Carrots - root crops, which contains a whole pharmacy of nutrients. Here, carotene, and other vitamins, trace elements that contribute to maintaining health. Carrots are indispensable for proper nutrition. It can be grown at home. How to do it better, which varieties to choose?
Carrot properties
Carrot is a plant from the umbrella family.
Her life is two years. For the first carrot, the seed forms the root crop, which we are used to eating. In the second year, he releases an arrow, which is crowned with a flower in the shape of an umbrella. Seeds are formed there. The next year they can be sown in the ground again.
Carrots contain many useful substances. It is especially appreciated for carotene (vitamin A), which in its composition is more than seventy percent. It is he who paints the root crop in orange. This is more than in other vegetables or fruits (except sea buckthorn). There is also a wide range of vitamins. Its fiber, mineral salts, sugar, essential oil are useful.
Carrots are a unique product. It does not lose its beneficial properties in processing. To do this, she only needs to interact with fat, vegetable or animal origin.
In addition, all valuable substances are stored during winter storage.
The range of applications is very wide. A lot of delicious and healthy dishes are prepared using carrots. It is used in diet food.
It has a positive effect on vision. Improves immunity, normalizes the digestive system. Indispensable carrots in baby food.
It treats vitamin deficiency, anemia, bronchitis, diseases of the heart, kidneys, and organs of the genitourinary system.
It is very useful for teeth, especially at a young age. Indeed, for their normal development it is necessary to chew solid foods. Then the bite is formed right.
Useful and aboveground parts of the plant. Rubbed carrots have long been used to treat burns, various wounds, and frostbite. Essential oils obtained from carrot seeds are used in perfumes.
Carrot Harm
Not that it cannot be consumed at all. You just need to limit the use of this product to patients with peptic ulcer of the stomach and duodenum, prone to diarrhea.
Carrots are useful, but you should not abuse them. After all, the body may not cope with the processing of carotene. Then he will perform on the skin. Palms, feet turn yellow, get a hue of carrots.
Teeth may be stained orange .
Chantane Carrots
Of course, not all varieties of carrots have an equal amount of nutrients and the same taste.
To evaluate them, you do not have to bite. Just look at the root crop for a slice. The core should be small (there are varieties in which it is completely absent). The brighter and more saturated the color of carrots, the tastier it is. The shape is rounded, a reasonable ratio of length to width. All these standards are fully consistent with Chantana carrots.
Chantane variety
It has about two dozen varieties of different ripening dates.
- Shantane Red Credd is the most popular of the varieties of this type. Valued for its high palatability.
- Variety Shantane 2461 is intended for winter sowing.
- Shantane Komet - medium early, does not break during harvesting, is resistant to scab.
- Victoria is a super-early hybrid of the Chantane variety. Very early (80-85 days). Color is brighter than other varieties.
- Hybrid Ablako F1 - suitable for making carrot juice.
Chantane Royal Carrot
Mid-season grade.
Mass ripening occurs 100-110 days after germination. The color of all parts is saturated orange. The length of the root crop is about 1 5 cm, the diameter of each 5 cm. Weight 200 g. The shape is conical, the tip blunt. The tops are vertical. This makes it easier to care for and harvest. The fruits are smooth, do not have lateral roots.
Juicy, sweet. Chantane Royal carrots can be used both fresh immediately after harvest and in processed products. It is well and long stored in the winter. It has good keeping quality. Transportable variety.
Kuroda Chantane Carrots
Those who sell young carrots (on a bunch) or like to crunch young fruits in the summer will like Kuroda Chantana carrots. This is an early variety. Two months after emergence, or even earlier, root crops can be harvested for sale. And in three, 70% of the total crop is ready. It is easy to sell, because root crops have an attractive appearance. Length 20 cm, bright orange, small core. Unpretentious in cultivation. Feels good even on heavy soils. It tolerates heat, almost no arrows, resistant to disease.
Can be sown in summer. If this is done at the end of July, the fruits of the personally stored until May.
Use both fresh and processed.
Growing carrots
Growing carrots at home requires attention and some effort. First you need to prepare the site.
It should not have perennial weeds. They are selected with a shovel, pitchfork or plane cutter. After all, the shoots remain very small and tender for a long time. Therefore, it is difficult to deal with strong sprouts of weeds without damaging the carrots.
Carrots are grown in the garden, where cabbage, onions, potatoes, and cucumbers were grown before. Do not plant after parsley, dill, parsnip.
It is better to sow early, at a soil temperature of 8 degrees Celsius, so that the soil does not dry out. Then the shoots will be friendly. But first you need to prepare varieties of carrot seeds. They are soaked for a day in water, then dried to a state where they no longer stick together, but are still wet. In order to facilitate the sowing process, the seeds after soaking are mixed with sand. In this state, the wet mixture can be left for germination.
This process is accelerated if the seeds are preliminarily placed for several days on tissue saturated with a growth stimulant (for example, succinic acid, sodium humate). Sow to a depth of 1 cm, be sure to moist soil. If it is dry, then you can sow under watering. For this, finished rows are watered from a watering can. Wait until the water is absorbed. Once again, loosen the soil so that it becomes crumbly, and sow the seeds. The distance between the rows is 20 cm. Shoots will appear in two to three weeks, after treatment with a growth stimulator - in a week.
For winter storage, it is better to sow from mid-April to the end of May.
Chantane carrots will not grow quality in the shade. Therefore, you need to ensure that the crops are well lit by the sun. Be sure to thin out the crops. Each carrot must be provided with space for food and air passage. Otherwise, it will be shallow. Thinning carrots in the stage of two of these leaves. The distance between the plants is 4 cm. After weeding, water the remaining carrots, compact the ground around the plants. And torn plants need to be removed, because their smell attracts carrot flies.
Growing carrots at home allows you to determine the planting site yourself. To prevent this pest from settling in the crops, you need to plant onions nearby, which repels this insect. And carrots themselves should not be sown in one place before three or four years. If you do this more often, the quality of the product worsens and the risk of diseases and damage to aphids, nematodes, and carrot flies increases.
Sowing for the winter
Chantane carrots, like a two-year-old plant, are not afraid of frost. Therefore, it can be sown in the fall. But you need to do this before frost so that the seeds do not sprout. The seeding rate should be increased by 25%.
The soil is pre-fertilized with humus, ash, superphosphate. In winter, it is advisable to apply an additional layer of snow to the place where the carrots are sown. This will help moisten the area.
Winter sowing allows you to get young carrots much earlier, for two to three weeks. But for a long time it will not be stored if the variety is ordinary, and not a hybrid.
Fertilizer crops
The usual fertilizers suitable for plants with ground fruits are not suitable for carrots. After all, root crops, having absorbed everything that fell into the soil with them, will bring this to our table. It is best to cook a mixture of superphosphate with legumes, siderates, beet tops. Mix all this, add water and put on fermentation.
If the soil in the area where you are going to sow carrots is acidic, then in the autumn chalk or lime should be added to it.
In the spring, add urea, wood ash. And you can sow carrots Chantane.
Consumer Reviews
Almost all of them note the excellent taste qualities that Chantana carrots have.
They point out that much more juice is obtained from it than from the same amount of Nantes variety. It is pleasant to users that Chantane carrots are well preserved and do not lose their taste.