Carrot
Carrots belong to the plants of the Apiaceae family. The homeland of carrots is Central Asia, from where this plant spread first to the Mediterranean, and then throughout the world. This plant has been included in the human diet for more than four thousand years. Currently, there are more than a thousand varieties and varieties of this plant grown in the national economy of almost all countries of the world. Planting and caring for carrots are notable for their simplicity, which, along with excellent culinary qualities, has provided carrots with a place in the top ten most popular vegetables on the planet.
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plant description
In nature, there are varieties of carrots in the form of annuals or biennials. Most varieties are biennial varieties. In the first year of life, the carrot forms a rosette of several leaves and a large root crop; in the second year of life, the plant begins to produce seeds
harvested carrots
Root crop carrot has a conical or cylindrical shape. It consists of a fleshy plant tissue that has a sweetish aftertaste. The mass of the root crop can vary widely (from 30 g to almost a kilogram).
carrot inflorescence
inflorescences carrots look like umbrellas, consisting of many small white or white-yellow flowers. Fruit carrots are an achene about 4 cm long, which contains several hundred small seeds.
Carrot roots have not only good taste, but also contain many substances useful for human life, such as carotene, flavonoids, vitamins A and B, ascorbic acid.
Carrots are used in almost all cuisines of the world, not only as a side dish, but also as a spice. It also finds application not only in cooking, but also in the pharmaceutical industry, traditional and folk medicine. Carrot juice is used as an adjuvant therapy in the treatment of metabolic diseases, diseases of the heart and blood vessels, as well as eye diseases.
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General issues
When growing carrots, the main thing is to decide what kind of carrots you need. The existing variety of carrot varieties allows you to harvest almost throughout the season: from super early to extremely late. As a rule, late varieties of carrots have greater keeping quality, that is, they are much more adapted for long-term storage.
Variety of varieties of carrots
If you plan to use young carrots in the summer, you need to use early ripe ones. varieties. If we are talking about stocks for the winter or next year, late-ripening varieties are used.
The choice of variety will determine the entire sequence of actions when growing a vegetable. Some methods used for growing early varieties are not applicable to late varieties and vice versa. Naturally, the timing of sowing vegetables indirectly depends on the timing of ripening.
Traditionally, three schemes for planting carrots are considered, depending on the ripening time:
- early carrots are planted either in autumn (the so-called “before winter” method) or in the middle of spring, usually in the 2nd-3rd decade of April
- mid-season carrots are planted a little later - 1-2 decades of May
- late-ripening varieties can be sown from the beginning of May to the end of June
In the latter case, you should not be afraid of long growing periods, which in carrots can last up to 4 and a half months. Compliance with all the rules of agricultural technology will allow carrots to ripen and gain vitamins until the 2-3rd decade of September.
Growing conditions and place
illumination
Plot with carrots of a small area
Carrots prefer well-lit areas. Moreover, the term “prefers” is hardly appropriate here: carrots must be grown with maximum lighting. There should not even be a hint of a shadow or partial shade. The stay of the plant in sunlight should be at least 75% of the daylight hours. Therefore, the optimal site for planting carrots is the southern slope of the site, devoid of high vegetation on all sides except the northern one.
On the north side of the area allotted for carrots, it is allowed to plant some kind of natural fence, for example, in the form of a hedge of corn or nightshade. You can also place cucumbers on trellises in this place. All this will create additional protection for the area with carrots from the cold wind.
Soil for planting
Carrots in the ground
The soil for carrots should be neutral or close to neutral acidity. On alkaline soils, the cultivation of carrots is not allowed. Therefore, liming overly acidic soils should be done with caution. Do not use lime for liming, it is better to do with wood ash. However, its application rates should not exceed 120-150 g per 1 sq. m.
The soil for carrots should be moderately fertile, however, it should not be overly fertilized with particularly active top dressing. This applies to both organic and mineral fertilizers. It is strictly forbidden to use fresh carrots for fertilizing rotted manure (even introduced last year), as well as any kind of saltpeter. Such restrictions are due to the fact that at an early stage of ripening, carrots very vigorously absorb nitrates from the soil, which, of course, will negatively affect the quality of the product. In general, any excess of nitrogen is undesirable for carrots; the plant has enough strength to ensure its own growth and vegetation on its own, without nitrogen supplements.
The soil structure for carrots also has one feature: the vegetable grows best on hard and compacted soils.
Separately, it should be said about the predecessors of carrots. Ideal predecessors of carrots are vegetables that, like carrots, draw nitrogen from the soil well. These include:
Parsley - an undesirable predecessor of carrots
You should not grow carrots in the place where they already grew last season. Also, the following plants are considered undesirable precursors of carrots:
- parsley
- celery
- Dill
The use of legumes as a precursor to carrots (or simple green manure) is also questionable. On the one hand, the soil after them is enriched with natural, natural nitrogen, which, of course, is much better than nitrogen in the form of nitrates. On the other hand, as already noted, an excess of nitrogen is undesirable for carrots, since it will be aimed at obtaining an abundant green part of the plant, which may adversely affect the formation of the tuber.
Sometimes it is recommended to use green manure in the form of legumes if the carrots are planted in partial shade. In this case, an excess of nitrogen will be useful for the plant, as it can compensate for the lack of lighting. In other cases, it is not recommended to use legumes as a precursor of carrots.
Use of beds
Carrots planted in rows
Efficient cultivation of carrots has several nuances.First, excessive soil moisture carrot does not love; The soil must be well drained. Secondly, the optimal temperature for planting carrots is the range from + 12 ° C during the day to + 5 ° C at night. In addition, planting carrots is carried out in rows.
In view of the above, it is desirable to grow carrots in the beds. Conventionally, their height should be no less than the length of ripe root crops of the selected variety (from 15 to 25 cm). The width of the beds depends on the number of planted rows of vegetables. On average, about 30-40 cm wide should be allocated per row beds.
In this case, two-row cultivation of carrots in beds 60-80 cm wide and 20-30 cm high will be optimal in this case. There are no restrictions on the length of the beds - it all depends on the configuration of the site and the convenience of its maintenance and watering.
Preliminary soil preparation
Regardless of which planting method is used, the soil for carrots needs preliminary preparation. It consists in digging the site to a depth of about 25 cm. At the same time, it is necessary to loosen the soil qualitatively and remove the remnants of the weed root system from it.
After that, organic fertilizers (for example, humus or compost) are introduced into it and the site is re-digged. If liming of the soil is necessary, it is carried out simultaneously with the application of fertilizers. Sometimes, in the case of excessively viscous soils, it is allowed to add some sand to the site.
Double superphosphate
In the case of planting on beds, it is desirable to completely fill the lower layer of soil with compost or humus to a height of about 3-5 cm, which will increase soil fertility and provide carrots with the necessary set of nutrients for almost the entire season.
If organic fertilizers are not available, mineral fertilizers should be used. However, one should not be particularly zealous, especially with regard to nitrogen.
Fertilizer consumption rates per sq. m spare plot of carrots are as follows:
- superphosphate (double) - 30 (15) g
- potassium salt - 15 g
- urea - 15 g
All processes for preliminary soil preparation should be completed at least two weeks (in autumn, possibly more) before the planned planting of seeds, so that the soil has time to sink and compact.
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Planting in the spring
Seed preparation
During spring planting, a mandatory procedure is the preliminary preparation of seeds. Carrot seeds contain in their composition a certain amount of essential oils that limit the access of moisture to the embryo, so they begin to germinate quite late.
carrot seeds
When using dry seeds, the first shoots will appear only 2-3 weeks after planting. To reduce this time, the seeds should be exposed several times to warm water, which will wash away this protective shell from them.
There are several ways to speed up seed germination:
Placement of seeds in natural conditions
Seed bag
Seed sparging
The simplest bubbler
A bubbler is a special device designed to pass air or some kind of gas bubbles through a liquid. In horticulture, this device can be used to stimulate seed growth. If there is no “industrial” bubbler, you can make it yourself.
Seeds are placed in a container with warm water, and atmospheric air is supplied to it with the help of an aquarium aerator. The process continues for about a day.Seeds after sparging are wrapped in a damp cloth and stored for 3-5 days in the refrigerator. Immediately before disembarking, they are taken out of the refrigerator, dried. This method allows not only to speed up the germination process, but also to reject unsuitable seeds for planting - they will float during the bubbling process.
Coating of seeds
Industrially coated seeds
With this method, the seeds are covered with a special nutrient shell. It also makes seeding easier (because the size of the planting material increases) and reduces the amount of seed per unit area. Ready-made pelleted seeds can be purchased at the store, or you can make them yourself.
To drag 2 tablespoons of carrot seeds, you need to take the following components:
- 1 cup liquid mullein
- 1.5 cups of peat
- 1 glass of humus
The seeds are placed in a liter jar and 1/3 of each of the components is added to them, after which the jar is closed with a lid and shaken vigorously for three minutes. After that, half of the remaining components are added to it, the jar is closed again and its contents are shaken again for 3 minutes. After that, the procedure is repeated with the rest of the components.
As a result of this treatment, the seeds will be covered with a shell of the nutrient composition. They should be laid out on a sheet of paper and dried. This method of accelerating seed germination is considered the most effective.
Placing seeds in nutrient solution
sodium humate
Not the most effective, but the easiest and fastest way to prepare carrot seeds for planting. Usually, dilution of 10-20 g of a special agent per 1 liter of water is used as a solution, which can be fertilizers such as sodium humate, Effekton, or the most common ash.
After the solution is ready, seeds are immersed in fabric bags for a period of about 1 day. After that, the seeds are washed and placed for several days in the refrigerator, wrapped in paper cloth. Immediately before planting in the ground, the seeds are completely dried.
Landing time
Carrots can also be planted at times different from the "traditional" ones. Carrot seeds are able to germinate already at + 4-6 ° C, therefore, some correction of planting dates relative to the end of April is allowed. Seeds in the soil can tolerate frosts down to -6 ° C, so you should not be especially worried about their fate after planting.
carrot sprouts
It does not make sense to delay planting in warm climates until late, unless it is due either to grow the crop by a certain date, or to delay the ripening period as much as possible in order to extend the shelf life accordingly.
There are also recommendations for planting carrots in different types of soil, depending on their density. It is believed that harder soils are better suited for growing late-ripening varieties of carrots, where they should be planted no later than the first days of May. On medium soils, carrots can be planted until the first half of May, and on light soils - until the end of May.
There is one more recommendation - it is desirable to land before the spring rains, so it is advisable to follow the weather forecast for the next week.
Site work
After the soil and seeds are prepared for sowing and the right time comes, proceed directly to planting. Planting seeds is carried out at a depth of about 2-3 cm with light sandy or sandy loamy soils. In heavy loams, seeds should be deepened no more than 1.5-2 cm.
Sowing carrots
The distance between rows can be chosen based on the size of the plot or each particular bed, however, it should not be less than 20 cm. Otherwise, the plants of adjacent rows will not only interfere with each other, but the process of cultivating the land between the rows will be much more complicated.
Seeds are planted at a distance of about 3-4 cm relative to each other. Keeping such a distance is not easy enough, so landing methods are often used that “automate” the process a little.
One of these methods is the so-called tape method of landing. Its essence is as follows: on pre-prepared strips of paper with the required interval of 3-4 cm, prepared for planting and dried carrot seeds are glued. Gluing is done with a paste. For these purposes, any thin paper is used (often toilet paper is used).
Tape landing method
When the paste dries, the paper rolls up. When planting on a garden bed, in this case, not holes are harvested, but whole grooves, the depth of which corresponds to the density of the soil. A moistened tape with seeds is placed in this groove.
Seeds are covered with a layer of soil and slightly compacted. After that, they are lightly watered and the soil is mulched with straw, hay or sawdust with a layer of about 3 cm. Mulching is necessary so that a soil crust does not form over the germinating seeds.
In some cases, when tape planting, when a tape with glued seeds is placed in an earthen groove, one granule of a complex mineral fertilizer is placed next to each seed - this will help the plant to form faster.
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Planting carrots in the fall is no different from spring planting.
Winter planting carrots has several advantages. Firstly, it does not require much thought about what time and what to sow. Whenever it happens, the seeds will not hatch and grow until spring comes. Secondly, during winter planting, seed preparation measures are not carried out at all, since during their wintering under snowy winter soil, all processes, from stratification to swelling and germination, will be supervised by nature itself.
It is obvious that such a method of planting, freeing the owner from complex and responsible events, has its downside. Unfortunately, it exists: only early and early ripening varieties of carrots that are not stored for a long time can be grown in this way.
Usually, autumn planting is carried out in the third decade of October or in the first decade of November. The previously described soil preparation for planting in some cases (lack of rain, frequent cold snaps and weather changes) should be carried out not two weeks, but a month before the planned planting.
All activities in the garden are completely similar to planting in the spring. And the depth of the soil, and the sequence of actions, and the possible use of alternative planting methods - all this remains in force. However, as a material for mulch in the case of winter planting, not ordinary covering materials should be used, but their nutritional “analogues”.
These can be peat or humus. The mulch layer in this case is also 3 cm.
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Care
Despite the seeming simplicity of growing and unpretentiousness of carrots, it is a rather capricious plant, so attention should be paid to caring for it.
The main points in growing a plant are: watering and weeding. Let's consider them in more detail.
Watering
The most unpleasant thing that can happen to a root crop (from the point of view of the consumer, of course) is the loss of its taste and appearance. Carrots become bitter and lethargic. In the vast majority of cases, the cause of this phenomenon is a lack of watering. Watering is an essential part of plant care.
Watering carrots in the garden
The depth of moistening of the site should be equal to the size of the root crop, that is, the soil should be saturated with moisture to a depth of 25-30 cm. If the root crops do not receive the required amount of water during irrigation, they will begin the rapid formation of lateral roots, busy searching for additional sources of moisture.
The pulp of the root crop from the appearance of these roots becomes rough and tough, and its taste first acquires a neutral shade, and then changes to bitter.
Excessive watering leads to cracking of the roots, covering them with small shoots and a significant increase in the growth of the green part of the plant.
Application of drip irrigation
Optimal watering of carrots can be carried out once a week according to the following scheme:
At the beginning of the “life path”, the plant is watered based on the norm of about 3 liters per 1 sq. m. As soon as the second thinning of the carrots is done, the volume of irrigation increases and amounts to about 10 liters per square meter. m.
The process of leaf growth ends and the growth of the root crop begins - the volume of water increases to 20 liters per 1 sq. m.
30-50 days before harvesting, the plant is transferred to a more economical watering regime. This reduces not only the amount of liquid introduced, but also the frequency of irrigation. So. for example, starting from August, watering is carried out every 10-15 days, while the volume of water is about 10 liters per sq.m.
Immediately before harvesting (2-3 weeks), watering stops altogether.
Weeding and thinning plants
Planting carrots is often too dense, because it is not always possible to keep the same 3-4 cm between the seeds. And the presence of too many plants in a limited area always leads to competition with them. Competition is expressed, first of all, in the desire to take as much space as possible on the site through sprawling tops, that is, the forces of the plant will be directed to a goal that is completely unacceptable to the owner.
thinning carrots
To avoid this situation, it is necessary to thin out carrots several times a season. First thinning carried out according to the standard method for many plants - after the appearance of the first two true leaves. As a result, the distance between the green parts of the bushes will be about 2-3 cm.
Second thinning produced after the appearance of the second pair of true leaves. At the same time, the distance between the seedlings is even twice as large - from 5 to 6 cm.
Naturally, in the case of tape planting, such events are generally meaningless, since the plants are already planted at the required distance.
Weeding the site should be done regularly. Carrots do not tolerate weeds near them. Usually, weeding is carried out simultaneously with watering, however, it should not be done with every watering, but as needed.
Such a need may not arise within a month, or it may occur constantly - everything will depend on the activity of weeds in a particular area. Technically, weeding is loosening the soil at a distance of about 10-20 cm from the root crops to a depth of 5-6 cm with the destruction of all weeds that will be there.
This procedure is quite tedious, especially if a lot of carrots are planted on the beds, so gardeners, to put it mildly, do not like it. There are several ways to grow carrots that are practically devoid of the need to weed them. They are based on three principles:
- application of a liquid that inhibits the growth of weeds
- mulching application
- application of opaque agrofibre
First way consists in the use of chemicals that process the aisles. As such drugs can be used as special formulations, or chemically active liquids (for example, a solution of kerosene). However, this method for use is recommended in very extreme cases, since the effect of these compounds on the carrot itself can be extremely negative.
Straw mulching
Mulching is a traditional way to maintain moderate soil moisture and reduce weed activity and is used much more often.Sawdust or straw can be used as mulch. Sometimes needles or pressed sawdust are allowed, however, they can create problems not only for weeds, but also for the carrots themselves, since they will also interfere with normal air circulation in the area of \u200b\u200bthe topsoil.
It is also not recommended to use hay or freshly cut grass as mulch, as they may contain seed material of this grass, which will be the same weed for carrots.
Mulch from humus or peat is good only in the first month of growing a plant, because it contains nutrients. Adult carrots do not need such an abundance of nutrients, so the use of mulch of this composition is impractical.
Agrofibre has the same drawback as compressed sawdust. Despite its excellent weed control, it disrupts the air circulation in the topsoil and sometimes its application has the exact opposite effect in terms of retaining moisture in the soil. Often, under agrofibre, the soil dries out and seizes with a crust.
Which way to choose each gardener decides for himself. In the general case, the choice depends on many factors and the influence of each of them should be soberly weighed. Perhaps it would be best to use the classic scheme with regular weeding?
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Carrots are one of the most popular vegetables in the garden. Its taste and unpretentiousness, combined with high yields, make carrots one of the most attractive vegetables for both beginner gardeners and professionals. The cultivation of this vegetable is relatively simple and requires only regular watering and weeding.
Growing HARVESTED carrots MY WAY from seed to harvest
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A huge informative article for beginner gardeners, however, there is not a word about storing carrots in it. Everyone knows that carrots are a very delicate vegetable in terms of storage. Root crops during the winter either dry out if the cellar is dry, or rot if the cellar is wet. To keep carrots in perfect condition until summer, you need to take a plastic bag and pour dry river sand on the bottom. Then a layer of carrots should be spread on the sand and covered with the next layer of sand. These layers need to fill the entire bag. All root crops must be covered with sand. Important! Carrots should not be washed before storage, it is better to put them in a bag with pieces of earth.
Very good article, thanks for your hard work! Will definitely share with my friends! Everything is detailed and clear!