Carrots: how to grow a good crop

Contents

Carrot varieties
Planting carrots
Care of carrots in the open ground
Harvesting carrots
Regular meals carrots
Popular questions and answers

Carrots are considered a fairly unpretentious root crop, but this is not so. To get a good harvest, you need to take into account many nuances. Let’s figure them out together

It is unlikely that in Our Country there is a garden where carrots grow. Which is not surprising, because this vegetable is included in the recipes of our traditional dishes. But not everyone has good harvests: often carrots grow ugly and tasteless. And still it is necessary to be able to save it in the winter. So how do you grow good root vegetables? Let’s figure it out.

Carrot varieties

Usually summer residents do not study carrot varieties much. At best, pay attention to the shape of the root crop, yield and ability to be stored for a long time. In fact, each variety has its own purpose.

On the bundle

Such carrots do not wait for the full ripening of root crops. They are pulled out of the garden during the summer and eaten immediately. As a rule, these are the earliest varieties, they can be harvested from the end of June.

Varieties and hybrids: Royal Shantenay, Shantenay Royal, Concerto F1, Lydia F1, Mars, Nelly F1, Yaroslavna, Maestro F1, Nantes Red (1).

For salads

Grated carrots, yes with sour cream, yes with garlic … What could be tastier and healthier? So there are varieties designed just for these cases. It can be both early carrots and late ones, which will be stored in the cellar, but they all have one important quality – root crops are resistant to greening. After all, it is known that their top always rises above the ground and in the sun it turns green. And this part gets bitter. You can, of course, cut off the “ass” and throw it away, but this way you will lose part of the crop.

Varieties and hybrids: Bolero F1, Napoli F1, Red Core, Chantané 5 (1).

For juice

Housewives know from experience that not every carrot can get a lot of healing drink. There are varieties in which a large amount of dry matter and little liquid. And we need just others – juicy, crispy, with a high content of carotene.

Varieties and hybrids: Bolero F1, Squirrel F1, Maestro F1 (1).

For soups

Juiciness is just not needed here, it is important that the carrots lie in the refrigerator for a long time, or even just in the kitchen. These varieties have a lot of dry matter, so they do not rot for a long time.

Varieties and hybrids: Berlicum Royal, Dolyanka, Cardinal, Chinese Beauty, Malika, Nantes Improved, Samson, Forto, Boltex F1, Veronica F1, Crown F1, Kuroda F1, Shantane F1, Natalia F1, Princess F1, Holiday F1, Romance F1 (1).

For storage

Without any problems and for a relatively long time, mid-season and late varieties of carrots lie in the cellar. They also have a lot of dry matter, which is why they are stored longer than others.

Varieties and hybrids: Gribovchanin F1, Monanta, Canada F1, Magno F1, Nantes 4, Incomparable, Nevis F1, Nerak F1, Rosal, Samson, Typhoon, Moscow winter A 515, Anastasia F1 (1).

Universal

There are also varieties that combine several qualities at once: they are sweet, juicy, vitamin-rich and quite tolerably stored. So, if you do not have any special preferences, you can sow them.

Varieties and hybrids: Red giant, Angara, Major F1 (1).

For gourmets and supporters of healthy lifestyle

Now colored varieties of carrots are becoming very popular: yellow, white, red, purple, black and two-color. They are very beautiful, but it’s not only in appearance:

yellow varieties are ideal for pilaf;
purple and black varieties contain a huge amount of antioxidants that slow down aging;
red varieties are full of lycopene (this substance is responsible for the red flowers of tomatoes), which is ideal for the prevention of cancer;
white varieties are suitable for those who are allergic to coloring pigments.

Varieties and hybrids: Cosmic Purple, Purple Elixir F1, Purple Queen F1 (with purple skin), White Satin F1 (White satin) and Snow White (all white), Yellowstone (yellow) and Yellow (yellow), Atomic Red (all red, as inside , and outside), Gneef (lilac outside, yellow inside), Black Nebula and Pusha Asita (black outside and dark purple inside).

Planting carrots

Sowing dates. Carrot is a cold hardy plant. Its seeds germinate at a temperature of 4 – 5 °C (2), and seedlings easily withstand frosts down to -3 – 4 °C. That is, you can sow as early as the end of April. But here it is important to look at the weather – if the spring is early, warm, then this is the optimal time. But if April is cold, the ground is frozen, it is better to postpone sowing until the beginning of May. At a temperature of 3 – 4 ° C, seeds can germinate for a very long time, up to 15 – 20 days. But when the soil warms up to 20 ° C, they will sprout faster, after 8 to 10 days.

Preparation of seeds for sowing. Carrot seeds have a problem – they are tight. They have a lot of essential oils that prevent germination. Therefore, they must first be soaked for a day in hot water (40 – 50 ° C). Periodically, once every 2 – 3 hours, the water must be changed to drain the essential oils and top up with hot water. Another option is to soak the seeds in a small amount of water to which a few drops of hydrogen peroxide have been added. In this case, essential oils will evaporate much faster, literally in half an hour.

After the seeds have spent the prescribed time in the water, they need to be dried to make it easier to sow.

Sowing. Carrot seeds are sown to a depth of 1,5 cm (3). The distance between rows is 15 – 20 cm. The distance between plants in a row should be 5 – 7 cm, but it is difficult to maintain it when sowing – the seeds are very small. Therefore, they are usually sown thicker, and then the seedlings are thinned out.

Care of carrots in the open ground

Carrots are a generally unpretentious plant, but some rules still need to be observed.

Thinning. Thickened shoots of carrots are thinned out twice:

in stage 1 – 2 true leaves – this time between plants leave 1,5 – 2 cm;
when plants form 3–4 true leaves, while thinning, 5–6 cm are left between them.

Watering. Carrots do not like frequent watering – excess moisture leads to the fact that root crops grow watery and are stored worse. In cool rainy summers, it does not need to be watered at all. But if during the growth of root crops (in the first half of summer) it is hot and dry, watering is needed. But rare – 1 time in 2 weeks. Water consumption rate: 4 – 5 liters per 1 sq. m.

It is not worth watering carrots more often – excess moisture is harmful to it: the central root begins to die off, small lateral roots form, resulting in a branched freak.

Feeding. Carrots are very sensitive to high salt concentrations in the soil, and all mineral fertilizers are salts. Therefore, they must be entered fractionally.

in the fall, for digging: 2 tbsp. spoons of double superphosphate and 1,5 tbsp. spoons of potassium sulfate per 1 sq. m – spread fertilizers evenly over the site, and then dig the soil;
in spring, before sowing: 1 tbsp. a spoonful of double superphosphate and 1 tbsp. a spoonful of nitrophoska per 1 sq. m – spread the fertilizer evenly over the surface of the soil and close it with a rake;
in the garden when sowing: 1 handful of ash per 1 linear meter of the garden;
additionally: if the soil is dense and poor, it is useful to add humus before sowing in autumn or spring – 5-6 kg per 1 sq. m, the fertilizer must be scattered around the site and dug up – it will additionally nourish the soil with nitrogen and make it loose.

Important! Under carrots, you can only make humus. Fresh manure is strictly contraindicated even in autumn! After it, the root crops will not be stored – they will begin to rot.

This amount of fertilizer is enough for the whole season – additional top dressing is not required in the summer.

Harvesting carrots

Some root vegetables, such as parsnips, become sweeter when caught in frost. This is the case when starch turns into sugar. But carrots, on the contrary, lose their taste, because they accumulate not starch, but sugar in its pure form. Therefore, it must be harvested before frost. As a rule, this is the second half of September.

It is better to dig up carrots in the evening – at this time it is noticeably sweeter, because the nutrients accumulated in the leaves during the day are sent to the root crop closer to sunset. In the morning, there is less sugar in carrots – the plant consumes it when breathing.

For root crops intended for storage, the tops are cut so that petioles about 2 cm long remain. Greens should be removed as soon as the carrots are dug up, since the leaves quickly evaporate moisture and the root crops begin to wither. As a result, they are worse stored.

After trimming the tops, the carrots need to be dried in the shade. And only then can be sent to the cellar.

Regular meals carrots

If the autumn is rainy, then dug up carrots are often dirty, with sticky soil. After it dries in the shade, the earth must be cleaned off. However, you should not be zealous – if something is not cleared, leave it as it is. It is much more important not to damage the root crops, otherwise they will not be stored. And you do not need to wash them – this accelerates the development of diseases.

The shelf life of carrots depends on the quality of the roots. Small, damaged and diseased spoil much faster. Large, dry, well-ripened carrots lie the longest. There is another dependence: elongated root crops are stored worse than blunt ones.

It is better to store carrots in the cellar at a temperature of 0 – 1 ° C.