Why Do Carrots Grow Poorly? Reasons And What To Do. Photo

2023 Author: Ava Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 07:13

This vegetable was once a completely different kind, unsightly, less tasty, and not everyone would dare to eat it. Nowadays, carrots are a wonderful and literally irreplaceable vegetable, which is used, starting with the nutrition of children and ending with food for the elderly. And, it would seem, what is easier? I prepared a garden bed, sowed carrot seeds, even planted onions nearby so that there was no trace of onion flies, and the harvest was simply not there. What is the reason and what to do? In this article, we will look at 12 possible reasons for poor carrot growth and tell you what to do in this or that case.

1. The vagaries of the weather

As you know, carrot seeds germinate well already at three degrees Celsius, and carrots grow well if outside the window from +18 to +24 degrees above zero, but if it's hotter, then its growth slows down sharply.

How to help? I would advise in the evening to cool the soil by watering it with a hose, but not by sprinkling, but by gravity, so that the soil cools down at least a couple of centimeters, of course, it will lower the air temperature too, this sometimes helps.

2. Dry, too moist or dense soil

Carrots will grow best in light and moderately moist soils. If it is dry, the root crop will not grow, there is no chance on excessively damp soil, if the soil is dense, it can grow, but bizarre and clumsy.

How to fix dense soil? A bucket of river sand per square meter (this is 12 or 13 kg) until the soil becomes loose and fluffy, then the carrots will be just very comfortable, and be surprised at how ideal it will be.

Those who think that carrot seeds can be sown directly on the surface of the turf are also greatly mistaken. Contrary to the belief that carrots are practically a weed, they need prepared soil. Therefore, before sowing carrot seeds, be sure to dig deep into the soil with a full bayonet of a shovel, loosen it, and then I advise you to walk with a rake, so that the bed for sowing carrots is softer than grandmother's feather bed.

3. Arrangement of beds with carrots in the shade

Continuing the theme of soil, root crops will grow well only on soils completely exposed to the rays of the sun, they can no longer tolerate even a short-term shade and will slow down their development.

Ideally, the grower should arrange the carrot beds in such a way that each plant is illuminated by the sun and does not shade each other. Naturally, the location near large crops, such as corn, is unacceptable or permissible only if these (tall) plants are located on the north side of the carrots, that is, they will not create any shadows.

4. Too acidic soil

Carrots are a capricious culture, and if the soil of your site is too acidic (pH 5.5 and below), then in the fall, before sowing carrot seeds in the spring, be sure to add a glass of dolomite flour per square meter to the soil.

Ideally, for carrots, the soil should have a pH of 6-7. You can check the pH with a simple litmus test by dissolving the soil in a glass of water and dipping the paper into it, and then comparing the color of the paper with the scale on the package.

5. Loosening the soil

And, in general, how do you feel about the soil? Do you know that the most crucial moment for carrots is the period when the seeds germinate, seedlings appear? So during this period it is extremely bad if there is a soil crust on the soil surface.

Ideally, after each rain or watering, you need to be as careful as possible, but destroy it. If you have carrots in your country house, so that the soil crust does not inhibit its growth, it is necessary after each watering, before leaving, to cover it with a thin (a couple of millimeters) layer of wood ash (this is a good potash fertilizer, and contains trace elements too).

6. Incorrectly selected seeds

By the way, few people know that length does matter. So, the shorter and smaller the carrot root crop, the faster it ripens and vice versa. Therefore, when choosing seeds, read on the packet what is written, and do not pursue gigantism, there is little sense from it.

A lyrical digression for those who are not satisfied with the growth rate of carrots - we carefully read the packaging, early ripening varieties have a ripening period of 55-65 days. This is not to say that he sowed yesterday, and today he has already collected. Yes, and such varieties are not stored at all - I was convinced from my own experience.

7. Incorrect crop rotation

Predecessor? Have you forgotten? But, fortunately, things are not so complicated with carrots, and when choosing a previous culture, you can only focus on a couple of main requirements.

The first, and, I think, this is the most basic requirement, is that in the garden where the carrots were, it is at least stupid to re-sow the carrots, wait two years, or preferably three, and you will see for yourself that the result will be completely different.

Well, the second rule is that carrots grow best only after tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, cabbage, onions, garlic, green ones, but after lettuce and parsley it is better not to plant, everything is simple - there may be common pests.

8. Thickened crops

Did you pull the carrots, in general? Do you know that the optimal row spacing when planting carrots should be 22-23 cm, and the bed width should not be more than one and a half meters? On such - just four rows of carrots fit, but more is not needed.

Thickened crops, by the way, are pulled in the phase of a pair of true leaves, and after a while (usually two or three weeks) again, so that there is 4-6 cm of free area between each carrot. And before thinning, first water the bed, and then pull up the desired bush. If the garden is not watered, then you can touch neighboring plants, and this will just reflect on their poor growth in the future.

9. Incorrect landing depth

This is how beginners do, for some reason they try to stick it deeper, but why? The optimum depth of carrot seeds on dense clay soil can be as little as a centimeter, but if the soil is loose and sandy, then you can push it deeper - up to four or even five centimeters. Here, of course, it also depends on the moisture supply of the soil, otherwise you can plant it deeply, and then water it so superficially that moisture will not even reach the seeds.

And a personal secret, if you see that the spring is dry, if there is a minimum of rain and the water dries up, falling immediately to the surface of the soil, and the soil, among other things, looks like a desert, then it is quite possible to sow seeds to a depth of five centimeters, and if the soil dense and it rains often, then close up the seeds almost at the very surface.

10. Hilling carrots

Did you forget about hilling? It seems to be a simple operation, but for some reason very few people do it. The thing is that during the growth period, a small, but still part of the carrot root, located on top, seems to protrude from the soil, it becomes bare, it becomes not the usual carrot color, but less pleasant - green, and begins to accumulate with might and main, even if not very dangerous, but still a poison called solanine. At the same time, the growth of carrots stops, freezes.

Therefore, you need to monitor the plantation and spill it on time, which is especially effective after watering, rain, or on cloudy days when the years of the carrot fly are minimal or there is none at all.

11. Well, about watering

Watering carrots is a difficult thing, here many just start to panic, asking questions why root crops do not grow. In fact, carrots love the golden mean: abundance, but not excess moisture.

Carrots also have their own biological subtleties that a real gardener should know about, for example, the growth of root crops actively begins after the end of the growth of the leaf mass, and there is no need to pull the tops out of the soil and shout “where is the root crop ?!”.

Usually, the growth of the root crop occurs in the last quarter of the growth of the aboveground leaf mass. From this it follows that during the period of active growth of moisture in carrots, a maximum is needed, but if you moisten the soil when the roots are finished growing, then this can slow down their development or lead to cracking.

Of course, one must not forget about the norms for watering carrots so that the root crop does not stop its development. So, for example, in hot weather, when moisture evaporates, you can water carrots three times a week in the evening, spending only four liters of water per square meter on young plants. But already in the middle of the growing season of carrots, you can irrigate once a week, pouring a bucket of water per square meter, and again reduce it towards the end of the growing season, as we mentioned earlier.

12. Correct feeding

Carrots may not grow for the simple reason that you are feeding them incorrectly. You don't need to do a lot of top dressing, otherwise angry reviews about the amount of nitrates and the fact that there are a lot of useful things in the air too. On my site, I carried out only three dressings and that was enough.

The first feeding both I and many gardeners did after the emergence of shoots - after three weeks. To do this, we used a liquid feeding - usually a tablespoon of nitrophoska in a bucket of water. The carrots were re-fed after 15-18 days, they used two, but teaspoons per bucket of water, also dissolved.

Carrots respond very well to the introduction of a potassium sulfate solution (literally 6-7 g per bucket of water at a consumption rate per square meter). It turns out - this is the third feeding, it has a positive effect on the growth of root crops, and on their taste (they will be sweeter).

Have you decided to fertilize the soil with manure? Well, then apply it in the spring at 5-6 kg per square meter of soil. During the season, before planting carrots, let the manure decompose, dissolve, go into a form accessible to plants, and then in the fall add 500 g of wood ash per square meter and you can safely plant carrots. The result will be great.

Well, we tried to answer all the questions about why carrots do not grow, and what to do about it. If you have any questions, then ask them in the comments. If you have your own secrets of getting a good harvest of carrots, we will also be happy to learn about them.