We Grow Carrots. Landing, Leaving. Properties, Pests. Photo

Carrots are loved by gardeners and are irreplaceable on the table. Carrots are among the so-called yellow-green vegetables, which are considered the main source of carotene for humans. Carrots come in early, medium and late varieties. Early root crops are usually shorter and sweeter, but they are less well preserved; late varieties are long, pointed, their yield is much higher. This article will tell you how to plant and care for carrots in the beds.

Content:

• Biological features of the plant
• Planting dates for carrots
• Carrot sowing rules
• Carrot care
• Collection and storage of carrot harvest
• Diseases and pests of carrots
• The benefits of carrots

Biological features of the plant

Carrots (Daucus) are biennial, rarely annual or perennial herbs with multiple pinnately dissected leaves. In the first year of life, carrots form a rosette of leaves and a root crop, in the second year of life - a seed bush and seeds. The root vegetable is fleshy, truncated-conical, cylindrical or fusiform, weighing from 30-300 g or more.

Planting dates for carrots

Sowing dates have a decisive influence on the carrot yield. Slow germinating seeds require significant soil moisture and are sown as early as possible, as long as there is sufficient spring moisture in the soil. If there is a delay in sowing, the seeds fall into dry soil. As a result, rare, weak shoots appear, and sometimes the seeds do not germinate at all.

In the middle and central lane, the following sowing dates for carrots are observed: early varieties - from 20 to 25 April; mid-season - from April 25 to May 5.

In the southern regions, sowing is carried out in 2 terms: spring - March 10-20, to obtain products in the summer, and summer - June 10-15 for obtaining testes (uterine roots) and winter consumption. Carrots are also sown before winter, in November-December on frozen soil with dry seeds, so that they cannot germinate until spring.

Winter-sown carrots give an earlier harvest. It is used mainly in summer and is not suitable for storage.

Carrot sowing rules

Before sowing carrots, prepared beds are loosened to a shallow depth (1-2 cm), removing roots and weeds. Then along the bed, grooves are made 5 cm wide and 2-2.5 cm deep. The grooves are placed at a distance of 20-22 cm from each other. The first groove is made 12 cm from the edge of the bed. The width of the bed is 100-120 cm.

Before sowing carrot seeds, the grooves are watered with water or a solution of red potassium permanganate (it is very convenient to water from a kettle). In wet grooves, wet, swollen seeds prepared for sowing are scattered (randomly, in a snake or staggered) at a distance of 1-1.5 cm from each other.

The grooves with carrot seeds are mulched with peat or a mixture of peat and sand and covered with a film so that there is a small space between the bed and the film (12-15 cm). The film retains moisture, increases heat, and friendly shoots appear in 5-6 days. When seedlings appear, the film is immediately removed.

You can sow carrots in another way. On the prepared bed, recesses up to 2 cm are made using a bridge method (for example, with the bottom of a liter glass jar). After the bed is marked, the holes are watered with water, 10-12 seeds are taken and thrown into each hole, then the holes are covered and covered with foil until shoots appear. In the absence of a film, the bed can be sprinkled with dry peat with a layer of 0.5 cm. This will keep it from drying out and forming a crust. With this method of sowing, loosening and thinning are not required.

Often, carrot seeds are sown densely in narrow and deep grooves, which is why the seedlings are thickened, and the plants are weak. It is difficult to thin out such a bed. Thinning can be shortened by mixing 1 teaspoon of seeds with 1 cup of sand and dividing into 3 parts. Each part is sown on 1 m of the bed.

Carrot care

The first time the plants are thinned out in the phase of 1-2 leaves. The second time is when the roots reach 1.5-2 cm in thickness. It is also necessary to give the plants two additional fertilizing, timing them to the end of thinning.

They are fed with a solution of mineral fertilizers (for 10 liters of water 20-25 g of ammonium nitrate, the same amount of potassium salt and 30-40 g of superphosphate). During the growing season, the aisles are loosened 4-5 times, combining with weeding, preferably after rain or watering. Better to water in the evening.

Loosening and weeding

As soon as shoots appear, they begin to gently loosen the soil in the aisles to a depth of no more than 3 - 4 cm with the simultaneous destruction of weeds. Loosening and weeding is carried out after watering and rains.

Thinning carrots

When the 1st and 2nd true leaves appear in the plants, they begin to thin out the sowing, leaving a distance of 3-4 cm between the plants. The disturbed plants remaining after thinning are watered with warm (18-20 ° C) water 2-3 liters per 1m), the soil around the plants is compacted, and the aisles are loosened.

During the thinning of the plants, a carrot scent develops, which attracts the carrot fly. Therefore, it is better to do this work in the evening, and remove the pulled out carrot plants in a compost heap and cover with earth or sawdust.

When thinning carrots, it is a good idea to dust the bed with ground pepper to drown out the carrot smell. After re-weeding, the bed should be watered again, and the soil around the plants should be compacted so that the carrot roots are not exposed.

Watering

With a lack of moisture in the soil, root crops grow coarse and woody, and with an excess, their tops and core grow greatly, while the growth of root crops stops.

Carrots prefer even watering. With a high rate of watering on dry soil, cracking of root crops can be noticed. Therefore, in order to get a high yield of even, beautiful root crops, carrots are watered, starting from seedlings, moderately and regularly. In sunny warm weather, young plants are watered 1-2 times a week from a watering can in small doses (3-4 liters per 1 m2). In the future, when small roots (pencil thick) begin to form, they are watered once a week, gradually increasing the dose from 10-12 to 20 liters per 1 m.

In September, when there is a strong filling of root crops and there is no rain, the carrots are watered once every 10-12 days at the rate of 8-10 liters per 1m.

Top dressing

During the summer, carrots are fed 1-2 times. The first feeding is carried out one month after the emergence of shoots with the following solution: 1 tablespoon of nitrophoska or nitroammophoska is diluted in 10 liters of water and watered at the rate of 5 liters per 1 m2. Top dressing can be repeated after 15-18 days at the rate of 7-8 liters per 1 m.

Collection and storage of carrot harvest

Late carrots are harvested in the fall before the onset of frost, since frozen carrots are poorly stored. Root crops are digged in with a shovel, picked out of the soil and immediately cleaned of the soil and cut off the tops. If you do not do this right away, they will wither, which worsens their keeping quality.

Immediately after harvesting, do not store the carrots, but let them lie in a heap until the temperature drops to 2-4 ° C. It is better to store carrots in boxes sprinkled with sand. Or in jars with a lid. In the old days in Russia it was kept in honey, maybe someone will try it?

Diseases and pests of carrots

Carrot fly. One of the main pests of carrots and other root crops. Warm and humid weather encourages carrot flies to thrive. The best breeding grounds for carrot flies are damp, low, windless places, heavy soils, in the shade of trees. It is especially harmful in years with prolonged summer rains. Carrot fly larvae very strongly affect carrots. Affected roots are recognized by their purple-tinted leaves.

Umbrella moth. Butterflies start flying in late May and early June. Eggs are laid during the flowering period from which caterpillars appear in early July. They entangle and pull together a cobweb some place and begin to dine on it. They hibernate in the form of butterflies.

Carrot beetle. Coniferous terrain is the best for the development of this pest. It hibernates in coniferous forests, and in May flies to young carrot plants. It feeds on the juice of the leaves, as a result of which they curl, lose turgor, while the yield is significantly reduced.

Umbrella aphid: This pest sucks sap from plants and causes leaves and umbrellas to curl.

Hawthorn aphid: Inhabits the stems and root collar of plants. It hibernates with the fruit, and in the spring turns into larvae and damages plants. The damaged areas become discolored, then deformed and fade. The harvest is decreasing.

Umbrella bugs. They are divided into two types - light and darkish. They hibernate in the form of bedbugs, but in the spring larvae appear, which feed on the tops of the stems and in the umbrellas, sucking the juice and proteins from the endosperm of the seeds. A feature of this pest is reproduction several times in one season.

Protective measures

First of all, you need to start with the seeds. 10 days before sowing carrots, all seeds should be soaked separately in warm water for 2 hours in order to "wake up" the embryos. Then put it on a wet linen cloth, put it in a plastic bag with holes and keep it in the refrigerator for 10 days at a temperature of up to 5 ° C. Then the seeds are cleaned of all excess that interferes with growth and dried.

Such preparation of seeds provides early friendly shoots and increases plant resistance to pests. Fresh manure must not be applied to the soil. You can sow carrots only in the second year after applying organic fertilizers.

The benefits of carrots

Carrots are a very healthy vegetable for the body. The beneficial and medicinal properties of carrots are explained by their rich composition. Carrots contain vitamins of group B, PP, C, E, K, carotene is present in it - a substance that is converted into vitamin A in the human body. Carrots contain 1.3% proteins, 7% carbohydrates. There are a lot of minerals in carrots necessary for the human body: potassium, iron, phosphorus, magnesium, cobalt, copper, iodine, zinc, chromium, nickel, fluorine, etc. Carrots contain essential oils that cause its peculiar smell.

Carrots contain beta-carotene, which improves lung function. Beta-carotene is a precursor of vitamin A. Once in the human body, carotene is converted into vitamin A, which is most beneficial for young women. Also, the healing properties of carrots are associated with strengthening the retina. For people suffering from myopia, conjunctivitis, blepharitis, night blindness and rapid fatigue, the use of this product in food is highly desirable.