The best varieties of carrots

Varieties of table carrots are divided according to ripening time into early, mid-season and late-ripening. Terms are determined from seedlings to technical ripeness.

When choosing delicious varieties of carrots in the store, you should focus on the mark “taste is excellent” or “very good taste”.

But to choose the best variety for your site, you should consider several factors:

• soil quality. Long-fruited varieties can be planted in a light, loose one; it is better to plant short-fruited carrots in a heavy clay one;
• ripening time. The most precocious – short-fruited varieties;
• Productivity. Outwardly interesting varieties of carrots with round fruits grow quickly, but do not differ in yield;
• commercial purposes. If carrots are grown for sale, it is better to take imported beautiful varieties, although they do not taste as good as domestic ones. For yourself, it is better to take domestic ones, which are better adapted to local conditions, and even sweeter.
• color. White, red, black, purple, yellow, orange, pink, burgundy and even green. Today you can find carrots of almost any color. Each has its own interesting features.

What varieties of carrots are better to plant, it is up to the owner of the summer cottage to decide.

Most often, early-ripening varieties of carrots are characterized by juiciness, but a lower content of saccharides than in mid- and late-ripening varieties, as well as the inability to withstand long-term storage. But they take the terms when you really want fresh young carrots.

The best varieties of early carrots

Variety Alenka

High yielding early variety. Before ripening, only 50 days are needed for beam products. The fruits are not very long, up to a maximum of 12 cm. The weight of the root crop is up to 100 g. Saccharides 5,4-8,5%, carotene up to 13,5%. The taste of this variety is not as sweet as later varieties, but it has a lot of moisture.

When choosing which variety of early-ripening carrots will be suitable for heavy soil, you can pay attention to the time-tested Karotel.

Variety Carotel Parisian

The best variety of early ripening carrots, able to grow in heavy clay soils. The average ripening period is about 72 days. Root crops up to 5 cm in diameter and weighing up to 60 g. Contains a large amount of saccharides and carotene. Because of the tender pulp and high sweetness, children like it very much. Suitable for fresh consumption, as well as for preservation and freezing. Unfortunately, it is not suitable for long-term storage, as it is prone to cracking.

The best varieties of mid-season carrots

It is easy to get confused in varieties of mid-season carrots, as their choice is very wide and all are advertised as the best. Such varieties as Nantes 4 and Vitaminnaya 6 are widely known. But many other varieties of domestic selection are not inferior to these varieties.

Grade Losinoostrovskaya 13

An old and popular variety among gardeners. Recommended for breeding almost throughout Our Country. It was bred back in the USSR as a frost-resistant variety, which makes it possible to grow it even in those regions where summer is shorter than the time required for this variety to ripen (on average 110 days). The variety can withstand frosts down to -4°C.

The length of the root crop is more than 15 cm with a weight of up to 115 g. The color is bright orange, which indicates an increased content of carotene: 18,5 mg / 100 g. The yield of the variety is very high, up to 7,5 kg / m².

Variety Moscow winter a 515

The once almost forgotten variety has regained its position today, and producers have even begun to offer seeds of the Moscow Winter on the tape, which greatly facilitates the planting of this carrot.

The variety is mid-season. It can be sown before winter. With winter crops, it is suitable for harvesting beam products 10 days earlier than Nantes. Fruits up to 16 cm and weighing up to 170 g. The root crop is bright orange. Yield up to 7 kg/m².

The variety is intended for cultivation almost throughout Our Country. It is good not only for winter crops. Shows a good result when sowing in April-May. The best of those intended for fresh consumption in winter. Possesses high keeping quality.

The best varieties of late-ripening carrots

Variety Queen of Autumn

Late ripe, relatively young variety. It was entered into the State Register in 2005. The variety is recommended for the Middle Strip and the Far East region. It takes 125 days to mature.

Root crops are large, but vary quite a lot in size (20-30 cm). Weight 80-230 g. The shape of the roots is conical, with a slightly pointed tip. The color of the pulp is rich orange, almost red. The variety is very productive. Yields up to 9 kg/m².

It does not differ in special sweetness. The content of saccharides up to 11%, carotene up to 17 mg. Excellent for long-term storage, preserving its taste.

Variety Red giant

A late-ripening variety of carrots with beautiful even roots about 25 cm long, which take 150 days to ripen. Root crops are dark orange with a carotene content of up to 15 mg/100 g. Excellent for long-term storage and fresh consumption.

Reviews

With improper cultivation, it is impossible to get high-quality carrots that will show all the properties declared by the manufacturer. The best carrots are obtained with the use of competent agricultural technology.

Agrotechnics

Choice of landing site

Carrots love direct sunlight, so they choose a place for it with the maximum duration of exposure to the sun. In the shade, the yield and taste of root crops decrease.

The best predecessors for carrots are nightshade, cabbage, cucumber, garlic and onions.

Preparation of beds

To obtain high-quality carrots, the soil for crops must be prepared to a depth of 25 cm. To grow carrots, ridges are made to increase the height of the fertile soil. If you remember that some varieties of carrots can grow over 20 cm long, you should not be lazy. The root crop must have room for growth, then it will not bend and the output will be a beautiful, even carrot.

The ridges are made at a distance of 0,6 m from each other. The tops are leveled so that a bed with a width of 0,3 m is obtained.

There is no need to pre-fertilize, feeding the plantings later.

Preparation of seeds for sowing

In order not to waste energy and sown areas, it is better to prepare the seeds for sowing. Preparation will reveal empty seeds and speed up the germination of good ones. No effort is needed here. The seeds are simply poured with warm water and left for 10 hours, after which the pacifiers floating on the surface are caught and thrown away.

The remaining high-quality seeds are placed on a damp cloth for several days, maintaining a temperature of + 20-24 ° C. Seeds will hatch after 3 days.

Video how to prepare seeds and plant carrots

Sowing

Furrows 3 cm deep are made on the prepared beds, and carrot seeds are placed in pairs at a distance of 2 cm and sprinkled with earth 1,5 cm thick. You can simply scatter the seeds over the top of the ridge, sprinkling them with soil. No more than 1 g of seeds are sown per 60 m².

For the summer season of 2019, the manufacturer offers a novelty: carrot seeds already prepared for planting on a paper tape or in a gel dragee.

When landing on paper, the tape is placed in the grooves with an edge and sprinkled with earth. All other preparatory and subsequent manipulations are carried out according to the standard scheme. The only exception is that the seeds are already glued to the paper at a distance of 5 cm and do not require further weeding.

There is a nuance here. Experienced gardeners believe that rarely planted carrots become too large and coarse. That is why the seeds are initially planted at a distance of 2 cm and then weeded, increasing the distance between the roots to 6 cm after the second weeding.

You can stick any small seeds on toilet paper at home in the winter. But the process takes a lot of time and requires a lot of perseverance and accuracy.

When watering, the gel absorbs water in a certain amount. Excess water will pass by the seed. Thus, the gel prevents the seed from rotting. At the same time, with a lack of water in the soil, the gel gradually gives the seed the water that it absorbed during irrigation, and the seed does not dry out.

When planting gel pills, carrot seeds are laid out in grooves at a usual distance of 2 cm. Seeds covered with earth are very well watered. After that, you can forget about watering for 2 weeks. Further manipulations with crops are carried out according to the standard scheme.

Carrot care

Seeds germinate for a long time, and young plants grow no faster. Sometimes the first weeding may be required even before germination. Carrot seeds germinate without pre-treatment for 40 days, and weeds have time to grow at the place of crops, which will need to be weeded. Weeds have a very bad effect on the development of carrots.

If there were no weeds, then for the first time carrot crops are weeded, more precisely, thinned out, fourteen days after germination. After thinning, the distance between plants remains 3 cm. If the seeds were planted sparsely, there is no need for a first thinning. After the appearance of the first two pairs of leaves, the carrots are weeded again, doubling the distance between plants.

Fertilizers and watering

To obtain high-quality carrots, you have to especially ensure that they do not need water. With a lack of water, carrots become lethargic and bitter. The soil must be moist for the entire length of the root crop. Adult carrots are watered so that the water soaks a 30 cm layer of soil.

If the summer is hot, and in the country you are visiting, you do not need to pour a lot of water at once on dry beds. Carrots will crack and become unsuitable for storage. It is better to start with 3 liters per m², water again a day later at the rate of 6 liters per meter. More depending on the weather.

Unlike many other garden crops, carrots do not need a significant amount of nitrogen, for this reason, the main fertilizer used to feed them is potassium-phosphorus.

A month after germination, carrots are fed for the first time, the second – after two. It is quite difficult to calculate the required amount of solid fertilizers, so it is most convenient to feed root crops with liquid fertilizers. One of three top dressing options are added to a bucket of water:

• 1 st. l. nitrophosphate;
• 2 cups of ash;
• potassium nitrate 20 g, double superphosphate and urea 15 g each.

Video how to grow a good crop:

Diseases and pests

In general, carrots rarely get sick. Its main problems are three: alternariosis, phomosis and carrot fly.

Alternaria

Carrots affected by this fungus should not be stored. During the period of being in the ground, a sign of plant damage is the blackening and death of the lower part of the leaves. The leaves themselves are turning yellow.

The fight against the disease consists in observing crop rotation (carrots are returned to their original place after 4 years), dressing the seeds before planting and spraying the plants with Bordeaux mixture.

All post-harvest residues must be destroyed, and storage from under carrots must be disinfected with formalin or whitewash.

Fomoz

For carrots of the first year of sowing, it is not dangerous. It begins to develop on root crops laid down for storage. But when planting a root crop to obtain seeds, the carrot either dies, or the bush grows weak and produces fewer seeds.

The main danger of phomosis is that the seeds obtained from the infected root crop will also be infected.

There is no cure, only preventive measures are possible:

• crop rotation;
• careful sorting before storage with the removal of all dubious and infected root crops;
• disinfection of the storage and keeping the temperature in it for storing carrots at 1-2 ° C;
• obligatory dressing of seeds or use of a seed from healthy plants.

If you sow carrots from purchased seeds every year, the risk of infection from the seed is minimal, but it should be noted that phomosis is also well preserved in plant debris, so post-harvest plant parts must be destroyed.

carrot fly

A parasite whose larvae are capable of destroying the entire crop of carrots. What they just do not invent to protect against this pest.

One of the main ways of prevention is not to sow carrots in low-lying or shady places. The fly does not like the sun and the wind. To scare it away, carrots are sown interspersed with garlic, onions or tomatoes. This has an additional benefit, since carrots, in turn, repel the pest of onions and garlic – the onion fly.

Marigolds and calendula, sown around the perimeter of the carrot bed, attract enemies of the carrot fly. It is also necessary to monitor the density of plantings, thinning carrots in time. In ventilated crops, the fly also does not like to settle.

You can drown out the smell of carrots with an infusion of pepper and mustard. You can also add them to the soil when loosening the soil. The fly does not tolerate peat chips, so you can fill the aisles with it.

The video is another interesting way to deal with this pest: