How to thin out carrots in the open field in the garden
Many experienced growers know that planted vegetables must be properly cared for in order to get a good harvest. Carrots are no exception and also need proper care. Quite often, young bushes need to be thinned and weeded.
However, before doing such work, you should familiarize yourself with how to properly thin out carrots. It is also recommended to figure out whether it is necessary to thin carrots in the open field.
Why shoots are removed
Some do not know why to get rid of excess growth. Carrots must be thinned out at the initial stage of their growth. This procedure provides a considerable number of advantages:
- more free space has a positive effect on the size of root crops;
- a thinned plant receives more sunlight and nutrients;
- Thinning carrots allows you to determine the strongest shoots that will give a good harvest in the future;
- the planted bushes will cease to stretch up and the root crop will develop faster;
- if you grow thinned carrots, then its yield will increase by 50%.
Thinning
If the usual planting method was chosen, then you will have to think about how to thin out the carrots correctly and when to do it.
Key recommendations
Before thinning carrots, there are a few helpful tips to read.
Quite often, the plant is grown in the open field. In this case, thinning should be carried out only in cloudy weather, so that it is not too hot outside. If it grows indoors, then you can get rid of the overgrowth at any time. The main thing is that the emerged bushes are not in the sun at this moment.
You can also consult the lunar calendar to choose the most appropriate time to remove the growth.
During the work, the garden should be thoroughly watered. This is done to make it easier to remove the plant and at the same time not to damage the seedlings that are nearby. After thinning, carrots are watered again so that the soil around it could settle. Cuttings cannot be planted again, so they can be thrown away immediately.
Instruments
To thin out the bushes, it is recommended to use special tools at hand. Various tools are used for this. Some people prefer to remove excess leaves of carrots with tweezers. It allows you to get rid of even small leaves that are near the ground. However, most gardeners thin out carrots with scissors.Quite often they are used to speed up the workflow. Also, scissors are indispensable if you need to remove the bushes completely.
First thinning
Initially, bushes that grow thicker develop faster. The plant grows better and does not often get sick with dangerous diseases. However, after a while, young bushes do not have enough moisture and some of them begin to gradually die. Their leaves become dry, and the fruits stop developing altogether. It is because of this that they need to be periodically broken through.
Many gardeners do not know how to thin out carrots the first time. In this case, you need to break through the bushes in such a way that the distance between them is half that in the used layout. It is better to get rid of weak shoots in order to speed up the development of good bushes. Before starting the procedure, you should moisten the soil well to make it easier to remove unnecessary bushes. If they are planted too densely, then you can simply pinch the top of the unnecessary plants.
After all the bushes in the garden have been thinned, the soil is watered and compacted.
Second decimation
The next time the procedure is carried out after 25-30 days. If the carrots have grown a lot, then you can thin them out after 15 days. During this time, she should have a sufficient number of extra sheets that need to get rid of. After the second thinning, the distance between the bushes should be about 5-7 cm. This will improve the process of root crop formation in the future.
It is not recommended to make too great a distance between the bushes, as this can negatively affect the size and quality of carrots.
Planting carrots without thinning
Some gardeners are wondering if it is possible to plant carrots and not thin them out during cultivation. In this case, it all depends on the method of planting. There are several basic methods of planting seeds in the garden, which will simplify the care of bushes in the future.
Sowing pre-germinated seeds
In order not to think about how to thin out carrots in the garden in the future, it is recommended to plant sprouted seeds. When using this method of planting, the plant will grow much faster.
Before planting, the seed is wrapped in a wet towel for several hours. It can also be placed in a small container and filled with a special nutrient solution. After a few hours, the seeds will swell and can be removed and dried.
Using sand
This method is the simplest and does not require special skills from a person. To plant carrots, two tablespoons of sunflower seeds are added to a bucket of sea sand. Then the container is filled with water and infused for several days.
During planting, small grooves are made into which I plant seeds mixed with sand. As a result, the distance between the shoots will be large enough and you will not have to thin them out.
Mixed method
To grow a bush in this way, you need to mix the seeds with radish and sand. The resulting mixture is poured into the beds and poured abundantly with water.
The essence of this method is that the early radish will ripen first and therefore will be quickly eaten. Over time, carrot shoots will begin to sprout from the soil. Due to the planted radishes, they will not appear very densely and will not have to be thinned out.
Not only radishes are planted with carrots, but also other crops. Lettuce or spinach are great for this. The main thing is that the selected plant should rise before the carrot.
Seeder application
To plant carrots evenly, you can use special planters. With their help, it is possible to plant grains in the ground at the same distance without any problems. The only drawback of this planting method is the cost of the seeder.
Planting in paste
If you mix the planting material with paste, then you can plant carrots evenly and in the future do not think that it needs to be thinned out. To create a paste, a liter of water and a tablespoon of flour are added to a small container. The resulting mixture is mixed until the first lumps are formed. Then the container is infused for an hour and you can add carrot seeds to it.
After that, open the container with the paste and evenly spread the seeds on the beds. You need to plant carrots at a sufficient distance from each other so that they do not sprout too thickly.
Using the Ribbon
In some specialized stores, you can purchase planting material, which is glued to a paper tape. These seeds are already pre-distributed at an optimal distance from each other. To plant them, it is enough to put a tape along the bed and sprinkle it with a small layer of soil.
You can make such a tape yourself. To do this, you can take regular toilet paper, divide it into several equal parts and attach the seeds to them.
Conclusion
Even a person who has never done this before can thin out a carrot. To do this, it is enough to figure out why it is thinned out and how many times this procedure should be carried out.
Oh, I remember my first year of independent gardening, when I simply did not know that carrots were thinned out ... can you imagine what has grown! But now I know a lot of secrets - and what to feed, and what varieties for shade, which for a sunny place, and modern preparations I use (for example, BioGrow, with it the carrot grows large, but does not grow stiff).