When and how to store carrots: harvest time

Autumn is approaching by leaps and bounds. The most pleasant and crucial moment is coming - harvest time ...

• How can you tell if your roots are ripe and ready for harvest?
• How to dig them up correctly, what to put in storage?

Answers to these and other similar questions will be devoted to this material, from which you will learn when and how to properly remove carrots for storage.

When to harvest carrots from the garden: optimal harvest time

Worth knowing! About 3-4 weeks, that is, about a month before the expected time of harvest, it is worth stopping all sorts of watering carrot beds, so as not to provoke root crops to cracking.

As a rule, the specific timing of the carrot harvest depends on a number of internal and external factors:

• varieties;
• external signs of maturation;
• weather conditions.

To correctly determine the moment when it is time to start digging carrots, it is worth considering the entire set of factors, in other words, your approach should be systematic and complex.

Varietal affiliation

Depending on the timing of ripening, carrots can be divided into: early, middle and late ripening.

If you have planted in your garden early varieties orange beauty (2-3 months from germination to harvest), then they can already be dug out starting from the middle of summer, about in July-August.

By the way! We hope that it will not be a secret for you that the early variety is primarily intended for use in food, it is just ideal for preparing summer vitamin salads and soups, as well as juice. Unfortunately, such carrots (also called bunches) do not imply long-term fresh storage.

Mid-season varieties most often ready for harvest 3-4 months after sowing in open ground, that is, approximately in August-early September.

Mid-season andlate varieties differ in the best keeping quality and it is they that are grown for winter storage. In most cases, late-ripening carrots (also called autumn carrots) are harvested in the first month of autumn, that is, inSeptember-early October, in other words, 4-5 months after sowing.

Thus, the variety directly affects the timing of when to start emptying the carrot beds.

Signs that the crop is ready for harvest

Note! The accumulation of nutrients and vitamins occurs in the last stage of carrot growth (at low positive temperatures, up to + 4..6 degrees), so you should not harvest before its ripening time.

You can understand that the time has come for harvesting from the garden for storage by the following external signs of carrot ripening:

• The main signal is that the lower leaves of the root have become yellow. Do not wait until the middle ones start to turn yellow, it's time to pull out the carrots.

Important! If all your tops have turned yellow and become lethargic, then this is a sign that the root crop is sick with something, and does not always and does not necessarily indicate its ripeness.

• You can determine the degree of maturity by the appearance of the carrot itself, which will not be a sin to get, so to speak, for testing. If its dimensions correspond to the description of the variety (on the seed package), and on the root crop itself there are thin white strings-roots, the vegetable is ready to be dug up.

Important! If you leave the root crop in the garden for too long, then it will overripe and may simply crack in the ground, thereby losing both any juiciness and suitability for long-term storage.

Weather conditions and approximate cleaning times for different regions

Important! You should not delay the harvesting time. All carrots should be dug out even before the first autumn frosts, because the root crop cannot and will not grow at temperatures below + 4-6 degrees.

However, when the weather is still very warm outside the window (above +10 .. + 15 degrees in the daytime), it is also undesirable to dig up carrots, because the sharp temperature drop that occurs when root crops are moved from the heated soil to a cold cellar will clearly not be beneficial and necessarily negatively affect the duration of its storage.

Note! Some summer residents believe that carrots should be removed from the garden immediately after frost, and beets - before their occurrence. However, as experience shows, this is nothing more than a myth: frozen carrots be kept will not be. Moreover, at subzero temperatures there is a possibility crop damage by gray mold.

Naturally, depending on the region of your residence and the corresponding climate, the specific timing of the carrot harvest will vary:

• For example, in the middle lane (Moscow region) you shouldn't wait and wait for the first October frosts, it is worth digging up the root crops in the second half in September.
• In the Urals and Siberia it is recommended to do this even earlier - in the first half of September.

Important! If frosts are not expected, then there is no need to rush to dig up the carrots in September; you can hold them in the ground until October ..

Video: how to determine the timing of harvesting carrots

How to properly dig carrots from the garden for storage

In addition to the fact that it is necessary to correctly determine the maturity of the root crops and choose the appropriate time for harvesting the carrots, it must also be properly removed from the garden, observing a certain simple technique of harvesting and preparing the root crop for storage.

Advice! It is better to choose a sunny or cloudy day, but, most importantly, it should be warm and without precipitation.

If you have short-fruited carrots, then theoretically they can be pulled out naked hands without the help of any additional tool, but only if the soil is not heavy, otherwise you can simply cut off its tops, and the root crop itself will remain in the ground.

For digging medium and long root crops are best used shovel or pitchfork... Moreover, it is advisable to just dig in, and not dig up the carrots from the garden, in order to then grab the tops and easily pull the root crop out of the ground.

Advice! If you dig with a shovel or a pitchfork, then be careful not to chop in half and do not pierce the roots with teeth, since damaged carrots will not be stored fresh for a long time, they will have to be eaten immediately.

Video: how to dig up carrots

Storage preparation

Leave the carrots to dry in the garden along with the tops for a couple of hours, but no more. In fact, if you leave it for a couple of days, the root vegetable can dry out and wither, as the green tops will simply suck out all the carrot juices. When the roots are dry, remove the tops with a knife or, even more practical,unscrew it with your hands. And at the end, you need to get rid of the adhering dirt with gloves, the dry earth will quickly fly off. But in no case can you wash under water!

How long to store carrots

Note! To keep carrots fresh, you need tocreate favorable conditions for its storage... How to do it correctly, as well as about the best ways to preserve orange root for a long time - read in this detailed material.

In order to harvest such a valuable and beloved vegetable as carrots as efficiently and without problems as possible, it is necessary to consider the degree of its maturity and the correct harvesting time. It will also be very important to pay special attention to the technique of cleaning it for storage.

Video: determining the maturity and timing of harvesting, as well as digging carrots from the garden for storage