One of the most popular vitamin-rich vegetables on the tables of our country is carrots. It is planted in almost all gardens and plots, but not everyone can boast of its rich harvests. Now we’ll figure out how to plant and care for it correctly in order to count on stunning harvests.
Correct beds
So, carrots are the most popular vegetable that is used in many dishes. But it’s important here correct landing And good care which you will carry out in open ground. Understand this topic in more detail. It seems to be an unpretentious root vegetable, but it will be better if you can comply with some factors to which the carrot will certainly respond gratefully. She will be especially pleased with the loose and fertile soils, she loves sandy loams and medium loams, they have especially a lot of oxygen. Please note that varieties with very long fruits require soil that is loosened very deeply, about one and a half shovels deep.
In terms of acidity, it needs neutral values, for example, 6-7 pH. The formation of a dry crust on the ridges is unnecessary; let them be slightly moist. Heavy and dense soil, where it is difficult for air to reach, will not contribute to good taste vegetable, even with excellent care. Yes, and it will be a problem for seeds to germinate in such soil, while adult bushes will be at risk of fungal diseases.
Do not forget about crop rotation; the most suitable predecessors of carrots are:
- Legumes and grains.
- Brassicas.
- Garlic.
- Onion - turnip.
- Tomatoes.
- Potato.
- Cucumbers.
- Zucchini.
But very inappropriate precursors are herbs:
- Caraway.
- Dill.
- Celery.
- Fennel.
- Parsnip.
- Coriander.
- Parsley.
Planting carrots in the same place every year is also a bad idea; this can only be done after 3-4 years, then you will no longer be afraid of pests and various diseases.
Places well lit by the sun are especially suitable for its beds. Even its direct rays are not afraid of carrot bushes. But with little sun, the harvest will be small and tasteless.
Preparing the ridges
In order to learn how to grow carrots in open ground, you need to read the information below. Fertilizers are important point. Rotted manure or humus (half a bucket per square meter of bed) will perfectly prepare your beds for planting carrots. If the soil on your site is heavy, then it should be diluted with sawdust, it will loosen and be saturated with oxygen. And wood ash will add potassium to the soil. This will sweeten the carrots' taste and make them more shelf-stable. And you can dig up an area for carrots in the fall. It is better to dig up one and a half bayonets, this will loosen the soil better, and it will be easier for you to harvest in the fall - the carrots will be easier to pull out. In the spring, all you have to do is go through the rake and you can start sowing.
As we said above, only rotted manure is used; fresh manure will lead to flowering of the bushes and branching of the carrots themselves. Even great further care the situation will not improve. Be careful with nitrogen components; their excess will lead to hardening of root crops and accumulation of nitrates in them.
You can also plant carrots in the winter; it will turn out like a spring crop. With the first warmth, it will already hatch and harvesting can begin a couple or three weeks earlier. But you can’t count on storing it for a long time; it’s better to use it right away or use it for preparation. If you still decide to plant it before winter, and you have severe, frosty winters, pile a thick layer of foliage on top of the beds, perhaps sawdust or straw. In extreme frosts, even this may not protect the seeds from death.
So, most often it is sown in the spring. Here you can also calculate everything according to timing - if you need early carrots, then plant part of the area with early varieties, this can be done when the temperature rises to +8C. The beds will still be filled with moisture from melted snow, so all factors will be in favor.
Further, unexpected frosts and cold snaps will affect the harvest in that it will not be able to be stored for long and will begin to bloom, so that only in mid-April can you start sowing mid-season and late varieties that are planned for storage. Sowing can be continued until the end of May if spring is prolonged, but the main thing is not to delay planting, otherwise you will have to wait a very long time for seedlings.
If long and heavy rains are forecast, try to have time to weed out before them, they will benefit the seeds.
Preparing seeds for planting
This article will tell you how to grow good carrots at the dacha. Experienced summer residents It is recommended to plant carrots already in the form of germinated seeds. Here, the ripening time is reduced and the risks of non-germination of seeds are already reduced to a minimum. The germination procedure is simpler than steamed turnips, and consists of
Place the seeds in warm water for 10 hours. The pacifiers will immediately float to the top.
Other options for accelerating germination.
You can soak the seeds in water at +30C for a day, changing the water every 4 hours. You can do this not only in water, but also in a solution of wood ash in a proportion of 1 tbsp. spoon per liter of water. The temperature and shift schedule are the same. Then the seeds are taken out and kept in a piece of clean cloth in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.
Collect the seeds in a gauze or linen bag and keep it hot (+50C) for 20 minutes, then in it for 2-3 minutes. cold water.
In the same bag, the seeds are lowered into the ground for 10 days and buried.
Proper sowing
When sowing carrot seeds in both autumn and spring, moist beds are needed. We prepare grooves of medium depth. If the furrows are too small, the wind may simply blow away all the seeds. And from deep seedlings you will wait a very long time. The row spacing is 15 cm. The seeds are scattered 2 cm apart. In light soils, a placement depth of 2-3 cm is sufficient, and in heavy soils - 1.5-2 cm.
When sowing ungerminated seeds, you need to rub them in your palms to remove all the hairs.
And after filling the furrows, you need to compact the soil using a board, roller, or slamming with your hands. Then they cover it with 3 cm thick mulch on top. This will prevent the appearance of a dry crust, which may prevent the seedlings from hatching.
Carrots germinate at +15+18C. Untreated seeds germinate in 18-25 days. Short frosts at -4C are not terrible; you don’t even have to insulate the beds. But if frosts are prolonged, they can lead to flowering of the bushes.
If you decide to plant carrots in winter, then the timing for this is the end of October or the beginning of November. 3 weeks before sowing, you need to prepare the place. After planting the seeds in the furrows, peat is poured onto the ridges in a 3-centimeter layer. For insulation. And in the spring, when the snow melts, you need to cover the ridges with film. After germination, the film can be removed. And remember, only light soils are suitable for autumn sowing.
Proper agricultural technology
Now you can learn about how to grow a carrot crop. And you already understand that growing carrots is not difficult even for beginner gardeners.
Caring for the ridges consists of the following manipulations:
- Thinning.
- Loosening the more often, the better.
- Frequent weeding.
- Regular watering.
- Feeding.
The first thinning should be done when the seedlings have 2 leaves. We leave 2-3 cm between them. After 3-4 leaves, we carry out repeated thinning with a distance of 4-6 cm, at the same time you can weed the beds.
At proper watering you can count on a sweet and rich harvest. Carrots love water very much; if there is a lack of it, the fruits will become sluggish and taste bitter. So you need to water all spring and summer. Water should go into the soil at least 30 cm. If there is a lack of moisture, lateral roots form on the fruit, and its presentation becomes uncome il faut. And when excessive watering Root crops can crack and tops can grow, so finding the golden mean in watering is your task.
We water once a week, but according to the following scheme:
- Immediately after sowing, pour 3 liters of water per square meter of beds.
- After the first thinning, we spill 10 liters per 1 m2.
- After good development leaves, we increase the volume of watering by 2 times.
- And one and a half to two months before harvesting, we reduce watering. They are carried out once every 10-12 days, 10 liters per square meter. And 2-3 weeks before harvesting, watering is completely stopped.
Fertilizers are applied twice per season. This is done 1 month after germination, then again a month later. The solution is applied using the root method, and the following mixture is poured:
- 15 g superphosphate,
- 15 g urea,
- 20 grams of potassium nitrate,
- 1 tbsp nitrophoska,
- 2 cups wood ash.
All this is added to a bucket of water. Water the beds with this mixture after the main watering.
Over 4 thousand years of cultivation of this crop, a huge number of varieties have been obtained. These have different ripening periods, and are resistant to cold and disease, with different shelf life and with different tastes. There is room for any gardener to turn around here.
Along with the above, carrots are a storehouse of vitamins and microelements. Few dishes are complete without it. At proper care it will have a pleasant sweet taste, and will delight you not only in first and second courses, but also in desserts and even in baked goods. Moreover, these rules are not so complicated.
Anyone can grow long and even root crops on their own plot. The main thing in this matter is not to be lazy and do all the necessary agricultural work as needed. So let's begin.
The first thing to do is find suitable place for planting and prepare the soil. The quality of carrots directly depends on the type of land. Therefore, for this, on the one hand, unpretentious vegetable, it is necessary to choose light in mechanical composition, fertile places where there is good drainage. In addition, the place where the garden bed will be located must be level, as open as possible and well lit. It is also worth considering at this stage that best predecessors for carrots are onions, cabbage, early potatoes, especially if organic fertilizers were applied to them. But the beds where celery plants (celery, cumin, dill, fennel) grew before, and the carrots themselves are better in in this case do not use, as it is unlikely to grow a good harvest. How to grow carrots if the plot is small and it is difficult to rotate the land? Everything is quite simple: since the situation is almost hopeless, the only thing left is severe ashing of the soil: 0.2-0.3 kg wood ash scatter on one square meter of soil and dig up. The operation is performed twice a year.
As for the soil preparation itself, this must be done in the fall so that the soil has time to settle before sowing. First, the place where the vegetable will grow is cleared of stones, after which it is carefully dug up, digging with a bayonet or even two, and formed high bed. If necessary, fertilizing - humus - must be added to poor soils; in heavy soils - peat, sawdust And river sand; acidic soils are alkalized with chalk (lime). But in any case, it is not recommended to apply fresh manure, otherwise the root crops may grow ugly. Growing carrots in soils with a high groundwater level without significantly raising the height of the ridge will lead to an ugly harvest. 
In the spring, when the bed warms up, 7-10 days before planting, it is necessary to loosen the soil well and disinfect it with a solution copper sulfate, which is prepared at the rate of 1 tbsp. spoon for 10 liters of water. Then water the garden bed warm water, approximately 30 - 40⁰С, after which the planting site is covered with film, preferably dark. The last steps will allow the earth to warm up and retain moisture. Of course, the last steps are not necessary if the spring was hot and there were considerable snowdrifts in the winter. You can also ignore the film if the harvest is expected to be late. And finally, you can refuse warming up if you are confident in the quality of the seeds, and also in the fact that cold temperature or, even more so, there will definitely not be frosts.
Sowing an orange root crop depends solely on how much moisture there is in the soil, as well as on what climatic conditions it will be grown: if we are talking about the central zone of Russia or a climate similar to it, then the sowing time will be April 20-25. Carrots are planted a little earlier (7-14 days) if the snow has already melted more than 21 days ago and relatively warm weather has established itself without night frosts. Carrots should be planted a little later if the weather is not stable and negative thermometer readings are observed at night. But you should not delay the planting period - it would be optimal to plant before the fifth of May, provided there is a complete absence of snow and frequent absence of frosts. In the southern regions, carrots are planted in two stages - March 10-20 (for summer consumption) and June 10-15 ( seed planting and for winter consumption).
The seeds should be treated with warm water (rinse two or three times), and then covered in a damp cloth for swelling and passage of moisture to the seed through the crust containing a large amount of hydrophobic essential oils. If you do not do this, then there is a high probability of seedlings being delayed for a period of 2-3 weeks, which impairs the ripening of the root crop. You can also carry out the following procedures to speed up germination: 
- Bubbling. Carrot seeds are placed in a vessel with water, the temperature of which is higher than room temperature (optimally - 25 degrees C). The water is aerated with an air pump for 24 hours, after which planting material removed and placed in the refrigerator for middle shelf, where it is stored for about 3-5 days. 12 hours before sowing, they are removed from the refrigerator and dried until they flow, after which they are planted in the beds. Germination in this case will take 5-7 days.
- Burying into the soil. Dry planting material is placed in a linen bag and buried in a bed at the depth of a spade bayonet. No watering or fertilization is carried out. After about 1.5-2 weeks, the bag is removed, its contents are dried on dry cloth or parchment and planted in a garden bed. Germination will take approximately 4-5 days.
- Nutrient solution. The seed is laid out on a fabric base, covered with a cloth on top, and filled with a nutrient solution for 24 hours. The nutrient medium can be a mixture of boric acid, nitrophoska and water (ratio of 1/3 teaspoon, 1/2 teaspoon and 1 liter of water, respectively); or potassium permanganate, dissolved in a liter of water until red, 1/2 teaspoon of fertilizer. After soaking, the seed is washed in warm water and put in the refrigerator for half a week. After removal from the refrigerator, they are dried until they flow and planted in the ground.
Carrots are planted along grooves made in the bed. It is optimal to do this as follows: the width of the furrow is matchbox, depth is half of it, interval 200-240mm. The outer furrows are located 120mm from the edges of the bed. The width of the furrow should not exceed 900mm (accordingly, the ridge should be 1.1m). Before planting, the bed is spilled with a strong solution of potassium permanganate. The seeds are scattered like a snake in the furrow in increments of 10-15mm, after which they are mulched with soil, peat or a peat-sand mixture. The planted ridge is covered with a film with a ventilation gap of 120-150 mm. The shelter will not only improve the retention of heat and moisture, but will also prevent the appearance of carrot flies, a pest that can destroy the crop. 
Planting care
Growing good harvest requires mandatory care, but caring for the planted root crop is quite simple: just thin out the bed in time, loosen the soil as necessary, weed, feed and, of course, water.
Step 1 Thinning is carried out as the tops grow.
To thin out carrots, it is necessary to pull out the smallest (and therefore least viable) shoots at the first shoots, maintaining an interval of 20-25 mm between root crops. The second thinning is carried out in June-July, maintaining an interval of 75-100mm. The second thinning allows the extracted root crops to be used for food or livestock feed. You may have to unload the carrots a third time if the fruits obviously interfere with each other.
Step 2 It is important not to forget to feed the carrots
In the period from the appearance of the fifth-sixth leaves + 2-3 days, mineral fertilizers are applied. After feeding, you can carry out the first hilling, which is repeated after the first thinning, after the second thinning and then once every 2-4 weeks. Hilling helps to cover the fruit in the ground, avoid sunburn and greening of the shoulders. Also, when growing, you can adhere to three-phase method: 5,7,10 leaves. But it is worth keeping in mind that in any case the fruits should be underground at a depth of about 50mm. 
Step 3 Watering carrots
Watering carrots should be intense enough to prevent the soil from drying out, but not excessively to prevent it from overcooling. The best thing is uniform watering, since with a lack of water, the root crops become coarse and “woody”; with too much water, they become small and tasteless. It is best to adhere to the following watering tactics:
Harvest and storage
The harvest takes place in late September - early October. The root crop is pulled out of the ground by the tops, after which it is placed on the ground nearby for quick removal excess moisture from its surface. If loosening and weeding were not done regularly during the growing period and the soil has hardened, digging can be done with a garden staple. But this must be done in such a way as not to damage the fruit.
If the harvest is carried out in rainy weather, then the collected carrots are laid out in a dry room. Total time drying time is about 1-1.5 hours (i.e. until the surface is visible drying). 
After drying, it is necessary to trim the tops. The most convenient way to do this is with a knife or garden pruning shears, if the tops are powerful and thick. Greens are cut at the root, without damaging the root crop. At the same time, the crop is sorted: all damaged, rotten, crooked fruits are discarded. Smooth, undamaged carrots are placed in a ventilated box and stored in a cool, dark place.
A root vegetable that is a source of carotene, our orange miracle, is always present on our table. This is one of our most beloved and important vegetables.
No other vegetable can replace it, because it contains many substances useful to our body: a large amount of vitamins, essential oils, phospholipids, sterols, mineral salts, microelements.
And even the middle of the root vegetable, which many gardeners dislike, contains apigenin, a substance that has a beneficial effect on the functioning of the heart. Finely grated carrots can heal burns and purulent wounds.
In Rus', carrot juice was used to treat inflammation of the nasopharynx, heart disease and liver disease. Also carrot juice It relieves fatigue and spring vitamin deficiency well if you drink half a glass of it 3 times a day.
And almost everyone knows that it is very useful for people with vision problems.
Carrots are widely used in cooking, both raw and in the preparation of a wide variety of dishes, as well as for juice.
A little history
According to pundits, carrots were first grown in Afghanistan, where the most large number its types. Initially, carrots were grown not for their roots, but for their aromatic leaves and seeds.
The first mention of eating carrot root is found in ancient sources in the 1st century. AD
Archaeological research suggests that carrots were grown much earlier - almost 2 thousand years BC.
Modern carrots were brought to Europe in the 10th-13th centuries, and they appeared here during the times of Kievan Rus.
At first, yellow and white root vegetables were grown, and only at the beginning of the 18th century did mentions of orange carrots appear.
And legends also say that in the Middle Ages, carrots were considered a delicacy for gnomes and they exchanged this root vegetable for gold bars...
Carrot requirements
Carrots are quite a demanding crop, especially when it comes to soil. She likes to grow in fertile, light, loose, permeable and weed-free soil.
The best site for planting carrots will be the one where manure was applied 1-2 years ago, since carrots react very poorly to fresh manure. In this case, many ugly, branchy root vegetables with very poor taste grow.
Also, non-standard carrots can grow under the following conditions:
if you apply fertilizers containing chlorine, the root crops will bend or branch;
if you deoxidize the soil on the eve of planting, the carrots become multi-tailed;
if there are any disturbances in the soil, for example, pebbles, organic residues, etc.;
if there is excess moisture in the soil, the root crop becomes hairy or cracks, the tops grow excessively;
if you introduce and feed unnecessarily nitrogen fertilizers- carrots begin to branch;
if we thin out the seedlings incorrectly;
if there is not enough moisture during carrot growth, the carrot, trying to take the moisture it lacks from the soil, produces lateral roots, which has a bad effect on its taste and appearance (the pulp becomes coarse, the root crop is short and “horned”).
Based on this, preparing the soil for planting carrots must be approached with all responsibility.
Firstly , it is better to prepare it in the fall: dig it up thoroughly; if it is necessary to deoxidize the soil, then add lime or dolomite flour for digging; You can also add phosphorus and potassium fertilizers. In general, it is best to add all kinds of additives to the soil for carrots, taking into account the type of soil on your site.
If you have peaty soil, then it would be good to add river sand, humus and clay soil to it.
If the soil is clayey - river sand, peat, humus, and with fertile chernozem soil we add only sand in the spring.
Secondly , in the spring, the area for carrots, prepared in the fall, must be loosened quite deeply, having previously added a complex mineral fertilizer; try to select all the pebbles so that nothing interferes with the growth of the plant.
One more an important condition for the growth of carrots is good lighting crops. Shading has a very negative effect on plant growth, especially in the initial stages.
If our plantings are dense and there are a lot of weeds, then the carrots stretch out, the formation of root crops slows down and a lot of small root vegetables(the so-called underdog).
Carrots are a relatively cold-resistant and drought-resistant plant. Its seedlings can withstand frosts down to minus 2 O C, and already mature plants and up to minus 4 O WITH.
But for those root crops that have survived frost, the shelf life is still reduced.
Carrot seeds germinate at temperatures above 3 O C, a optimal temperature for her height about 18-25 O C. If the temperature rises above 25 O Plant growth slows down.
When choosing a site for planting carrots, it is also advisable to take into account the fact that the best predecessors for them are plants such as tomatoes, legumes, cabbage, potatoes, cucumbers, and green crops.
Carrot sowing dates
There are several dates for sowing carrot seeds and they depend on when and for what purposes we want to get the crop.
So, for example, to get an early harvest, carrots should be sown from mid-April to early May ( early spring sowing). Carrots sown during these periods can be harvested in bunches from the end of June to the end of July, and from August we already receive a real root crop for summer consumption.
The next sowing period is from mid-May to early June ( summer sowing). This is the main time for sowing carrots, which we will store for winter storage.
If we want to get young carrots in the fall, then we can sow short-fruited varieties in mid-July.
A winter sowing seeds (from October 20 to November 15) can provide us with even more early harvest. But not every site is suitable for these purposes. For winter sowing we need to choose such a place on our summer cottage, in which the snow melts earlier in the spring and the soil should be light, sandy loam, so that the crops do not float in the spring.
When sowing seeds before winter, they are only disinfected and then dried. In the spring they will gain moisture, swell and germinate naturally. It is not recommended to germinate the seeds, as the sprouts will freeze. Using these sowing dates, we will be able to have fresh carrots from summer to spring next year.
In addition, when sowing late carrots before the 20th of June, plant development does not coincide with the greatest activity of the carrot fly (in May), which makes it possible to grow higher-quality root crops.
How to sow carrot seeds
Essential oils contained in carrot seeds large quantities prevent rapid access of moisture to the embryo and delay germination. Therefore, before sowing it is necessary to carry out pre-sowing preparation seeds: disinfection, soaking, germination.
You can read about how, and also correctly, in previously published articles.
Then we dry the treated seeds and sow them. With this treatment, seedlings appear much earlier (after 6-10 days), while if sowing is done with dry seeds and in insufficiently moist soil, the emergence of seedlings can take up to 40 days.
It is best to grow carrots in garden beds. Before sowing, we thoroughly loosen the prepared beds to a depth of 10-15 cm, then level the surface and make narrow grooves up to 5 cm and about 2 cm deep. It is not worth making the grooves deeper, as this can significantly slow down the germination of carrots. We make grooves at a distance of 25-30 cm.
In order for us to have friendly and uniform shoots, the seeds must be planted to the same depth.
And also experienced summer residents It is advised to sow carrot seeds so that they are soft on top and hard on the bottom.
To do this, we level the bottom of the grooves and compact them with timber specially prepared for this purpose.
After this, we spill the grooves with water and sow the seeds into the moistened soil, trying to keep the distance between them 1.5-2 cm.
It is quite difficult to sow small carrot seeds at such a distance. I would like to recommend several sowing methods that can make this process easier:
Mix small seeds with sand: mix 1 tablespoon of seeds with 1 glass of sand, then divide the resulting mixture into 3 parts and use each part for 1 m2 of beds.
Mix carrot seeds with seeds of beacon plants (lettuce, radishes). They emerge much earlier and thus show us where the carrot seedlings are located. This gives us the opportunity to carry out the first weeding of the carrot bed, without fear of damaging the plants, much earlier than usual.
Liquid sowing of carrots is also very convenient, in which the sprouted seeds are mixed with a liquid paste made from potato starch. Then they are carefully “poured” into the grooves from the teapot.
Then we cover the seeds with loose sifted soil or a mixture of peat and sand, or clean peat with light compaction to ensure better contact of the seeds with the soil and an influx of moisture.
It is not worth watering the ground after sowing, as the seeds may move to deeper layers of the soil and will take a long time to germinate, or may even not germinate at all. To prevent the soil from drying out, the top of the bed can be covered with plastic wrap.
In addition, under the film the earth will warm up much faster. The film will need to be removed after shoots appear.
How to care for carrots
Carrots need our constant attention. Caring for it means periodically loosening the soil, timely watering, fertilizing if necessary, regular weeding and pest and disease control. The most crucial moment when growing carrots is the germination of seeds and the emergence of seedlings.
At this moment, a soil crust may form, which must be carefully destroyed (preferably after watering), as it prevents the timely emergence of seedlings. To prevent the formation of soil crust, crops can be mulched with peat.
After the first shoots appear, you can begin the first loosening. We act very carefully, trying not to damage the delicate sprouts.
The best time for loosening is immediately after rain, and if it rains for a long time no, then we first water the carrots, and only then proceed to loosening.
When the carrots have 1-2 true leaves, we thin out the crops, leaving a distance of 3-4 cm between plants. We do the second thinning 2-3 weeks after the first and after that the distance between plants should be 4-5 cm.
With a smaller distance, the root crops will not reach normal sizes, especially late-ripening varieties.
To avoid the formation of ugly root crops, crop thinning must be done correctly.
First, the bed is watered and only after that the excess plants are pulled out. Moreover, we pull up, and not to the side, without loosening, otherwise the left carrot may break main root and the lateral roots will begin to grow, forming a “horned” root crop.
Thinning is best done in the evening, as the carrot smell that appears when plants are damaged can attract pests. It is advisable to take rejected plants away from the garden bed and cover them with soil or compost to muffle the smell.
Let me remind you once again that weeding and thinning must be carried out after rains or watering, and immediately after these operations the bed must be watered again.
In this case, the soil around the abandoned plants must be slightly compressed, and the holes in the ground must be filled up.
An operation such as hilling is also important, because during growth upper part root vegetables are exposed and turn green in the light, forming solanine, which, during storage, penetrates into the carrots and gives them bitterness.
Hilling up root crops is also best done on cloudy days or in the evening, so as not to attract carrot fly.
How much water do you need
Watering for carrots is of great importance, since this plant does not like either excess moisture or dryness.
Carrots have one feature - late harvest formation. Its growing season lasts approximately 4 to 5 months.
And the growth of root crops begins only after the end of leaf growth, in the last quarter of the growing season.
Therefore, during the growth period, plants are very demanding of soil moisture, and in the end they do not tolerate its excess well and, if abundant watering, root vegetables may crack.
In warm and sunny weather When the moisture from the soil quickly evaporates, the carrots are watered 3 times a week.
Do not over-water young plants; approximately 4 liters of water per 1 m2 will be enough for them. As the root crops grow, we gradually increase the amount of water.
In the middle of the growing season, carrots can be watered once a week, using 8 to 10 liters of water per 1 m2.
What to feed?
If we have well fertilized the soil for planting carrots since the fall, then it is possible to grow good harvest root crops and without fertilizing.
But it’s still better to do 2-3 more feedings during the entire growing season.
First It is advisable to fertilize a month after germination (1 tablespoon of nitrophoska per 10 liters of water), second- 2 weeks after the first. At the beginning of August, carrots can also be fed with a solution of potassium fertilizer - this third feeding Root vegetables will become sweeter and also ripen earlier.
And it is best to add ash infusion to the water in the second half of the growing season when watering carrots (1 liter of infusion per 10 liters of water), since ash is the best potash fertilizer, which is remarkably absorbed by all plants.
In addition, ash protects plants from many diseases and pests. You can even simply sprinkle the carrot beds with wood ash once a week before watering.
It's still very good to have foliar feeding carrots with boric acid solution (1 teaspoon per 10 liters of water). It will be enough to carry out such feeding twice: during active growth the underground part of the carrots (the first half of July) and when the carrots begin to ripen (the first half of August).
When and how to harvest carrots
Harvesting carrots can be done in several stages.
Firstly, as soon as the root crops grow, you can begin to pull them out selectively for food. This makes the remaining plants in the beds freer and they receive more nutrition, moisture and begin to grow faster.
And late varieties of carrots intended for winter storage, we harvest from the second half of September to the first half of October, before frost sets in.
There is no need to rush into harvesting, because root crops grow rapidly in the second half of September. But at the same time, you can’t be late, since carrots that are frozen are poorly stored and die.
Carrots can be pulled out by the tops if your soil is light. On denser soil, this will be quite difficult to do and you won’t be able to do it without the help of a shovel. Shake off excess soil with your hands.
After pulling out the root crops, we sort them: we leave whole and healthy ones for winter storage, we put aside damaged ones for quick processing, and it’s best to throw away small and diseased ones.
Then, for those root crops that we are going to store for storage, we cut off the tops right up to the head.
If you liked the grown carrot variety and want to get your own seeds of this variety, then select the best root crops (seeds) and leave about 2-3 cm of tops.
Then we dry the carrots processed in this way under a canopy (not in the sun) and store them.
How to store carrots
We store carrots in the basement (cellar) in wooden or plastic boxes. We put it in boxes in layers, sprinkle it with wet sand and try to arrange the root vegetables so that they do not touch each other.
It is also good to use moss instead of sand.
I would like to recommend another way to store carrots - “glazing” with clay. This is done like this: dilute the clay with water to the consistency of thick sour cream, dip the root vegetables in this “glaze” and place them on a wire rack so that excess liquid glass and coating are dry.
In such a shell, our carrots almost do not lose moisture and remain fresh until spring. But of course, the storage temperature should be about 0 0 C and the storage should be dry.
If for some reason the previous methods of storing carrots are not suitable for you, then you can also sprinkle the root vegetables thickly with crushed chalk, thereby reducing the likelihood of putrefactive processes.
And if you additionally sprinkle the root vegetables with onion peels, they will be stored even better.
In this article, dear friends, I only touched on the issue growing carrots, well, I plan to talk about all their diversity and about the diseases and pests that plague carrots in the following articles.
See you soon, dear friends!
No carrots required special care, but the growing rules must be followed. It is a drought-resistant crop that tolerates frost and long-term cold spells well. How to grow carrots? The secrets, like other vegetables, lie in proper agricultural technology.
She demands more care compared to other cultures. Let's take a closer look at how to grow carrots in the country or garden plot with your own hands.
Soil preparation
You need to choose a bright place before growing carrots. The secrets are that with a lack of sunlight Due to the falling shadow or uneven surface of the bed, root vegetables lose sugar content and weight.
Before you can grow a good crop of carrots, you need to choose light and level soil. It should be sandy loam, light loam, with good drainage. In dense loam, the fruits grow small, and 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 can grow good carrots, you need to
The bed is prepared in the fall so that it becomes established. It is made loose. To do this, add sawdust, humus, peat or sand. Chalk, lime, dolomite, and ash are used for liming. Manure should not be used for growing carrots, since the resulting root crops are not very attractive and do not store well. Humus should be added to poor soil - a bucket per square meter. If groundwater 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 bed 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 changed constantly. The predecessors should be garlic, onions, cabbage, potatoes. How to grow large carrots, if you have to grow the same crop in one place? The addition 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% vitriol solution, watered with warm water, and then covered with polyethylene film. During this time, it will retain moisture and warm up well in the sun.
How to prepare seeds for sowing
The germination rate of carrot seeds is low - 55-75%. In this regard, the seeds should be taken fresh. In addition, carrots do not germinate uniformly. After 2-3 weeks, the first shoots should appear. Seeds take a long time to germinate due to the presence of essential oils on their surface, which slow down the penetration of moisture.
Before growing, you need to prepare for sowing. Let's look at several ways to pre-germinate them.
Soak
The seeds are poured into cloth bags and kept for a day. warm water. The water must be changed every four hours. You can make a nutrient solution from it by adding wood ash (30 g/l). Afterwards, the seeds must be washed.
The method will be more effective if additional hardening is performed. Seeds in moist 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). The seeds are scattered on gauze folded several times, and also covered with it on top and filled with solution for a day. The liquid level should be just above the fabric. 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 at all times. In this case, you need to make sure that they do not grow more than 0.5 cm.
Heat treatment
Heat treatment of seeds consists of their sequential immersion in hot and cold water. They are poured into a bag and rinsed at a temperature of 50 degrees, and then dipped in a humate solution and kept warm for two days. As a result, the germination of not only carrots, but also parsley and dill is accelerated.
Bubbling
Bubbling speeds up the seed preparation process. An air or oxygen supply hose with an emery stone filter at the end is connected to the bottom of a non-metallic container with water. A net 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 carrot seeds is 17-24 hours. Afterwards, 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 fabric bags and buried in the ground with a shovel to the depth of one bayonet, where they should remain for at least 10-12 days. Then they are taken out and sown in a garden bed. After such treatment, seedlings should appear within five days.
Another method is to mix the seeds with moist peat and keep them in a warm place for at least one week. During this period, they manage 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 work seeds that are most suitable for a particular region are selected and purchased. 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. It will ripen by autumn.
Carrots take about three months to grow. To get a harvest in September, planting should be done no later than May. Sowing dates range from the end of April to the first ten days of June. Planting before May 5 is considered optimal.
Before winter, carrots are planted when the soil becomes cold enough. This could be from late October to early November. The timing of sowing and harvesting depends on the variety and region. Northern varieties They should not be planted in the south as they will grow slowly. If grown in the middle zone southern varieties, they give abundant tops, and root crops do not develop. Some varieties bred abroad are poorly stored.
It should be produced on time, otherwise the beneficial properties and shelf life of root vegetables may deteriorate.
Small carrot seeds should be spread evenly in the furrow. Therefore, they are mixed with sand or peat and sown in a garden bed.
So that neighboring rows do not interfere with its growth? To ensure sufficient illumination, it is better to make the beds narrow - no more than four rows of carrots.
Sides are made along the edge to prevent water from flowing down. 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. The seeds are placed in the grooves at a distance of about 2.5 cm.
When planting in spring and summer, the swollen seeds are planted shallowly - 3-4 cm. They should be sprinkled with very light soil, which is chernozem mixed with peat, sand or humus. Then it is done over the garden bed ventilation gap from the film at a distance of about 12-15 cm.
First shoots in warm weather appear within a week. If the temperature is below 12 degrees, the time is doubled. If there are empty spaces, additional sowing is done.
For many gardeners, the question of how to grow early carrots is problematic. It's actually not difficult. 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. In this case, the soil temperature should be below +5 degrees. When there is little snow in winter, the beds are additionally covered with it to a height of up to 50 cm. With this method of planting, the harvest is harvested 2-3 weeks earlier than usual.
Plant thinning
How to grow a good harvest of carrots if they have sprouted perfectly? To do this, you need to carefully thin out the seedlings after the third leaf appears.
All this is not as simple as it seems at first glance. To ensure that the plants are removed well, the bed should be watered and the soil should be carefully loosened. In addition, the operation should be performed during the day so as not to attract the pest - the carrot fly, which flies in the evening.
The sprouts should be removed with tweezers, leaving a distance of at least 2 cm. The smallest shoots should be removed. The tops are thrown away from the garden bed. Under no circumstances should you leave it nearby so as not to attract pests. A good deterrent is onion arrows, which are chopped 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. In this case, leave a distance of 6 cm between the carrots.
The row spaces need to be loosened and weeded (at least once a week) so that a sufficient amount of oxygen reaches the roots. After thinning the row spacing, you should mulch with compost or sawdust soaked for several weeks in a 2-3% urea solution.
How to grow large carrots? Here you need the correct dosage of fertilizers. They cannot be entered immediately large quantities. Carrot beds begin to be fertilized with mineral water when 5-6 leaves appear. The frequency of feeding is 2-4 weeks. This crop especially does not like excess nitrogen.
As it grows, the top part of the root emerges from the ground and turns green. This is not harmful, but the taste is worse. How to grow sweet carrots so they don't lose their taste qualities? When root crops emerge from the ground, they are hilled up, raking up soil about 50 mm high on them.
Watering carrot beds
Poor germination of carrots is primarily due to drying out of the soil. Until she rose top layer The beds must be constantly moist. Sometimes the soil should be watered even several times a day. Granulated seeds are especially difficult to germinate. Immediately after sowing, protect the bed with film so that the top layer does not dry out.
Until the roots appear, watering is done every 3-4 days, 3-4 buckets per 1 m2. At the same time, they independently grow in depth and find moisture. Therefore, watering is carried out 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. The beds are kept without watering for two weeks before harvesting.
Rough root vegetables are an indication that they lacked moisture. When there is an excess of it, the fruits grow small. Sudden changes from drying out to excess moisture are also harmful, leading to cracking of the carrots and subsequent poor preservation.
Carrots are not afraid of cold weather, but at temperatures below 8 degrees, the starch in root vegetables turns into sugar, and the shelf life of root vegetables worsens. In the middle zone, the harvest is harvested at the end of September in dry weather.
Collected for 1.5-2 hours, and then the tops are cut off. The harvest is sorted, straight carrots are placed in a ventilated box in a dark and cool place. This could be a cellar or basement.
Conclusion
You will never be able to harvest a good harvest if you do not know how to grow carrots. The secrets of agricultural technology lie in proper preparation soil, proper planting and care. As a result, in the fall you will get large and even root crops.
Carrots, as one of the most popular root vegetables, 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 ultimately everything is aimed at creating the maximum 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 taste. In specialized retail outlets there is a huge selection seed material different periods ripening (early, middle, late), sugar content indicators, storage duration.
Secret successful cultivation carrots is a well-chosen variety:
- Nantskaya-4, Shantane, Karotelka are representatives of universal variants that have high immunity to diseases and harmful insects. They are easy to care for and resistant to negative factors. environment.
- Moscow winter A-545 is suitable for cultivation in all regions of Russia.
- Polar cranberries are distinguished by a very early ripening period, the ability to produce a harvest within 2 months of growth, and can be planted in northern latitudes.
- 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 and sugar. The last one is especially sweet. The advantage of Children's sweets is their long shelf life, right up to the next harvest.
Shantanay 
Karotel 
Moscow winter 
polar cranberry 
Viking 
Vitamin 6 
Children's sweetness 
Moscow winter 
Nantes 4
Thanks to breeders who are constantly working on creating new varieties and hybrids, choose best option will not amount to special labor.
Conditions for a good carrot harvest
To get quality and delicious harvest, you need to know how to properly plant carrots in your garden. When choosing a place for planting, it is better to give preference to soils rich in humus. Carrots love sandy loam soil, loam, and drained peat bogs. Most gardeners are confident that the crop 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 it is practically impossible for the vegetable to overcome the soil resistance.
It is better to plan a garden bed in areas where cucumbers, potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes, garlic, and onions previously grew.
Long and large carrots can be grown at a temperature of 18-25°C; in hot conditions, metabolic processes inside the root crops slow down. For seeds, the optimal temperature is 3°C. The crop is sufficiently cold-resistant and drought-resistant; its seedlings can withstand frosts of -2°C, and mature plantings can withstand temperatures of -4°C.
Soil requirements
The land for sowing needs to be prepared in the fall. All tops remaining after harvesting are removed from the site. If there are stones or rhizomes at the site of the proposed bed, it is necessary to dig up the soil using the bayonet of a shovel. The soil must be fertilized with complex compounds that do not contain chloride forms. The nutrient mixture is added to the soil while large lumps are crushed, after which the area is leveled with a rake. The soil for carrots should be enriched useful microelements.
If there is a need to introduce deoxidizing agents in the form dolomite flour and lime, they are added to the soil in the fall. It is better to use fertilizers 2-3 weeks before planting seeds in the soil. To grow large root crops, it is recommended to add sand, perlite, and vermiculite to the garden bed.
Carrot sowing dates
To grow good carrots, sowing is done when the ground warms up to 3-4°C. Such work should only be carried out with varieties early dates maturation. The appearance of the first shoots is expected already on the 20-30th day. But it is best to plant the 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 last days October - early November. Such terms are relevant for central Russia. It is not recommended to plant seed material in the soil at an earlier date, so that it does not germinate and die during frost.
Agrotechnical techniques to increase yield and taste
Not all beginning gardeners know how to grow a good and tasty carrot crop. 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 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 yield from this culture. For correct formation Excess of root vegetables should be avoided nutrients and moisture in the soil. It is better to underfeed than to overfeed. It is not recommended to add fresh manure, lime, or regularly add wood ash or nitrogen compounds to the beds. Providing landings comfortable conditions growth, the farmer promotes the growth of fruits in breadth and sideways. Particular attention should be paid to checking plantings for the presence of diseases and pests.
There is an opinion among gardeners that it is necessary to trim the tops last stage fruit ripening. It is important to understand here that in green leaves and stems the process of photosynthesis is still ongoing, therefore, such manipulation is not worth doing. Otherwise, carrot growth stops.
Features of sowing
Before planting seeds in the ground, it is recommended to disinfect, soak and germinate them. The already processed material is dried and sown. This technique allows you to get seedlings after 6-10 days. If you plant dry seeds in insufficiently moistened soil, their germination can be expected only after 40 days.
The bed also needs to be prepared before sowing. To do this, the ground 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 uniform shoots, the depth in the grooves must be the same. The seeds are sown in moist soil, maintaining a gap of 1.5-2 cm between them. It is very important to know at what distance to plant the crop in order to avoid thinning the carrots in the future.
Watering and hilling
When growing carrots in open ground special attention should be given to the irrigation system. If there is not enough moisture, young plants will simply die. Overwatering promotes 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 a rate of 300-400 m3/ha; drip irrigation 20-30 m3/ha. The frequency of the procedure is every 2-3 days, everything will depend on weather conditions.
- When the period of fruit formation begins, the frequency of watering should be reduced and the volume of water increased. Irrigation is done once every 7-10 days. The soil should be moistened to a depth of 10-15 cm.
- Watering is stopped 1 month before harvest. Otherwise, excess moisture worsens the taste of root vegetables and reduces shelf life. To facilitate the process of digging carrots, the bed should be slightly moistened.
A technique such as hilling protects plantings from exposure to ultraviolet radiation and reduces the likelihood of plants getting sunburn. In addition, it will be possible to avoid greening of the root crop. It is advisable to carry out the manipulation in cloudy weather or in the evening hours.
Carrot feeding
To keep carrots sweet and juicy, you should periodically add nutrients to the soil. Number of feedings per season – 2. The first procedure is carried out 3-4 weeks after germination, and the next - 2 months later. 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 tbsp. 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 crop grows better on neutral or slightly acidic soil, ground and crushed chalk is used when planting if the soil is too acidic. Ash, dolomite, and 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.
To grow large root crops, you can use not only ready-made store-bought fertilizers, but also folk remedies. A fertilizer made from three components has gained popularity: nettle, yeast and wood ash. First, the container is filled to ¾ of the volume with phyto-raw materials, then yeast and ash are added. After keeping it 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 used per bed.