The best ways and life hacks on how to plant carrots so as not to thin out

When growing carrots, the only thing that upsets novice gardeners is the need for frequent thinning of the crop. Vegetable seeds are too small - it is very troublesome to place them in the furrow at the right distance, which leads to thickening of the plantings. In order not to spend a lot of time thinning dense seedlings and getting a rich harvest of root crops, use the life hacks of experienced gardeners. The best of them are collected in our article.

Why do you have to thin out carrots after planting

It is known that carrots, like other umbrella plants (dill, parsley, celery), are considered a tug-like culture. Therefore, many people plant seeds as thickly as possible to ensure they get enough seedlings. In this case, the plantings are too thickened, requiring weeding.

Why do it

Dense seedlings are recommended to thin out on time, since the plants will interfere with each other during growth, fighting for useful nutrients, trace elements and the space required for the growth of the root crop. As a result, carrots grow small, pale and savory.

Is it necessary

Weak sprouts are not able to give a good harvest and will only thicken the planting. To prevent this from happening, they are removed as the carrots grow.

In addition, in excessively thickened seedlings, fungal diseases often develop, pests appear, as a result of which deformed and diseased roots are formed. This is another reason for thinning culture.

How to plant carrots so as not to thin out

Experienced summer residents use many simple and effective ways of planting carrots without thinning and at the same time have consistently high yields.

Mixing seeds with sand

This method is one of the easiest to perform, does not require special preparation and is especially effective for large planting areas.

To evenly plant carrots take:

1. A bucket of dry river sand and two tablespoons of seeds.
2. Mix thoroughly so that the seed is evenly distributed over the sand.
3. Spread into previously prepared furrows.
4. Then the beds are well watered and sprinkled with a small layer of soil.

With this sowing, the sprouts appear at a sufficient distance from each other, so they do not have to be thinned out, and by the fall, large and even carrots will be born.

Planting seeds on tape

Using tape planting material for carrots is another easy way to get a rich root crop.

Today, seeding belts are sold in many seed shops. It's easy to recognize them - a roll of paper, neatly twisted ribbon is sealed on cardboard under transparent plastic. It is not wide, but long. On it at the standard distance necessary for optimal development of each root crop, the seeds are fixed with a special composition.

The landing technology is simple:

1. The bed is dug in advance, the lumps are broken, leveled.
2. Immediately before sowing, furrows are laid with a depth of 2 cm and a tape with grains is laid in them.
3. A small amount of water is watered and covered with earth.
4. Very easily leveled and watered again - carefully so as not to wash the soil off the tape.
5. The bed is covered with polyethylene to prevent moisture evaporation.

After 7-10 days, the first shoots appear, after which the shelter is removed.

Important! For this sowing method, it is advisable to choose clear weather. In rainy or after rain on damp ground, the paper will soften and tear.

Seed Paste

Uniform sowing of the culture is achieved by mixing carrot grains with ordinary paste, which is brewed (1 spoon of starch or flour per 1 liter of water), cooled to + 35⁰C and seeds prepared for planting are poured. Then they are thoroughly mixed, after which the grains in the paste are distributed evenly, do not stick together and are clearly visible during sowing.

The composition is poured into a plastic bottle and shaken well, closed with a lid with a small hole and slowly, poured into the furrows in a thin stream. Then sprinkle with soil and watered. Instead of a bottle, some use a confectionery syringe with a large nozzle.

Reference. To enrich the composition, some gardeners first apply a small amount of complex fertilizer to warm water.

This method allows you to easily and quickly distribute the seeds along the furrow and ensure that the seedlings will be uniform and not thick. In addition, the paste with fertilizer serves as an excellent breeding ground for seeds, in which they will grow much faster.

Seeder application

In specialized stores, a large number of special devices are presented for convenient planting of carrot seeds.... Such structures (seeders) allow one or more grains to be placed in the ground (depending on the setting) at an equal distance from each other. There are both large seeders for large-scale crops and small manual ones designed for several beds.

The structure consists of a seed container and two wheels. On the front there are thorns that leave indentations in the soil. Several grains fall out of the hole in the container. The second wheel rambles them. Such devices provide the most uniform sowing and are easy to operate.

Besides:

• the furrows are smooth, so there is no need to mark the rows;
• seeds fall at the same depth and at the same interval, which guarantees more friendly shoots;
• sowing time is significantly reduced.

The disadvantage of a seeder is its cost, so most gardeners practice more economical options.

Pre-germination of seeds

When dry, carrot seeds that are too small are difficult to separate from each other, so several grains fall into the hole at once, which is why they sprout too thickly.

If planting carrots is planned without its subsequent thinning, agricultural technicians recommend a more convenient and simpler way - to plant soaked or sprouted seeds in the ground. Under the influence of moisture, the seeds quickly swell and grow, which greatly facilitates the planting process.

For this:

1. Seed material is placed for 2 hours in settled water or nutrient solution at a temperature of 20-24 ° C.
2. Then the grains are transferred to a wet cloth and covered with it.
3. To avoid drying out, moisturize regularly.
4. As soon as the seedlings hatch, the seeds are placed in a refrigerator for hardening for 10 days.

After that, carefully, so as not to damage the sprouts, they are laid out along a moistened furrow, sprinkled with earth and watered well from a watering can with a strainer.

Attention! This method not only simplifies planting seeds, but also accelerates the emergence of seedlings, the main thing is to keep the soil moist, otherwise the germinated grains will die.

Using paste

With the help of paste, the sowing tape is also made at home. It is no worse than purchased and even better, since the quality of the seeds is pre-checked.

For this method, you will need a tape of paper - most often they use toilet paper or any other, which is cut into strips 2-3 cm wide.Using a medical syringe, paste points are left on the tape after 2 cm and one seed is placed in them. Then the strips are dried and rolled into rolls.

The technology of planting carrots is very convenient: one prepared independently, like a purchased tape, is simply placed in a furrow in a garden bed, sprinkled with earth and watered.

The advantages of this method:

• consumables for him are always at hand;
• minimum cost of funds;
• economical consumption of seed;
• uniform fixed arrangement of seeds;
• emergence of shoots in 7-10 days.

The only drawback is that it takes a lot of time to prepare the planting material.

Using egg cells

This is a simple and uncomplicated way that will help you get even and neat beds. For its implementation, use packaging for eggs with separate cells. For the strength of the structure, 2-3 trays are simultaneously fastened together. Then the mold is simply pressed into the soil and as a result, even rows of identical holes for sowing are obtained, in which 1-2 grains are placed.

This method is good in that it does not require the cost of purchasing special devices. Carrots emerge evenly, so they do not need to be thinned.

The disadvantage of this method lies in the manual filling of seeds, which is quite tedious and time-consuming.

Granules

A great way to plant carrots that will not need to thin out is to buy pelleted seeds. Each grain is surrounded by a shell of a mixture of dry hydrogel, fertilizers and minerals. The granules are laid out into grooves at a distance of 5 cm.

Due to its size (slightly smaller than a grain of rice) and bright color, the seed can be quickly found on the black ground and picked up if it fell in the wrong place. The gel shell with mineral feeding keeps moisture well and provides the grain with all the necessary nutrients for the first time.

Tips and tricks from experienced summer residents

To simplify planting carrots without subsequent thinning, experienced summer residents successfully use simple but effective methods and recommend others:

1. Mix vegetable seeds with fine peat crumbs or dried coffee grounds. They also use early radish, spinach or lettuce seeds for these purposes, which sprout quickly and ripen before carrot sprouts appear. The mixed bed idea is very good and gives excellent results. So from one garden harvested in two crops.
2. Two weeks before sowing, the seeds are folded into a bag made of natural material and buried in damp ground on the bayonet of a shovel. During this time, essential oils leave the seeds, which actually delay their germination. In addition, the grains become swollen, coarser and almost sprouted. Many vegetable growers are convinced that such a simple original method has a number of advantages: root crops grow large in size with excellent taste and marketability, early ripening and a long shelf life.

Sometimes novice gardeners make mistakes when sowing carrots and cannot understand the reasons for a poor harvest:

1. Wishing to save time, they sow with dry seeds, which entails thickened, uneven shoots and late ripening of root crops.
2. Thinning not often enough, hoping to get a large harvest.
3. The wrong crops are selected for mixed crops.
4. Using the sowing method on the belt, it is not compacted enough, but only slightly covered with earth. As a result, when the wind gusts, the ribbon is on the soil surface, and the germinated seeds dry up.

Read also:

Features of red carrots without a core.

The reference French carrot variety Carotel.

How to determine when to store carrots from the garden.

Conclusion

When planning to get a generous harvest of carrots, it is important to choose the right way to plant the seed so that later you do not spend a lot of time and labor on thinning the seedlings.

Experienced summer residents have long abandoned the traditional sowing of dry seeds and are now resorting to more sophisticated methods that can bring decent harvests of high-quality root crops.