Each gardener is concerned about where to get quality planting material, especially seeds. Undoubtedly, the choice represented by modern specialized stores is very diverse. But often this is just a beautiful package, and the quantity and quality of seeds leaves much to be desired. This is especially true for carrot seeds. Often they are sold, one can say, individually, by sticking to a tape or making granules from them. Experienced vegetable growers know that there is almost no sense from them, because the germination of these seeds is quite low. It’s best to harvest your own seeds, especially since it’s not difficult at all.
Training
In order to get seeds, you will need to select several large, high-quality root crops from the harvested carrots in the autumn and put them in a cool place, for example, in a cellar or in a refrigerator. Selected carrots should be put in a plastic bag, sprinkled with sand. Thus, root crops lie before spring. Do not worry if they let the roots or begin to sprout.
If you did not succeed in preparing the planting material, then in early spring you can purchase suitable root crops at the market or in the store. When buying, you need to pay attention to ensure that the vegetables are healthy, with a whole top - it will be needed for the future flowering of carrots, because this is where flower buds are located.
Sowing
As soon as the street is warm and the ground warms up enough for sowing, it will be around the end of April or May, you will need to plant root crops in pre-prepared areas. For sowing, it is better to choose sandy or sandy loamy soil. It is necessary to make holes on it, the minimum distance between which should be 30 cm. This is necessary in order to provide the plants with a sufficient amount of free space and sunlight, because carrots will grow up, blooming with large inflorescences, and take up quite a lot of space.
Each root crop should be placed in its own hole and covered with earth so that they are completely covered by the earth, burying them in the ground no more than 2-3 cm above the soil level. After some time, the carrots will sprout, the first green shoots will appear. Every day they will stretch until they bloom with white caps collected from small inflorescences. Due to the large flowers and large stems, plants must be tied to a support or tied together, otherwise strong gusts of wind can break them at the base.
Keep in mind that carrot flowers attract many insects, including beneficial ones. For example, ladybugs, who are the first helpers in the fight against aphids. Therefore, it is very good to plant carrots on seeds next to, for example, cucumber beds.
