Growing carrots: secrets from sowing to harvesting

Even with experienced gardeners, it happens that the carrot seeds do not sprout or the carrots are small and ugly. Growing the right carrots is not easy. Carrots can suffer from both over-grooming and lack of attention. In this article, we will look at growing carrots in the garden and analyze the mistakes that gardeners most often omit.

Growing carrots in the garden: choosing the soil and place for the garden

The climate of our country is perfect for growing carrots. For a carrot bed, it is best to choose a very sunny and open area. Carrots do not tolerate shade, develops poorly and rots. Most of all, carrots love loose sandy soil. To do this, you need to add river sand to the soil for planting carrots. You also need to add compost or peat to the soil. It is best to prepare a bed for carrots in the fall, dig up the soil well and add the necessary components to it. It should be remembered that carrots do not tolerate manure, it has a detrimental effect on root crops. Carrots will grow well in areas where cucumbers, zucchini or cabbage previously grew. The most common mistakes that every gardener makes: - Prepare the garden in the spring. This helps to reduce moisture in the soil. This can lead to poor seed germination; - they apply a lot of fertilizers with a high nitrogen content. Overfed root crops lose their taste and are very poorly stored.

Growing carrots in the garden: choosing seeds

A good harvest of carrots directly depends on the quality of the seeds. When choosing a planting material, it is worth considering some factors, such as variety, soil requirements, and climatic features. Pelleted seeds do not require processing before sowing. But it is worth noting that they need to be planted in moist soil, and after planting, they should be well watered. A regular seed is best soaked in a growth stimulant solution. This will allow the carrots to sprout very quickly. Errors: - sowing with dry seeds. Dry seed sprouts for a very long time, there is a possibility that the planting material will begin to rot; - the pelleted seeds did not sprout, which means that the carrots lack moisture.

Sowing rules

For a bountiful harvest of carrots, you need to be able to correctly determine the sowing time. To get an early harvest, sowing is best done in the spring as soon as the soil warms up to 10 degrees. Carrots are sown in shallow furrows, in rows. We sprinkle the seeds, cover everything with soil, tamp and thoroughly irrigate the garden. Gardeners' mistakes lie in the fact that the soil after planting was not well tamped, but the garden was already watered. In this case, the seeds may not receive the proper amount of moisture, or they will simply be washed away at one end of the garden bed. As a result, the root vegetables will be small, not tasty and crooked.

Waiting for shoots

The most important rule for growing carrots is correct and timely watering. Not experienced gardeners, seeing the lack of seedlings, begin to fill the garden bed. This is absolutely impossible to do. A crust is formed, which does not allow air to pass through well and does not allow the shoots to break through. The best tool for the rapid emergence of shoots, loosening. Care rules. In order for the harvest to be plentiful, you need to follow the rules of agricultural technology. Weeding, watering, thinning and proper feeding are all the activities that should be carried out. They begin to thin out the carrots as soon as they have 3 true leaves. The second thinning should be done when the roots begin to form.

Thinning rules: - pull out the excess greens carefully, trying not to damage the seedling that grows nearby; - if you want to get a harvest of very large carrots, leave fewer seedlings, then the plants will be even and large. - Weeding or thinning is best done when the soil is wet.

Errors: - very dense sowing, the roots will be too thin; - very rare sowing, poor quality planting material, a large root crop can give side shoots. Watering carrots should be infrequent, but generous. The interval between watering should be at least 6 days, if there is a drought, the carrots are watered every 3 to 4 days. A month before harvesting, watering should be stopped altogether.

Irrigation errors: - Very frequent, superficial watering, the root crop does not receive the proper amount of moisture and begins to release lateral roots; - uneven soil moisture, after a long drought, carrots should not be poured; root crops may crack. There is no need to feed the carrots if all the nutrients have been added in the fall. If not, the carrots should be fertilized twice a season. When seedlings appear and at the moment when root crops begin to form.

Cleaning

Harvesting carrots is best done on time, otherwise the roots may or may not be overripe. An improperly harvested crop is very poorly stored and inferior in taste to carrots harvested on time.