How to plant carrots so that the seeds do without thinning and special care?

Many year after year they try to grow an excellent harvest of root crops on their site, but each time planting carrots is disappointing. Problems such as long and unstable germination of seeds, deformed and tasteless root crops are often attributed to low-quality seeds. But that's not the point at all. The technology of growing carrots has some secrets that allow you to accelerate germination, do without thinning and grow excellent vegetables.

Preparing seeds for planting

Carrot seeds are high in essential oils. This is a kind of protection and for a long time does not allow moisture to penetrate through the shell into the seed. When sowing unprepared seeds in a garden bed, this process takes about 20 days, and then provided that the soil is constantly moist. You have to water the beds every day, because if the seeds dry out, they will no longer be able to sprout.

Germination can be accelerated if pre-treatment is carried out before planting (several days before sowing). To remove the essential oil from the seed husks, rinse them with warm water. The seeds are poured into a small cotton bag and soaked in warm water. The water is changed every 3-4 hours, and the procedure itself lasts 2-3 days.

If on the site the roots are often affected by diseases and pests, then after washing the bag can be placed in a special solution of sodium or potassium humate. A solution is prepared at the rate of 1 teaspoon of humate per 1 liter of water. The water should be warm, about 30 ° C, and should be soaked for a day. Instead of a humate solution, you can use a solution of wood ash. To do this, dilute 1 tablespoon of fertilizer in 1 liter of warm water and filter.

You can reduce the risk of disease in carrots by quenching in the refrigerator after soaking. The seed bag is washed in running water, wrung out and placed in the refrigerator for 5 days. Care must be taken so that it does not dry out. Then the seeds are slightly dried on a dry cloth so that they become free-flowing, and they begin to sow.

Checking seeds for germination and pre-germination

Before planting carrots in the country, you need to check the seeds for germination. This is done 1-2 months before planting. The seeds are soaked for 2-3 days in warm water and sown in a small box with soil. Germination is determined from how many seeds have sprouted from the sown. Seed material is considered good, showing a germination rate of about 80%. If less than 50% of the seeds have sprouted, then it is better to replace them so as not to waste time sowing new ones and not to miss the deadline. If it is not possible to replace the seed, then sow thicker than usual, and then, if necessary, thin out.

The seeds can be germinated to make sure that the right amount of carrots sprout and to speed up germination. After the soaking and hardening procedure, the seeds must be spread in a thin layer on a damp cloth, and covered with the same cloth on top. Make sure that moisture does not evaporate, if necessary spray with water from a spray bottle. After a few days, the seeds will swell, and a little later, tiny sprouts will appear. You can cover the fabric on top with cling film, but you will have to air it so that mold does not appear.

Advice

It is not recommended to use gauze for germination. Seed sprouts can become tangled and broken when they have to be removed for sowing.

Germinated seeds germinate quickly after sowing, after 5-7 days the first leaves appear.

You can prepare seeds for planting without presoaking and germinating. This is the old way: a bag of seeds is placed in moist, damp earth. This is done 10-14 days before sowing.

1. Dry seeds are placed in a cotton or linen bag.
2. On a plot in the shade, they dig a hole for a shovel bayonet.
3. Place a bag of seeds at the bottom and buried.
4. After the due date, they dig up, dry and sow.

Growing carrots in this way allows you to see seedlings after 5 days.

Planting dates for carrots

The planting date for carrots is determined depending on the region. In the central zone of Russia, sowing can be carried out after April 20 and until early May. In cold regions (in the Urals, in the Leningrad region), planting is carried out later - after May 10. Such terms are optimal for sowing carrots using the usual method, when dry seeds are sown into the ground.

If the seeds are prepared in advance, then planting can be carried out later, in the summer. The deadline is June, until the 15th. The same applies to late varieties, which are planned to be stored for winter storage. If late varieties are planted early and kept in the soil until the end of September, then additional roots will begin to grow on the root crops, and this will reduce the shelf life.
Many people practice planting carrots in late autumn, and how many to sow depends on the weather. The main conditions for autumn planting:

• the bed and furrows on it must be prepared in advance;
• separately prepare containers with soil, which will fill the furrows, and put them in a warm place so that the earth does not freeze;
• sow dry seeds, no need to water the plantings;
• fall asleep with earth prepared in advance.

When to plant carrots, in spring or autumn, everyone chooses for himself. But practice shows that during autumn plantings, weather conditions affect the safety of seeds in the soil and their germination, and planting carrots in spring is more effective than in autumn. The harvest in both cases ripens at the same time.

Planting carrots

The root crop should be prepared in the fall. All roots, chips and stones are carefully selected from the soil. If the carrot root meets an obstacle in the path of growth, it begins to bend.

Carrots do not like manure and lime. It will be correct to add rotted organic matter to the garden in the fall, and in the spring, with repeated digging, add mineral fertilizers. For good growth, root crops need potassium and phosphorus. If organic fertilizers are applied in autumn, then nitrogen is not necessary in spring. With a large amount of nitrogen, carrots grow a lot of tops at the expense of the root crop. There is no need to fertilize the carrots again during the summer.

Carrots should be sown in grooves, which are made at a distance of 5-7 cm from each other. The furrow depth is determined depending on the type of soil. On clay soils, the optimum depth is 1.5 cm, on light, sandy soils, 2.5-3 cm. The bottom of the furrow must be compacted with a plank and, if the soil is dry, spilled with warm water.

To protect against pests, the garden bed can be sprinkled with salt before sowing.

You should not sow seeds thickly: when thinning, the roots of the seedlings growing nearby may be damaged. If thinning cannot be avoided, it is better to do this in the first week after the shoots have appeared. Young shoots are easier to recover.

Care before sprouting is watering, but it must be done carefully. When watering with a strong stream, the seeds are drawn deep into the ground, which may prevent them from sprouting.

Advice

The garden bed can be covered with thin white agrofibre and watered over it from a watering can with a fine strainer. This will prevent the seeds from going deep and raise the temperature of the soil, which will have a positive effect on germination.

To protect against pests, you can plant between carrots marigold, calendula... You cannot grow other root crops in the same garden as carrots.

How to avoid thinning

If the carrots are planted in the usual way, then after they have sprung up, thinning will have to be done. You can avoid this procedure if:

• before sowing, mix seeds with sand in a ratio of 1: 5;
• glue the seeds onto a tape made of rapidly decaying paper;
• planting carrots in egg cartons.

Belt cultivation is only suitable if the seeds are not germinated first. To do this, 3 cm wide strips are cut from thick toilet paper and a paste is prepared from flour: 1 tablespoon of flour is diluted with water to a state of gruel and poured into hot water, standing over low heat. The mixture is brought to a boil and turned off. When it cools down, you can add 1 gram of boric acid to prevent carrot disease.

The paste is applied to the strips with a brush and the seeds are laid out in 2 pieces at a distance of 4-5 cm from each other. The strips are laid on the garden bed after the paste has dried. If everyone ascends, then the extra ones will have to be removed. It is better to cut them off with scissors so as not to damage the root of a neighboring plant.

For another method of planting, carton egg cartons are used. They are laid out tightly in the garden bed, watered abundantly with water. Humus is poured into each cell. Seeds are laid out in 2 pieces and covered with earth. After emergence, excess shoots are removed.

There is no need to cut out the bottom in the cells. Under the influence of moisture, it quickly decomposes and allows the root to grow freely. At first, the boxes will serve as mulch and reduce the need for weeding.

Output

If it is not possible to constantly be on the site and water the beds with planted carrots in anticipation of germination, it is better to prepare the seeds and germinate them. This will speed up the sprouting time and increase seed germination several times.

To avoid injury to the roots during thinning, you can use one of the above methods. This will allow you to get even, large root crops without flaws and deformation.