Many gardeners grow carrots and beets. These vegetables are very healthy, and you can prepare many culinary dishes from them. In order for root crops to be well preserved until spring, you need to know what time frame to harvest.
When to dig beets and carrots - in September or October?
Some do this in early September. But by the end of the month, root crops will grow by almost a quarter. And the harvest will be much higher. In September it is still quite warm, it rains from time to time, which creates excellent conditions for the growth of vegetables. Therefore, it is worth considering when to dig up beets and carrots, so that root crops increase in size and the yield is more significant.
If the first half of October promises to be warm, then you can transfer this procedure to this period. Usually until the 10th day of this month there are no strong night frosts. A temperature of -1 ... -2 ° C will beet beets and carrots. It is better to bribe them with earth in order to hide the aerial part of root crops in the soil. Then they are not afraid of insignificant cooling.
Weather
Speaking about when to harvest carrots and beets, it is necessary to stop on weather conditions. If it rains, it’s better not to harvest the crop, since only well-dried vegetables are laid for storage. In this regard, you should monitor the weather forecasts. If prolonged precipitation is expected at the end of September, it is advisable to dig up root crops before the onset of natural disasters. If the weather is expected to be warm, sunny and rains only occasionally, then let the fruits be in the soil until early October.
Harvesting vegetables
After the gardener has decided on when to dig up beets and carrots, you can start harvesting. In no case should you pull out vegetables from
soil so as not to damage them. Use a shovel or pitchfork for this. They dig in from the side and, holding the tops, take them out. The ground from root crops cannot be shaken off, knocking them on a shovel and pitchfork. Such a crop will not last long for sure. The soil is removed by hand, after wearing gloves. After the crop is harvested, it is dried in the garden, on pre-lined cellophane until the evening. Therefore, they dig up root vegetables in the morning in dry weather, and then remove the tops with a sharp knife. Well, how and when to dig out beets and carrots, we figured it out. Let's move on to the
storage of vegetables.Storage
Before laying for storage, the vegetables are dried in the shade for three days. Before you remove them into the basement, inspect each root crop. Damaged ones are put aside for consumption, the rest are put in boxes and lowered into the cellar. If there are no such storage points, then you can try to keep the vegetables at home. Carrots are lowered into a clay mash, dried well and stacked in cardboard boxes. If there is a glazed balcony, then the root vegetables are put in a smaller cardboard box, wrapped in an old blanket and placed in a large box. At temperatures up to -10 ° C vegetables will be perfectly preserved.
If you know when to dig up beets and carrots, and do it in time, then the harvest will be larger and it will be better preserved. Very small root vegetables of carrots are poorly stored, so they can be sent immediately for processing or left in the garden, sprinkled with 7 cm peat on top. Then in the spring, a summer resident will wait for vitamins in the form of a juicy carrot in the garden.