Content
How to Grow Carrots to Avoid Being Disappointed with the Harvest in the Fall
05.03.2023 03:30
Updated: 14.04.2023 11:26
Carrots are one of the vegetables that are used all year round in our latitudes. Therefore, knowing how to grow a good carrot harvest will be useful for everyone. At first glance, these root vegetables are completely unpretentious, but choosing a carrot variety, planting, growing and caring for it require certain knowledge.
Carrot Growing Technology
When you think about how best to grow carrots, first of all, pay attention to the choice of soil for planting. It is better if it is sandy loam, loamy soil or peat.
The vegetable does not tolerate heavy, overly moist soils. However, everything should be in moderation - if there is a lack of moisture, you can get dry, coarse root vegetables with a woody base.
An excellent option if groundwater flows in the area where carrots are planted. Carrots do not like over-acidified soil or the introduction of manure.
The time for planting carrots in the ground should be chosen based on the fact that this vegetable is cold-resistant. Accordingly, seeds are sown either in April-May or in November-December.
In the second option, sowing should be done with dry seeds and in frozen ground.
It is better to determine the location for future beds in an area that is well lit all day long. To prepare the beds for sowing, you need to balance the soil in terms of the composition of turf, peat and sand, and also add mineral fertilizers.
The method for sowing carrot seeds is as follows: furrows are made at a distance of 10 cm from each other, which can be watered with hot water and sprinkled with ash or chalk.
The seeds are sown at a frequency of 0.5-1 cm. Such density helps to avoid thinning, but also provides a sufficient number of shoots. But distributing the seeds at such a distance is quite a labor-intensive task.
There are other ways to distribute seeds evenly.
Sticking on paper tape at the required frequency.
Mixing with sand.
Sowing by shaking a salt shaker.
While you are waiting for the first shoots, you need to pay attention to caring for your carrots. After all, during these 25-30 days, your beds may become overgrown with weeds. Therefore, do not forget about weeding, as well as loosening, thinning and watering. All these works will help your root crops grow juicy and tasty.
As for watering, it should be moderate but regular. If the weather is warm and sunny enough, water the future harvest 1-2 times a week, and later - once a week.
To make carrots delight you with their taste, you can feed them twice a season with nitrophosphorus mineral fertilizers.
How to Grow Carrots Without Being Disappointed
Do not plant carrots in areas where celery or parsnips were previously sown.
Do not use the same place for carrots for several years in a row.
It is good to grow root vegetables in beds after leafy vegetables.
If you want to feed the soil with organic fertilizers, choose humus, not manure.
Nitrogen fertilizers should be applied during the growing season, and potassium and phosphorus fertilizers should be applied three weeks later.
Growing carrots in open ground at the dacha
And yet, despite the apparent simplicity and general knowledge of how to care for carrots, many summer cottage owners do not want to grow this vegetable in their garden. After all, to get a good harvest, certain efforts are needed.
First of all, this concerns the preparation of the soil, which requires knowledge of its composition, as well as its correction according to the degree of moisture and acidity.
The next difficult point is the direct dependence of the yield on the selected variety and weather conditions in a given season.
And if the choice of variety still somehow depends on a person, then it is not possible to influence the weather.
Your future harvest may suffer greatly in the rains. And yet, you should not give up and refuse such a healthy delicacy, because you just need to make a little effort and nature will thank you in full.
