20 g of saltpeter, 15 g of urea, double superphosphate.

You can feed the plant with a solution of boric acid.

Pests and diseases

The carrot fly loves this plant very much. You can find out that the root crop was inhabited by insects by twisted sheets. The fly settles in dense thickets, heavily moistened beds. Get rid of the insect with the help of chemicals.

Most often, carrots suffer from phimosis or alternariosis. In such cases, the vegetable is treated with a 1% Bordeaux solution.

Neighbors of carrots in the beds

You can plant carrots with such plants:

• beans.
• Lettuce.
• Rosemary.
• Sage.
• Tomato.

You can not plant carrots with dill.

Cleaning

Upon reaching maturity, carrots can be selectively pulled out for consumption. So other plants in the garden will become more spacious.

You can start harvesting depending on the variety:

• Early - in June;
• Mid-season - in August;
• Late - in the second half of September.

Carrots are pulled out by the tops, cleaned from the ground and inspected. Whole varieties are set aside for storage, damaged ones for processing.

Plants set aside for the winter are dried outside under a canopy and their tops are cut off.

Winter storage

Carrots are stored in the basement or cellar in wooden or plastic boxes in several layers. Each layer is sprinkled with wet sand. Plants should not touch each other.

Clay glazing can be done. To do this, the latter is diluted with water and carrots are dipped. Plants are laid out on a wire rack so that the liquid is glass.

You can sprinkle the root crop with crushed chalk and store it in onion peel.

IMPORTANT: The room temperature should be around 0 degrees. Humidity is not allowed.

Carrots belong to the Umbrella family. In the wild, it grows in America, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Afghanistan is considered its homeland, as many of its species grow there. It is believed that the cultivation of carrots began four thousand years ago. In Russia, it was first mentioned in the 16th century.

Carrots now grow literally on any personal plot. However, it is capricious, and for a successful harvest, it is important to know the rules for its cultivation.

autumn sowing

1. You can plant carrots in winter, and the crop will appear two weeks earlier. Seeds will undergo winter hardening, and in spring, due to melting snow, the root system will strengthen.
2. In autumn, only early varieties are planted that are not suitable for winter storage.
3. In areas where winters are very cold, beds should be covered with sawdust, leaves, spruce branches.
4. Crops should be located on a hill so that the seed material is not washed out by melt water.

spring sowing

The most popular season for planting is of course spring. Spring can be divided into early and late periods.

1. The root crop is a moisture-loving plant, so you can plant it immediately after the snow melts.
2. You can plant as early as the end of April, when the air temperature is +15, and the soil warms up to +5.
3. If planted earlier, the seeds will take longer to germinate.
4. The beds can be covered with a film to speed up the germination of seeds.
5. When they appear, shoots remove the film.
6. The late spring sowing period lasts from late May to early July. In this case, the carrot harvest should be expected in late August - early September.
7. Carrots love moisture, if it is possible to carry out sowing work before prolonged rains, seedlings will not have to wait long.

Selecting good seed

Early varieties

Early varieties are distinguished by low sugar content. They are not suitable for long-term storage, but after only two months after planting, they will be pleased with the first root crops.

Lady. A high-yielding variety, after three months it can be completely harvested. The root crop is distinguished by an elongated cylindrical shape up to 20 cm in length, bright red. Doesn't crack. Increased content of carotene.

Fun F1. Hybrid from Siberia. Harvest can be completely harvested after three months. It grows up to 20 cm and weighs about 200 grams. The pulp has a sweet and juicy taste.

Nantes 4. Harvest in 80 days. Orange, up to 14 cm and weight 160 gr. The shape is cylindrical. Contains a lot of useful carotene. Suitable for all climatic zones.

Sugar finger. Ripens within 65 days. Orange color, grows 12 cm in length. Sweet taste. Contains a large amount of carotene.

Medium varieties

Medium varieties are formed in 105 - 120 days. Stores well in winter.

Losinoostrovskaya. The shape is cylindrical. The maturation period does not exceed 100 days. Tender, very juicy carrots. It does not grow well on clay and sand. Abundant systematic watering is required. A good variety for long storage.

Boltex. High-yielding carrot variety, fully formed in 120 days. Bright orange color, length 19 cm, thin skin.

Vitamin 6. Cylindrical shape. Orange color. Completely formed in 100 days. Up to 19 cm. Suitable for winter storage.

Late varieties

Late varieties are characterized by long growth within 110 - 130 days. Suitable for long term storage.

Red giant. The variety was developed by breeders from Germany. Grows in 110 days. In the form of a cone. Grow 24 cm and 100 grams. The flesh is red in color. Keeps for a long time.

Autumn queen. Ripens in four months. 22 cm. Juicy carrots. The root crop is recommended to be sown in the winter.

Karlen. Formed within 130 days. The variety loves loose and fertile soil and timely abundant watering.

When choosing a carrot variety, it is necessary to take into account the climatic zone where it will be grown, the condition of the soil, and the ripening period. As well as the shape, size and storage capacity. Having decided, you can proceed to the selection of a suitable site and prepare the soil.

Site selection and soil preparation for planting

When choosing a place, you need to pay attention to three points:

1. site location;
2. the quality of the soil;
3. cultures previously grown in the area.

Carrots love sunny places without shade. The place of future sowing should be under the sun all day, otherwise the formation of root crops will slow down.

Prefers light and loose soil. But not sour. In acidic soil, it does not grow well and does not gain sweetness. Sand and old sawdust will help improve the soil, and lime, wood ash and chalk will help reduce acidity. This vegetable culture is selective to its predecessors.

It is forbidden to plant carrots after parsley, dill, fennel, beets, sorrel. Successful predecessors for it are tomatoes, pumpkin, onions, garlic, potatoes, lettuce.

The soil for sowing is best prepared in the fall. It is necessary to dig with a shovel one and a half bayonet lengths. If it is not dug too deep, the carrots will grow to a hard layer and go sideways. Therefore, instead of even long root crops, ugly specimens will be obtained.

Before digging, fertilizers are applied to the soil. The rotted manure is put on half a bucket per square meter. Sawdust is added to heavy soil at the rate of 2 - 3 liters per meter. Carrots grow well if fertilizers with phosphate and potassium are added; wood ash, sand. Everything is dug up and left. In the spring, everything is dug up again, leveled and seeds are sown.

It must be remembered that it is forbidden to use fresh manure as a fertilizer. It harms the culture. Fresh manure is rich in nitrogen, and root crops are distinguished by their ability to quickly accumulate nitrates. Carrots grow in irregular shapes, and the smell of fresh mullein attracts various garden pests.

The soil is ready, now you can approach the selection of seed preparation.

Seed preparation

Carrot seeds germinate for a long time, up to three weeks. The shell of the seed is impregnated with essential oils. They do not allow moisture to get inside. First, the seeds need to be sorted. This is done with salt water. The seed material is thrown into salted water, mixed. Those that float are thrown away, and those that settle can be planted.

Four effective ways to ensure rapid germination:

1. Soaking seeds in biostimulants ("Epin", "Fitolife") for 20 hours.
2. Boiling treatment. Seeds should be placed in a cloth and kept in hot water for 20 minutes. Then in cold water.
3. Burying seeds in the ground. Seed material is buried for 10 days. When they get it, the seeds already have sprouts. They can be planted.
4. Soak. Carrot seeds are wrapped in a wet cloth or cotton wool for a day.

Either method will speed up seed germination.

To increase the frost resistance of seeds, they are hardened. To do this, the soaked, but not yet sprouted seeds are put in the refrigerator, on the vegetable shelf and kept for a week. Hardening can also be carried out by alternating temperatures.

Seeds bought from hands, grown independently and from unknown producers need to be prepared. Seeds from large and well-known manufacturers are usually ready for planting, they are treated with both insecticides and fungicides.

Granulated seeds that have undergone industrial processing are completely ready for sowing and do not need preliminary preparation. Some seeds are sold on a tape. This simplifies planting and allows you not to thin out the carrots in the future.

Manufacturers also offer seeds in the form of dragees. A small carrot seed coated with trace elements and fertilizers. Such seeds are convenient for planting and they immediately receive all the substances necessary for growth. From this point of view, buying seeds from large manufacturers will reduce the time spent on preparation and ensure higher germination.

Seeds prepared independently or industrially can be sown.

Planting carrot seeds

Before planting seeds, it is necessary to assess the soil moisture. If it's dry, you need to moisturize. In the garden, grooves are made 15 cm apart and 2 cm deep.

There are several landing methods:

1. Small seeds are scattered by hand along the grooves.
2. Soaked and germinated seeds are planted more carefully.
3. Seeds in the form of dragees.
4. From a syringe. Kissel is boiled from flour, nutrients are added there, cooled, seeds are placed in the composition. Using a syringe, evenly sow into the grooves.
5. Seeds on strips of paper. This method will avoid further thinning.

Then they are covered with earth from above and compacted with a hand or a special plank. Carrot planted. In the future, she needs systematic care.

Landing Care

For a good harvest, the following care is necessary:

• regular watering;
• loosening;
• timely weeding;
• thinning;
• top dressing.

Watering

It is carried out after planting seeds. He is very important. Lack of moisture affects taste. Carrots become bitter in taste. And it begins to release lateral roots that are looking for moisture, which affects the appearance. Watered once every 7 days, taking into account the precipitation. They start with three liters per meter, as they grow, increasing the volume to 20 liters.

Three weeks before harvesting stop watering completely.

loosening

Spend between the rows. Weeding is done as weeds grow. This procedure can be combined with thinning. Thinning is carried out twice. When the leaves appear, and when the carrots are formed. Ideally, the distance should be 15 cm. After the leaves appear, the plant needs to be fed. You can use urea in the amount of 15 gr. per meter. It responds well to fertilizers with phosphorus and potassium.

Collection of grown carrots and its storage

Carrots are best harvested in dry weather. Digging should be done with a shovel. Do not cut the tops, but unscrew them. It will not harm the fetus. Stored in the cellar, at +5 degrees.

Carrots can be put in bags with holes, boxes with sawdust and sand. Sawdust is preferred. If the cellar is not humid enough, sawdust can be moistened with water. Carrots prefer high humidity.

Diseases and garden carrot pests

To collect healthy, beautiful and tasty carrots, it is important to prevent them from getting sick and prevent small pests from destroying the future crop.

The plant is susceptible to the following diseases:

1. Dry rot. Fungus. On carrot leaves there are gray - brown spots, the entire root crop is affected. The crop may rot.
2. Gray rot. Causes wet rot.
3. White rot. Also a fungus. It hits everything in the garden. Spread by fungus. Can get into the ground with manure.
4. Bacteriosis. The reason is bacteria. First, the leaves turn yellow, then it passes to the root crop itself, ulcers form. The plant begins to smell bad.
5. Powdery mildew. Appears as a white coating on plants. The lesion is hard and breaks.
6. Cercosporosis. Called by a fungus. Brown spots can be seen on the leaves. Gradually they increase and rot.

To prevent diseases, it is important to adhere to the following rules:

• seeds should be disinfected in a weak solution of potassium permanganate;
• carry out the treatment of soil and plants with biological preparations, in June the entire garden should be treated with immunocytophyte;
• fertilize.

In addition to diseases, there are pests that love this root crop:

• carrot fly;
• carrot leaflet;
• carrot moth;
• gall nematode;
• bear;
• wireworm;
• naked slug;
• winter owls.

The fight comes down to spraying and watering carrots with solutions of various drugs.

Carrots are a popular plant. Rarely is a meal complete without it. It is rich in carotene and other vitamins. Carotene strengthens memory and is good for vision. It is low in calories and has many benefits. By growing this crop in the garden, you can get a delicious dietary product. It is worth making a little effort, and the harvest will please you.

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 to be 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 frequently. 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, 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 will not be 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 chernozems, 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.