Carrots and beets are the most unpretentious vegetables to grow, so gardeners make do with the bare minimum set of agricultural practices. However, fertilizing carrots and beets in open ground gives yield results that are superior to previous ones not only in quantity, but also in quality.
Feeding carrots
Carrots are a very popular vegetable and are present on our table every day. Gardeners never give up growing carrots. Each garden plot must have space allocated for carrot beds.
Carrots are well tolerated acidic soils, unlike beets. However, if fertilizing efforts do not bring results, and the root crops grow bitter, then the problem may be that the soil acidity is too high. Then, before planting the root crop, it is deoxidized with chalk, slaked lime, dolomite flour or ash.
Prepare the soil for planting carrots in advance in the fall. Well-rotted manure is introduced, which improves the quality of the soil by building up a rich humus layer. Carrots love loose fertile sandy loams and loams. If the soils are not depleted, then carrots can be grown without fertilizers, however, the harvest will be far from ideal.Therefore, carrots are fertilized several times a season. Usually 2 times, late varieties can be 3 times.
The first feeding of carrots is carried out after the seedlings hatch, after 3 weeks. Carrots grow well and bear fruit if there is potassium, magnesium and sodium in the diet. The plant has fewer requirements for the content of nitrogen and phosphorus in fertilizing.
For 1 sq. m of plantings are used: potash - 60 g; phosphorus - 50 g, nitrogen - 40 g fertilizer.
The next time carrots are fertilized 3 weeks after the first. The same composition of mineral fertilizers is used, but the consumption is reduced by half.
Another option for fertilizers for feeding: ammonium nitrate - 20 g, superphosphate - 30 g, potassium chloride - 30 g. The mixture is applied per 1 square meter. m of seedlings 3 weeks from their appearance, counting another 3 weeks, add potassium sulfate and Azofoska (1 tbsp per bucket of water - 10 l).
Another scheme feeding carrots: a month after sowing, water with a solution of phosphorus-potassium fertilizers. Use nitroammophoska or nitrophoska (1 tablespoon each), dissolving in 10 liters of water. Then repeat the steps after 3 weeks.
Carrots respond well to the application of complex fertilizers with a high content of boron, sulfur and sodium: “Kemira-Universal”, “Solution”, “Autumn”. Be sure to read the instructions before feeding and act based on the manufacturer's recommendations.
For information on what else to feed carrots, watch the video:
Folk remedies
Many gardeners are against adding chemicals to their plants. Therefore, they resort exclusively to folk wisdom.Fertilizers for carrots from available means do not require large financial investments:
- Herbal tea from nettle is prepared 2 weeks before the planned fertilizing activities. It takes 2 weeks for the tea to brew. A week before readiness, the infusion for feeding carrots can be enriched with yeast and ash. When watering, the infusion is diluted with water in a ratio of 1:10;
- Yeast can also be used as a growth stimulator for carrots, especially if the plants have not sprouted well. 100 g of live yeast per bucket of water, 2 tbsp. l. sugar to activate them, leave for 1.5 hours and water the carrot seedlings;
- Ashes for Carrot feeding can be used either in dry form, adding it to the soil before planting, or in the form of an ash solution: a glass of ash per 3 liters of water. For greater effect, use hot water or even let the solution boil. Leave for 6 hours and water the carrots, adding 10 liters of clean water and adding a couple of potassium permanganate crystals. This feeding increases the sugar content of carrots;
- One of the ways to prepare carrot seeds for planting can be safely classified as a folk remedy. First you need to prepare the paste. To do this, starch (2-3 tablespoons) is stirred in a glass of cold water until smooth, the mixture is poured in a thin stream into a pan of hot water, stirred and boiled until thickened. There is no need to make a paste that is too thick, as it will be inconvenient to use. Then 10 g of carrot seeds are poured into the paste and stirred so that they are evenly distributed. This mixture can already be placed in the prepared grooves using a large syringe, pastry bag or container with a spout. The paste is a kind of fertilizer for seeds and facilitates their planting.However, you can enrich the paste by adding a pinch of boric acid and phosphorus fertilizer (0.5 tsp).
Folk remedies for feeding carrots are used by gardeners who strive for environmental purity of the root crops they grow.
Beet feeding
Beetroot is an equally popular and favorite vegetable. Found in every household plot.
The plant is unpretentious to grow. Beets respond well to fertilizing.
The main type of fertilizer for beets is organic. They bring it in in the fall. Fresh manure is scattered around the site and dug up along with the soil. Perhaps someone will consider this technique sufficient to provide beets with nutrients. And there is a certain amount of truth in this.
Manure is a natural fertilizer that is used as long as a person grows various crops. The composition of manure includes nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, chlorine, magnesium, silicon. The peculiarity of natural fertilizer is that over time it turns into humus, which forms humus, and without humus not a single plant grows.
However, along with the application of manure, it is also worth enriching the soil with potassium-phosphorus fertilizers, since manure has an extremely unbalanced composition. The modern type of fertilizer “Autumn” applies 50 g per 1 square meter. m of soil. It contains, in addition to potassium and phosphorus, calcium, magnesium and boron. Despite the name, fertilizer is recommended to be applied to beets in the summer, during the period of fruit formation. Thus, a good harvest is laid. Application rate: no more than 30 g per square meter. m of beet planting. It is more convenient to apply into the furrows along the rows. Then you need to water it well.
The plant itself will indicate a lack of any nutrient by its appearance:
- Phosphorus is especially important for beets.You can determine that this element is missing by the appearance of the leaves. If the leaves are completely green or, conversely, completely burgundy, then we can safely say that the beets lack phosphorus.
- It also happens: the gardener knows that fertilizers were applied in the fall, but when growing, based on external signs, he concludes that there is still not enough phosphorus. The reason lies in the following: due to the increased acidity of the soil, phosphorus is in a form inaccessible to absorption by beets. This is not uncommon for central Russia. The problem is eliminated by adding slaked lime and dolomite flour in the fall;
- If the plant lacks potassium, the leaves turn yellow at the edges and begin to curl;
- The lack of such a macronutrient as nitrogen manifests itself in yellowing and death of leaves; the newly growing leaf plates are small. With an excess amount of nitrogen, beets grow abundant tops to the detriment of the underground fruit part;
- A lack of boron leads to rotting of the root core. The leaves turn yellow and brownish spots form on them. The plant dies. You can quickly correct the situation by foliar feeding beets with boron;
- A lack of zinc, iron, and molybdenum leads to chlorosis of the leaves. The leaf plate is highlighted, but the veins remain green;
- If the beets do not have enough magnesium in their diet, the leaves begin to turn yellow at the edges. The problem can be solved by foliar spraying with magnesium sulfate;
- With a lack of calcium, the plant lags in growth, the leaves darken and curl.
In order to prevent a lack of any nutrient, use complex fertilizers.
During the growing season, it is recommended to feed the beets 2 times. The first time is after germination, approximately 10-15 days.Potassium-phosphorus fertilizers are applied, as well as nitrogen fertilizers.
Potassium-phosphorus fertilizers include:
- Nitrophoska (potassium, phosphorus, nitrogen). Fertilizer consumption: 50 g per 1 square. m of beet planting;
- Nitroammophoska (potassium, phosphorus, nitrogen, sulfur). 40 g per 1 sq. m – application rate;
- Potassium chloride and superphosphate are applied in the following way: grooves are made along the beet row, on both sides of the plants, 4 cm deep. Potassium chloride is placed in them on one side, and superphosphate on the other, based on the norm of 5 g of each type of fertilizer per 1 m Then the furrows are filled with soil and watered well.
- The Kemira complex fertilizer for beets has proven itself well. In addition to the main nutrients: phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen, it contains boron, sulfur, calcium, manganese, iron, copper, zinc. Thanks to microelements, beets ripen faster, root crops have good taste and sugar content, and plants resist adverse weather conditions.
The second feeding during the development of root crops. Add ammonium nitrate and superphosphate.
If you don’t want to feed the beets with mineral fertilizers, you can water them with slurry or infusion of chicken manure. The infusion is diluted with clean water in a ratio of 1:10 and watered with the solution, spending 1 liter per meter of beet row.
Folk remedies
Principal opponents of the use of mineral fertilizers can use folk recipes for feeding beets:
- It happens that beets become bitter or tasteless. Gardeners know how to avoid this problem and get a harvest of tasty, juicy root vegetables.Using a simple solution of table salt (per 1 liter of water - 1 teaspoon of salt) to water each plant in the first half of August.
- Ash is rich in potassium, calcium, and phosphorus. Everything that beets need is in the ash. Ash is fed after germination and at the initial stage of root crop formation. Can be applied dry, into prepared furrows between rows. But it is much more effective to use an ash solution. For details on the intricacies of using ash, watch the video:
- Herbal tea is an affordable and effective nutrition for beets. It is prepared from weeds obtained during weeding. For 2 volumes of grass use 1 volume of water. The mixture is infused for 2 weeks, then diluted 1:10 and watered over the root vegetables.
Folk remedies for feeding beets are in no way inferior to their purchased mineral counterparts.
Conclusion
Beets and carrots are everyone's favorite root vegetables. You can’t prepare everyone’s favorite dishes without them: rich borscht, herring under a fur coat and other various salads. Summer chores in the garden will provide you with delicious root vegetables. Support your plants using fertilizers, and they will thank you with a decent harvest.
