Carrots are easy! Planting, growing, care.

Planting carrots outdoors is easy. To start sowing, you do not need seedlings, greenhouses and there is no need to wait for warm weather. It is only necessary to plant, remove weeds, add fertilizers, and then collect ripe carrots. Usually, carrots grow well with the addition of nitrogen fertilizers, and potassium is needed during the formation of vegetables. Along with this, carrots have a peculiarity: they absorb phosphorus and potassium from hardly soluble soil mixtures, and in this regard, a lot of ash is not needed.

As well as carrot beets, fertile, light-textured soil is more suitable, and in these conditions a good harvest ripens. And in heavy soil, vegetables grow small.

Planting carrots in open ground: site preparation

Planting carrots with seeds in the open field: photo

It is best to prepare a bed for planting carrots with seeds in the fall, add the necessary fertilizers, then in the spring you will need to loosen the soil a little and start planting. One of the best fertilizers for almost every garden crop - including carrots - is all sorts of useful composts and well-rotted manure.

In the autumn period, the stagnant manure is scattered in the beds, where in the near future it is planned to plant carrots, and the manure is spread shallowly into the ground. They also do it with compost, but it is permissible to add more of it. This completes the autumn preparation of the land for sowing carrots in the spring. It goes without saying that all weeds must be removed. The best precursors for carrots will be onions and garlic of various varieties, as well as cucumbers and zucchini; potatoes are also good. You cannot plant it after beets and parsley, and you should also not plant a crop in the same place for several years. The method of joint sowing of carrots with onions or garlic is very popular, since this method will help fight the characteristic pests for each crop.

Most often, carrots are planted in the spring, but many use a sub-winter sowing type. This method is suitable for the central and southern climatic regions. This makes it possible to get root crops much earlier than with ordinary spring sowing. In northern areas and in Siberia, this practice gives mixed results. Firstly, the early shoots of the crop will give the first harvest earlier, which is very important in the cold, short summer in the North. Secondly, early young seedlings in a long spring in Siberia can easily survive and even grow, but with the arrival of summer, the culture's tendency to abundant flowering will become noticeable.

When sowing in the fall, the main thing is to plant it as late as possible, so that by the time of winter the carrots do not have time to sprout. The most suitable option would be to plant seeds in an already sufficiently frozen ground, while beds for seeds must be made in advance and watered with plain water. At the same time, it is necessary to stock up on a large amount of soil or compost to fill the grooves, and not to dig frozen soil for these needs. Then you should cover the beds (for this, some kind of agrofibre, like a spandbond, is suitable) until the onset of spring.

On heavier soils, it is more expedient to bring it along with the preparation of the soil in the fall, but on light sandy loam - in the spring.

Planting carrots in open ground: planting timing

The good thing about carrots is that they can be planted even before the soil warms up.Due to good germination at a relatively low temperature, only +3 degrees, it is planted in most regions. Of course, before planting, you need to warm up the soil in the garden bed, covering it in advance with polyethylene for a number of days. Directly on the day of planting, the grooves or the very surface of the beds are watered with warm water. previously settled, and then planted.

There are many ways to plant the seeds of this culture, and this diversity is primarily due to the fact that there is a desire to plant carrots rarely. Many gardeners do not like to bother with thinning it. It is believed that it is more convenient to plant those seeds that are located on the belt.

Some summer residents prepare such tapes on their own, gluing crop seeds on toilet paper with flour paste in winter. Nevertheless, other equally well-known methods can be applied, such as planting a vegetable mixed with ordinary sand, using manual seeders for planting small carrot seeds, spraying water with seeds along the grooves, sowing a crop in jelly and other methods. However, one should not forget about the standard habitual method of planting seeds in the garden, placing them as rarely as possible.

After planting, the seeds are sprinkled with a layer of compost or earth to a depth of only 4 cm on the lungs, and up to 2 cm on heavier soils. Then the crops are thoroughly moistened, the main thing is not to tamp the top layer. A more suitable way to do this is to cover the fresh planting with agrofibre, with further watering on top of it. Moisture will see through the material in stages, in addition, there is no need to remove it, since it will insulate fresh crops, make it possible for water and light to penetrate to the ground. Watering in the future should be exactly the same, without removing the material. You need to remove it after the first sprouts are pecked, or even a little later, when the seedlings become stronger and grow up.

Carrot seeds germinate for a very long time, due to the presence of natural growth inhibitors in the seed as a huge amount of various essential oils. Indeed, due to the content of such chemical compounds, it is quite possible to plant carrots in winter.

As a result, it is possible to speed up the germination of seeds by first leaving them in water at a temperature of 40-50 degrees for two hours. A regular thermos works well to maintain this temperature. It is permissible to dissolve essential oils by soaking the seeds in vodka for about 20 minutes, followed by rinsing them with warm running water.

Planting carrots in open ground with seeds: crop care

Planting carrots with seeds in open ground and how to prepare seeds before planting carrots: a useful video

With the appearance of the first sprouts of carrots, the material with which they were covered can be removed or left for a while. During this period of time, the carrots must be carefully weeded. Young sprouts of carrots are very fragile, and therefore should be handled carefully. Weeding is the hardest part of growing carrots and will be much easier afterwards.

Then you need to thin out the plants, when they grow up to the formation of two true leaves. By the way, if the seeds are planted on a belt or in the form of dragees, then this procedure will be minimal. And standard planting methods involve subsequent thinning. It is more expedient to thin out, not tearing off the shoots, but carefully cutting off the weakest. It is extremely dangerous to rip out neighbors on light sandy loam: since these lands are loose, they can injure the roots of plants left in the beds, which, as a result, can disfigure the root crop. The removed leaves must be removed immediately to protect young plants from carrot fly damage.

After thinning, further care consists in timely watering, regular weeding and the addition of fertilizers.

An important point: if the tops of the root crops appeared above the soil, then the carrots need to be spud, otherwise the top will turn green and the carrots will turn out to be tasteless.

Carrots: Harvesting

Planting carrots with seeds in the open field: photo

It is best to pick carrots on a clear autumn day, cutting off the same greens, only leaving small stalks about two centimeters. It is more advisable to dry carrots under a canopy, in the shade, sheltering from the wind and sun. The main thing is not to overdo it.

Root crops are stored in boxes, covering them with coarse river sand, as well as in refrigerators and cool cellars, in clay solution. Carrots are immersed there and then dried. Then they are sent for storage.

Carrot greens are cut higher in order to obtain seeds, leaving them for storage in the same way in the sand. The main thing to consider is that only very stable varieties, but not hybrids, are suitable for obtaining good seeds. From hybrids, it will not be possible to collect seeds with similar varietal characteristics as a good varietal carrot. Root crops, selected for obtaining seeds from them, are planted in the spring in prepared pits at the same time as planting the seeds of the culture. And after a certain time, the first shoots will appear, and then flowering inflorescences, in the form of umbrellas, in which the seeds will ripen by the autumn period.

Surprisingly, the flowering inflorescences of carrots are an excellent honey plant, which very much attracts a huge number of bees and bumblebees. In this regard, it is advisable to plant seed varietal carrots near those plants that need pollination, for example, near bee-pollinated various varieties of cucumbers.