Carrot is perhaps one of the most beloved and often grown root crops in summer cottages. It is difficult to imagine traditional home cooking without this colorful ingredient: many varieties of this garden crop can be stored fresh for a long time, representing an invaluable source of trace elements and vitamins in the winter season. Is it easy to cultivate carrots on your plot? Growing and caring for this vegetable in the open field have a number of features. Despite the apparent simplicity of this process, one should not forget that carrots are a rather capricious vegetable. Unsuitable conditions, untimely watering or top dressing will lead to the fact that instead of even juicy carrots, at best, you will get a crop of fodder vegetables. Therefore, it is so important not only to know how to plant carrot seeds in open ground, but also how to provide root crops with proper watering, care, and protect them from pests. When should seeding be started? What you need to knowbeginner summer residents to grow beautiful and tasty carrots? Planting and care in the open field, ways to pre-treat the seeds and simple proven methods of protection against the natural enemies of this root crop are collected in this article.
When is the best time to start planting carrots?
The time when to sow carrots in open ground largely depends on the root variety. Conventionally, they are usually subdivided according to the timing of aging. This is:
- early-ripening or early varieties of carrots, in which the growing season begins 50-60 days after germination;
- mid-season (from 90 to 110 days);
- late (late-ripening) - from 120 days;
Certain varieties are quite suitable for winter sowing under the film. These include, for example, the well-established “Moscow Winter”, “Amsterdamskaya”, “Incomparable”, very tender carrots “Children's Sweetness”, the hybrid “Baby F1”, the cold-resistant variety “Paris Carotel” and other early and mid-ripening varieties. The optimal time for winter planting seeds can be determined independently. Summer residents who have been practicing this method of cultivation for more than one year recommend waiting for the first slight freezing of the soil, 3-5 cm deep. This will avoid untimely emergence. You can safely begin to germinate overwintered carrots in the second half of April. To do this, a small greenhouse or just arcs covered with a film are installed above the bed, after which intensive watering is provided to the seeds.
Time for the usual springsowing, of course, should be determined taking into account the climatic characteristics of a particular region. Particular attention should be paid to such a characteristic as the ability to long-term storage. For juicy early-ripening varieties, such as, for example, Tushon, Lydia F1, Minicor F1 and similar varieties, this quality is not important. For winter stocks of this vegetable, it is preferable to choose seeds of carrot varieties that retain their properties for a long time: varieties of Nantes, Orange Muscat and Fairy varieties suitable for April planting, Chantane or any late varieties.
If you focus on the conditions of the middle zone, then for growing the first crop rich in vitamins, early varieties of carrots are best sown no later than the end of April. That is, starting around the 20-25th. Juicy early ripening varieties are perfect for this: "Amsterdam", "Orange Muscat", very sweet carrots "Touchon", "Lubimaya" and others.
For a "reserve" harvest, carrots should be planted no earlier than May, best of all in the middle of the month. At the same time, it is recommended to choose varieties related to late or mid-season, but always with a long shelf life of all the properties of the root crop. It can perfectly “overwinter”, for example, mid-ripening carrots “Alenka”, “Nantes”, “Leander”, “Grenada”, “Vitamin”. Almost all late varieties are able, with proper storage, to lie throughout the winter season and remain tasty and he althy until next spring. Good characteristics have earned the popular varieties "Red Giant", "Queenautumn", "Mo", "Flakke", "Incomparable", "Saint-Valery" and other late-ripening varieties. Particular attention should be paid to the variety "Perfection", which has a high immunity to decay from moisture.
Stratification and sprouting
What tips from experienced gardeners should you use in order not to end up with crooked and tasteless "fodder" carrots? Planting and care in the open field begins with the preparation of the seeds of this root crop long before it enters the ground.
First of all, you should pay attention to when the seed material was harvested. As a rule, summer residents use purchased seeds for sowing or fairly fresh “homemade” seeds collected from last year's harvest. If purchased ones are used, then before planting carrot seeds in open ground, you should pay attention to the expiration date stamped on the seed bag: a guaranteed good result in the form of an excellent harvest can be obtained from seeds that are no more than 3– 4 years old.
Further, a reasonable decision would be to carry out preliminary preparation to increase the germination of seed material. This procedure includes pre-germination and stratification, that is, the period of keeping the seeds under special conditions. How is the stratification of carrot seeds carried out at home? The whole process of preparation and hardening will take at least 10 days.
The first thing to do is soak the carrot seeds for two hours. Water should be neutral "room" temperature.
After soaking, the seed material is evenly scattered on wetthe cloth. From above, the seeds are also covered with a moistened cloth.
They should be kept in cloth until they swell. All this time the fabric needs to be moistened. To prevent the seeds from drying out, they need to be gently mixed from time to time.
As soon as the seeds begin to hatch, they must be placed in the refrigerator. Hardening under such conditions is carried out for 10 days.
There is another, long-known method of pre-germination of seed material. To do this, the seeds are simply poured into a bag of cotton fabric and "dig in", that is, they burrow into the ground at a shallow depth also for a period of about 10 days.
Where to plant carrots? Choosing a suitable place on the site
To get a good harvest, you will need to allocate a suitable place for carrot beds on the site that meets all the necessary conditions.
One of the main needs of this vegetable is plenty of sunlight. Carrots in the shade grow poorly and do not taste good.
If winter sowing is supposed, then it is necessary to make a bed not only on the illuminated, but also on the elevated plot of land. This will avoid further erosion of the seeds by melt water.
It is important what crops grew on this place last year. Carrots cannot be grown for several years in a row on the same bed - the soil is depleted, giving trace elements to the root crop, so the earth must be given a "rest" for at least one or two years. In addition, natural enemies of this root crop can be transmitted, pests can remain inground from last season. For the same reason, carrots should not be planted after parsley. Beans, cumin, dill, parsnips, fennel are also considered bad "predecessors". Carrots grow best after cereals, nightshades (tomatoes or potatoes), onions, cucumbers, cabbage, garlic.
How to prepare the soil for a carrot bed?
Before planting carrot seeds in open ground, the ground should be prepared.
The area reserved for spring sowing is best to start preparing in the fall. It will be necessary to dig deep and carefully, choosing the roots and remnants of weeds, and fertilize. After such preparation in the spring, you just need to once again loosen the area under the carrot bed and start sowing.
The earth should be fairly light, loose, this will allow the root crop to grow well, while maintaining an even shape. Dense soil is best mixed with sand, compost, well-rotted manure or peat.
Special attention should be paid to the level of soil acidity. Excessively acidic soil adversely affects the taste of carrots. The optimal Ph level for growing this root crop is 6-7. You can achieve the desired acidity by introducing known means into the soil: dolomite flour, wood ash or chalk.
Form a bed: what should be the distance between the rows?
For sowing, you will need to make grooves 2-3 cm deep at a distance of at least 20 cm between rows. After the grooves are shed with a small amount of water, the carrot seeds evenlysifted and sprinkled with earth.
Several convenient ways to sow small carrot seeds
The small size of the seed material of carrots creates certain inconveniences when sowing: it is not easy to pour light seeds into the furrow evenly and not too often. Here are some proven, easy ways to sow small carrot seeds.
One of the quite popular, although requiring patient work, methods is to stick carrot seeds on toilet paper. Many summer residents prefer to spend several winter evenings gluing seeds on a paste (it is most convenient to do this with a match or a toothpick) and drying the resulting paper tapes, so that instead of tedious sowing, place the "blanks" on toilet paper in the grooves and sprinkle with earth.
It is much faster and easier to stir the seeds with a little sand before sowing. This seed spreads evenly into the furrow and does not stick together.
You can sow carrots in a potato starch paste. To do this, the seeds are mixed with such a chilled potato "jelly" and poured into the grooves through the kettle and sprinkled with earth.
Make seed pellets at home. Seed material in a special shell, which does not need additional germination, for sure every summer resident met in stores. You can make such a “blank” yourself: cut paper napkins (toilet paper) into small squares, in each of which place a carrot seed with a drop of paste and a granule of a suitable mineral fertilizer. After that you need to turnpaper squares and dry. You can also make such preparations in winter and store in a dry place until the start of the sowing season.
Fertilizers and top dressing
It is imperative to fertilize the soil even before planting carrot seeds in open ground. This can be done even during the autumn preparation of the site allotted for planting this root crop. From natural fertilizers, rotted cow dung is well suited for this purpose at the rate of 0.5 buckets per 1 m² of land. It is important to remember that fresh manure cannot be used to fertilize a carrot bed: it will unnecessarily increase the acidity of the soil, due to which the roots will grow crooked.
Nitrogen fertilizers mixed with phosphates can also be used for pre-feeding. For example, based on 1 m², you can apply the mixture in the following dosage:
- superphosphate (granules) double - 2 tablespoons;
- dolomite flour - 2 tbsp;
- wood ash - 2 tbsp;
- potassium sulfate - 1 tbsp;
- s altpeter (sodium) - 1 tbsp.
Periodic feeding of carrots can be carried out using a mixture of mineral supplements in two stages.
Three weeks after germination, a solution is applied to the soil between rows at the rate of:
- 1, 5 tbsp. l double superphosphate;
- 1 tbsp l potassium sulfate;
- 1 tsp urea;
- 10 liters of water.
Half a month after the first feeding, you need to make a solution at the rate of:
- 1 tbsp l Azofoska;
- 1 tbsp l potassium sulfate;
- 10 liters of water.
Top dressing can also be carried out with an organic mixture - a solution of chicken manure with water (1:10) with the addition of superphosphate. The resulting additive must be insisted, and then again diluted with water 1:10. The resulting composition should also be applied no more than two times.
Additionally growing carrots can be fed with a solution of boric acid with water in a ratio of 1 tsp. for 10 l. Such a composition should be applied twice per season: in the first decade of July and by the beginning of the ripening of root crops (first days of August).
Important! The prescribed dosage should be strictly observed when using nitrogen-containing fertilizers. An excess of nitrogen when growing carrots leads not only to coarsening of root crops, but also contributes to an increase in nitrate levels.
Irrigation Rules
Carrots, like many root crops, can suffer from overdrying of the soil, and from an immoderate amount of water. Proper watering of carrots is to observe the "golden mean".
Before germination, water the bed with planted seeds often, but with a small amount of water.
Watering after germination is required only once a week, not abundantly: the earth should be saturated with water no more than 30 cm deep. Excessive water is guaranteed to cause cracking of the roots, and if the beds are not shed deep enough, this will lead to the formation of many small shoots and give a crop of so-called hairy carrots.
Lack of moisture, prolongedlack of watering affects the taste of the crop: carrots become very hard, lose sweetness.
In extremely hot summer weather, watering can be done a little more often, as the soil dries out, about 3 times a week.
When there is sufficient moisture, experienced gardeners recommend not watering about 3-4 weeks before the start of the carrot harvest. This contributes to the long-term storage of the root crop, and also improves the taste of ripe carrots.
Thinning, loosening, hilling
To collect even and large carrots from the garden, cultivation and care in the open field must necessarily include the removal of weeds, hilling root crops and timely thinning.
First of all, do not neglect the timely regular loosening of the carrot beds. Despite the fact that even during preparation before sowing, the soil was made as light as possible, already after the first shoots, it is necessary to provide the root crops with a sufficient amount of oxygen. Wet soil should be loosened, after watering or rain, and with extreme caution. Tender fragile "roots" of carrots during this period are located near the surface, inaccurate loosening can easily damage them.
Thinning should be treated with the same caution - an important "operation" that allows you to get a crop of large root crops. It should be carried out after the appearance of strong first "leaves" of carrot tops. It is important to remember that with improper thinning, the remaining root crops can be injured, which will lead to unwanted shoots and a crop of "horned" carrots. Therefore, you need to carry out this procedure according to the following rules:
- thin out only in well-moistened soil;
- remove the “extra” root crops slowly, pulling them upwards, you can’t swing or sharply pull the root out of the ground;
- It is better to thin out in two stages: for the first time it is enough to leave a distance of about 3 cm between the roots, after 14-16 days the procedure must be repeated, leaving the largest carrots at a distance of about 4-5 cm from each other.
Spudding carrots, covering the root crop with earth, is necessary to avoid the formation of a green upper part. If this is not done, the substance solanine is formed in fruits with a “green stripe”, which, during winter storage, gives carrots a bitter taste.
Pest control: how to protect crops from insects and diseases?
One of the main natural enemies of this root crop is the carrot fly. There are several simple, including preventive, methods of dealing with this insect:
- do not leave removed carrot tops and weeds after thinning near beds;
- mulch growing root crops with clean straw or sprinkle the surface of the bed with one of the natural remedies for carrot flies: tobacco dust or hot pepper;
- it is recommended to settle onions as a "neighbor" next to carrots, the fly also does not tolerate its pungent smell.
Aphid gets ontops and aerial parts of the plant, feeding on their juices. From the above insects, it is recommended to treat with insecticides ("Bitoxibacillin", "Lepidocid"), but not more than 2 times a month.
The wireworm, which is the larvae of the click beetle, spoils the harvest of root crops by gnawing holes in them. In order to collect most of these pests, you should dig holes-"traps" in which a small amount of well-rotted grass mass and a piece of raw potato are placed. From above, the hole is sprinkled with earth and left for 2-3 days, and then the larvae are removed and destroyed.
Garden slugs are less dangerous than wireworms, but it is better to deal with them. As a “trap”, you can lay out pieces of pumpkin in the garden or dig several containers of beer near the beds. Slugs that have gathered at the smell of a “trap” overnight are easier to collect and destroy. Pine needles scattered between rows help to ward off slugs from carrot beds.
Winter Scoop. An adult insect does not threaten vegetables, but its caterpillars gnaw the aerial part of root crops. Insecticidal treatment with special preparations ("Etaphos", "Cyanox" and others) will help get rid of them.
In addition to insect pests, there are a number of diseases that carrots are susceptible to. Here are the most common root lesions:
- Gray rot is a fungal disease. It requires urgent "treatment" - the treatment of all root crops in the garden with a disinfectant.
- White rot is the result of overabundancenitrogen that occurs with a large amount of nitrogen-containing fertilizers. To neutralize this disease, special preparations containing copper should be added to the soil.
- Bacteriosis and alternariosis (black rot) are diseases that occur due to the use of low-quality seed material. You can prevent them by pre-disinfection. Treatment - spraying with fungicides.
- Phomosis (or dry rot) - is caused by fungal pathogens and is practically not amenable to disinfection. Prevention is to pre-fertilize with potassium.
- Felt disease appears after the harvest of carrots and prevents the storage of root crops. You can fight it by spraying with fungicides.
Timely prevention and treatment of these diseases, along with proper care, will allow you to get a crop of even sweet carrots that can last until spring.
