Content
Carrots are deservedly one of the most common vegetable crops. It not only perfectly complements many dishes and home preserves, but also contains a huge amount of vitamins and minerals. Due to its beneficial properties, it is perfect for dietary and baby food. It is not surprising that most gardeners grow this vegetable on their plots.
But in order to get a generous harvest of carrots, you need to arm yourself with the basic rules for planting it. For example, you should learn how to prepare seeds and soil, and how to plant carrots with seeds outdoors. Inventive gardeners have come up with many ways to plant carrots that can make the task easier. We will consider them below.
Seed preparation
To spend planting carrots into open ground with seeds, you must first prepare them. This preparation begins in the spring, just before planting.
Seed material that is more than three years old loses 50% of its germination capacity. Use the information on the package to determine how old the seeds are. If the seeds are collected independently, then you can understand how old they are by smell. Young seeds have a pleasant, pronounced aroma.
Carrot seeds sprout for a very long time. Therefore, gardeners use several methods to speed up the germination process:
- A solution of ordinary kitchen salt is being prepared. For half a liter of water, you will need 25 grams of salt. Seeds are dipped into it for a while. Unsuitable ones will float to the surface of the water. Further, they must be drained along with water, and good seeds are poured with hot water for 10 minutes. Then it is also drained, and immediately the seed is poured with cold water. Now the seeds are spread on a damp cloth or burlap and left to germinate. Before the sprouts hatch, you will need to rinse the seeds twice. For the first time, use normal room temperature water for rinsing. Next time you need to add mineral fertilizers to it. For example, manganese sulfate or copper, succinic or boric acid are often used for these purposes. When the seeds germinate, they are dried and planted.
- This preparation begins 12 days before planting seeds in the ground. The seeds are placed in a cloth bag and buried in the ground. It is important that the soil is moist enough. Just before planting, the bag is removed from the ground. For half an hour, the seeds are placed on a dry napkin and left to dry. After that, you can immediately start planting the seed. This method can significantly speed up the germination time. The first shoots will sprout in 4 days.
- The third option for seed preparation begins 5 days before planting in the ground. In this case, the seed is covered with a layer of mullein and soil. This nutrient shell will provide the seeds with the nutrients they need to grow. To prepare the mixture, you will need 4 tablespoons of peat, 4 tablespoons of humus, 2 tablespoons of mullein and 2 tablespoons of seeds. All this is placed in a two-liter container and mixed thoroughly. Thus, the seeds are completely covered with the mixture. Now they are taken out of the container and dried on a sheet of paper. Immediately after that, we sow the seeds in the usual way for us.
Each of these methods will allow you to grow carrots in your area in a short time, since seedlings will appear almost instantly. Planting dry seeds will never give results so quickly. Additionally, during preparation, the seeds receive the necessary nutrients.
Soil preparation
To obtain a high yield, carrots are planted in soil with neutral acidity. You can determine the level of acidity of the soil by the wild plants growing in it. In such a soil, clover, coltsfoot, chamomile, sow thistle feel good. Also, the soil for growing carrots should be light sandy loam and loamy.
Do not add fresh manure to the soil before planting carrots. Because of it, lush tops will grow on the plants, but the root crop itself will be small and branched. To avoid this, manure is applied under the previous crop.
Site preparation begins in the fall. The soil is dug up and fertilized. For this, humus and special mineral mixtures are used. If the acidity level is increased, then dolomite flour should also be added. In the spring, before sowing seeds, the soil is loosened and leveled.
In heavy soil, the following mixture is advised:
- 30 g of urea.
- 10 liters of ordinary water.
- 3 kg of peat.
- 8-9 kg of sand.
- 10 kg of sawdust.
Before planting carrots, the soil should warm up to +8 ° C. As practice shows, this time comes closer to the end of April. In the northern regions, it is better to start planting in early May. But in the southern area, seeds are sown even earlier.
Ways of planting carrots by seeds
For fast germination seeds, they are planted in moist soil. Additionally, you can pour the hole with a weak solution of potassium permanganate. Some gardeners plant pinches of seeds 2 or 3 cm apart. It is more convenient for someone to sow carrots in a continuous line. Further, the furrows are covered with a mixture of sand and peat or peat itself.
Then the bed can be covered with foil. It is left until the first shoots hatch. This will keep moisture and warmth in the soil, thereby accelerating seed germination. With this method of planting, you will need to thin out the carrots several times. For the first time, the sprouts are thinned out as soon as the first leaves appear. After this, the soil must be watered abundantly.
However, not everyone likes to do such a scrupulous business. All the more, it is a pity to pull out and throw away young and strong shoots, which in the future would give a good harvest. Therefore, many are interested in the question - how to properly plant carrots in open ground, so that in the future it would not be necessary to thin it out?
To date, many ways have been invented on how best to do this. Such methods allow you to save seed, and in the future to get an excellent harvest. In addition, the appearance of carrots from such a planting will only improve. These methods can also be used when planting beets.
So, let's look at the most common ways to plant carrots:
- For the first method, carrot seeds are sown along with the seeds of fast growing plants. For example, carrots are mixed with lettuce, radishes, or spinach. Also, a little sand is added to this mixture so that the seedlings are not too thick. Fast growing crops will sprout even before the carrot sprouts. They are harvested from the garden, and the carrots continue to grow. Thus, there is enough space for it, and in addition to everything, you can quickly grow the necessary greens, saving space in the garden.
- The second method is more time consuming.It has been practiced frequently lately as it gives excellent results. In this case, the seeds are attached to a paper tape using paste. You can also purchase ready-made adhesive tape. Of course, it can take a long time for the seed to stick. But relatives or even children can be added to this process. But in the future, the beds will not have to thin out, and this also takes a lot of time. To plant carrots with this method, you need to glue the seeds at the right distance. Then the tape is settled along the hole, and the top is covered with soil. After that, the garden bed should be watered.
- For the third planting method, a mixture of mineral fertilizers is also used. So in this case, the seeds will also receive additional nutrition. So, mineral complex fertilizers and flour are added to the water. Then this mixture is boiled until a paste is obtained. Cool the solution completely. After that, the seed is added to it and mixed thoroughly. The mixture is poured into an empty bottle with a convenient dispenser or into a pastry syringe. Then it is squeezed out, evenly distributing it over the entire hole. In such a mixture, the seeds are at the same distance from each other, so do not worry that they stick together. This method has many advantages, as it allows not only to plant carrots evenly, but also to additionally strengthen them with mineral fertilizers.
- To use the following method, you will have to buy a special seeder for planting carrots in a specialized store. Such a device can be made independently at home. Even an inexperienced gardener can handle such a seeder. However, some argue that this method is not ideal and may leave bald spots after planting.
Planting carrots in granules
Every year there are new and new methods and ways to sow carrots. For example, to make it easier for gardeners, seeds already placed in the shell are sold. They are also called coated. There is one seed inside each pellet. The shell itself consists of a mixture of hydrogel and various trace elements. It is very convenient to plant such seeds, since the granules are large enough.
Such granules have a bright color, which makes them clearly visible in the ground. So it will very much place the seeds evenly. Moreover, it is not necessary to plant them in the hole, as we used to do. The seed pits can be made using a regular stick. It will already be much easier to determine at what distance to plant the seeds. About five centimeters are left between the pits. The depth of the pits should be no more than two centimeters. Next, put 1 seed in the holes and bury them with earth. After what has been done, be sure to water the garden abundantly. This is necessary so that the granule breaks down and the carrots germinate with ease.
Conclusion
We see that you can sow carrots not only in the usual way for many, planting dry seeds in a hole. Better methods exist today that will save you time and seed. Plant carrots thus a pleasure. And even more pleasure can be obtained by harvesting a bountiful harvest. Using the methods described above, you can achieve excellent results and grow wonderful carrots that will delight you and your loved ones.
