Carrots belong to the Umbrella family. In the wild, it grows in America, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Afghanistan is considered its homeland, as many of its species grow there. It is believed that carrots began to be cultivated as early as four thousand years ago. In Russia, it was first mentioned in the 16th century.

Carrots now grow literally on any personal plot... At the same time, it is capricious, and for a successful harvest, it is important to know the rules for its cultivation.

Autumn sowing

1. You can plant carrots in the winter, and the harvest will appear two weeks earlier. The seeds will undergo winter hardening, and in spring, due to melting snow, they will strengthen root system.
2. In the fall, only early varieties are planted that are not suitable for winter storage.
3. In areas with very cold winters, the beds should be covered with sawdust, leaves, spruce branches.
4. Crops should be placed on a hill so that the seed material is not washed out by melt water.

Spring sowing

The most popular planting season is of course spring. Spring can be divided into early and late periods.

1. The root crop is a moisture-loving plant, so it can be planted immediately after the snow melts.
2. You can plant at the end of April, when the air temperature is +15, and the soil warms up to +5.
3. If planted earlier, seeds will take longer to germinate.
4. The beds can be covered with foil to speed up seed germination.
5. When they appear, the seedlings are removed from the film.
6. The late spring sowing period lasts from late May to early July. In this case, the carrot harvest should be expected in late August - early September.
7. Carrots love moisture, if it is possible to carry out sowing work before prolonged rains, the seedlings will not have to wait long.

Choosing a good seed

Early varieties

Early varieties are distinguished by low sugar content. They are not suitable for long storage, but only two months after planting they will please with the first root crops.

Lady. A high-yielding variety that can be completely harvested after three months. The root crop is distinguished by an elongated cylindrical shape up to 20 cm in length, bright red. Does not crack. Increased carotene content.

Fun F1. A hybrid from Siberia. The crop can be completely harvested after three months. It grows up to 20 cm and weighs about 200 grams. The pulp has a sweet and juicy taste.

Nantes 4. Harvest in 80 days. Orange color, up to 14 cm and weight 160 g. The shape is cylindrical. Contains a lot of useful carotene. Suitable for all climatic zones.

Sugar finger. Ripens within 65 days. Orange color, grows 12 cm in length. Sweet taste. Contains a large number of carotene.

Medium varieties

Medium varieties are formed in 105 - 120 days. Store well in winter.

Losinoostrovskaya. The shape is cylindrical. The ripening period does not exceed 100 days. Delicate, very juicy carrots. Grows poorly on clay and sand. Requires abundant systematic watering. Good grade for long-term storage.

Boltex. A high-yielding carrot variety that fully matures in 120 days. Bright orange color, length 19 cm, thin skin.

Vitamin 6. Cylindrical shape. Orange color. Fully formed in 100 days. Up to 19 cm. Suitable for winter storage.

Late varieties

Late varieties are characterized by long growth for 110 - 130 days. Suitable for long-term storage.

Red giant. The variety was developed by breeders from Germany. It grows in 110 days. In the form of a cone. They grow 24 cm and 100 grams. The pulp is red in color. Stored for a long time.

The Queen of Autumn. Ripens in four months. 22 cm. Juicy carrots. The root crop is recommended to be sown in the winter.

Karlena. It is formed within 130 days. The variety loves loose and fertile soil and timely abundant watering.

When choosing a variety of carrots, it is necessary to take into account the climatic zone where it will be grown, the condition of the soil, the ripening period. As well as shape, size and storage capacity. Having decided, you can proceed to the selection of a suitable site and prepare the soil.

Site selection and soil preparation for planting

When choosing a place, you need to pay attention to three points:

1. location of the site;
2. the quality of the soil;
3. cultures previously growing in this place.

Carrots love sunny places without shade. The place of future sowing should be under the sun all day, otherwise the formation of root crops will slow down.

Prefers light and loose soil. But not sour. In acidic soil, it grows poorly and does not gain sweetness. Sand and old sawdust will help improve the soil, and lime, wood ash and chalk will help reduce acidity. This vegetable crop is selective to its predecessors.

Carrots should not be planted after parsley, dill, fennel, beets, sorrel. Tomatoes, pumpkin, onions, garlic, potatoes, lettuce are good predecessors for it.

It is better to prepare the soil for sowing in the fall. It is necessary to dig up with a shovel one and a half lengths of a bayonet. If the dug is shallow, the carrots will grow to a hard layer and go sideways. Therefore, instead of even long root crops, you will get ugly specimens.

Fertilizers are applied to the soil before digging. Rotted manure is placed half a bucket on square meter... Sawdust is added to heavy soil at the rate of 2 - 3 liters per meter. Carrots grow well if you add fertilizers with phosphate and potassium; wood ash, sand. They dig everything up and leave. In the spring, they dig up everything again, level and sow seeds.

It must be remembered that it is forbidden to use fresh manure as fertilizer. It hurts the culture. Fresh manure is rich in nitrogen, and root crops are distinguished by their ability to quickly accumulate nitrates. Carrots grow irregular shape, and the smell of fresh mullein attracts various garden pests.

The soil is ready, now you can approach the selection and preparation of seeds.

Seed preparation

Carrot seeds sprout for a long time, up to three weeks. The seed shell is impregnated with essential oils. They prevent moisture from getting inside. First, the seeds need to be sorted. This is done with salt water. Seed material is thrown into salted water, mixed. The floated ones are thrown away, and the settled ones can be planted.

Four effective ways that will ensure fast germination:

1. Soaking seeds in biostimulants (Epin, Fitolife) for 20 hours.
2. Boiling water treatment. The seeds should be placed in a cloth and kept in hot water for 20 minutes. Then in cold water.
3. Burying seeds in the ground. Seed material is buried for 10 days. When they get it, there are already sprouts on the seeds. They can be planted.
4. Soak. Carrot seeds are wrapped in wet cloth or cotton wool for a day.

Any method will accelerate seed germination.

To increase the frost resistance of the seeds, they are hardened. To do this, soaked, but not yet sprouted seeds are removed in the refrigerator, on a vegetable shelf and kept for a week. Also, hardening can be carried out by alternating temperatures.

Seeds purchased from hands, grown independently and not renowned manufacturers... The seeds of large and well-known producers are usually ready for planting, they are treated with both insecticides and fungicides.

Industrial-processed granulated seeds are completely ready for sowing and do not need preliminary preparation. Some seeds are sold on tape. This simplifies planting and allows you not to thin out the carrots in the future.

Manufacturers also offer seeds in the form of pills. Small carrot seed coated with trace elements and fertilizers. Such seeds are convenient for planting and they immediately receive all the substances necessary for growth. From this point of view, the purchase of seeds from large companies - producers, will reduce the time spent on preparation and provide a higher germination rate.

Seeds prepared independently or industrially can be sown.

Planting carrot seeds

Before planting seeds, it is necessary to assess the moisture content of the soil. If it's dry, you need to moisten it. In the bed, grooves are made 15 cm apart and 2 cm deep.

There are several ways of planting:

1. Small seeds are scattered by hand along the grooves.
2. Soaked and sprouted seeds are planted more accurately.
3. Seeds in the form of pills.
4. From a syringe. Kissel is cooked from flour, added there nutrients, cool, place seeds in the composition. Using a syringe, sow evenly into the grooves.
5. Seeds on strips of paper. This method will avoid further thinning.

Then the top is covered with earth and compacted by hand or with a special board. The carrots are planted. In the future, she needs systematic care.

Planting care

For a good harvest, the following care is required:

• regular watering;
• loosening;
• timely weeding;
• thinning;
• top dressing.

Watering

It is carried out after planting the seeds. It is very important. Lack of moisture affects the taste. Carrots become bitter in taste. And it begins to release side roots that seek moisture, which affects the appearance. Watered once every 7 days, taking into account the precipitation. They start with three liters per meter, increasing the volume to 20 liters as they grow.

Watering is stopped completely three weeks before harvesting.

Loosening

Conducted between the rows. Weeding is done as the weeds grow. This procedure can be combined with decimation. Thinning is carried out two times. When will the leaves appear and when the carrots will form. Ideally, the distance should be 15 cm. After the leaves appear, the plant needs to be fed. You can use 15 grams of urea. per meter. It reacts well to fertilizers with phosphorus and potassium.

Collection of grown carrots and storage

Carrots are best harvested in dry weather. Dig up with a shovel. Do not cut off the tops, but unscrew them. It will not harm the fetus. Store in a cellar at +5 degrees.

Carrots can be folded into perforated bags, boxes of sawdust and sand. Sawdust is preferable. If there is not enough moisture in the cellar, the sawdust can be moistened with water. Carrots prefer high humidity.

Diseases and garden carrot pests

To collect healthy, beautiful and tasty carrots, it is important not to let them get sick and prevent small pests, to destroy future harvest.

The plant is susceptible to the following diseases:

1. Dry rot. Fungus. There are gray - brown spots on the carrot leaves, the whole root crop is affected. The crop can rot.
2. Gray rot. Causes wet decay.
3. White rot. Also a fungus. Everything in the garden amazes. It is spread by mycelium. Can get into soil with manure.
4. Bacteriosis The reason is bacteria. First, the leaves turn yellow, then the root crop itself, ulcers are formed. The plant starts to smell bad.
5. Powdery mildew... It manifests itself as a white bloom on plants. The site of the lesion is tough, it breaks.
6. Cercosporosis. Caused by a fungus. Brown spots can be seen on the leaves. They gradually grow and rot.

To prevent disease, it is important to adhere to the following rules:

• seeds should be disinfected in a weak solution of potassium permanganate;
• carry out the treatment of soil and plants with biological products; in June, the entire vegetable garden should be treated with immunocytophyte;
• fertilize.

In addition to diseases, there are pests that love this root crop:

• carrot fly;
• carrot flap;
• carrot moth;
• gall nematode;
• bear;
• wireworm;
• naked slug;
• winter scoops.

The struggle is reduced to spraying and watering carrots with solutions of various drugs.

Carrots are a popular plant. Rarely does a dish go without it. It is rich in carotene and other vitamins. Carotene strengthens memory and is good for vision. It is low in calories and has a lot of benefits. By growing this crop in the garden, you can get delicious dietary product... With a little effort, the harvest will delight you.

Carrots are a biennial plant from the celery family. In the first growing season, carrots form a leaf rosette and a root crop. Exists . Their shape can be either conical or cylindrical or round.

If a carrot root crop is planted in the second year, the plant will form a rosette of leaves and then discard the flower stems ending in an umbrella-shaped inflorescence.

Growing carrots in open ground is a simple task that even novice vegetable growers can do. Subject to the techniques of agricultural technology and good care this root vegetable will surely please with a good harvest.

Site selection and soil preparation

Carrots are very demanding on soils, the most good harvest can be obtained on light soils with a neutral reaction. Heavy soils are fine too, just cultivate them well to a depth of about 35 cm or choose a ridge growing method.

If the groundwater is close to the site, then the beds for carrots are best made raised to a height of about 30 cm. The place for planting is best prepared in the fall: dig up the soil and add manure or humus.

For growing carrots, light areas are best suited; in case of shading, its yield will noticeably decrease.

Note: for heavy clay soils, it is best to use short-root varieties such as Karotel or Chantane.

Sowing

Carrots are a cold-resistant plant, their seedlings tolerate frost well. Therefore, you can start sowing it immediately after the snow melts, which will allow you to get the first harvest in June. For such an early spring sowing, early maturing varieties are perfect. To further reduce the ripening time, you can use sowing before winter or try to master the cultivation of early carrots in a greenhouse.

When growing carrots intended for long-term storage, it is necessary to plant varieties of medium and late ripening, they are sown from the end of April to the beginning of June.

Note: the carrot crop obtained as a result of podwinter and early spring sowing is not suitable for storage.

When growing carrots in the country, in most cases, row sowing is used, and on an industrial scale when using drip irrigation, practiced tape-line or on the combs.

Sowing seeds is carried out directly into the soil in grooves, the distance between which should be about 20 cm. After the end of sowing, they are covered with earth and thoroughly spilled with water. (Read how to prepare carrot seeds for planting.)

Unlike others garden crops carrots cannot be grown through seedlings; if their taproot is damaged, root crops grow branched and clumsy.

Take a note: to maintain optimal humidity and accelerate germination, film or agrofibre can be stretched over the garden bed.

Care

After the emergence of seedlings, it is very important to thin them out in time. It is usually started after the appearance of two true leaves, the distance between the left plants should be about 2 cm.

Novice gardeners very often neglect thinning, as a result they harvest from small and intertwined root crops.

Watering

When watering carrot beds, it is very important to follow these rules:

1. Watering must be plentiful, in dry weather, approximately 2 times a week until the first true leaves form.
2. During the period when root crops begin to grow, watering must be reduced to 1 time a week, the ground must be well soaked to a depth of 20 cm.
3. From about mid-August, when the carrots begin to fill, watering is stopped, except when a drought begins.

In arid and hot regions, vegetable growers practice the method of growing carrots under straw. With this method, the aisles with grown carrots are laid with straw or any other mulching material, which avoids overheating of root crops and reduces the number of watering to a minimum.

Note: after watering, the formation of a crust on the surface of the soil should not be allowed, while root crops will experience oxygen starvation and develop worse. To prevent this, after watering, it is imperative to loosen the soil surface, while at the same time removing the growing weeds.

Top dressing

Carrots are not very demanding on soil fertility, but top dressing is recommended to obtain a high yield. The first feeding is recommended to be carried out one month after germination. To do this, you can use the following mixture, made up of.

Carrots are a rather finicky vegetable that is able to respond to unaccounted for nuances in the process of growing with a strange harvest and a disappointingly low harvest. Caring for carrots in the open field implies a strict sequence in each of the points of the successive stages in the development of the root crop, and to miss any of the points means to jeopardize all the work expended. How to care for carrots correctly?

How to properly grow carrots? A high yield begins with the preparation of the soil for planting, and the initial preparations need to be carried out in the fall. On the garden bed, a level place is chosen, sufficiently illuminated by the sun during daylight hours and, preferably, previously used for planting cucumbers, white cabbage or cereals. Depending on what kind of soil the carrots like, namely, neutral or slightly acidic, the alkaline balance of the soil is regulated.

To begin with, you need to assess whether the soil is suitable for carrots for this indicator. The easiest way is to collect a pinch of earth from the desired area on a piece of clean glass and pour over it with table vinegar. An alkaline and slightly acidic environment will react with a strong or moderate foam (as when quenching soda), and an acidic one will not show any changes.

You can also pay attention to the clogging of the site with grass:

• neutral soils are rich in lush long vegetation: stinging nettle, quinoa, clover;
• acidic soils, on which it is impossible to grow sweet carrots, will abound in mint, horsetail, violet and buttercup;
• on the soil with weak acidity there will be burdocks, alfalfa, small pharmacy chamomile and sow thistle;
• an alkaline environment, the poorest and also not very suitable for growing carrots in the open field as an acidic one, it is characterized by: poppy, sweet clover, bindweed.

The second task in the question of how to grow a good harvest of carrots is to create conditions for saturating the soil with oxygen. This is required so that the carrot tastes sweet and grows slenderly in length, and does not go horny to grumble in all directions, bumping into the firmament of not loosened earth. A clumsy carrot occurs when a vegetable begins to branch out in search of a convenient direction and softer soil, and not sweet - due to lack of air.

Light fluffy soil, not clogged with clay, is enough to work out with a garden rake, and hard, packed layers must be completely broken by deep digging.

How to plant carrots correctly

How to grow carrots in even rows and evenly distributed along the groove? In order to get a good harvest, vegetables should not sit tightly to each other, which means that a distance between the seeds should be observed, which is convenient later for thinning. There are many such convenient ways in agricultural technology:

• with a mixture of flour and water, to a strip from a paper towel or napkin, the seeds are glued at a distance of 2-3 cm from each other, then these tapes are inserted directly into the grooves after pre-planting watering;
• combine the contents of a bag of seeds with 1 glass of clean sand, mix everything and introduce this mass in a thin stream into the dug groove;
• in a liter of water, boil two tablespoons of starch and this barely warm substance, with seeds added to it, is poured into the prepared grooves;
• most gardeners, when planting this crop, traditionally put seeds into the soil with a distance of about 4 cm and a gap between rows of 15 cm.

What to do right after landing? The bed is covered with polyethylene, which is held until the first shoots appear. The vegetable is quite tolerant of low temperatures and even soil frosts, but prolonged cold weather is the reason why carrots go to the arrow to the detriment of root development.

Watering carrots

Outdoor carrots do not require as much regular as uniform watering - the plant does not care how often the soil is moistened, but the moisture level should be constant and unchanged. Deviation from the level of saturation with water in the soil, which is comfortable for the root crop, leads to pathologies of root formation:

• superficial and insignificant soil moisture leads to the formation of a stiff rhizome - the pale core of such a vegetable tastes bitter, and the carrot itself sometimes grows to bulky shapeless balls;
• when growing carrots, it is also dangerous to oversaturate the soil with watering - there is a risk of getting nondescript twisted freaks with branched tops.

One of the signs of improper and uneven watering is a horned carrot with two or more root forks. To avoid mistakes of this kind, it is better to water the root crops, adhering to the approximate scheme:

• when the first shoots appear, 7-8 irrigations are carried out throughout the month, 6 liters of water per 1 m 2 of the site;
• in the first month of summer, the rate increases to 11-12 liters, multiplied by 5-6 waterings;
• in July, there should be only about five irrigations, but 13-15 liters per square meter;
• the onset of August entails a decrease in water consumption and labor costs - carrots are growing already on two irrigations of 6 liters of water each.

Watering is stopped 14-20 days before the day scheduled for harvesting. Then, a single moistening of the soil is carried out in order to facilitate the digging process.

Weeding and thinning carrots

Growing carrots in the open field should be accompanied by repeated weeding, especially in the period before germination, when weeds with powerful rhizomes may not allow a vegetable crop to emerge. Weeds should not be allowed to grow too high - late weeding is one of the reasons why gardeners subsequently miss a useful crop, because together with the grass, the young tops of the never-grown vegetable also appear in the common heap.

How to get high yields with regular weeding? There are two theories, equally substantiated by the experience of gardeners, of how to weed a vegetable:

• after watering or rain - thus, the weeds are easily pulled out with the entire root system;
• before watering, when the ground is dry, the thin roots of the grass in this case remain in the ground and dry out, which prevents the germination of new weeds.

Another mandatory procedure, without which the cultivation and care of this crop in the open field is impossible, is the competent thinning of plants in the garden. When the seeds are initially planted at the same distance from each other, 2-3 cm, thinning is a procedure, rather, corrective and not always necessary. Continuous sowing in any of the ways, when the seeds went into the furrow chaotically, in the long term always means one or two stages of breaking through the excess growth. Should I do this? Necessarily. The first thinning is done immediately, as soon as individual leaf bushes can be distinguished by the emerging greenery.

Often the answer to the question: why does carrots grow ugly lies precisely in the wrong actions when removing excess sprouts.

There are certain secrets of how to correctly perform this simple operation.

What to do and in what sequence to perform actions:

• before thinning, the beds must be shed abundantly from the garden watering can;
• the sprout should not be tugged, but pulled straight up from the ground, without swinging it;
• it is necessary that there is a distance of 3 or 4 cm between the saved bushes;
• immediately after the procedure, the garden is watered warm water.

At the same stage, it is customary to carry out the first hilling of carrots and the first loosening between the rows. And, if the second part of the algorithm does not raise big questions, there is a lot of controversy about the first one.

So - do you need to huddle carrots?

We huddle correctly

Often, even from experienced gardeners, you can hear that carrots are not hilled. However, if you are not too lazy to produce this hard work at least three times during the period of development of the vegetable, you can protect the future harvest from three misfortunes at once:

• from damage to the open part of the root by a carrot fly, which likes to lay eggs at the base of the vegetable;
• from the protrusion of greening at the top of the rhizome;
• from exposure to direct sunlight, which leave burns on the root surface near the tops.

Mulching a vegetable

How to grow large carrots and at the same time knowingly exclude the risk of overdrying the soil, the danger of pest infestation, as well as significantly reduce the number of weeding and loosening? For this, there is a technology for covering the soil with mulch, and the technique itself is called "mulching".

How to mulch a carrot bed? The most common way to mulch a garden bed is to cover the space between the rows of planted vegetables with hay, straw chops, or sawdust. The latter option is preferable, since the shelter with sawdust retains moisture longer and is a more reliable shield against the invasion of cabbage and other pests.

Sawdust covering the soil has another important advantage over grass mat - weeds do not germinate through it, while the dried grass itself may by default have mature and ready-to-germinate seeds that will grow on contact with moisture. Small chips have the same properties, along with sawdust.

It is recommended to mulch carrots when the outer part of the plant reaches 14-16 cm, and the vegetable itself will be about 7-8 cm in diameter at the widest part of the root. Can late varieties be mulched? It is not only possible, but also necessary, since the shelter retains the temperature for a long time, which it receives from the sun in the daytime, and as a result, the roots are juicy and not cracked.

On the forums, there are often complaints like the following: “I mulch vegetable crop according to all the rules, but the vegetable withers, the tops fall, and the end result is a horned or otherwise ugly carrot that has no sweetness. " An important condition before the procedure - drying the material. No matter what mulching is done, the cover should not flush and thus serve as a habitat for the reproduction of harmful microorganisms. And the secret of withering, falling tops is root rotting, to which oxygen does not reach through the dense crust of raw mulch. These are all the secrets of proper mulching.

Typical mistakes

Let's name the most common mistakes gardeners make that answer the most frequent complaints about why carrots don't grow:

• the seeds were planted without preliminary soaking or in insufficiently heated soil (the norm is 7-9 C);
• too deep sowing or improper formation of the groove (it is supposed to deepen the groove by 2 cm, then tamp its bottom with the edge of the palm or the handle of a hoe);
• no watering before or after planting, or watering with cold water;
• abundant watering of the soil for a period of time until the sprouts are hatched out of the soil (until the green brush of the sprouted plants appears on the garden bed, it is impossible to water the garden);
• frequent watering with a small amount of water, in which moisture does not penetrate deep enough;

Why does carrot grow poorly? Perhaps due to the lack of a feeding element throughout the development of the plant. In not rested or depleted soil, vegetables will be thin, pale, covered with white hairs. A lack of potassium will immediately affect the density of the root - it will become woody, and the lack of phosphorus will affect the taste - the carrots will become tasteless or even sour.

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It is in vain that some gardeners believe that grow carrots at their summer cottage is a simple matter. Despite the simple and affordable agricultural technology of this root crop, in order to get a decent harvest, you have to work hard.
Growing long and even root crops is within the power of any gardener. Just don't be lazy. Follow necessary work carrot care, and get a good harvest.

How to grow carrots in your garden

The first step is to select suitable place for planting and soil preparation. The type of soil directly affects the quality of the carrots. This unpretentious vegetable is planted on light textured, fertile lands with good drainage. In addition, it is necessary to choose an even, maximally open and well-lit place for the beds. It is best to plant carrots in places where onions, cabbage, early potatoes were planted before, especially if the soil was fertilized with organic fertilizers.

And in places where before that there were beds of celery (celery, caraway, dill, fennel), as well as carrots, it is better not to plant carrots, since you will not get a good harvest. On small areas with complex rotation, carrots can be grown. Do not consider such a situation hopeless - make the soil very ashed: take wood ash in an amount of 0.2-0.3 kg, and scatter it on one square meter of soil. Then dig it up. Do this twice a year.

The soil itself is prepared in the fall so that the soil is settled before sowing. The places where you plan to plant vegetables, clear of stones, carefully dig up (one or two bayonets), forming high beds.

If necessary, feed poor soil with humus, heavy soil with peat, sawdust and river sand, add chalk or lime to the acidic soil. It is not recommended to apply fresh manure in order to avoid getting ugly root crops. If carrots are grown in soils with a high water table without raising the height of the beds, they can grow ugly.

In the spring, the beds warm up, and 7-10 days before planting carrots, thoroughly loosen the soil and disinfect it with a solution copper sulfate, prepared at the rate of 1 table. spoon for 10 liters of water. Then pour the beds with warm water (about 40 degrees), and cover the planting site with dark plastic wrap... Thanks to the last steps, the earth will warm up and retain moisture. In hot springs and snowy winters, as well as if you are waiting for a late harvest, this is not necessary. With full confidence that the carrot seeds are of high quality, and frosts are not expected, you can refuse to warm up.

Sowing carrots depends on the amount of moisture in the ground and climatic conditions in which it is grown: in the central zone of Russia, sowing is carried out in the period from 20 to 25 April. A little earlier (one to two weeks), root crops are planted when three weeks have passed after the snow melted, after the establishment of relatively warm weather, excluding night frosts.

Even later, carrots are planted if frosts persist at night. But do not delay the landing - the optimal time is no later than May 5th. The southern regions can plant root crops in two stages: for summer use - March 10-20, for obtaining seeds and winter use - June 10-15.

In order for the seeds to swell and moisture to them pass through the crust, which contains sufficient hydrophobic essential oils, they are rinsed two or three times with warm water, and then covered with a dampened cloth. If you ignore this, most likely, seedlings will be delayed by 2-3 weeks, the maturation of root crops will worsen.

To accelerate seedling, the following procedures are necessary:

Bubbling

Placing the carrot seeds in a vessel with a water temperature of about 25 degrees. During the day, the water is aerated with an air pump, and then the seeds are stored in the refrigerator on the middle shelf for about 5 days. Before sowing (12 hours before), the seeds are taken out of the refrigerator and dried well. Then they are planted in the beds. They will germinate within 5-7 days.

Burying in the soil

Dry seeds are placed in a bag made of natural fabric and buried in the beds (depth - shovel bayonet). They are not watered or fertilized. After a couple of weeks, the bag is removed, and the seeds are dried on a dry cloth or parchment. Then they are planted in the beds. They will germinate for 4-5 days.

Using the nutrient solution

The seeds are laid out on the fabric, the canvas is put on top. All this is poured with a nutrient solution for a day. The nutrient medium can be different:

1. Mixes up boric acid, nitrophoska and water in the ratio: 1/3 teaspoon: 1/2 teaspoon: 1 liter.
2. In a liter of water, potassium permanganate is mixed with water until a red solution is obtained, and ½ teaspoon of fertilizer is added.

After soaking, rinse the seeds with warm water and refrigerate for 3-4 days. Before planting, they are dried to flow. Then it is planted in the ground.

Carrots are planted with grooves that have been previously made in the beds. The optimal planting is as follows: a furrow with the width of a matchbox, half its depth, a distance of 200-240 mm.

The extreme furrow must be positioned 120 mm from the edge of the bed. The furrow should be no more than 900 mm wide and the ridge 1.1 meters wide. Before planting the seeds, water the bed with a strong solution of potassium permanganate. Sprinkle the seeds with a snake (step - 10-15 mm). Then mulch using soil, peat or peat-sand mixture. Cover the planting with a film, leaving a ventilation gap (120-150 mm). Thanks to the cover with a film, heat and moisture are better retained, and the film also prevents the appearance of a pest (carrot fly), which can destroy the crop.

The procedure for caring for planted carrots

In order to grow a good harvest of carrots, proper care is required, which will not be difficult. This is the timely thinning of the beds, loosening the soil, weeding, feeding and watering root crops.

Getting a rich harvest of carrots at your summer cottage.

Thin carrots as the tops grow

As soon as the first shoots appear, pull out the smallest shoots, maintaining an interval of 20-25 mm between roots. The second time is thinned out in June or July, observing an interval of 75-100 mm. With the second thinning, carrots taken out of the ground are suitable for human and animal consumption. You can also thin out three times if the roots interfere with each other's growth.

Feed carrots

When the fifth to sixth leaves appear, after 2-3 days, it is necessary to make mineral fertilizers... After feeding the plant, hilling is carried out for the first time, repeating it after each thinning, and then once every 2-4 weeks. Thanks to hilling, the fruits take refuge in the ground, do not receive sunburn and greening of the hangers.
When growing carrots, some gardeners use a three-phase method: 5, 7, 10 leaves. In all cases, the required soil depth for root crops is approximately 50 mm.

How to water carrots

Water the carrots intensively so that the soil does not dry out, but not excessively, so that it does not overcool. It is optimal to adhere to uniform watering: if there is not enough water, the carrots will be rough, and if there is an excess, they will be small and tasteless. Stick to the following watering pattern:

1. From the appearance of the first shoots to the beginning of the formation of root crops, regular watering is required: once every 3-4 days. Moreover, for 1 sq. meter pours out 3-4 liters of water.
2. When carrots appear and until the end of summer: once a week (10-20 liters of water). The amount of water depends on the weather. If the weather is dry, there is more water. With precipitation lasting for 5 days, watering is performed 5 days after their end.
3. From the end of August: once every 1.5-2 weeks (8-10 liters of water per 1 square meter).
4. Two weeks before harvesting, they stop watering the root crops.

How to properly harvest and store crops

Harvest time is late September - early October. Root crops are removed from the ground by the tops, and laid side by side on the ground to remove excess moisture from their surface.

If you irregularly loosened the soil and weeded the beds while growing carrots, the soil may harden. Then you will have to extract the roots by digging them in with a garden bracket. This is done very carefully to avoid damage to the carrot fruit.

When harvesting in the rain, the carrots are then laid out in a dry place. Drying can continue for 1-1.5 hours until the surface is completely dry.

Then the tops are trimmed with a garden knife or pruner. It is cut at the root, trying not to damage the root crop itself. At the same time, the crop is sorted: damaged, rotten and crooked fruits are rejected. The rest of the carrots are stored in a ventilated box in a cool and dark place.