Why are carrots gnarled? Why are carrots horned and hairy? Why do carrots burst? Why are carrots tasteless? - these are the questions hundreds of beginning gardeners ask themselves at the end of the season, after harvesting the carrot bed. It’s a terrible shame to spend the whole summer caring for, watering, weeding, and instead of straight and long carrots, end up with ugly roots.
To avoid or not repeat a similar situation, it is better to understand in advance, even before sowing the seeds, the causes of clumsy root crops and try to eliminate them. This is a useful thing that we will do today...
There are five main reasons for poor quality carrot harvest.
Reason one: heavy soil
Just like turnips or celery root, carrots love loose, easily permeable soil.
In clayey, rocky, podzolic, heavy areas, it fails to grow even root crops; it becomes deformed, “bending around” compactions in the soil. Therefore, when preparing a carrot bed in the fall, it is recommended to mix the soil with sand, peat, rotted sawdust and humus. For one bed take a bucket of sand and peat (or sawdust) and 3-4 kilograms of humus. A warm bed or organic trench in which cucumbers or tomatoes previously grew can also serve as an excellent bed for carrots.
Advice from experienced gardeners
Many experienced gardeners share their methods for solving the problem of carrot deformation.
Let us highlight the main ones:
- the soil must be restored, so this vegetable can be planted in its original place at least a year after the previous planting. This will allow the soil to replenish lost resources, it will become soft, and this will prevent the appearance of horned carrots;
- avoid excess humus in the soil, because the root crop does not tolerate manure well, which causes bifurcation;
- row spacing must be at least 25 cm;
- Be sure to strictly adhere to the watering rules and do not forget to thin out the carrots on time.
Important! Watering should be done strictly along the rows and trenches. Thinning should be done every 4 cm, then the carrots will not be clumsy.
Knowing all the causes and problems of carrot deformation, as well as methods and techniques to combat it, you can easily prevent any unwanted changes in the vegetable.
Reason two: improper watering
Untimely, incorrect, excess watering leads to the appearance of horned, small and shaggy carrots.
Bursting and cracked carrots are also the result of waterlogging. Two factors are important when watering carrots: regularity and depth. It is better to water rarely, while wetting the soil 20-30 centimeters deep, than every day, splashing water over the surface of the bed. The roots are always in search of moisture, and if water is on the surface, the carrot will grow a huge number of small roots to absorb it. The result is small, shaggy, hairy carrots.
After the process of root crop formation is completed (in August), carrots are not watered at all until harvesting. During this period, root vegetables will gain sugar. Too much rain or unnecessary watering at this time can cause cracked carrots. Carrots also often burst when they receive a large amount of moisture after a prolonged drought.
It is usually recommended to water carrots frequently and abundantly in the first month after planting. Then, in dry and hot weather, twice a week is enough, making sure to deeply wet the soil. And after the formation of root crops, watering is stopped altogether.
The main reasons why carrots grow ugly - gnarled, horned and branched
Improper planting and care of carrots lead to the fact that the root crops eventually become deformed, branch and grow gnarled and horned. Next, we will name specific reasons - errors during planting and care that cause these negative consequences.
Wrong place to plant: unsuitable soil, lack of bed preparation
Firstly, if the soil in which the carrots will be planted is too dense and clayey,
carrots can grow branched (horned).
Therefore, before planting carrots, you should properly prepare the bed for it: if you have very heavy soil, then you need to add raising agents - sand, compost, humus and/or peat. And first you can plant and mow green manure.
It is also known that carrots do not tolerate fresh manure and do not really like soil
(they need to be applied in the fall, and not in the spring right before sowing the seeds), as well as potassium chloride fertilizers - potassium chloride and potassium salt.
It happens that gnarliness of carrots can be caused by excess nitrogen (but rarely).
Thinning: complete absence or untimely
Root crops can grow deformed (crooked) due to the initial excessive density of plantings and lack of thinning. As a result, root crops cannot develop normally, receive sufficient nutrition and space required for root growth, but only interfere with growth = deform each other.
However, the thinning procedure must be performed on time. If you miss the right moment and the root crops noticeably increase in size before thinning, then you can simply damage nearby root crops, which will cause their deformation and loss of quality appearance.
Thus, correct and timely thinning allows you to grow beautiful and large carrots of approximately the same size.
Lack of watering
If the carrots experience a lack of moisture due to frequent but superficial watering, this may cause the root crop to form a large number of adventitious (additional) roots and the carrots will begin to branch. The fact is that it forms additional roots that will seek and extract the necessary moisture in the surface layer of soil.
Reason three: lack of organic matter
Carrots seem to be considered an unpretentious crop, but they will never mind a good layer of humus in the soil.
Soil rich in organic matter is always loose, nutritious, and permeable to water—carrot “monsters” are practically never found on such soil. However, not all organic matter is equally beneficial for carrots. There is no need to add fresh manure or droppings, ash, or eggshells under the carrots; they do not favor them. For carrots, well-rotted, processed organic fertilizers would be ideal, which is why they do well in organic beds of the third year after tomatoes, cabbage or other good predecessors.
Excess moisture
At the beginning of growth, carrots need regular watering, especially until the root crop begins to set (usually with 4-5 leaves). And when the root crops are the size of your finger, stop watering.
The powerful root core is capable of going to great depths, where there is always enough moisture.
Gnarled and horned carrots are the result of mistakes in growing them. Possible causes are fresh organic fertilizers, dense soil, dense plantings or damaged roots.
It will not be possible to return ugly root vegetables to their normal shape, but you can take measures in advance to ensure that the carrots grow evenly and beautifully.
Reason four: root damage
Much more often than it seems, horned carrots occur due to damage to the root at the very beginning of growth.
Carrots have this weakness: the slightest touch to the root, and the root crop will begin to split into two. That's why carrots are never replanted - it's useless. When can something like this happen? Firstly, if we decided to soak the seeds before planting, but they managed to germinate. For many other crops this is an ideal option, but this won’t work with carrots. Sprouted fragile roots are very easy to damage when planting.
Secondly, in dry weather and lack of moisture in the first month of seedling growth. When the bed dries out, the tips of the roots of young plants are the first to suffer.
Thirdly, in case of careless thinning of seedlings. Especially if they were not in a hurry with thinning and began to do it much later than the appearance of the first real leaf.
Finally, the root can become a tasty morsel for pests.
What problems may arise when growing carrots?
Carrots are grown in almost every country house. This is not to say that this vegetable is too demanding and difficult to care for, like, for example, a tomato or eggplant. However, sometimes it also causes gardeners a lot of trouble. What difficulties can await those who start growing carrots?
- Poor seed germination . There may be several reasons for this. The most common is that you purchased low-quality seed material. To avoid this, try to purchase seeds only from reliable and trusted sellers. Another possible reason is unfavorable weather that occurred after sowing. Both drought and heavy rains can cause seed death. There is only one way out - to replant everything again.
- Cracks on the root crop . This is not just an external defect. Such carrots store worse and are more difficult to clean. Excessive watering or heavy rains can lead to this, especially if it has been dry for a long time before. In addition to irregular moisture, carrots can also crack due to excess nitrogen.
- Greening of root vegetables . Usually the very top part turns green. The green color indicates that a toxic substance, solanine, has begun to accumulate in the carrots. The reason is the sun's rays that fall on the part of the root crop that is not covered with soil. To avoid this problem, carrots need to be hilled up from time to time, covering the bare areas with earth.
- Diseases . Carrots are most often affected by various types of rot: brown, wet, white, black, etc. The main cause of these problems is excessive moisture levels during the growing season or during storage. Insufficient levels of potassium in the soil can also cause the disease.
- Pests . Yes, unfortunately, we are not the only ones who love carrots. We also have competitors - carrot aphid, psyllid and carrot fly. Here we cannot do without a tough struggle: either we give them, or they give us the carrot.
- Who eats the harvest? 3 most dangerous pests of carrots
Signs of pest infestation, effective ways to combat them and preventive measures.
Reason five: unsuitable fertilizers
Not only do carrots have a difficult relationship with organic fertilizers, but not everything is smooth with mineral fertilizers either.
You should not feed carrots with ash, dolomite flour and potassium chloride. And all other fertilizers (if there is a desire to apply them) are best applied in the fall when preparing the future bed. It is better to underfeed than to overfeed - this rule for carrots works one hundred percent.
We hope that now gnarled, shaggy and cracked carrots in your beds will become less and less common.
We wish you success and great harvests!
How to grow large and long carrots
To grow large carrots, you need to consider two important points.
The first dangerous moment arises in the very early stages of development. The main root must remain as a central taproot throughout the growing season. If the plant, at the time of development and gain in length and weight, finds itself in conditions of drought, excess nitrogen nutrition or other stressful situations, the growth of the main root in length stops. And the growth of lateral roots, on the contrary, is stimulated.
The second critical moment, which can lead to deformation of root crops, occurs during secondary root growth, that is, in the second half of the growing season. During this period, nutrients begin to be deposited in the roots and new leaves begin to actively grow. If dry weather persists for a long time at this time, the growth of the main root stops. In search of moisture, the plant forms side shoots. During this period, you need to water the soil abundantly to the entire depth of the roots to prevent the formation of ugly root crops.
Good watering must be ensured especially in the early stages of the growing season, especially when the weather has been dry for a long time. Once the leaves of the tops close, there is no point in watering the carrots. To reduce moisture evaporation from the ground, it is necessary to mulch the row spaces.
