Carrot sowing under winter: basic rules

Sowing carrots under winter has a number of obvious advantages compared to planting seeds in the spring. Firstly, it is possible to collect an early crop - on average, vegetables planted in autumn, ripen 2-3 weeks earlier. A young carrot is a real storehouse of vitamins and useful fiber. In addition, the freshly ripped carrots are delicious and juicy, so you do not even need to cook it. The whole family and even small children, who are usually very picky in food, are happy to absorb this root vegetable in huge quantities. Secondly, sowing under winter carrots relieves of the need to do this work in the spring. During the beginning of the garden season, you have to deal with a lot of cases, so planted beds in autumn will partially facilitate this period. You still praise yourself for such forethought. In addition, in autumn there is much more free time, so you can do everything slowly and according to all the rules. Thirdly, by collecting an early harvest, you release the place for other early ripening cultures, for example, radish, greens, salads or spicy herbs. Thus, you can get two crops per season from one area.

Place of sowing

Carrot sowing for the winter should be made on the piece of land that is the first to be freed from snow. This culture prefers loose and fertile soils, weakly acidic or neutral. The plot is desirable to choose a horizontal (it does not stagnate melt water) and protected from the wind. So the seeds will not be blown out and washed. Preferably, on a selected place previously grown onions, potatoes or cabbage - this is the best predecessors.

Sowing time carrots

Here it is necessary to be guided by the climatic conditions in your region. The most important rule when choosing the planting period is that the seeds should not germinate before the cold starts. If the autumn is warm and sprouts will sprout on the bed, then the early harvest will have to be forgotten.

Best grades

For autumn planting, it is best to choose seeds of special varieties of carrots - cold-resistant, early-ripening or mid-ripening. The most common varieties:

• Nantes-4. The aging period is 60 days. Can grow on different soils. Roots are delicious and juicy.
• Vitamin-6. This variety contains a large amount of carotene. The pulp is juicy and sweet. Terms of maturation are minimal, high yields.
• Moscow winter. This variety is traditionally preferred by most gardeners in the central part of Russia.
• Shantane-2461. Very unpretentious variety, well tolerates cooling and lack of the necessary amount of water.

Landing

Sowing carrots for the winter should begin with the preparation of the soil. It needs to be digged, loosened and fertilized. The introduction of sawdust into the soil is welcome. The grooves need to be made deeper than in the spring planting, about 4-6 cm. The interval between the rows can be left the same as usual, that is 20 cm, but the number of seeds should be increased, since the germination will be lower. Then the bed is covered with a film or other material, later it is covered with snow.

And the last rule: carrots can not be sown for winter on soils that were fertilized with fresh organic fertilizers this year or a year earlier. Such feeding will only damage root crops, and the harvest will not meet your expectations.