Carrot late Tinga

Daucus carota - Tinga

We all know it, we all love its taste, and it's one of the most commonly used root vegetables in the kitchen. Yes, we're talking about carrots. They originate from southern Asia, the area of today's Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran. Carrots are biennial plants 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 undomesticated form with white roots) and cultivated carrot (which includes all carrot varieties grown today). Cultivated carrots have 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 into - BABY CARROTS (finer early carrots, shorter with a rounder root), MINI BABY CARROTS (young early baby carrots, characterized by a delicate taste and crisp texture), and CLASSIC CARROTS (late type, with a sweet smooth root of semi-long shape and pointed tip).

But that's not all. Our beloved carrots can also be divided according to the root shape for which we grow them. For example, the Berlikum type has larger cylindrical roots with a 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 a wide and flat end. It's 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 stores. And finally, the Chantenay type is a carrot with shorter, rather conical roots. It's suitable for direct consumption, drying, and other types of processing.

Carrots have a high content of minerals. They also have high levels of potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, as well as 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 belong to very undemanding vegetables. You can also grow them in containers, for example on a terrace!

How to Grow Carrots

• Requires a sunny location. Regularly loosen and water the beds. Definitely don't overwater, as this could destroy the entire crop. Carrots are cool-season plants that thrive best at temperatures around 16°C. We prevent greening of the root tops by hilling soil around the plants.

• Freshly fertilized soil is unsuitable for planting. We sow seeds in the bed when frosts have passed. The daily temperature should average at least 7°C (ideal carrot growing is at daily temperatures around 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 apart. 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 area with well-aged 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 a side dressing. During the growing season, we fertilize with NPK fertilizer with lower nitrogen content and higher potassium content. Don't use manure. Carrots react to this type of fertilization by cracking.

• Black rot of carrots manifests in germinating plants by darkening, thinning, and root collar rot, and leaf withering. During vegetation, this disease doesn't show much on roots. Dark, dry, sunken spots appear on affected roots. We protect with Dithane DG Neotec.

  Alternaria leaf blight of carrots manifests during vegetation and spreads among plants by wind and rain through conidia that form on affected leaves. On the oldest leaves, one to two millimeter yellow-brown spots with lighter edges appear. The spots gradually enlarge, merge, and darken. In later stages, leaves are completely dark and dead. We protect with Ortiva.

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

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

  Root-knot nematode damage deforms carrot roots and creates excessive lateral rootlets. Sowing marigolds can significantly 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 protect against powdery mildew of umbellifers 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 can carefully use a fork so as not to damage the plant roots.