Growing carrots: See the best tips and succeed!

Selected as the vegetable of 2023, the carrot offers flavor, color and vitamins to the plate. Carrots can be grown in the ground, in a pot and in a pallet collar.

Carrot needs no introduction. The versatile kitchen perennial favorite contains, among other things, beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A, and is, on top of all that, a low-calorie option. So many good reasons to try growing carrots!

Of course, inexpensive carrots are also available in grocery stores, but the taste of home-grown vegetables is in a class of its own – and worth the long growing time and the work required to grow them.

If the traditional oblong orange option doesn’t excite you, you should check out different varieties. Available in a round shape and several colors: yellow, purple, red and white.

The taste of self-grown carrots is in a class of its own. You can start planting trees already in May.

Carrot cultivation starts in spring

You can start sowing trees early in May.

Add, for example, vegetable garden nutrient or chicken poo to the soil before sowing, because carrots grow best in nutrient-rich and humus-rich soil. In clay and stony soil, the roots can grow gnarled.

It is not recommended to use old seeds for sowing, because the seeds lose their germination during storage.

Sow the seeds about a centimeter deep. The recommended planting distance is five centimeters.

The seeds are small and difficult to sow evenly. Too many seeds often slip into the furrow, but the damage can be repaired over the course of the summer. As growth progresses, dense rows can always be thinned out to wider ones. Seeds are also sold in ready-made sowing strips.

The seeds germinate quite slowly, in about two weeks. To ensure germination, initially water the seed regularly.

It is recommended to cover the sowing with frosted gauze until harvesting. Gauze protects the crop from pests.

After planting, the densely growing carrot rows are thinned every five centimeters. The thinned carrots can be moved to another place to increase in size or eaten as mini carrots. The nuts are edible, and they make a great pesto.

Weed out and rake the weeds from between the rows so that they do not take over the vegetation and take nutrients and energy from the roots. Mullos can be covered with grass clippings, which retain moisture.

Carrot gnat and carrot fly as a problem

Protect the seed with gauze, which reduces the pest’s intruding visits. Among other things, the carrot stick and the carrot fly can become a problem.

• The carrot weevil absorbs nutrients from the leaves, which causes the leaves to become sugary and turn parsley-like. Carrot growth can stop, and the root becomes stunted. The beetles usually infest the plants until the beginning of August, but in the fall the gauzes can be removed without any worries.

• Carrot flies, on the other hand, lay eggs at the base of the plant, from which the hatched larvae dig into the furrows of the soil and the plant’s roots. Finally, the cocooned larva remains in the ground to overwinter. Crop rotation is a good preventive measure against pests.

Increase the crop as needed, because the carrot stays in the ground well into the fall.

Read also on Anna.fi: Carrot food is a safe and affordable choice: the vegetable of the year tastes good in both salty and sweet delicacies

Growing carrots culminates in harvesting

Carrots are at their best when you can pick them up straight from the ground and enjoy them fresh. The vegetable only needs to be rinsed from the soil before eating.

Sweet and graceful summer carrots can be tasted already from the end of July to August.

Increase the crop as needed, because the carrot stays in the ground well into the fall.

In autumn, during the first frosts, the row of carrots should be protected with frost gauze, which will help preserve the crop, and you can also use blankets.

Pull the rest of the carrots out of the ground at the latest when the weather gets permanently cold. Carrots can be raised until freezing.

After lifting, store the carrots in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator or in the basement, where you can submerge them in a container of sand. The sand helps the carrots stay crunchy and they don’t get crunchy. Even shriveled carrots can still be used in cooking

It’s okay if the carrots stay in the ground for the winter. They will be a joy for the next year as well. You can also raise the carrot crop in the spring or let the carrots bloom.

The two-year-old carrot delights with beautiful blooms in the second year. The flowers resemble the flowers of ornamental carrots grown as a seasonal plant. They can be used to decorate flower bouquets.

The story was published in Maalla-lede on 5/23.