Carrots are a food full of nutrients and vitamins, being an excellent source of vitamins A, B1, B2, B5 and C, as well as being rich in calcium, sodium and potassium. This root from central and southwestern Asia is not only full of benefits, it is also very tasty! And today we are going to teach you how to plant carrots in many different ways!
how to plant carrots with seeds
The most common way to start learning how to plant carrots is to use seeds in your garden. These seeds are usually sold in greengrocers and markets and can be a great start for your carrot planting!
The first step is to choose the right place for planting. Give preference to deep, well-draining soils, with plenty of fertilizers and organic materials, to ensure the good development of the carrot. Once you have chosen the location, make beds in your garden. These beds should have a width of 1 meter and a depth of 15 to 30 centimeters. Then dig in the ground the furrows where you will plant the carrot seed, 2 cm deep and 20 cm apart between each furrow.
Place three or four carrot seeds inside each groove and then cover with a thin layer of earth. After that, the next step in planting the carrot plant is to water the plant, watering it every day to keep the soil moist and never letting the place soak. If you followed all the steps correctly, your carrot stalk will start to sprout in a few days. After the seeds have started to germinate, you should maintain the seeds, removing the weakest ones and leaving the strongest ones to ensure better carrot development.
After that, continue the maintenance of the carrot plant, watering it daily, taking care of the garden and carrying out normal care. To know if the carrot is ready for harvest, you should pay attention to its foliage, which will start to yellow and wither, indicating that it is ready for harvest. The carrot takes about 120 days (four months) to reach this point, so it is good to take good care of it and start paying attention to the signs of harvest at the end of the third month.
This video also shows the planting process step by step in practice!
How to plant carrots with the stalk
The process of planting carrots with the stalk starts out of the ground. First, get a pot to put the stalk and water in, taking care not to cover the plant completely with water, as this will rot the stalk and prevent the carrots from growing. Keep the carrot in this pot of water for approximately ten days, long enough for the plant to start to grow.
After the first few days in the water pot, things are very similar to how to plant with seeds: make the bed in your garden with soil full of fertilizers, a depth of 15 to 30 centimeters and a width of 1 meter and dig furrows in the Earth. These grooves should be large enough to accommodate the carrot stalk, leaving the part that has already germinated out.
Water it daily and be careful not to soak your carrot stalk. After four months, when the signs that the carrot has ripened start to show, it will be ready for harvest!
How to plant carrots in a pet bottle
If you don’t have space for a vegetable garden, one of your options is to learn how to plant carrots in a pet bottle! For this, you’ll need a pet bottle at least a foot high, an airy place, and a carrot stalk, or seeds.
First let the stalk germinate in a pot of water, always remembering not to completely submerge the stalk. After ten days, the stalk will be germinating, and will be ready to be transplanted into the pet bottle.
The pet bottle used can be a two- or three-liter soda bottle, with the top cut off. Wash the pet bottle well and then drill holes in the bottom to drain off excess water. Finally, fill the bottle with soil and fertilizer and water the contents. With the soil fertilized and wet, make a hole and place the stalk. Cover the stalk leaving the twin part out of the ground and water every day while leaving the bottle in a cool, sunny place for most of the day.
If you are planting with seeds, the process is much simpler: instead of starting with the germination in the pot with water, you can go straight to the pet bottle. Dig a hole three centimeters deep and place three or four seeds per hole and wait ten days.
After the initial ten days, the seeds will start to germinate in a carrot stalk and you will need to remove the ones that grow less to make room for the seed that has grown stronger than the others. At all times, remember to water the plants daily, always without soaking the bottle.
Anyway, the growth process of the carrot plant is the same, with care, patience and lots of sun the carrot will be ready for harvest after four months, when the leaves start to wither and the base starts to turn yellow. This video is a visual demonstration of the process made with the carrot stalk, and it can help you a lot!
And now you know how to grow carrots!
There are also other ways to grow carrot plants, like planting carrots in PVC pipes, for example. This shape uses the same process as planting the carrot in the ground, but using a PVC pipe to separate the carrot stalk from the rest of the garden, giving the plant a lift and allowing it to germinate in much shallower gardens. You can experiment a lot with places to plant carrots and tell us your own ideas in the comments!
