How And What To Fertilize Carrots

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

The use of fertilizers when growing carrots

Carrots are one of the most important vegetable crops. Its roots contain a lot of vitamins, carbohydrates, readily soluble mineral salts, and have a high taste and dietary qualities.

They contain from 9 to 16% of dry matter, the main component of which is represented by sugars - glucose and sucrose (up to 9%). The amount of nitrogenous substances ranges from 1.10-1.20%, with most of them being protein. Carrot ash contains a lot of potassium, calcium, iron, phosphorus, as well as boron, bromine, manganese, copper and other elements.

Carrots contain a large amount of carotene, which in the human body is converted into vitamin A, which is necessary for the normal functioning of the body.

In addition, it improves vision, ensures the normal condition of the skin and mucous membranes of internal organs. To meet the daily requirement of an adult for vitamin A, 80-100 g of carrots are enough.

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The yield and quality of carrot root crops are largely determined by the fertilizers used. Organic fertilizers alone have much less effect on the quality of root crops than the use of full mineral fertilizers or in combination with humus.

The sugar content and the accumulation of carotene in carrots on sod-podzolic soils largely depend on the degree of their cultivation. So, when growing carrots on poorly cultivated soils with an acidic reaction of the environment, carbohydrate metabolism is disturbed - a significant amount of monosaccharides accumulates in the plant, and the synthesis of disaccharides becomes difficult. The use of complete mineral fertilizer on such soils significantly improves the quality of carrots.

Without the use of fertilizers, the quality of carrots is characterized by the following indicators: dry matter content - 11.8%, carotene - 6.8 mg%, sugar - 4.4%. With the introduction of complete mineral fertilization, root crops were obtained with a dry matter content of 13.0%, carotene 13.0 mg% and sugar 5.5%.

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The effect of certain types of mineral fertilizers on the yield and quality of carrots is manifested in different ways and depends on the types of soils, their cultivation and the availability of mobile forms of macro- and microelements. Nitrogen fertilizers, as a rule, have a positive effect on the carotene content in root crops, improve protein metabolism, but sometimes reduce the sugar and dry matter content.

However, with excess nitrogen nutrition, carrot roots grow watery. Due to the excessive development of xylem cells, their core acquires a loose constitution, sometimes hollowness appears. In addition, with excess nitrogen nutrition, root crops accumulate a lot of non-protein nitrogen, which is a favorable food for fungi and bacteria. As a result, root crops are more susceptible to various diseases. Their safety in winter is reduced, they are capable of strong germination. In winter, during storage, they lost 17.8% of dry matter, 10.7% of sugars and 8.4% of carotene, the natural loss of carrots increased 2-2.5 times.

Unlike nitrogen fertilizers, phosphorus fertilizers insignificantly affect the accumulation of carotene in carrots, but the sugar content of root crops increases markedly under their influence. In carrot plants undergoing phosphorus starvation, inorganic nitrogen compounds accumulate, and protein synthesis slows down. Phosphate fertilizers increase the dry matter content in root crops from 10.37 to 11.21%, total sugar - from 6.05 to 7.58%, crude protein - from 9.7 to 10.1% and carotene - from 10.2 up to 12.4 mg%.

Potash fertilizers play an important role in improving the quality of the carrot crop. With a lack of this element in carrots, carbohydrate metabolism is disturbed. A significant amount of monosaccharides accumulates in the leaves, the movement of carbohydrates from leaves to roots slows down, photosynthesis and the conversion of simple sugars into complex ones are disrupted.

The use of potassium fertilizers increases the intensity of photosynthesis and increases the accumulation in root crops, first of all, of disaccharides, carotene, and dry matter content. Potassium fertilizers at a dose of 9 g of active ingredient per 1 m² against the background of nitrogen and phosphorus increased the dry matter content in carrots from 10.6 to 11.0%, carotene - from 8.0 to 13.5 mg% and sugars - from 2. 1 to 4.1%.

Potash fertilizers, along with improving the quality, improve the safety of root crops during winter storage. So, the loss of carrots during six-month storage was: without the use of fertilizers - 13.3%, with the introduction of K9 there were no losses, with the use of N6P9 - the losses were 20.1%, and the application of N6P6K18 reduced the losses to 13.2%.

Boron, copper, zinc, cobalt and other microelements play a significant role in increasing the yield and improving the quality of carrots. They contribute to an increase in the content of chlorophyll in the leaves, delay their aging, and enhance growth processes. Under the influence of microelements, the susceptibility of carrots to diseases decreases both during the growing season and during winter storage. Trace elements can be used in the form of foliar feeding of plants with solutions; by dusting or soaking seeds, as well as by introducing them into the soil together with macrofertilizers.

Dusting carrot seeds with zinc increased the yield to 5.58 kg (without fertilizers - 4.87 kg). Along with this, a slight increase in the carotene content in root crops was observed.

Foliar feeding of carrots with solutions of boric acid and copper sulfate increased the amount of chlorophyll in the leaves from 3 to 33%. When storing carrots for 200 days, the disease susceptibility of root crops was 3-5 times lower than without microelements.

Soaking carrot seeds with solutions of boron, molybdenum, and zinc increased the carotene content in root crops by 3-5%. Soaking the seeds with a 0.1% solution of cobalt sulfate increased the carotene content from 14.6 to 19.6%. Soaking carrot seeds in solutions of copper sulfate and succinic acid helps to reduce the number of root crops rotted during storage.

Pre-sowing dusting of seeds with boron, copper and molybdenum significantly increased the yield, and also improved the quality of carrot roots. Thus, the yield of carrots without the use of microelements was 2.78 kg, when the seeds were powdered with boron, it increased to 3.13 and when powdered with copper - up to 3.23 kg. The carotene content changed accordingly as follows: 3.06; 4.45 and 4.67 mg% on a crude basis. The amount of sugar in carrots with the introduction of microelements was as follows: in the control - 6.68%, with the introduction of boron - 8.00 and copper - 7.81%.

When growing carrots against the background of applying manure 6 kg / m², urea 15-20 g / m², superphosphate 25-40, potassium chloride 25-30 g / m², boric acid 0.5, copper sulfate 0.5, cobalt sulfate 0, 5 and ammonium molybdate 0.1 g / m², the cost of fertilizers will be 6-7 rubles / m², which will easily pay off even with a small crop.