When to plant carrots in the winter for storage

Some gardeners are fond of planting early vegetables. Their main advantage is that the first fruits appear at the moment when you really want them. This is one of the main reasons why carrots are planted before winter. Sowing carrots in the winter accelerates the ripening of the fruits by several weeks and because of this they ripen earlier than other varieties. Also, such a planting several times simplifies spring work, since you will no longer need to spend time preparing the 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 performed under certain conditions. The timing of sowing carrots depends on the characteristics of the weather and climate. This should be done after a cold snap. In this case, the average temperature should be about 1-2 degrees Celsius.

Many beginners make the same mistake and plant their vegetables before the cold weather sets in. 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, you can collect the root crop before the onset of severe cold weather. However, before sowing carrots in summer for winter storage, it is also necessary to study the peculiarities of the climate in which the vegetables will be grown.

Planting carrots in winter

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

Seat selection

First you need to determine the best places where you should grow carrots... Young bushes need good lighting, 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 upward 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 loam soils, which have a deep arable layer, are suitable for carrots. When planting a plant on compacted soils, serious problems with root crops appear. They grow worse and take on an irregular shape.

Also, the choice of a suitable site can be influenced by what was grown on it earlier. Planting carrots in the fall should be carried out in places where pumpkin, potatoes, cucumbers and cabbage used to grow. You cannot plant it after growing peas and parsley. Some argue that you can't plant carrots even after carrots.It is necessary to re-plant it in the same place after a few years.

Variety selection

It is recommended to decide in advance which variety of carrots is better to plant before winter. Early and mid-early tomatoes are perfect for this, which include Eupator, Nantes, Dobrun and Vitamin Tomato. In this case, you should not purchase seeds attached to the tape. For this type of planting, it is better to use regular planting material.

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Seed preparation

Before growing carrots, you should pre-prepare the seeds. Only good seeds can give a large amount of harvest.

To begin with, a calibration is carried out, with which the best seeds will be selected. This procedure is quite simple. To do this, a saline solution prepared from a liter of water and one hundred grams of salt 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 must be taken away and discarded immediately. All other seeds are dried and prepared for planting.

The 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 as well. For example, the seeds can be simply soaked in water. For this, a layer of pre-moistened tissue is placed on a small container, on which the seeds should be placed. They are left there all night.

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

The heat treatment method is used to disinfect the seeds. It must be used very carefully, as it can damage the seeds. Carrot seeds do very poorly with high temperatures, so they should not be overheated 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 start fertilizing 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 with water.
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. This kind of 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 soil. As fertilizer, a mixture prepared from two buckets of sod land, a tablespoon of Agricola-4 and a bucket of humus is applied.

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Disembarkation

Carrot seeds are planted ten centimeters after the soil freezes. Some people prefer to plant them after the first snow falls. In this case, you 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 into the frozen soil and sprinkle them with dry soil. Then the beds are sprinkled with a layer of organic matter, compacted and again covered with snow.

Care

If the vegetables were planted before the first snow fell, then 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 wrap or any other polyethylene shelter is stretched over them. This is done to speed up the germination of the carrot bushes.

Landing in regions

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

Moscow suburbs

Plant winter crops carrot varieties in the Moscow region it is recommended 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 wrong with this, 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 to a depth of 5-8 centimeters.

Ural

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

Siberia

Not everyone knows if it is possible to plant carrots in Siberia. To grow planted carrots in this region, special varieties must be used. The Autumn Queen, Diana, Nastena and Shantane are perfect for this. It is recommended to plant seeds in early or mid-October.

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

For planting, an area with soil that does not contain too much clay is selected. The place where carrot bushes will grow should not be blown by the wind. It is recommended to plant carrots in low elevations, as the snow melts faster on them.

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

Conclusion

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