Sowing Carrots: From Early Spring To Late Autumn

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

You can't do without carrots in any kitchen. Soups and broths, fresh salads and preserves - this bright orange vegetable will come into play everywhere. But in order to have enough of it, in May, the beds with carrots require special attention of the gardener. Indeed, in this month it is important to have time to thin out and feed the sprouted seedlings, and sprinkle soil on bare young root crops, and sow the next batch for winter storage

Choosing a site for carrots

Do not be discouraged if you did not have time to sow the carrots in April. This root crop belongs to those vegetables that are planted all May, summer, and even before winter in order to get a very early harvest.

Beds are allocated for planting, where the predecessors were tomatoes, onions, potatoes, cucumbers, beans or peas. It is optimal if, since autumn, the following have been introduced for digging:

• humus, • superphosphate, • potassium chloride.

The area under the carrot is not fertilized with fresh manure. From this, the root crop rots, becomes vulnerable to disease. In the spring, while loosening the earth, it is useful to feed the places intended for carrots with ammonium nitrate.

Taking care of the future harvest

Before sowing, it is advisable to check the germination and calibrate the seeds. Thanks to such procedures, uniform shoots are achieved in a faster time.

A sieve with a coarse mesh will help to calibrate the seeds - through it small seeds will quickly be sifted out. But better calibration is done in saline solution. To do this, dissolve 50 g of sodium chloride in 1 liter of water. Large, full-weight seeds will settle to the bottom of the container, and small and less valuable specimens float to the surface.

In addition to this pre-sowing preparation, it is useful to disinfect the seeds. To do this, they are soaked for a day in a weak solution of potassium permanganate. After that, it is necessary to dry the seed. It is best to choose a flat surface for these purposes, spreading the seeds in a thin layer to bring them back to the state of flowability.

The germination rate for carrots should be at least 70. To calculate how many seeds are required at this value, take as a basis the seeding rate of 0.8-1 g per 1 square meter. This means that one full matchbox of seeds is enough for sowing 8-10 square meters. area. For winter sowing, the amount of seeds should be slightly higher.

Sowing and caring for carrot shoots

Seeds are distributed along grooves about 2 cm deep, made at a distance of at least 15 cm from each other. Then they cover it with earth or cover it with mulch. For these purposes, you can use:

• sawdust,

• chopped straw, • humus.

With winter crops, the seeds must be covered with earth with the indispensable mulching with humus with a layer of at least 3 cm.

Ensure that a crust does not form on the surface of the earth before the emergence of carrots. It must be destroyed in a timely manner. To do this, use a rake.

When shoots appear, the soil continues to loosen. On heavy soils, you can notice the following feature: the root crop comes out of the ground and, uncovered by the soil, in direct sunlight, begins to turn green. To prevent this, it is necessary to carry out not only loosening of the beds, but also additional hilling of plants.

Very dense seedlings must be thinned so that there is a 2 cm gap between the vegetables. After the first thinning procedure, it is recommended to apply top dressing: ammonium nitrate or nitrophoska, ammofoska. In the future, as the root crops grow, the young carrots removed from the beds with the next thinning will already be suitable for eating.

Depending on the weather conditions, the carrot beds will need to be moistened 3-5 times per season. Irrigation is carried out along the furrows. It is convenient to do this from a watering can or a small stream from a hose.