If you do not have a garden and a summer residence, but there is a desire to grow some kind of vegetable crop at home, then pay attention to carrots. Growing this bright, juicy and delicious root vegetable in containers is ideal for balconies and outdoor patios.
And now a question for older readers:
What did the young pioneers grow in the winter on the windowsills of the Khrushchev houses? Right. Onion and carrot greens. The roots of the bulb were immersed in a half-liter jar of water, and a week later a bush of green onion leaves flaunted on the windowsill, which were used to decorate various dishes. And the top cut off from the carrot was placed on a saucer with water, and the leaves that soon grew up simply delighted the eye with summer greenery.
Growing vegetables at home is practiced on many continents, including Western countries. A prime example of home gardening-cropping is Irish writer (and longtime gardener) L.M. Reid’s article, How to Grow Carrots in Containers and Bags on Your Patio, published on the DenGarden website.
Carrots grow in a garden bag in a backyard in Ireland. By the way, the Irish bag is very reminiscent of the accessory of our βshuttlesβ and βshuttle womenβ of the 90s. – a shopping bag made of polypropylene, which is convenient to carry with a “kravchuchka”.
GROWING CARROTS IN A SMALL GARDEN OR PATIO
You can use old shopping bags or discarded containers to grow carrots. Last year I grew my carrots in special garden plastic containers and the harvest was excellent! I managed to place four containers on the patio where there was enough sun.
A bag of carrot seeds I bought a few years ago is called Burpee Short’n Sweet Carrot (3000 tiny seeds per bag). They produce excellent yields and are ideal for container gardening, and one bag will last you for several years.
SOIL PREPARATION
Since carrots are root crops, it is important to properly prepare the soil. If you get this part wrong, your carrots will be doomed before you even plant the seeds.
1. The soil should be loose and sandy, without wet heavy clay or stones.
2. Carrot seeds should germinate in the soil without encountering resistance.
3. If you can afford it, freshly purchased garden compost mix is ββthe best potting soil.
4. Fill the containers with soil, leaving 25 cm free at the top. This should protect your carrots from the carrot fly as soon as the first shoots begin to appear.
WHEN TO PLANT CARROT SEEDS
In Ireland, early-ripening carrots are sown in the spring, in March or April. Depending on the weather, wait until the last frost has passed because carrot seeds will not germinate in cold soil.
1. Sow the seeds in one container first and then wait two weeks before sowing the next one. This will give you the opportunity to harvest carrots in a checkerboard pattern.
2. If you have room to spare, after sowing early harvest carrots, you can continue to sow them at two-week intervals until the end of summer. However, the main carrot should be sown only until mid-summer.
HOW TO SOW CARROT SEEDS
Water the soil in the containers well the day before you plan to sow the seeds. Carrot seeds are very small, so try to sow them as evenly as possible. So:
1. Sow seeds in small rows in containers. In this case, the seeds should be planted at a depth of about 5 mm.
2. Cover them with a thin layer of soil and tamp it down by hand.
3. Water the soil with a small amount of water from a watering can.
HOW TO CARE FOR YOUR SEEDS
It will take two to three weeks before you see the first carrot shoots in your containers. If the spring has dragged on, then your expectation may take longer. As soon as the seedlings reach a height of about 3 cm, they should be thinned out.
It is best that the plants of future adult carrots be 5 cm apart after thinning. I usually replant the seedlings removed during thinning into a free container, while most of them continue to grow and develop normally.
HOW TO CUT CARROTS CORRECTLY
Thinning carrots should only be done in the evening! This will help you avoid being attacked by the carrot fly. All shoots removed during thinning should be immediately collected and buried in a compost heap or thrown into a trash can with a lid. It is the smell of the leaves that attracts the carrot fly. Firm the soil around the remaining carrots and water lightly.
HOW TO PROTECT CARROT CROPS
The carrot fly and its caterpillars are the enemy of your carrots, so once your carrot plantation is truly green (it has lots of juicy green leaves), you need to take some steps to protect it. Containers with carrots can be fenced with a light fence or shields.
You can also use a net attached to the wall that can be thrown over the container and plants. Even if the carrot fly caterpillars damage the seedlings growing behind the shields, it will be extremely difficult for the flies to overcome the net, and the carrots will grow to maturity.
When orange heads appear above the “plantation”, cover them immediately with soil, otherwise they will turn yellow.
Photo How to grow carrots in bags in a small garden
WHEN TO HARVEST CARROTS
Typically, carrots are ready for harvest 50 to 60 days after planting seeds if they are young carrots. If your seed variety is a mature carrot, this will take about 75 days.
Early varieties of carrots can be harvested as needed for use in salads or eaten raw from early summer. Such carrots will reach final maturity by the end of summer.
The carrots of the main crop will be ready for harvesting in early autumn. When the outer leaves of a carrot begin to wilt and the inner leaves curl up, it is a sign that growth has come to an end. It’s harvest time.
1. Always harvest carrots on a dry day and preferably in the evening. Use a hand garden fork and carefully loosen the soil around the root crops.
2. Cut off all the foliage at once, and store the carrots in a large box in a dry place.
3. Remove excess dirt from root vegetables, but do not wash them until they are needed for cooking.
Photo How to grow carrots in containers
HOW TO MAKE A CARROT AND CABBAGE SALAD
Once your carrots are the right size, you can make a delicious homemade salad by adding cabbage.
Ingredients:
2 medium sized carrots
ΒΌ head of cabbage
2 stalks of green onions,
mayonnaise.
Preparation:
1. Peel the carrots and cut into small cubes.
2. Cut the cabbage into small pieces
3. Peel the green onions, cut off the root tips and cut into small pieces.
4. Take a handful of each ingredient and mix everything.
5. Add a dessert spoon of mayonnaise and mix well.
8. Leave the salad in the refrigerator for an hour before serving for optimal flavor.
You can make kale salad and put it in a sealed container in the refrigerator. Don’t add mayonnaise until it’s dinner time.
CARROT JUICE
If you have a juicer, then raw carrots and apples mixed together make a very good drink. Such drinks are cheap enough to buy, but they are worth it to make them yourself. If you have children, they may appreciate the combination of fruits and vegetables in different drinks.
