When is the right time to plant carrots
Today's experience sharing: When is the right time to plant carrots and share the best planting time for cultivating small experiences with radishes. Let's learn about it together.
Carrots are annual or biennial herbaceous plants of the Apiaceae family and Daucus genus. Also known as red carrots, clove carrots, foreign carrots, and golden bamboo shoots. Carrots are adaptable, have few pests and diseases, are easy to cultivate, have high yields, are suitable for storage and transportation, and are one of the main vegetables in winter.
Carrots are semi-cold-tolerant vegetables. The carrot root system is well-developed and deeply distributed, capable of utilizing deep soil moisture. The soil moisture requirement is between 60-70%, making it the most drought-resistant vegetable among root vegetables. It is best to plant carrots in loose and well-ventilated loamy or sandy loam soil, choosing deep, fertile, and well-draining soil. Carrots are divided into red-skinned and yellow-skinned types according to the color of the flesh.
I. Carrot Planting Time
Planting carrots too early can lead to bolting, resulting in only lush carrot leaves and flowers without the desired thick, tender, crisp, and sweet carrot roots. If planted too late, it will affect yield, with small and poor-quality radishes, which is a serious consideration.
The general sowing time for spring carrots is from mid-March to the end of April. The sowing time for carrots in summer and autumn is generally from July to August. In the southern regions, it is usually sown from the first ten days of July to the end of August and harvested in the late December. In the northern regions, spring sowing is adopted.
II. Carrot Cultivation Techniques
1. Land preparation and fertilization
Choose sandy loam soil with thick layers, good drainage, few weeds, and loose soil. Deeply plow the land, apply 1000-1500 kg of decomposed organic fertilizer, 100-200 kg of wood ash, and 8-10 kg of calcium superphosphate per mu. Turn the fertilizer into the soil, level the field, and create high ridges. The ridge width is usually 100-130 cm, and the height is 15-20 cm.
2. Sowing
Seed treatment
Due to the special structure of carrot seeds and the high temperature and heavy rainfall during the sowing season, it is difficult for the seeds to germinate and emerge. Therefore, the spiny hairs on the seeds need to be rubbed off before sowing to separate the two halves into single seeds for even sowing. Carrot seeds absorb water slowly and germinate late. Germination播种 can accelerate seedling emergence. The method is to soak the seeds without spiny hairs in 40°C warm water for 2 hours, then take them out and place them in a room at 20-25°C for germination, maintaining suitable humidity and regularly turning them to keep the temperature and humidity even. When most of the seeds have shown radicles, sowing can proceed.
Sowing method
During the hot season, you can add 2-5% of Pak Choi to the seeds to provide shade for the emerging carrot seedlings. First, sprinkle a dilute solution of human or animal urine on the prepared seedbed to increase soil moisture. After the urine has penetrated the soil, you can broadcast or sow the seeds at a row spacing of 15-20 cm. After sowing, cover with 1.5-2 cm of fine soil or drag the soil several times with bamboo branches, then cover with straw to cool and moisturize. Pak Choi will emerge first, providing shade for the carrot seedlings, and Pak Choi can be pulled out during thinning. Broadcast sowing requires 1-1.5 kg of seeds per mu, while row sowing requires about 0.7 kg.
3. Field management
Thinning and weeding: Carrot seeds generally take 7-10 days to germinate. After germination, promptly remove the covering straw. During the hot and rainy season, weeds grow fast, so remove them promptly during thinning. Thinning is generally done 2-3 times, the first time when there are 1-2 true leaves, thinning weak and poor seedlings, leaving a spacing of about 3 cm. The second time is done when there are 3-4 leaves, this time, if it is a final thinning, leave a spacing of 12-15 cm. If the final thinning is done in the third round, the spacing in the second round is about 6 cm. The third thinning and final thinning are carried out when the carrot seedlings have 4-5 leaves.
Water and fertilizer management: Since the germination period of carrot seeds coincides with the hot summer season, to ensure uniform seedlings, it is necessary to keep the soil moist, with a soil moisture content of 60-80% being suitable. When the leaves are growing vigorously, water should be controlled to prevent lodging. During the expansion stage of the carrot, pay attention to watering to promote rapid expansion of the carrot root. The fertilization of carrots focuses on base fertilizer, with topdressing generally done 2-3 times, using decomposed human or animal urine or chemical fertilizers. The first topdressing is done when there are 3-4 leaves, and the second after thinning. Carrots are very sensitive to fertilizers, so avoid using high-concentration fertilizers.
Preventing early bolting of carrots: When the flesh root of carrots has not yet reached the mature edible stage and encounters temperatures of 1-5°C and more than 12 hours of long-daylight, it can meet the requirements for the vernalization of carrots, causing early bolting and making the carrots lose their edible value. This is often caused by improper variety selection, mixed varieties, unsuitable sowing time, and poor field management. The key to preventing early bolting of carrots is to avoid conditions that induce vernalization during the vegetative growth period of carrots. Choose pure and suitable varieties, select the appropriate sowing time, and strengthen field management to promote leaf growth.
Preventing carrot root cracking and forking: The main reason for carrot cracking is uneven soil moisture supply during the growing period. The preventive method is to water early in the growth period, especially during dry weather, and water evenly during the middle and late stages of flesh expansion. Carrot forking is caused by shallow soil tillage layers, hard soil, or obstacles such as stones and tree roots in the soil that hinder the growth of the flesh root. The preventive method is to deeply plow the land and remove hard debris during land preparation. Avoid using fresh manure and plant densely.
4. Disease and pest control
Carrots have fewer diseases than other vegetables but can sometimes suffer from black leaf blight and decay. Black leaf blight is often caused by dry weather, so it is important to strengthen water and fertilizer management in the field and ensure healthy plants to reduce the incidence. If diseased plants are found, remove them promptly and spray Bordeaux mixture to prevent the spread. Decay occurs mostly in high-temperature and rainy seasons, manifested by root rot and yellowing wilt. Practice reasonable crop rotation, fully expose the soil to the sun, remove diseased plants, and消毒 with lime to prevent the spread.
Pest damage to carrots occurs in the seedling stage with the larvae of the cutworm. If found, spray with a 90% diazinon solution (1000 times dilution), 50% dichlorvos solution (800-1000 times dilution), or 50% phoxim solution (2000-2500 times dilution) for control.
5. Harvesting
The harvesting period of carrots varies by variety. Harvesting can take place when the heart leaves of the carrot plant turn yellow-green and the outer leaves show slight yellowing. Since the carrot taproot is large, when cracks appear on the ground surface or the root head is slightly exposed, harvesting can proceed.
6. Seed saving
The method of saving carrot seeds is to select carrots with the characteristics of the original variety, few leaves, small root heads, neat shape, no forking, and smooth skin at harvest. Cut off more than one-third of the carrot root and select those with small piths for seed-saving, trimming the above-ground leaves to leave only the petioles for planting, with a row spacing and plant spacing of 50 cm. To prevent hybridization with other varieties and wild carrots, isolate them by 2000 meters. Before planting, apply 1000 kg of decomposed manure as a base fertilizer per mu. Carrots have a strong branching ability and must be pruned, leaving the main stem and 4-5 lateral branches, removing the rest to ensure uniform seed maturity. Generally, mature seeds are harvested from the end of June. Note that if the carrot root is not cut off by more than one-third and re-planted, the seeds produced will be difficult to grow flesh roots, quickly bloom, and result in no flesh roots, which we call "full garden flowers."
The above introduction about when is the right time to plant carrots and sharing the best planting time for radishes is for everyone to learn and understand!