How to thin out carrots?

If it seemed to a beginner who was just starting to master gardening skills that, having planted any crop, it was enough just to water it, feed it and not forget to pull out the weeds, then he was mistaken. One of the main measures is to plant carrots so that individual plants do not interfere with each other.

Thinning carrots is required when the gardener initially planted them too tightly, in tight rows. From the outside, it seems that the plants should have been taken away from each other, and this culture did not have to be thinned out. In reality, this procedure provides the following advantages.

• The more space (by area) for a particular plant, the larger a certain fruit will be.. The idea is that the shoots do not have to desperately fight for survival, they take exactly as much nutrients as they initially need, and widely, widely spread specimens will calmly take the resource that is abundant in the soil.
• Carrots, like many other crops, require good lighting.. The further the plants are planted, the less they shade each other.
• Away from each other, planted plants will no longer strive to become as tall as possible.. This will have a beneficial effect on the mass gain of root crops.
• The procedure also allows identify sprouts that initially give a good harvest.
• Yield will double due to the same principle of the absence of a struggle for existence.

Growing season for carrots does not allow more than two thinning of this culture. This is necessary so that the roots of other plants are not damaged. The first procedure is performed after the appearance of two full-fledged leaves on grown seedlings. After planting the seeds, this session is done in a month and a half. Leave an interval of 2-3 cm between adjacent sprouts.

A month later, thinning is repeated. An indicator of the suitability of plants for thinning is the appearance of 6 full-fledged leaves. Depending on the region, the session is performed in June – for the southern regions, in July – for the middle and more northern ones.

There are several methods for carrying out the procedure. All of them are considered from the standpoint of growing carrots in the open field. In the greenhouse, the recommendations for thinning carrots generally remain the same.

Use a fork or a small shovel. The task is to completely pull out the carrot shoots from the soil without damaging the plants themselves. Then they are transferred to the free space of the site. The classical method of thinning plants is dangerous by possible damage to neighboring plants. It is not always possible to remove (and transfer) the entire bush – the lateral roots reliably grow into the ground. The lower part with a piece of the main root will remain in the soil, which will eventually lead to a too short root crop. A piece of root that comes off when the plant is removed will not sprout again and will die.

The most irrational method is the use of scissors. First of all, the cut tops cannot re-sprout, even when the root remains in the ground: often these remnants of the plant are not viable. Neighboring plants with careless movements can also be hurt. Finally, the harvest can be completely lost. To eliminate unnecessary costs (in fact, up to half of the seeds are thrown away), adhere to the following methods.

• Do not buy extra seeds if there is not enough space on the plot for carrots. “Not annoying” is better than defusing – no need to do extra work.
• If the seeds remain, store them in a dark, tightly closed container, for example, in Aseptolin bottles (100 ml), in a dark, dry and cool place. They may come in handy if you live in the southern regions, and there is a greenhouse / conservatory for two or more crops per year.

Both of these rules will allow you not to thin out the carrot bed. Some gardeners use a knife when thinning carrot shoots – at a depth of 2,5 cm they cut the roots and take them out, however, the shortened main root is not viable, most of the sprouts do not take root.

Hair removal tweezers will help in cases where the hand does not fit between densely planted plants. The disadvantage is that refined movements are required, otherwise you can grab the wrong plant. Garden tweezers are equipped with cloves that “gnaw through” the shoots. Compared to pruning with sharp scissors and pruners, tearing off the shoots leads to the formation of torn edges, which is fraught with the penetration of infection into the soil itself and into the pruned plant.

Thinning carrots helps to get rid of weak, not fully developed seedlings – transplanting such a biomaterial is not advisable, the result is not worth the work done. This will give a good chance to get large root crops from their healthier counterparts.

Gardeners, most of whom are mostly practical owners, do not throw away the extracted carrot seedlings, but transplant them to another place. This can be done, for example, under an apple tree – the roots of fruit trees mostly go down, as deep as possible, which cannot be said about berry bushes, for example, raspberries. These sprouts are planted with the same indents in all directions as those remaining after thinning, in order to avoid repeating the procedure. The best way is, in order not to lose extra sprouts, as already noted, early planting of seeds or seedlings with the distance necessary for normal growth.

To reduce the cost of irrigating carrots, it is recommended to install a drip irrigation system in advance. One way or another, transplanted sprouts take root with difficulty. Even when the procedure is carried out correctly, with the removal of a clod of earth along with the roots of the plant, the sprout may wither, after which it will be impossible to save it.

Carrot transplantation is performed early in the morning – before sunrise. At this time, the air and soil temperatures are the lowest, and the vegetation processes are the slower, the colder it is. In addition, carrots have a pest – a carrot subspecies of a fly that feeds on the juice and tissues of root crops, green shoots of plants. Thinning too late in the time of day will lead to guaranteed attraction of a swarm of this insect, the presence of which is highly undesirable for a plant that has experienced shock during the “relocation”.

When removing excess plants, the soil must be leveled and tamped, if necessary, sprinkle it, especially after transplanting seedlings in clods of earth, extracted along with the roots. If the original soil level is not restored, then the half-exposed roots will receive too much air and wither. For respiration and vital activity, the roots must necessarily be well buried: the air is good for plants in moderation, oxygen and nitrogen must be absorbed from the soil in portions, sequentially. “Airing” the roots of carrots is fraught with wilted shoots, stopping the growth of transplanted and thinned sprouts and already grown plants, the threat of transferring the “harvest” period or its complete disruption this year. The layer of earth removed during digging will expose the layer below, which will dry it out, and the heat of the day, overheating, will come close to the roots of the carrot.

If you are not using drip irrigation, then install a sprinkler. Turn it on in the evening, at sunset or after sunset. Watering garden crops, including carrots, in this way during the heat, in the midday heat will lead to leaf burns: water droplets play the role of a kind of collecting lens, causing plants to burn.

The tops, which were not cut in time to a length of 8 cm, impair the survival of transplanted seedlings. A root that is not planted vertically also leads to a worsened survival rate of the transplanted seedling: the root crop can turn out to be small, of a non-standard shape. Dip the newly dug seedlings into a container of water. This will save you about half an hour – the plants will not wither immediately, but will last this time until you complete the preparation of the holes for them. The procedure is carried out on a specific day, it is forbidden to stretch it over time.

Do not neglect weeding carrot seedlings, especially when germinating it in a greenhouse. Weeds germinate much faster in contrast to the too slow sprouts of carrots. It is desirable to remove them manually – without a chopper or other tool, otherwise the carrot shoots will be accidentally mown. Weeds tend to suck everything out of the soil. In the struggle for survival, they are practically merciless, symbiosis will not work – you will simply lose your crop. Do not use kerosene, herbicides and pesticides for weeding weeds: they enter the soil, then into the root crops themselves, and then into the body of the summer resident.