Many summer residents complain that their beds resemble a minefield - crooked, cracked root crops are hidden under the ground.
It turned out that the main mistake was surface preparation of the soil.
Modern gardeners dig a spade deep, but giant carrots require a layer of 35 cm.
In the fall, the area needs to be dug up twice, adding rotted manure and ash to the soil.
On heavy soils, add sand, on sandy soils, add humus. By spring, the soil settles, turning into a loose "pie" for root crops.
The seeds are the second secret. After soaking, they need to be buried in cold soil for three days.
Then check the seed material in salt water - the weak ones float in it, the strong ones settle to the bottom.
The selected grains are hardened - a day in the cellar, a day in the warmth. Such shoots break through 4 days earlier and are not afraid of frost.
The third key is the fit geometry.
Furrows 2 cm deep must be poured with boiling water before sowing. Place the seeds at intervals of 3 cm, leaving 25 cm between rows.
After the third leaf appears, they need to be thinned out, leaving the “elite”.
In hot weather, water your carrot beds only at dawn - water droplets on the leaves act like lenses, burning the plants.
The result silences the skeptics. The Shantane and Nantes varieties, considered capricious, produce root crops of 250-300 g. The yield from the garden bed doubles, and the shelf life improves - carrots are stored until April without losing their taste.
Neighbors, yesterday's critics, will exchange seeds for seedlings.
The main thing is not to chase fashionable methods. Sometimes old grandmother's notebooks are more valuable than new-fangled fertilizers.
Author: Elena Shimanovskaya