The best ways and life hacks on how to plant carrots without thinning

When growing carrots, the only thing that upsets novice gardeners is the need for frequent thinning of the crop. The vegetable seeds are too small - it is very troublesome to place them in the furrow at the required distance, which leads to dense plantings. To avoid spending a lot of time thinning out dense seedlings and get a rich harvest of root crops, use life hacks from experienced gardeners. The best of them are collected in our article.

Why do you have to thin carrots after planting?

It is known that carrots, like other umbelliferous plants (dill, parsley, celery), are considered a slow-growing crop. Therefore, many people plant seeds as densely as possible to ensure a sufficient number of seedlings. In this case, the plantings turn out to be too thick and require weeding.

Why do this

It is recommended to thin out dense shoots on time, since the plants will interfere with each other during growth, fighting for beneficial nutrients, microelements and the space required for root growth. As a result, the carrots grow small, pale and unsweetened.

Is it necessary

Weak sprouts are not capable of producing a good harvest and will only thicken the plantings. To prevent this from happening, they are removed as the carrots grow.

In addition, in overly thickened seedlings, fungal diseases more often develop and pests appear, resulting in the formation of deformed and disease-affected root crops.This is another reason for crop thinning.

How to plant carrots without thinning

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

Mixing seeds with sand

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

To plant carrots evenly, 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 water the beds well and sprinkle 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 you will produce large and even carrots.

Planting seeds on tape

Using carrot strip planting is another easy way to get a rich harvest of root vegetables.

Today, seed tapes are sold in many seed stores. It’s easy to recognize them - sealed on cardboard under transparent plastic is a roll of paper, neatly twisted ribbon. It is not wide, but long. On it at the standard distance required 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 up in advance, the lumps are broken up and leveled.
2. Immediately before sowing, furrows 2 cm deep are laid and a ribbon with grains is placed in them.
3. Water with a small amount of water and cover with soil.
4. It is very easy to level and water again - carefully so as not to wash off the soil from 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 method of sowing, it is advisable to choose clear weather. In rainy weather or after rain on wet ground, the paper will soften and tear.

Paste with seeds

Uniform sowing of the crop 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 poured in the seeds prepared for planting. Then mix thoroughly, after which the grains in the paste are distributed evenly, do not stick together and are clearly visible when sowing.

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

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

This method allows you to easily and quickly distribute the grains along the furrow and ensure that the seedlings are uniform and not dense. In addition, the paste with fertilizer serves as an excellent nutrient medium for the seeds, in which they will sprout much faster.

Application of the seeder

Specialized stores offer a large number of special devices for convenient planting of carrot seeds.. Such designs (seeders) allow you to place one or more grains into the ground (depending on the settings) 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 design consists of a container for seeds and two wheels. On the front there are spikes that leave depressions in the soil. Several grains fall out of the hole in the container. The second wheel compacts them. Such devices provide the most uniform sowing and are easy to use.

Besides:

• the furrows are even, so there is no need to mark the rows;
• the seeds are placed at the same depth and at the same interval, which guarantees more uniform germination;
• The sowing time is reduced significantly.

The disadvantage of a seeder is its cost, so most gardeners use 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 densely.

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

For this:

1. The seed material is placed in settled water or nutrient solution at a temperature of 20-24°C for 2 hours.
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 the refrigerator for hardening for 10 days.

After this, 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 speeds up the emergence of seedlings; the main thing is to keep the soil moist, otherwise the sprouted grains will die.

Using paste

Using paste, seed tape can also be 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 strip of paper - most often they use toilet paper or any other paper, which is cut into strips 2-3 cm wide. Using a medical syringe, paste dots are left on the strip every 2 cm and one grain is placed in them. Then the strips are dried and rolled into rolls.

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

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 seedlings in 7-10 days.

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

Using egg cells

This is a simple and uncomplicated method that will help you get even and neat beds. To accomplish this, egg packaging with separate cells is used. For structural strength, 2-3 trays are simultaneously fastened together. Then the form is simply pressed into the soil and as a result, you get even rows of identical holes for sowing, into which 1-2 grains are placed.

This method is good because it does not require the purchase of special devices. Carrots sprout evenly, so there is no need to thin them.

The disadvantage of this method is that it requires manual planting of seeds, which is quite tedious and time-consuming.

Granules

A great way to plant carrots that won't require thinning is to buy pelleted seeds. Each grain is surrounded by a shell made of a mixture of dry hydrogel, fertilizers and minerals. Place the granules in furrows at a distance of 5 cm.

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

Tips and recommendations from experienced summer residents

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

1. Mix vegetable seeds with fine peat chips or dried coffee grounds. Also for these purposes, they use the seeds of early radishes, spinach or lettuce, which quickly sprout and ripen before carrot sprouts appear. The idea of ​​mixed beds is very good and gives excellent results. So from one garden bed Two crops are harvested.
2. Two weeks before sowing, the seeds are placed in a bag made of natural material and buried in moist soil 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, larger and almost sprouted. Many vegetable growers have become convinced that such a simple, original method has a number of advantages: root crops grow in large sizes with excellent taste and commercial qualities, early ripening and a long shelf life.

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

1. Wanting to save time, they sow with dry seeds, which results in thickened, uneven germination and late ripening of root crops.
2. They don’t thin out often enough in hopes of getting a big harvest.
3. Vegetable crops are selected incorrectly for mixed crops.
4. When using the method of sowing on a tape, it is not compacted enough, but only lightly covered with earth. As a result, when there are gusts of wind, the tape ends up on the soil surface, and the sprouted seeds dry out.

Read also:

Features of red carrots without core.

The standard French variety of carrots is Carotel.

How to determine when to remove carrots from the garden for storage.

Conclusion

When planning to get a generous carrot harvest, it is important to choose the right method of planting the seed, so that you don’t have to spend a lot of time and labor on thinning out the seedlings.

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