When and how to plant carrots

Carrots are rich in nutrients and can be eaten as fruit or vegetable. They have extremely high edible and medicinal value. They are known as "little ginseng" and are deeply loved by people. Carrots have a strong ability to adapt to the environment and are grown in all parts of the north and south. There is an old saying that goes "Radishes are planted in the first dog days, mustard seeds in the second dog days, and cabbages in the third dog days". The "radish" here refers to carrots, whose seedlings can withstand high temperatures above 27°C. Learn below when and how to plant carrots.

1. Planting time

When planting carrots in spring, the sowing time needs to be strictly controlled. Growers can arrange sowing time according to their own production capacity and actual needs. For planting in a greenhouse , sowing is usually carried out from late January to mid-to-early February, and harvesting begins in early April; if it is planted in the open field with mulch covering, sowing is carried out from mid-to-late March to early April, and the harvest period is from mid-to-late May to early June; if a small arch greenhouse with mulch covering is used, the sowing time can be advanced to mid-to-early March.

Carrots are planted in autumn, usually sown in mid-to-late July and harvested in mid-September. If the climatic conditions are favorable, high yields of carrots of good quality can be obtained. Carrots planted in summer and autumn are sown from May to June and harvested from July to August.

2. How to plant carrots

1. Site selection

When choosing a planting site, in addition to ensuring that the environment is pollution-free, you should also choose fertile, loose, well-drained neutral or slightly acidic sandy loam or loam. Before planting, the land should be plowed to a depth of 30 cm and harrowed. The ideal planting site should be located on high ground, well-drained, deep soil, loose texture, and high organic matter content silt loam or sandy loam.

2. Tillage

The tillage depth should be controlled at 25-30 cm, and it is best to use animal power for deep tillage before winter. Before sowing, till the soil again and apply base fertilizer. The amount of base fertilizer is 3,000 kg of decomposed farmyard manure, 40-50 kg of potassium sulfate compound fertilizer , 50 kg of calcium magnesium phosphate fertilizer and 25 kg of potassium sulfate per mu, which should be evenly buried in the soil layer 6 cm below the ground surface. The ridge should be 110-130 cm wide, 30 cm high and have a slight turtle back shape.

3. Weeding

Thin out the carrots when they have 4-5 leaves, leaving 60 plants per square meter (row spacing 15 cm, plant spacing 11-12 cm). If there are many monocotyledonous weeds, you can use 20 ml of 10.8% grass-repellent mixed with 20 kg of water for spray chemical weed control.

4. Fertilization and irrigation

After the carrots emerge, remove the mulch. In hot and dry weather, seedlings are prone to water shortage and need to be watered in the early morning or evening or irrigated in the ditch to keep the soil moist and maintain 70% of the field water holding capacity. About 20 days later, when the plant has 7-8 leaves, apply 10 kg of potassium sulfate compound fertilizer and 5 kg of potassium sulfate per mu in combination with watering.

The main fertilizer elements required by carrots include macroelements (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium), secondary elements (calcium, silicon) and trace elements (boron, zinc, molybdenum, magnesium, manganese, iron).

5. Soil cultivation

In order to maintain uniform skin color for exported carrots and avoid green heads, row sowing should be adopted so that soil can be built up during the fleshy root expansion period.

6. Harvest

When the heart leaves of most plants turn yellow-green and the outer leaves turn yellow, it indicates that the carrots have reached physiological maturity. Manual or mechanical harvesting can be carried out at this time. After harvesting, cut off the green tops, gently scrape off the soil, select carrots without forked roots, cracked roots, diseased and insect-infested roots and with a single root weight of more than 70 grams, and pack them in bags for sale.

7. Storage

Since carrots are perishable and seasonal, good storage methods or utilization methods are needed to maximize their value. Commonly used storage methods include ditch storage and cellar storage, and kiln storage is currently the most commonly used method in production. The depth of the pit should be greater than the depth of the permafrost layer, generally 2 meters deep and 3 meters wide, with no limit on length. The cellar cover can be made of straw or wood, covered with 40 cm thick soil. The bagged carrots are stacked into long piles 1 meter high, the cellar opening is covered and ventilation holes are left. The temperature in the cellar should be maintained at 1-3℃ and the humidity at 95%. The sale can be made during the spring thaw.

The above is an introduction to the planting time and methods of carrots. As long as you master the time and methods, it is relatively simple to increase the yield.