Planting carrots in the spring is a simple matter, not laborious, but requiring special knowledge. Every practicing gardener knows that carrots will not grow on their own, they must not only be properly planted, but also looked after. In this article, we will introduce the rules for planting and caring for carrots.
How to speed up the shoot?
In order not to wait for the cherished shoots for a long time, it is recommended to prepare the seed before planting carrots in open ground. Experienced gardeners never plant dry seeds and do not recommend anyone to do this. Pre-required:
- Prepare a small rag bag, fill it with seeds.
- Bury this bag for ten days in damp cool earth. Depth - 20 centimeters.
During this period, the seeds will give small sprouts, it will be easier to plant them, and the harvest will be better, since you can immediately weed out small, weak or not sprouted specimens.
Preparation of seeds in urban environments
If it is not possible to bury the seeds for germination, especially for urban residents, then you can prepare them inapartment conditions. This is done like this:
- Rinse the seed in warm water.
- We put it in a deep container, fill it with a nutrient solution, which is sold in specialized stores for gardeners. If you do not want to purchase a store composition, prepare it yourself: stir a large spoonful of ash (wood) in a liter of water.
- Leave the seeds in this mixture until they swell.
- After that, we wash the seed, dry it for half an hour, plant it.
- Planting carrots in the ground should be done immediately after drying, otherwise all work will be in vain.
Planting granular seeds
Now the stores sell everything that can make life easier for gardeners, and one of these products is granular seeds. They are sold in loose form, as well as glued on a tape, where the distance between them is ideal. Then you do not have to thin out the bed. Planting carrots in open ground is done as follows:
- Make grooves. The depth depends on the quality of the soil. If it is light, 3 centimeters is enough, if it is heavy - 1.5.
- The distance between the grooves should be 10-15 centimeters.
- Place the pellets 5 centimeters apart.
- Sprinkle with earth.
If carrots are planted not with simple seeds, but in the form of granules, then you will have to keep the soil consistently moist at first, this is very important to accelerate germination.
Planting regular seeds
If youhave already purchased simple seeds or prefer only such, then the recommendations change slightly. They will be a little more difficult to plant than granular ones, because they are very small.
- Preparing the grooves as described above.
- We place the seeds with a distance of 3 centimeters from each other - to increase germination, if some do not germinate. If all rise, then we will thin out. How to do it - we will tell further.
- We bury the crop, water it abundantly.
When to plant carrots?
Carrots can be planted both in spring and late autumn. Let's look at the timing more precisely.
Planting carrot seeds in the spring is the preferred option for all gardeners. In the middle zone of our country, it is necessary to plant a crop as soon as the snow melts and the earth thaws. The fact is that the seeds germinate for a rather long time, the first shoots will appear when the shoots of later planted vegetables, such as beets, also appear. At this time, late frosts will not be terrible - carrots will steadfastly survive them. If planted later, then you can be very late with the harvest. If you plant root crops at a later time, there is a risk that the seeds will simply be eaten by awakened pests, and you will be left without a crop.
If you decide to plant carrots in autumn, then you should do it in late October or early November, when it is already cold and the soil cools down to three degrees. Why exactly? If you plant the seeds earlier, they can germinate before the cold weather, and then just freeze. disembarkedat the right time, carrots will sprout like clockwork in the spring, because the seeds will be abundantly saturated with moisture from the melted snow.
Thinning
This is a mandatory procedure, because even carrots planted in granules due to watering and rain can germinate too close to each other, and vice versa. We need to align the plantings so that the size of the crop matches the variety. If the carrots grow too close to each other, they will not grow large - the roots will interfere with each other.
When thinning, you need to loosen the ground a little so as not to tear off the leaves from the knotted root. Thinning is performed when the third sheet has already appeared, it is also called the "first real".
Discard small and weak shoots without pity, so that stronger ones can grow to their full potential. Leave a distance of 5 centimeters between carrots - this is the optimal "territory" for good growth.
The second thinning is done at a time when the roots can already be used for food. Dig up carrots not from one, but from several places.
Irrigation
We must not forget about abundant watering. Carrots are very fond of moisture, it needs a lot.
In the period before the first shoots and when they appear, watering should be done twice a week. In this case, the water consumption should be about four liters per square meter.
After the seedlings are larger, real carrots will begin to tie from the root (this can be checked by digging one),watering is reduced to once a week. But more water is used in this case - from 10 to 15 liters per square meter (it all depends on how much the soil takes).
Weeding and loosening
Mandatory procedures not to be missed. It is necessary to remove weed grass as it appears, because it clogs carrots so quickly, especially still very small ones, which, if weeding is missed, it will simply be impossible to find. Yes, and weed roots can get tangled in carrots, and when weeding, you will simply pull it out too.
About once a week you need to loosen the soil. This is done carefully so as not to damage the roots. Loosen not only between the rows, but also between the plantations themselves, around them. The result of loosening will be soil saturated with oxygen and moisture, easier growth of carrots and its collection (you don’t have to dig to remove the root crop from the ground).
Feeding
Like any cultivated plant, carrots love fertilizer, so you need to feed them. How to do it right?
Immediately after planting carrots, you do not need to feed. The first procedure is performed a month after the emergence of shoots. It is necessary to mix one tablespoon of nitrophoska in ten liters of water (you can also use nitroammophos). Water plants at the rate of five liters per square meter.
After three weeks, repeat complementary foods, but using more solution - 8 liters per square.
Pest control
In early May and late Aprilroot crops are attacked by pests. At this time, the soil is already warm - up to 10 degrees, which is enough for the parasites to wake up and get hungry.
The carrot fly is especially dangerous. It greatly harms, penetrating under the skin of the root, gnaws inside the passages. After such attacks, carrots are unfit for food: the shape becomes ugly, the root crop itself will be tasteless, stiff. Such a crop is not stored for the winter, and there is no need to store it.
Umbrella psyllids are also quite dangerous pests. They do not touch the root, but drink all the juices from the leaves. The leaves become shriveled, fall, the culture may simply die.
Control Methods:
- early planting seeds;
- timely thinning, weeding;
- sprinkling with an infusion of garlic, onion peel, tobacco and dandelion;
- sprinkling sand mixed with naphthalene (1 part of naphthalene and 10 sand);
- do not scare away birds, they fight pests, ladybugs, riders and lacewings will also be useful in the fight;
- sprinkle tops with ash.
When to harvest?
Carrots should be removed from the beds after September 20th. Watering should be stopped two weeks before to allow the soil to dry out.
Dry the root crops in a dry and cool place, but not in the sun, otherwise they will wither. The tops cannot be cut, only torn off, twisting, otherwise the carrots will not lie for a long time.
