Early carrot karotka 5m-300s

Daucus carota - Nantes 3

Everyone knows it, everyone loves its taste, and in the kitchen it's one of the most commonly used root vegetables. Yes, we're talking about carrots. They originate from southern Asia, the area of present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. Carrot is a biennial plant with pinnate leaves. The flowering stem can reach up to 1.5 m in height, the inflorescence forms a compound umbel with whitish flowers.

Carrots can be divided into two basic types - wild carrot (the original non-cultivated form with white root) and cultivated carrot (which includes all carrot varieties grown today). Cultivated carrot has a more robust root, whose color can be white, yellow, orange, red, purple or multicolored (the outside can be different from the inside).

According to sowing time, we distinguish carrots as - BABY CARROT (finer early carrot, shorter with a rounder root), YOUNG BABY CARROT (young early baby carrot, characterized by delicate taste and tender structure) and CLASSIC CARROT (late type, has a sweet smooth root of semi-long shape with pointed end).

But that's not all. We can also divide popular carrots according to root shape, for which we grow them. For example, the Berlikum type has larger cylindrical roots with blunt end. Carrots of this type are suitable for direct consumption, long-term storage, drying and further processing. Flakee is characterized by very long tapered roots with wide and flat end. Suitable for direct consumption, long-term storage, drying and other types of processing. Parisian has small radish-shaped roots. This type is suitable for direct consumption and processing. Nantes is the classic baby carrot we encounter in shops. And finally, the Chantenay type is a carrot with shorter, rather conical roots. Suitable for direct consumption, drying and other types of processing.

Carrots have a high content of minerals. They also have high content of potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, but also chlorine. They also contain numerous trace elements - boron, vanadium, iron, iodine, cobalt, copper, manganese, zinc. As is well known, carrots affect the quality of vision! They are a source of provitamin A – beta-carotene. They also contain some vitamin C and B vitamins.

The advantage of carrots is that they are very undemanding vegetables. You can also grow them in containers, perhaps on your terrace!

How to Grow Carrots

• Requires a sunny location. Loosen the beds regularly and water them. Definitely don't overwater, we could cause destruction to the entire crop. Carrots are cold-loving plants, they thrive best at temperatures around 16°C. We prevent greening of the root heads by hilling soil up to the plants.

• Freshly fertilized soil is unsuitable for planting. We sow seeds in beds when frosts have passed. Daily temperature should be on average at least 7°C (ideal carrot growing is at daily temperatures of about 16°C). We sow to a depth of 1 to 2 cm at a distance of about 15 cm. Emerging seedlings must be thinned to about 5 cm distance. We sow late carrot varieties in the same way from late spring to early summer.

• Carrots require thoroughly worked soil with sufficient nutrients and moisture. The soil should be light and fertile. Optimal pH is neutral to slightly alkaline. The soil should not contain clods and stones.

• Before loosening the soil, it's advisable to enrich the sowing site with well-matured compost. Before sowing, we incorporate 70g N, 30g P and 150g K into the soil. At the 3-5 leaf stage, we apply 20g N as side dressing. During vegetation, we fertilize with NPK fertilizer with lower nitrogen content and higher potassium proportion. Don't use manure. Carrots react to this type of fertilization by cracking.

• Black rot of carrot manifests on germinating plants by darkening, thinning and rot of the root collar and withering of leaves. During vegetation, this disease doesn't manifest much on roots. Dark, dry sunken spots appear on affected roots. We provide protection with Dithane DG Neotec.

  Leaf blight of carrot manifests during vegetation, spreading among plants by wind and rain through conidia that form on affected leaves. On the oldest leaves, one to two millimeter sized yellow-brown spots with lighter rim appear. Spots gradually enlarge, merge and darken. In later stage, leaves are completely dark and dead. We provide protection with Ortiva.

  Carrot fly shows on younger plants that yellow and die. On the root surface, especially in its upper third, tunnel-like feeding damage with fly larvae are visible from outside. Damaged plants rot during storage. Protection is not currently possible. It used to be carried out with Dursban 10 G.

  Soft rot of carrot is caused by improper storage of root vegetables in humid environment. Carrots turn into mushy, smelly mass. Before storage, we inspect carrots and clean them from soil residues.

  Root-knot nematodes cause carrot roots to become deformed and develop excessive amount of lateral rootlets. Sowing marigolds can greatly reduce nematode occurrence in soil. We also follow crop rotation.

  Powdery mildew manifests on all above-ground parts (leaves, petioles, stems, inflorescences and seeds) with whitish powdery coatings. We provide protection against powdery mildew of Apiaceae with Ortiva.

• We harvest early varieties from the 8th week after planting. Late varieties sometimes need up to 11 weeks. We harvest manually by pulling or we can carefully help with a fork so as not to damage the plant roots.