When to plant carrots before winter for storage: sowing dates and care

Some gardeners are fond of planting early vegetables. Their main advantage is that the first fruits appear at the moment when they are strongly wanted. This is one of the main reasons why carrots are planted before winter. Winter sowing of carrots accelerates the ripening of fruits by several weeks and because of this they ripen earlier than other varieties. Also, such a planting simplifies spring work several times, since it will no longer be necessary to spend time preparing a garden.

People who have never planted vegetables should start with carrots. However, before that, you need to figure out when to sow carrots before winter and how to do it.

When to plant

Not all gardeners know when to plant carrots before winter. This work must be carried out under certain conditions. The timing of sowing carrots depends on the weather and climate. This must be done after a cold snap. At the same time, the average temperature should be about 1-2 degrees Celsius.

Many beginners make the same mistake of planting vegetables before the cold weather hits. This leads to the fact that the first seedlings begin to sprout in the fall. Sprouted young seedlings will quickly die when the air temperature approaches zero degrees.

Carrots for winter storage are planted in the summer. Thus, it is possible to harvest the root crop before the onset of severe cold weather. However, before sowing carrots for winter storage in summer, it is also necessary to study the climate in which vegetables will be grown.

Planting carrots in winter

Planting carrots for the winter is carried out in several stages.

Choosing a seat

First you need to determine the best places to grow carrots. Young bushes need good light, so they should be grown in areas that are well lit throughout the day. If there is too little light, then the bush will begin to stretch upwards and because of this, the fruit will develop worse.

When choosing a site, it is necessary to pay attention to the features of the soil.

Loamy and sandy loamy soils are suitable for carrots, which have a deep arable layer. When planting a plant on compacted soils, serious problems with root crops appear. They grow worse and become irregular.

Also, the choice of a suitable site may be influenced by what was previously grown on it.Planting carrots in the fall should be carried out in places where pumpkin, potatoes, cucumbers and cabbage used to grow. You can not plant it after growing peas and parsley. Some argue that even after carrots, it cannot be planted. You need to plant it again in the same place in a few years.

Choice variety

It is recommended to decide in advance which variety of carrots is better to plant before winter. For this, early and mid-early tomatoes are excellent, which include Evpator, Nantes, Dobrun and Vitamin tomato. In this case, you should not purchase seeds fixed on a tape. For this type of planting, it is better to use regular planting material.

Seed preparation

Before growing carrots, seeds should be pre-treated. Only good seeds can give a large amount of harvest.

To begin with, a calibration is carried out, with the help of which the best seeds will be selected.Performing this procedure is quite simple. To do this, a saline solution prepared from a liter of water and one hundred grams of s alt is poured into a small jar. All the seed that will be used for planting is poured into it. Within a few minutes, those seeds that cannot be planted should float to the surface. They need to be picked up and thrown away immediately. All other seeds are dried and prepared for planting.

Seed is sometimes treated to improve the germination of young seedlings. To do this, use special mixtures made from boric acid and vitriol. Some gardeners use other processing methods. For example, seeds can simply be soaked in water. To do this, a layer of pre-moistened cloth is placed on a small container, on which seeds should be placed. They stay there all night.

Instead of water, you can use a solution of potassium permanganate. To do this, the seeds are placed in a liquid for 30 minutes, after which they must be washed with water. Then they are placed in an ash solution for a day.

The heat treatment method is used to disinfect seeds. It must be used very carefully, as it can damage the seeds. Carrot seeds do not cope very well with high temperatures, so they cannot be heated too much during processing. They are soaked for 40 minutes in water heated to 40 degrees. This is enough to destroy pathogens.

Soil preparation

It is necessary to prepare the beds in advance. First, the soil is dug up and loosened. Then small grooves are made, the depth of which should not exceed three centimeters. However, before that, it is recommended to fertilize the site. The choice of suitable fertilizers depends on the type of soil:

1. Peat soil. To fertilize such soil, half a kilogram of river sand, five kilograms of manure and a bucket of earth are used. All this is thoroughly mixed, after which several grams of superphosphate, sodium nitrate and urea are added to the soil.After that, the bed is dug up and watered.
2. Clay soil. In this case, several kilograms of peat and a bucket of sand will have to be added to the soil. Some gardeners add a little humus. You can also use mineral fertilizers. A tablespoon of nitrophoska and superphosphate is added to the soil.
3. Loamy soil. Such soil is quite light, as it consists of sand and clay. It is fertilized in the same way as clay soil. However, in this case, you can refuse to add river sand.
4. Sandy ground. A mixture prepared from two buckets of soddy soil, a tablespoon of Agricola-4 and a bucket of humus is applied as a fertilizer.

Disembarkation

Carrot seeds are planted after the soil has frozen ten centimeters. Some prefer to plant them after the first snow falls.In this case, you will first have to clear the area of snow. After that, several seeds are added to each well. It is not recommended to place them too close to each other. The optimal distance should be about 5-7 centimeters. We sow only dry seeds in frozen soil and sprinkle them with dry soil. Then the beds are sprinkled with a layer of organic matter, compacted and covered with snow again.

Care

If vegetables were planted before the first snow fell, they will have to be covered with pine branches. In the spring, the shelter is removed so that the snow can melt faster. After that, special metal arcs are installed near each bed. A plastic film or any other polyethylene cover is stretched over them. This is done to speed up the germination of carrot bushes.

Planting in regions

In different regions of the country, the process of planting carrots may be slightly different.

Moscow Region

It is recommended to plant winter varieties of carrots in the Moscow region towards the end of autumn. During this period, the soil will freeze a little, and its temperature will be 3-5 degrees. Sometimes there may be slight frosts. However, there is nothing to worry about, since under these conditions the sown carrots will have time to swell before the onset of severe frosts.

In the Moscow region, it is recommended to plant Callisto, Incomparable and Losinoostrovskaya carrots. Seeds are planted at a depth of 5-8 centimeters.

Ural

To properly sow carrots in the Urals, it is recommended to familiarize yourself with the features of this process. To do this, it is recommended to buy such varieties: Incomparable, Altai and Moscow winter. The landing process is very similar to landing in the Moscow region. However, in the Urals, planted plants are covered with spruce branches or mulch.

Siberia

Not everyone knows whether it is possible to plant carrots in Siberia.For the cultivation of planted carrots in this region, it is necessary to use special varieties. For this, the Autumn Queen, Diana, Nastena and Shantane are perfect. It is recommended to plant seeds in early or mid-October.

Some gardeners plant them in the first half of November. Such planting dates are the most optimal.

A site with soil that does not contain too much clay is selected for planting. The place where the carrot bushes will grow should not be blown by the wind. It is recommended to plant carrots on small hills, as snow melts faster on them.

Seeds are sown to a depth of about two centimeters. The interval between each hole is 20 centimeters. Having planted all the seeds, the beds are covered with a film and grown under it until the end of winter.

Conclusion

It is quite simple to sow carrots before winter, so even gardeners without experience can cope with this work. To do this, it is enough to decide on the timing of planting and get acquainted with how the planting and care of the plant goes.

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