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What to Plant Next to Carrots: Double Harvest from One Bed
04.06.2023 06:30
Not everyone knows that carrots can be sown with other crops and get a double harvest from one bed.
Onion
One of the best neighbors for carrots is onions. Onions contain a lot of sulfur, which is a natural insecticide and can help protect carrots from pests.
Some gardeners are sure that onions even improve the taste of carrots and increase their yield. Carrots, in turn, mislead the onion fly with their smell, which reduces the intensity of damage to the bulbs by this pest.
Radish
Another successful combination is carrots and radishes. Both plants are cold-resistant, so they can be sown together in early spring.
The radish will quickly sprout and yield a harvest, but the carrots will be late with sprouting. By the time it gains strength, the radish will already be removed from the garden bed.
Cucumbers
If cucumbers are climbing trellises, carrots can be sown next to them. Their thin roots will not deform the root crop, and the carrot itself will take nutrition and water from deeper layers of soil.
But there is a nuance. You can combine these two crops only if you have drip irrigation and/or the bed is mulched. That is, if you do not water the cucumbers daily using the classic method. Frequent watering of cucumbers will lead to the rotting of carrots.
Legumes
In early spring, you can plant peas in a bed, and then in late May or early June, sow carrots in the aisles for winter storage. Choose early varieties of peas, then by the time the carrots begin to actively grow, the peas will already be harvested.
Important: be sure to build a trellis for the peas so that they do not take over the space between the rows.
Beans
Beans can be planted in a bed with carrots, placing them at a large distance from each other, otherwise they will create strong shading. Also, on the north side of the bed, you can plant a row of tall beans, then both crops will receive enough sun, and the carrots will also receive nitrogen, which the beans enrich the soil with.
Overall, choosing the right carrot neighbors can help protect your carrots from pests, improve flavor, and yield. It's also a great way to get a double harvest from one bed.
