How to properly plant and care for carrots. Carrots - growing rules

Carrots are a biennial plant from the celery family. At first growing season carrots form a leaf rosette and a root vegetable. Exist . Their shape can be either conical, cylindrical or round.

If you plant a carrot root the second year, the plant will form a rosette of leaves and then send out flower stems ending in an umbrella-shaped inflorescence.

Growing carrots in open ground- this is a simple task that even novice vegetable growers can do. Subject to compliance with agricultural techniques and good care This root vegetable will definitely please you with a good harvest.

Site selection and soil preparation

Carrots are very demanding on soil, the most good harvest can be obtained on light soils with a neutral reaction. Heavy soils will also work, they just need to be worked well to a depth of about 35 cm or choose a ridge growing method.

If groundwater is close to the site, then it is best to make the beds for carrots raised to a height of about 30 cm. It is best to prepare the planting site in the fall: dig up the soil and add manure or humus.

Light areas are best suited for growing carrots; if shaded, the yield will noticeably decrease.

Note: for heavy clay soils It is best to use short-rooted varieties, such as Karotel or Chantane.

Sowing

Carrots are a cold-resistant plant; its seedlings tolerate frost well. Therefore, you can start sowing it immediately after the snow melts, which will allow you to get the first harvest in June. Early ripening varieties are perfect for such early spring sowing. To further reduce the ripening time, you can sow before winter or try to master growing early carrots in a greenhouse.

When growing carrots intended for long-term storage, it is necessary to plant varieties of medium and late dates ripening, they are sown from the end of April until the beginning of June.

Note: The carrot harvest obtained as a result of winter and early spring sowing is not suitable for storage.

When growing carrots in the country, in most cases row sowing is used, and on an industrial scale when using drip irrigation, strip sowing or ridge sowing is practiced.

The seeds are sown directly into the soil in furrows, the distance between which should be about 20 cm. After sowing is completed, they are covered with earth and thoroughly watered. (Read about how to prepare carrot seeds for planting.)

Unlike others garden crops Carrots cannot be grown from seedlings; if their taproot is damaged, the root crops grow branched and gnarled.

Take note: To maintain optimal humidity and accelerate germination, you can stretch film or agrofibre over the bed.

Care

After the emergence of seedlings, it is very important to thin them out in a timely manner. It is usually started after the appearance of two true leaves; the distance between the remaining plants should be about 2 cm.

Novice gardeners very often neglect thinning; as a result, they end up with a harvest of small and intertwined root crops.

Watering

When watering carrot beds, it is very important to follow the following rules:

Watering must be abundant, in dry weather until the first true leaves form, approximately 2 times a week.
During the period when root crops begin to grow, watering must be reduced to 1 time per week, the soil must be well soaked to a depth of 20 cm.
From about mid-August, when the carrots begin to fill up, watering is stopped, except when a drought begins.

In arid and hot areas, vegetable growers practice growing carrots under straw. With this method, row spacing with grown carrots is filled with straw or any other mulching material, which avoids overheating of root crops and reduces the number of waterings to a minimum.

Note: After watering, a crust should not be allowed to form on the surface of the soil; in this case, the root crops will experience oxygen starvation and develop worse. To prevent this, after watering it is necessary to loosen the soil surface, while at the same time removing growing weeds.

Top dressing

Carrots are not very demanding on soil fertility, but to obtain high yield It is recommended to fertilize. It is recommended to carry out the first fertilizing a month after germination. To do this, you can use the following mixture composed of:

Carrots are one of the most common vegetables in garden beds; they are grown in almost all areas. But every vegetable grower has different yields. What is this connected with? With violations of the rules for growing this healthy vegetable. Carrots grow better on light fertile soils, heavy soils cause improper development of the root crop, it bends, the lower end bifurcates. Such changes cause loss of the marketable appearance of the crop.

Acidity should be neutral, depth groundwater average The best predecessors are legumes, grains, cabbage, and onions. Carrots are prohibited from being sown after parsley, dill, caraway seeds, and parsnips. This is not a monoculture; the plant can be returned to its original place no earlier than after three to four years. Otherwise, there is a high probability of plant disease; pathogens accumulate in the soil.

There are no strict restrictions on planting dates. If carrots are grown as a vitamin supplement for the table, then they should be sown as early as possible. Seeds can be sown at ground temperature at a depth of 2–5 cm, approximately +4–5°C. At winter sowing growing conditions are as close to natural as possible.

In the fall, the seeds undergo vernalization, and next year it is possible to harvest the crop several weeks earlier than with spring sowing. But this method has a drawback - such carrots cannot be stored; they are intended for use or processing.

Spring sowing is recommended to be done immediately after the snow melts; the soil should have maximum moisture. If root crops are planned to be stored all winter, then sowing begins in the second half of May. Of course, these calendar dates are very arbitrary; each climate zone has its own requirements and restrictions.

Soil preparation

Carrots are a rather demanding plant in terms of soil nutrition. Fertilizers can be applied as the plant grows or the soil can be prepared immediately before sowing. Both methods are equivalent and depend on what fertilizers you have. If organic fertilizers are available, they are applied immediately before sowing. Dose – approximately 2 kg of humus per 1 m2 of bed. If the soils are heavy clay, then simultaneously with the application of fertilizers you need to add river sand to improve the structure.

Very important. Never apply concentrated chicken manure or fresh manure as fertilizer. Chicken droppings will scorch the earth; it must be diluted at the rate of 10 liters of water per 1 kg of droppings, and then this water must be diluted again in a ratio of 1:10. Fresh manure serves as a source of various weeds.

Seed preparation

There are two problems with carrot seeds: they are very small (it is difficult to maintain the seeding rate) and they do not germinate well. They need to be prepared before sowing.

Soak the seeds in warm water for a day, preferably changing the water several times. After soaking, they can be kept in the refrigerator for one to two days to stratify.
Perform heat treatment in hot water. Such stress increases seed germination and destroys diseases. Seeds wrapped in cloth are immersed in hot water(+50°C), then washed in cold.
Apply the bubbling method. To do this, they are soaked in various biostimulants.

There are also quite exotic methods of preparing seeds in nutrient gel solutions and then sowing them using a culinary syringe or bag. We do not recommend using them, it’s more hassle than results. Soak in water or stimulant and you can sow.

Carrot seed sowing technology

It is necessary to sow in moist soil. If there has been no rain for a long time, and time is running out, then the beds should be watered abundantly in the evening and fluffed up in the morning before sowing. Next, the process is performed according to the following algorithm.

Step 1. Make furrows in the beds. The depth is 2–3 cm, the distance between them is 25–30 cm. The grooves can be made with a simple ripper, a stick, etc. They will stick perfectly in wet soil and will not fall asleep ahead of time. If the bed is very wide, then make half furrows on one side and then on the other. It’s easier and faster this way, and the earth won’t be compacted once again.

Step 2. Carefully sow the prepared seeds into the cut grooves.

Practical advice. Try to choose calm weather. Carrot seeds are very light and can be carried throughout the garden by gusts of wind. In such cases, it is very difficult to find out where the grooves were.

Pre-glue the seeds to the rolls toilet paper- monkey's work. It is much easier to weed them later than to select and glue the seeds. Very economical growers can purchase pelleted seeds. The manufacturer packaged each seed in a separate gel shell containing water and nutrients. Due to this, the seeds have become large, they can be sown strictly at distances, and subsequent weeding is not required.

Step 3. After sowing, the furrows should be covered with soil as quickly as possible, this will prevent the soil and seeds from drying out. If the bed is wide, divide it into parts.

Very important. To speed up the emergence of seedlings and improve germination, the grooves need to be compacted. This can be done by hand or any simple device.

What does compaction give? The soil adheres more tightly to the seeds, they do not dry out, and the conditions for seedlings to emerge become favorable. But there is one condition - if the soil has sufficient moisture. Compacted soil releases moisture much faster (which is why the top layer is fluffed up); if there is no rain for several days after sowing, be sure to water the bed thoroughly.

Important. Watering should only be done by sprinkling; pouring water directly from a hose is prohibited. A strong stream of water will wash the small carrot seeds to the surface. Most of them will not sprout, but the rest will grow throughout the entire area.

Weed control can only begin after carrots have emerged, otherwise there is a high risk of damaging them. Perennial weeds have a very developed root system and, when removed from the ground, will certainly damage the tender roots of carrots. Now all that remains is to wait for the shoots and continue agricultural techniques growing.

Important. Beds with carrots must be watered abundantly daily until resistant plants appear. How to find out the optimal amount of water per bed? Very simple. Pour the usual amount of water onto the ground, make a hole and see to what depth the water has seeped. We guarantee that you will be unpleasantly surprised. After normal watering, moisture will seep to a depth of about 1–2 cm, which is very little. You need to water until the soil is wet to a depth of at least five centimeters. This will take a lot of time, be prepared for difficulties or do automatic watering.

Thinning of seedlings

Carrot seedlings have one unpleasant feature - uneven germination. All seeds were prepared for sowing in exactly the same way, sown at the same time and at the same depth, and the difference in the appearance of seedlings can reach a week. Even experienced gardeners cannot explain what this is connected with. But there is nothing to worry about if there are empty areas on the grooves. This is not a defect during sowing, this is a feature of the plant; over time, shoots will appear here too.

The first thinning and weeding should be done as soon as the height of the seedlings has reached 2–3 centimeters. During this period, it is already clearly visible where and in what condition they are cultivated plants, and where the weeds begin to clog the bed. Pull out the sprouts one at a time, try to make an even sowing line. The distance between the remaining carrot sprouts is about a centimeter, no more is needed. You will still have to do a second thinning, during which the distance will be set according to the requirements of agricultural technology.

Practical advice. Thinning, like weeding, is best done immediately after rain. If there is no precipitation and the plants are overgrown, then you need to water them abundantly in the evening, and in the morning carry out the planned work on the damp bed.

The second thinning should be done after a small root crop and real carrot tops appear. Thickened plants are the reason for a decrease in yield; some vegetable growers do not know this and try to leave it as more plants. This approach can only increase the number, but not total weight root vegetables In addition, the exit food products of small root vegetables, they are very small, peeling them is long and difficult.

Plant care

Carrots have good natural properties of protection against pests and diseases, and cope with most of them on their own. Only the carrot fly can cause significant harm; plants need help fighting it. Currently in implementation there is big choice quite effective chemicals to combat this pest. But you can use them no later than two weeks before eating root vegetables. And housewives use carrots from their beds for cooking long before the final harvest. Some of them thin out plants in this way right up to the moment of mass harvesting.

There is an equally effective, but completely harmless way to combat carrot flies - ordinary ash obtained after burning firewood. Keep in mind, these are not black coals, but fluffy, almost weightless ash. gray. Pour it into a gauze bag and gently spread it over the carrot bed. Do not overdo the dose, ash is a very aggressive chemical compound (alkali). In addition to pest control, it is used as an effective natural fertilizer. Ash, by the way, repels not only the carrot fly, but also many other pests, including aphids.

As for moles and mice, it is useless to fight them. The most modern ultrasonic devices do a great job of saving money in your wallet; their effectiveness in garden beds is zero, you can trust experienced plant growers. What to do with them? Never mind, in a year they will leave your site on their own because carrots are not the main food product for them. As soon as the moles “clean up” all the bugs on the site, the whole family will immediately move to another place.

Watering

As with all root crops, the amount of moisture has a direct impact on yield. Root system carrots are quite branched; water can be obtained from a depth of up to 40 centimeters. Such structural features of the plant put forward their own requirements for watering - this should be done rarely, but to a great depth. The top layer of soil perfectly protects the tops from drying out; it provides dense shade; the sun cannot reach the surface of the bed. Watering depth is at least ten centimeters. This needs to be checked using ordinary pits. Make them in the garden bed with a stick and see how deep the water seeps in after watering. Not enough - repeat watering with greater intensity.

It is recommended to harvest carrots during the dry period; if you dig them up after rains, storage problems will arise. To make it easier to pull plants from the ground, it is recommended to dig them along the row bayonet shovel. Don't use a pitchfork as some people advise. The forks do not lift the ground and do not make root crops easier to harvest.

It is better not to cut the tops with a knife, but to “unscrew them”. Such folk way completely eliminates damage to the upper part of the root crop with a knife, increases the storage time of the crop. The tops are unscrewed very easily, and the process is much faster than working with a knife.

Carrots should be stored at a temperature of +5-7°C, air humidity at least 90%. To prevent moisture evaporation, root vegetables can be placed in plastic bags with small holes, boxes with sand or raw sawdust. By the way, the use of sawdust turned out to be the most effective method. Even next summer, the skin on the carrots is smooth, the fruit has not wrinkled or dried out. The difference from fresh is the presence of a small number of small white roots. If the air in the cellar is too dry, it is recommended to periodically moisten the sawdust with water.

Video - Growing carrots in open ground

Video - How to grow productive carrots in high beds

Almost all summer residents plant carrots. This is understandable, because the root vegetable occupies one of the important places in any kitchen. And there is nothing complicated about planting carrots. I poured the seeds into the garden bed and waited for the harvest. However, everything is not so simple. This article will tell you about some of the secrets of growing and caring for carrots in open ground, what needs to be done before sowing, and also how to deal with uninvited guests.

What to consider when planting carrots in open ground with seeds.
Soil preparation.
Planting carrots with seeds in open ground.
Caring for carrots in open ground and proper watering carrot bed.
Disease and pest control.

What to consider when planting carrots in open ground with seeds

The carrot, familiar to all of us from childhood, is not such an easy vegetable to grow; it is quite capricious. To get a truly generous harvest, and the harvest to be preserved without loss, you need to take into account some serious points:

the bed with carrots should be located in the sunniest place; in shaded areas, carrots will grow poorly and will not produce a full-fledged vegetable;
To obtain sweet carrots on the table, it should be planted in soil that is not oversaturated with acids;
excessive watering leads to the fact that the carrots begin to grow vigorously, but become coarser and become more likely to be fodder than table food;
this vegetable especially loves loose soil, otherwise it will have a curved shape;
carrots do not like fresh manure, it causes it to bend, the root is deformed, which leads to an ugly shape of the fruit;
if long time Do not water carrots, they lose their juiciness and sweetness;
when, after a long dry period, abundant and frequent watering begins, the root crops crack;
without thinning, frail fruits grow that are not capable of long-term storage;
Rough thinning can lead to the fact that the neighboring (remaining) roots are deformed, and several ugly fruits grow from one carrot.

If you take these factors into account, carrots will delight you with smooth and tasty fruits that can be stored until the next harvest. But before you plant the seeds, you need to prepare the soil. Read: !

Soil preparation

A good owner begins to prepare beds for carrots in the autumn days. Beds for carrots should be made where cereals, cucumbers, beets, cabbage or corn used to grow. For a full harvest, only very well loosened soil is suitable. If the soil is light and not compacted, then you can simply go through it with a rake or, better yet, a flat cutter. In other cases, you should seriously engage in loosening, otherwise you will have to harvest crooked, small carrots.

To achieve a bed with light and lush soil, the soil is mixed with compost, peat or sand. You can add manure, but it must be well rotted. Carrots do not like fresh manure and will respond to its application with thick and dense tops, thick-skinned fruits, unpleasant taste, small and ugly shapes.

Since this vegetable does not tolerate and acidic soils, worth adding, dolomite flour or lime. It would be wise to add various fertilizers right from the fall. In the spring, such a bed should be thoroughly loosened again and only then sow the seeds.

Planting carrots with seeds in open ground

Some summer residents simply plant the seeds in the ground, however, it is much better to soak the carrot seeds for 3 - 4 days, and then dry them a little. This will identify non-germinating seeds and significantly speed up the germination process. Experienced gardeners themselves know how to plant carrots with seeds in open ground. But, since the seeds are very small and difficult to plant, gardeners have come up with some ways to small seeds they lay flat and didn’t all fall in one place.

Planting carrots in open ground with seeds is as follows:

most often the seeds are mixed with sand, they do not stick together and fall more evenly into the rows;
Each seed is glued to a roll of toilet paper with paste at the required distance; in the spring, such tapes are simply dropped into the garden bed;
prepare jelly from potato starch, place seeds in it and pour through the spout of the kettle into the prepared rows;
if the carrot seeds are coated, they are simply sown in the furrows.

In any case, the seeds are planted at a distance of 3–5 cm from each other in rows, and a distance of 15–20 cm should be maintained between the rows (grooves) themselves.

To prevent weeds from crushing tender seedlings, and to prevent moisture from evaporating and a crust forming on the soil, the crops are covered with film. Shoots appear at a temperature of 18 degrees after two weeks. Moreover, young shoots are not afraid of short-term frosts, but after a long cold period the plant stops growing roots and starts to bloom.

Caring for carrots in open ground and proper watering of carrot beds

Growing carrots and caring for them in open ground requires a certain systematicity. This especially applies to watering. It is very important to know how to water carrots in open ground. Indeed, if there is a lack of watering, young roots may not reach the water, and the seedlings will die, and overwatering threatens to turn tasty and juicy carrots into livestock feed. You need to water abundantly, but not often. When do carrots already form long roots, some gardeners stop watering it altogether. In this case, the roots rush straight down, forming straight and long roots.

Frequent, surface watering contributes to the growth of carrot hairiness and the fact that the fruit grows crooked. But weaning the plant from watering is also risky. If carrots are starved of water for a long time, and then suddenly a rainy period comes, all the fruits will crack. Watering carrots in open ground should not be frequent, but systematic. Already from the moment of the first shoots, carrots can be fed; they will gratefully accept it.

In addition to watering, thinning is necessary. When planted, small seeds sometimes fall so close to each other that they do not allow the fruits to fully develop. If you neglect thinning, the carrots will grow thin and frail, which will quickly rot during storage, and will be of little use for the table.

Caring for carrots in open ground contains another very important stage– loosening. As described above, carrots without this procedure grow crooked, small and ugly. Very often, loosening is combined with weeding or thinning. Weeding is also necessary to prevent strong weeds from shading the sprouts.

Disease and pest control

One of the vegetable pests is the carrot fly. In order to get rid of it, it is better to arrange the beds in advance in a windy place; the fly does not like winds. It is very advisable to plant carrots next to onions. And so that she doesn’t even look at carrot bed, it is better to sprinkle the bed with hot pepper, gold or tobacco dust, and do it with mown grass or straw.

Timely thinning and loosening helps prevent carrot rot. Another pest is the mole. To combat this bully, stores offer whole line funds. On proper care Growing carrots in open ground will take a lot of effort and time, however, the luxurious harvest is worth it.

No one personal plot It is impossible to imagine without the tufts of feathery carrot leaves above the beds. This is one of the most sought after root vegetables. But even experienced gardeners sometimes cannot get an even harvest. large carrots, the cultivation and care of which, it would seem, have been mastered for a long time. What are the reasons for failure, and how to grow good carrots?

Choosing a site for carrots

How to grow carrots in open ground? The popular root crop requires attention not only during cultivation; caring for the harvest begins with choosing a site. Carrots, like all root vegetables, are very demanding on conditions, especially on the site where the beds are laid out.

If in the fall ugly, underdeveloped, branched or bursting root crops appear from the soil, there may be several reasons:

applying fertilizers containing chlorine to crops;
spring soil deoxidation;
poor digging of the beds, as well as clods, stones and large organic residues left in the soil;
lack of lighting;
excessively dry soil or overwatering carrots;
excess nitrogen fertilizers;
rough uneven weeding or thickened plantings.

Moreover, many factors negatively affect appearance root vegetables, and to their taste. Therefore, the area for carrots is selected especially carefully. To get high-quality carrots, and planting and caring for them were not in vain:

the soil should be light, loose and fertile;
plantings should not lack light;
Preparations for sowing begin in the fall.

Preparing the soil for carrots

Before the onset of cold weather, carefully dig up the soil, remove roots and stones. If necessary, add dolomite flour, lime, and a complex of potash and phosphate fertilizers. In the spring, the area for carrots is fertilized again and deeply loosened.

Often gardeners, sharing their experience on how to grow carrots in open ground, advise paying attention to. It’s good if, before carrots, zucchini or pumpkins, legumes, onions, potatoes or other nightshades grew in the garden. If carrots, parsley or celery were already growing on the plot last season, then this year the yield may decrease, and the crops may be susceptible to carrot diseases or pest invasion. It is possible to return the carrot planting to its original place only after four years.

Carrot planting dates

No less important than the choice of planting site is the timing of sowing. Wanting to grow good carrots as early as possible, summer residents try to use the frost resistance of the plant:

Seeds begin to germinate already at +3° C.
The seedlings are not afraid of frosts down to –2° C.
Fine developed plants tolerate frost down to –4° C.
Optimal temperature conditions The range is considered to be from 18–24° C.
At temperatures above +25 °C, carrot growth slows down.

And although returning cold weather negatively affects the shelf life of root crops, this does not prevent gardeners from planting carrots in the pre-winter or spring, if the climate allows, to obtain early harvest. For such crops, early ripening carrots are chosen.

Planting and caring for root crops intended for storage is carried out after the daytime temperature has reached about 15 ° C.

Carrot planting and care of seedlings

Only high-quality seeds, carefully sorted and disinfected, can produce a bountiful harvest. And to make sowing easier, experienced summer residents offer several simple techniques.

Carrot seeds:

mixed in equal parts with washed dry sand;
add to the seeds of quickly germinating crops, for example, lettuce or radishes, in order to notice plantings as early as possible and carry out the first weeding;
mixed with flour or starch paste, which is poured in a stream into the prepared furrows;
glued onto narrow paper strips.

These measures, as well as pelleted seeds, simplify sowing carrots, growing and caring for the plantation, because thinning and weeding become less burdensome.

Before sowing, the beds are loosened to a bayonet depth, leveled, and moistened furrows 2 cm deep are prepared 25 cm apart. When the carrots are sown, the furrows are sealed with a mixture of sand and peat or loose soil, and the plantings are covered with film without watering.

Film:

will not allow the moisture needed by the seeds to evaporate;
will prevent attack on seedlings dangerous pests carrots;
will not allow a crust to form on the soil surface;
will increase, which is important when early sowing, soil temperature and will speed up germination.

The film is removed only after carrots have sprung up; growing and caring for them now involves regularly loosening the soil, watering and weeding the beds.

Care

When answering the question: “How to grow carrots in open ground?”, experts always focus on the need to thin out the seedlings. But it is sometimes so difficult for summer residents to part with sprouts that are just putting out their leaves. As a result, the quantity of carrots grown is large, but its quality does not completely please summer residents.

To get a good harvest, it is necessary to break through the seedlings in a timely manner:

When the first pair of true leaves open on the shoots, the carrots undergo the first thinning, leaving a gap of 3 cm.
With two pairs of leaves, excess shoots are again removed, leveling the resulting holes.

Thinning is carried out after watering in the evening, so that the sun does not harm injured sprouts, and the smell of greenery does not attract carrot pests. The removed plants are pulled carefully, without loosening them in the ground.

A crust on the surface of the bed can interfere with the growth of good carrots; after watering, it is regularly destroyed by carefully loosening the soil, or the soil is covered with peat mulch. To top part Root crops that grow and protrude above the soil level do not turn green; carrots are hilled up from time to time.

Watering and fertilizing carrots

The duration of the growing season for carrots is 4–5 months. In the first half of the period, the plant increases its mass of greenery, requiring abundant water, and then the growth of root crops begins, reacting negatively to waterlogging.

For one square meter young plants require up to 4 liters of water three times a week.
As the carrots grow, up to the middle of the growing season, watering is increased.
After two months, the carrots are watered once a week, using 8–10 liters per meter of area.

When thinking about how to grow good carrots, we must not forget about protecting plants from pests. It is also important to prevent carrot diseases, which can seriously affect the quality of the crop and its safety.

Complex fertilizers for carrots are applied twice. The first is carried out a month after the sprouts appear, and the second another two months later.

Sowing carrots in open ground - video

The answer to the question of how to grow a good crop of carrots at your dacha is not as simple as it might seem at first glance.

The quantity and quality of the harvest directly depends on the type and condition of the soil.

This useful culture It is quite demanding in care, loves light very much and does not tolerate even slight shading. At the same time, carrots are one of the most drought-resistant crops; they easily tolerate frost and remain viable during prolonged cold spells.

The quality of the grown carrot crop depends very much on the condition and type of soil. To obtain a rich harvest, it is necessary that the soil is light in mechanical composition, its arable layer is deep, fertile and with good drainage. Sandy and light loamy soils with a neutral or slightly acidic environment are best suited for carrots.

The soil for carrots should be light in texture.

Speaking about the topsoil layer, you need to keep in mind that in eco-farming it is formed not as a result of digging or deep plowing, but with the help of the roots of green manure - cultivated and weed plants grown as organic fertilizer, microorganisms and worms. They structure the soil layers so thoroughly that no mechanical impact can be compared with them.

From others vegetable crops Carrots also have the advantage of being unpretentious to the plants that previously owned the garden bed, but the best predecessors of carrots are cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, all types of cabbage, potatoes, onions, garlic and any legumes.

Carrots should not be grown in the same place for more than 3 years.

How to properly prepare soil and seeds for sowing

Soil preparation

They begin to prepare a bed for carrots in the fall. Stones are selected from the ground that can prevent root crops from growing. Then humus or compost is added to the poor soil at the rate of 10 liters per 1 square meter. m, in sour - chalk, in heavy - sawdust, river sand and peat. In addition, the bed can be covered with mulch or seeded with green manure.

In the spring, about a week before sowing, clods of earth are broken up with a rake in future beds and their surface is leveled. Then the beds are watered with water at a temperature of +30-40°C, and then covered with plastic film, which will help protect the soil from drying out and create conditions for it to warm up.

Seed preparation

Carrots are extremely light-loving - attempts to grow this crop, both in the shade and in partial shade, are completely useless.

Carrot seeds have low (only 55-75%) germination. Therefore, it is necessary to sow exclusively fresh seeds.

Carrots take a long time to sprout. This happens approximately 14-20 days after sowing. Such a long germination is explained by the fact that carrot seeds contain essential oils that prevent the penetration of moisture into them, as a result, the process of swelling and germination slows down. Seed growth begins only after washing off essential oils from their shell, therefore, when the weather is dry, the germination of root crops is delayed. To prevent this from happening, carrot seeds must be prepared for sowing.

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Methods for pre-sowing seed preparation

soak;

The seeds are poured into fabric bags and immersed in warm (+30°C) water for a day, which must be changed every 4 hours. Seeds can also be soaked in a nutritious aqueous solution of wood ash (1 tablespoon of ash per 1 liter of water). At the end of soaking, the seeds should be rinsed in clean running water.

Experienced gardeners to obtain best result combine soaking with hardening. To do this, wet fabric bags with seeds are placed in the refrigerator and kept for 2 to 5 days.

heat treatment;

Fabric bags with carrot seeds are immersed in hot (+50°C) water for 20 minutes and then in cold water for 2 minutes.

bubbling;

Thanks to bubbling, the seeds ripen faster.

The seeds are soaked in water saturated with air or oxygen. The bubbling container must be made of non-oxidizing materials. A hose is connected to it, through which from the compressor or oxygen cylinder supplies air. A filter made of an emery wheel is placed on the end of the hose. A net for collecting seeds is placed above it, attached to the ends of the container. The container must have a drainage hole saline solution or water.

During the bubbling process, the entire layer of water is uniformly saturated with air. On a small, non-industrial scale, a compressor can be used to home aquarium. In this case, the ratio of water and seeds should be 5:1. The bubbling time for each crop seed is different. For carrots it ranges from 17 to 24 hours. If air is supplied rather than oxygen, the bubbling duration is increased by a third.

burying seeds in the soil;

Fabric bags filled with dry seeds are buried in cold soil to the depth of one spade bayonet for 10-12 days. Seeds treated in this way germinate 4-5 days after sowing.

You can mix the seeds with moist peat and place them in a warm place for one week where they will germinate. Then sow them as usual.

After using any of the above methods, carrot seeds must be dried for 20-25 minutes at room temperature. Then they are sown in open ground.

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How to properly sow carrots and care for them

Carrots are grown without seedlings. In this case, the timing of its sowing in open ground is as follows:

in winter: 2nd half of October – 1st ten days of November;
in spring: 3rd ten-day period in April – 1st ten-day period in May and 1st ten-day period in June.

Carrots have small seeds, which makes sowing them quite difficult. In order to prevent thickening of crops, a little trick is used. A level teaspoon of seeds is mixed with a glass of sand and 10 square meters are sown with this mixture. m.

Carrots grow best in narrow beds with no more than 4 stripes. If you plan to grow only carrots in the garden bed, the sowing technology is as follows. Before spring sowing, grooves are cut on a previously prepared ridge. The distance between them is 15 cm for middle and early varieties, 20 cm for late varieties. The furrows are watered with water. In colder climatic zones For this purpose, use hot water heated to +50°C. Then the beds are powdered with ash and prepared seeds are sown on them at a distance of 1.5-2 cm.

The sowing depth and condition of the seeds depend on the season:

For summer and spring sowing, swollen seeds are used. They are planted at a soil depth of 3-4 cm. After sowing, the furrows are carefully sprinkled with soil and mulch (humus or peat). Having finished sowing, the beds are covered with film, which is raised on bricks by about 5 cm.

Before winter, carrot seeds of early varieties are sown to a depth of approximately 2 cm. They should be dry, and the thickness of the mulch layer should be 3-4 cm.

Before winter, carrots are sown when the temperature in the soil drops below +5°C. If the winters have little snow, the beds with crops are additionally covered with snow, with a layer thickness of 40-50 cm. This technology allows you to harvest the crop 14-20 days earlier.

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Caring for carrots requires the following conditions:

temperature regime;

For carrot seeds to germinate, a temperature of +3...+5°C is sufficient. The optimal air temperature for normal growth and formation of high-quality root crops is +20…+22°C. At the same time, carrots are resistant to cold, its shoots can withstand frosts down to -3-4°C and die only when the temperature remains below -6°C for a long time. The tops of adult plants die when the temperature remains below -8°C.

watering mode;

The volume and frequency of watering directly depend on weather conditions and the age of the plants. Basically, carrots need to be watered once every 7 days according to the following scheme:

3 liters of water per 1 sq. m of land at the very beginning of the growing season.
10 l per 1 sq. m after secondary thinning.
20 l per 1 sq. m during the period of root crop growth.

When there are approximately 2 months left before harvesting, it is necessary to water once every 10-14 days with 10 liters of water per 1 square meter. m of soil. When there are 2-3 weeks left before harvesting root crops, watering is stopped.

When growing, it is necessary to monitor soil moisture. There should be no excess or lack of moisture in the soil. Carrots, even for a short time, cannot tolerate excessive moisture, which causes root crops to rot, and during prolonged drought, their root crops stop developing, which negatively affects the quality of the crop.

weeding;

Carrots sprout slowly, and the beds with them quickly sprout with weeds. To avoid the growth of weeds that inhibit the development of carrot shoots, you need to get rid of them. The carrots are weeded for the first time 10-12 days after the first true leaf appears on the plant. The second is 8-10 days after the next true leaf appears.

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

feeding;

3-4 weeks after the seeds have hatched and the first shoots have appeared, the first feeding of the plants is carried out aqueous solution chicken manure, mullein, humus or ash (1:10). If necessary, fertilizing is repeated during the formation of root crops and plant growth. In areas where organic farming is practiced, due to which a layer of humus is formed in the soil, fertilizing is not necessary.

To avoid thickening, carrots are thinned out twice: 11-12 and 19-20 days after the appearance of the first shoots. After the first thinning, the interval between adjacent shoots should be approximately 3 cm, after the next thinning - 5 cm. This procedure is best carried out in the morning; after it is completed, the bed must be watered. Experienced gardeners treat the soil on which carrots grow with ground red pepper (hot, hot or bitter). This will muffle the smell characteristic of carrots and protect it from carrot flies. Another effective method protection against this pest is the combined planting of carrots and onions. You should not neglect mulching, which significantly saves the energy and time necessary to obtain a good harvest.