When is the best time to harvest carrots and beets? When to dig beets and carrots: the exact timing of the harvest. How to store carrots

It is extremely important to remove carrots from the beds in time. Dig early - she will not have time to mature and accumulate enough vitamins. Collect late - lose taste and keeping quality. There are several signs by which you can accurately determine optimal time harvesting this vegetable.

It is clear that it makes no sense to harvest carrots early - it has not yet grown and grown stronger, therefore it will be difficult to preserve the fruits. In addition, a slight cooling is good for her: she begins to gain weight, accumulate the bulk of vitamins and sugars. By this time, the foliage has ceased to form, and all the nutrients are sent to the fruits.

But even until late autumn it cannot be kept in the ground, because unharvested carrots can start up new roots, and the flesh will become loose and tasteless. In addition, with sudden frosts, it can freeze or get sick, and this affects storage.

Sometimes carrots are left until spring right in the ground. But you need to prepare for this in advance - they choose a special place for sowing seeds, observe a special watering regime and cut the tops correctly.

First of all, the ripening time depends on the varieties, and each has individual characteristics:

  • purpose (storage, processing or eating fresh fruits);
  • growing season (time from germination to maturity);
  • features of agricultural technology.

All this is easy to find out even before sowing, as indicated on the seed bags.

Ripening of early ripe varieties

Early carrots ripen 85-100 days after germination, they are harvested first. It is not stored for storage. Young carrots are not suitable for harvesting, but they are good for eating fresh - the juiciest and sweetest.

You can collect it from the end of June, when the fruits reach 1 cm in diameter. Do it gradually, as needed. First of all, they pull out where it grows densely. The remaining fruits receive more nutrition and are poured faster.

It is impossible to leave holes in the ground after pulling out the roots, so that pests do not penetrate the remaining fruits. These holes should be immediately covered with soil.

Harvesting of early carrots is completed until mid-July.

Ripening mid-season varieties

In mid-season carrots, 105-120 days pass from germination to ripening.
After this period, mid-ripening carrots should not be harvested. She does not like prolonged autumn rains. And in bad weather it loses to a large extent beneficial features and taste.

Mid-season carrots also will not last until spring, so they are not laid for a long time. But still, in a suitable storage location, mid-ripening carrots will not lose their qualities for several months.

Ripening late varieties

Late-ripening varieties ripen from 125 days. AT good conditions can be stored for more than 7 months without losing taste and density.

They are not afraid of frost, resistant to diseases. It is in the autumn days that late carrots gain more vitamins.

Such carrots are harvested at a time when the air temperature is about + 4 ° C, but not lower than -3 ° C.
It is advisable to remove it before the onset of cold weather, until constant night frosts begin.

Terms of harvesting varieties planted before winter

Since autumn (in November), carrots are sown for an early harvest. Early maturing varieties are suitable for sowing.

Such vegetables are not suitable for storage for the winter. But already in mid-June, you can pull large young shoots from the garden. It is used in salads, for cooking vegetable dishes, eaten fresh, make delicious vitamin juices.

How to determine that it's time to remove carrots from the garden

Each variety of carrots is dug up at its own time, but there are general recommendations.

In order not to miss the cleaning time, you should consider:

  • growing region;
  • weather conditions;
  • signs of biological ripeness;
  • variety features.

Taking into account all factors will ensure long-term preservation of root crops.

Dependence on the region of cultivation

Of course, the timing of harvesting carrots depends on the area where vegetables are grown.

Approximate times:

A lot also depends on the weather.

The influence of weather on the timing of harvesting carrots

In the last month of the growing season, carrots accumulate most of useful substances. Nevertheless, it is impossible to delay too much with its cleaning.

Autumn weather is changeable, besides, one year is very different from another. Therefore, when choosing the time for harvesting carrots, be sure to take into account the weather forecast. According to the calendar, this could be the end of August, the end of September, or even October.

If the temperature is above +10°C, cleaning should be postponed until the onset of cool days. The fact is that warm fruits do not store well.

It is worth fearing both rains (carrots will begin to grow new roots or crack) and cold weather.

It is removed according to the weather:

  • before the onset of the rainy season;
  • when the temperature is set at about + 8– + 4 ° С;
  • no later than the thermometer scale drops below -2°C.

The timing of ripening depends on how warm and dry the summer was. In consistently hot weather, the fruits ripen faster, so you will have to harvest earlier.

In wet and cold summers, the ripening time increases. Then they are removed from the garden later.
The main landmark is the signs of biological ripeness.

Signs of ripe carrots

ripe carrots bright color, fragrant, tasty, strong and crunchy. By this time, all its leaves darken, and the lower ones turn yellow together.

If the fruits began to crack, this means that the time has already passed to harvest, and you urgently need to get the carrots out of the ground in order to save the crop. This is also indicated by the growth of white lateral roots.

Completely yellowed and wilted tops of carrots are a sign of disease and also a signal for immediate harvesting.

Also, do not wait for the fruits to grow more than it should be according to the characteristics of the variety: overgrowing, they are poorly stored.

How to properly dig from the garden

Subject to all requirements for harvesting, the fruits can be stored until the next harvest.
In order for carrots to gain more nutrients and get stronger for long-term storage, they prepare for digging them in advance.

It is necessary to stop watering the beds 2-4 weeks before the expected harvest date. Fertilization is stopped in a month.

How to choose a day

Dig up carrots on a cool, dry day. If harvested in rainy weather, the roots will pick up too much moisture, so they can rot if saved.

When the weather is colder than -3 ° C, it is also not worth digging carrots - they will freeze and become unsuitable not only for storage, but also for eating.

Rules for harvesting carrots

Carrots must be harvested carefully, the main thing is not to damage the fruit. You can pull short-fruited varieties with your hands, but long-fruited varieties will definitely require tools.

It is better to dig a little, then pull the carrots by the tops. Otherwise, the leaves may break off, then you have to look for roots in the ground.

When cleaning:

  • they dig not with a shovel, but with a pitchfork;
  • they dig the ground a few centimeters from the roots;
  • in order not to break, the roots pull vertically upwards, without swinging from side to side;
  • the stuck earth is carefully cleaned by hand.

If the ground is heavy or dry, water the bed before harvesting. Do this for a day, but not too plentifully.

Mud pruning

Be sure to cut the tops immediately after digging up the carrots.

The fact is that the roots through the leaves immediately begin to lose moisture and wither. Tina, in turn, will draw nutrients from the roots. It can rot or become moldy, and this will greatly harm the fruit.

Leaves are removed by breaking them off from the root with your hands or cutting them off with a knife.

Do this:

  • to the very root;
  • cutting off 2 mm of the fruit to prevent spring germination;
  • leaving a small tail (for fruits intended for planting on seeds).

Sharp tools are used for trimming.

Preparing for storage

To keep carrots well, you need to properly prepare them.

Damaged fruits

Smooth healthy root crops are laid for storage. Therefore, carrots are first sorted: any vegetable wounds easily penetrate the infection. A diseased fruit will certainly infect neighboring plants.

Fruits that are cut, broken, or otherwise damaged are set aside for food or processing. Roots with cracks, sluggish, frozen or damaged by pests are also not suitable for storage.

Drying

Vegetables selected for long-term storage are dried. This is necessary even when they look dry on the outside. The place to cut the greens should also dry well.

For a short time, especially if white roots have already appeared, you can leave it in the sun.
It is better not to wash carrots before saving. But sometimes, especially if the vegetables are harvested in rainy autumn, heavily polluted, it has to be done. Wash the vegetable with cool or lukewarm water.

Root crops washed or simply peeled from the ground are laid out in one layer in a dark, dry room. Until completely dry, they are kept for several hours, and sometimes days. But not long enough for her to fade.

Dangerous for the safety of the crop and the situation when carrots are harvested in warm weather and immediately transferred to a cold place: the vegetable does not tolerate strong temperature changes.
Before lowering into the cellar, the temperature of the fruit must be aligned with the temperature of the storage place. They are laid out in one layer at a temperature of about + 6– + 8 ° С for two to ten days, and only then they are taken to the basement.

To keep carrots for a long time, they can be processed. For example, sprinkle the entire root crop or only the cut top with crushed chalk.

Carrot storage

Store the crop in a dark, well-ventilated basement, cellar or caisson. The best temperature is 0–+1°C, humidity is about 90%. It is advisable to treat the storage with a sulfur checker in order to get rid of germs and viruses.

More often, carrots are put in cardboard or plastic boxes (boxes).

To preserve fruits, use:

  • sand, which should be slightly damp;
  • a mixture of sand with fluffy lime in a ratio of 10: 1;
  • needles;
  • peat;
  • sawdust;
  • sphagnum moss.

The roots are laid at a distance from each other in rows, sprinkling with a centimeter layer of the selected material. The lower and upper layers are bedding.

You can store root crops in plastic bags or bags. The fruits must be well dried, in the package - ventilation holes are made.

This vegetable is stored very well in a clay crust: each root is dipped in a “talker”, dried and put into boxes. For 10 kg of carrots, 3 kg of clay will be required.

It is better to place the container on the racks. If not, you can put boards or bricks.
To scare away rodents, wormwood is laid out around.

How to save in the winter at home

In a warm room, carrots do not store well. The only safe place is the refrigerator. Of course, this is only suitable for a small part of the crop.

Root crops are placed in the vegetable compartment, wrapped in paper.

The second way: washed, cut and well-dried carrots, one root at a time, are tightly wrapped in cling film. Then they take 3-4 pieces and wrap them tightly with a film in several more layers. Thus, carrots can be stored for at least a year.

Growing root crops very often involves further storage for a long time. But in order to have enough vegetables for the whole winter, you need to know when to dig beets and carrots. If you skip the time of harvesting root crops, they can freeze or overripe and become tasteless. Harvesting too early will prevent the plants from ripening.

How to understand that it's time to dig up beets and carrots

Experienced gardeners say that for beets and carrots, the average harvest time is the end of September. But this is typical only for central Russia, including the Moscow region. In the south, you can take your time and postpone the harvesting of vegetables until a later period.

A dry autumn day is best for digging up root crops, when the temperature is set at + 4-0 degrees.

Beetroot does not tolerate frost well, so it must be removed for storage at the first forecasts for a significant cooling. Otherwise, the root crop will be poorly stored and will quickly become unusable. But for carrots, sharp drops in temperature are not terrible. Nevertheless, it often falls under the cleaning along with the beets.

You need to focus not only on the weather, but also on the size of root crops. Medium-sized vegetables lend themselves best to long-term storage. Carrots should not be small or huge, a diameter of 8 cm is enough. Large fruits are of little use for wintering.

When to do it

Experienced gardeners say that root crops should be removed for long-term storage at the end of September. But this applies only to those fruits that have reached a certain size. If carrots and beets turned out to be small, they can be left until the end of October. But after the vegetables will be suitable only for short-term storage.

Experienced vegetable growers advise harvesting beets and carrots by hand, using a pitchfork or a shovel only in extreme cases, if you don’t have enough strength to get the root crop out of the ground

Some gardeners are guided by varieties. This is a good option, as it allows you to calculate fairly accurate dates for collection. The instructions for each pack of seeds always indicate the time that must elapse from the moment of planting. planting material until the fruits are fully ripe.

Terms of digging up root crops by region in 2018

When to dig in Siberia

Siberian gardeners try to choose varieties that ripen in 80–90 days. This will allow you to harvest root crops at the end of August or at the very beginning of September. If you plan to land mid-season variety carrots or beets, seedlings are initially grown. So the period of plant growth in open ground is significantly reduced.

The tops from beets and carrots are immediately removed so that they do not take up nutrients.

Dates in the south of the country

In the Kuban and Crimea, they are usually in no hurry to collect root crops for winter storage. Here you can not be afraid of frost. The main thing is not to let the vegetables overripe, and also to choose right time for digging. This should not be a rainy period, since picking carrots and beets from wet beds threatens that the crop will not last even a month.

To get a high-quality crop of carrots and beets, root crops need to be dug up in time. Also great importance has and proper storage vegetables.

Cleaning is the most troublesome, but in some ways the most enjoyable time for a gardener. For the most part, the final "chords" of the end of the season "sound" in the fall. Although due to climate change the timing of harvesting many vegetables has been shifted somewhat, general rules relevant to this day. Each vegetable has its own harvest period.

If you followed the advice from the article, then you should have a lot of carrots. Now we will find out when and how to collect it for storage.




Ever since childhood, when I helped my grandmother with harvesting vegetables, I firmly remembered that cabbage should be “hardened” by the first slight autumn frost (-1 ... -3 ° C). But harvesting begins long before the “cabbage marathon”, immediately after, and usually falls on the second week of September.

Then I did not understand why sometimes new varieties of carrots that were not tested by time did not survive the winter, sometimes even half of the root crops did not live up to it. There are several reasons for this:

  1. Different period of ripening of carrots.
  2. Untimely collection of carrots.
  3. Violation of carrot storage technology.
  4. Weather.

When to Harvest Carrots

Some gardeners sow carrots before winter or use varieties early term maturation so that in the middle of summer it was possible to collect young sweet carrots. Such carrots, as a rule, are unsuitable for long-term storage. If you skip the harvesting period of early carrots, it often cracks in the ground, loses all its juiciness and, as a result, taste qualities.

Carrots in the garden

At one time I sowed early varieties for bunched carrots. It is desirable to collect such carrots when its diameter reaches 1 cm. It makes excellent vitamin children's soups and salads.

average maturity need to grow 80-110 days. Also, yellowing lower leaves can indicate its maturity. Overdosing carrots in the soil should not be, otherwise the flesh will be loose and the taste will deteriorate.

The opinion that the tops should be yellowed and lethargic is also erroneous. This is a sign of a diseased root crop, but not of its maturity.

Pure carrot
late deadline maturation(more than 110 days) , otherwise - autumn carrots. It is collected in the fall in the first 2 weeks of September, but with an eye to weather conditions - the day should not be rainy.

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More and more often I hear from the same amateur gardeners that carrots should be left until the first small sub-zero temperature. But I categorically disagree with this, having removed more than one hectare of carrots from my grandmother in the village in childhood. At sub-zero temperatures, carrots often begin to be affected by gray rot. As a result, you can lose the crop.

But you should not dig up carrots too early. The temperature difference will also prove to be unfavorable during storage. If the air temperature outside is even more than + 20 ° C, you do not need to abruptly move the carrots to a cold cellar, wait until the air temperature drops and the carrots stop growing.

Coolness for carrots is more desirable, as at this time it accumulates sugar. When the air temperature reaches +4°C, carrots will stop growing. After the establishment in September of good weather and low temperatures, feel free to get down to business.

How to harvest carrots

Having dealt with the question of when exactly to start harvesting, it is important not to lose sight of how exactly you need to harvest in order to get a well-stored product. A month before harvesting carrots, we completely stopped watering it so as not to provoke growth or cracking.


For collection, the grandmother chose a sunny, fairly warm day, without waiting for the night frosts to begin. Digging carrots mostly with pitchforks. Undermined and pulled out of the soil by the tops. They carefully lifted it with the ground and cleaned the root crop from the ground with their hands.

I am a supporter of digging, and not digging up carrots completely with a shovel. If you just pull even short root crops without digging, and even in heavy soil, the tops can remain in your hands, and carrots in the ground. If you dig with a shovel, make sure that there is no damage to the root crop, the wounded vegetable is stored poorly.

After the crop is dug up, cut off the greens. I twist the tops with my hands, this prolongs the shelf life. I have heard more than once that you need to leave the carrots on the ridge with the tops to dry. But in fact, the tops draw nutrients from the root crop. For my rabbit, it is much more useful than dug up carrots.

And you don’t need to dry the carrots for long, you shouldn’t wait for the root crop to dry. Otherwise, the pulp will no longer have sufficient juiciness and keeping quality.

Now I intuitively know when it's time to dig carrots. But at first, in order to test myself, I dug up a couple of root crops, examined and tried it.

Carrots, like other vegetable crops, should be harvested on time so that they can be stored well all winter.

Most likely, the question of when to harvest carrots from the garden, in general, would not have arisen if the weather conditions were bad: in cold and rainy weather, any gardener seeks to harvest quickly so that the root crops do not start to rot on the vine.

On the one hand, with a decrease in air temperature in the first autumn month, September, the growth of the aerial part slows down or completely stops, and the vegetable crop concentrates all its forces on the ripening of the root crop: it increases its size, while accumulating vitamins and microelements. It seems that I want to give carrots such an opportunity - to grow bigger and sweeter.

On the other hand, if you are late with harvesting, then the carrots will begin to grow again: they will release new roots. Probably, you have already met with such a phenomenon: you dig up carrots, and it is shaggy from the roots. This is not good, because during the secondary growth wave, carrots take strength from the root, which worsens its vitamin properties, and the quality of storage is sharply reduced.

Usually, re-growth is observed in fairly warm weather, but moderately humid: when the gentle sun warms during the day, rains dose the soil, and night temperatures do not fall below 10 degrees.

Here, just in such weather, there is a risk of overexposure of carrots in the garden.

When to Harvest Carrots

When do you need to harvest carrots so that on time and without deterioration in quality due to weather conditions?

If the carrot is large, then this is not even discussed: by this criterion, for sure, part of the garden you have is already devastated (for salads or blanks).


When do you need to harvest carrots and what signs of maturity should you be guided by?

But, there are several more good signs or reasons when you should remove carrots from the garden immediately or focus on a specific date:

  1. one or two leaves from the bush have already turned yellow and this indicates that the root ripening process has ended. Such a carrot can be pulled out without hesitation. Carrots are not potatoes: you can’t wait until all the tops turn yellow and wither, then it will be too late to just throw them away.
  2. pull out a couple of root crops in the garden and if the carrots are hairy from the roots, then immediately remove them: as mentioned earlier, this is a sign of re-growth that needs to be stopped immediately.
  3. if the pulled out carrot is cracked, then this happens not only from excessive moisture, which is also not good, but also from the overripeness of the root
  4. on a pack of carrot seeds that you have sown, they usually write that from germination to technical maturity 80-100 days. If you sowed on May 15, seedlings sprouted on June 2, then you can aim to harvest the carrot bed on September 2-12.
  5. collect carrots of mid-season and late varieties (intended for cultivation for storage) should be a month before the onset of frost. You can approximate this period. For example, if in your area night temperatures drop to zero at the end of September, then, accordingly, you need to harvest carrots at the end of August. You can’t wait for frosts, like carrots will be sweeter, because this is not true: a frozen vegetable will not be stored, it will rot very quickly and must be immediately put on blanks or on the table.
  6. Since ancient times, it has been believed that carrots should be harvested before September 13, the day Kupriyan or Crane Veche-the beginning of the flight of cranes to warmer climes. Previously, September was called a “food supply”, because until September 13, not only carrots were harvested, but also other vegetables (potatoes, beets, turnips, rutabaga, pumpkins, zucchini) and fruits (apples, pears).

It is not clear how relevant it is in the current conditions of unforeseen climate change to focus on old dates and folk signs, but try to fix the day of the cranes' departure in order to correct the shift in weather conditions in your region. In our country, for example, in central Russia, for the second year already, all the seasons (spring, summer, autumn, winter) have moved forward a month. Maybe everything will return to normal?

When to Harvest Carrots in 2018

What astrologers say when to harvest carrots in 2018 according to the lunar calendar:

  1. cleaning cannot be done on the days of the full moon and on the new moon. These days a man should not interfere and interrupt life vegetable crops, from which plants become stressed and they begin to lose their vitality in the shortest possible time. In ordinary language: they will not be stored, but will wither and dry out very quickly.
  2. in 2018, such days in August are August 11 (New Moon) and August 26 (Full Moon), and in September: September 9 (New Moon) and September 25 (Full Moon).
  3. for long-term storage of root crops, you need to choose days for the waning moon. The growing moon is favorable only for inches. Not all days on the waning moon are suitable for harvesting exactly carrots. different reasons including September 13, 2018.
  4. Astrologers recommend at the end of August -29 and 31 August, and in September, specifically, only on September 3 in the sign of Gemini (23 lunar day) the collection of fruits that are in the ground: carrots, potatoes, beets, rutabagas, turnips. And also, don't mind September 7th (in the sign of Leo).
  5. In the second half of September, we can recommend the days of the waning moon: September 26, 29, 30. If you have late carrots and a favorable climate, then at the end of September you can harvest a wonderful crop of carrots, given that in your region the first frosts will be only at the end of October. And also, it is appropriate to harvest at the end of September early varieties of carrots planted in the second term (in June and July), even in the regions of central Russia, but taking into account the weather: according to meteorologists (in our region), the temperature will be below zero at night for the first time ( -2 degrees) just on September 29.30, and daytime on October 21.

Summing up the question of when to remove carrots from the garden, you need to focus on the carrot variety, planting date, climate, weather conditions, weather forecast for the next month, and obvious signs of carrot ripening.

Digging up carrots and beets at the right time allows you to get square meter maximum yield. Timely harvested root crops have time to gain taste, contain a large number of vitamins and nutrients are stored longer in cellars and vegetable stores. Root crops harvested at the wrong time lose their quality. Carrots and beets that are not dug up at the right time may be too small or too large, tasteless and spoil quickly.

You can leave carrots on the beds until the first frost: this vegetable will only become sweeter from a slight cooling. Beets, on the other hand, are afraid of cold weather and can rot if left in the ground for a long time.

Factors affecting the harvesting of root crops

The time for digging carrots and beets depends on several circumstances:

  • weather;
  • varieties;
  • agricultural technology.

In vegetables, early, middle and late varieties are distinguished. Everyone is removed at a certain time. The package of seeds indicates how many days should pass from emergence of seedlings to harvest.

Digging up root crops should be carried out in dry weather. In rainy and cold autumn, carrots and beets are dug up earlier, in warm and dry - later. With good agricultural technology, root crops ripen faster. Lack of plant care leads to the fact that even early varieties ripen late.

One of the signs of the readiness of root crops for harvesting is the withering of the lower part of the tops. The drying of the leaves indicates that the maturation of the underground part is completed. In such cases, do not rush to dig. If autumn is dry and warm, harvesting can be delayed, as root crops are better stored in the ground than in the cellar.

Most important rule when harvesting root crops: carrots are harvested after the first frost, and beets - without waiting for the cold weather.

harvesting carrots

Carrots tolerate cold well and even slight freezing of the soil. Many gardeners have noticed that after a slight frost, carrots only become sweeter. In vegetable farms, a situation often arises when carrots are dug after the first snow has fallen on the soil. Late harvesting does not affect the quality of carrot roots. Having cooled in the ground, the orange vegetable subsequently lies well in the cellars, as it managed to prepare for storage still in the ground.

Signs that it's time to dig carrots:

  • It freezes at night, to the point that at night it freezes the soil, but it thaws in the sun.
  • The first snow falls, but the average daily temperatures are still positive.
  • Carrots have yellower tops (especially the lower leaves).
  • Lateral roots begin to form (this means that the root crop is fully formed and is preparing to give seeds).

If you are late with harvesting carrots, you can use this technique: they still roll green tops or bend them to the ground. Leaves protect the soil from freezing, closing from cold air. In this case, the roots will not freeze. It is necessary to stop watering vegetables one to two weeks before the planned digging.

After harvesting, the carrots are not dried, but only the tops are cut off from them, leaving petioles 1 cm long, and then laid out in boxes and baskets and lowered into the cellar. Carrot roots have a lot of moisture, but if there is sufficient ventilation in the cellar, they will not rot.

Beet digging

Beets are more thermophilic than carrots. At temperatures below zero, it freezes and begins to rot right in the soil. The protruding part of the root crop may freeze, and then the crop will rot. A particularly dangerous combination low temperatures air and high humidity soil.

Of all root crops, beets are dug up first - earlier than potatoes, and even more so carrots. In the Moscow region and central Russia, root crops are dug up from mid-September to early October. In Siberia, beets are harvested much earlier - in early September.

Protruding parts of root crops are vulnerable to frost

Beets are dug up at an average daily temperature of at least +5 degrees. It is not worth collecting it earlier - you need to give it the opportunity to pour juice. At the end of August, sugar begins to accumulate in root crops. Sucrose, on which the sweetness of beets depends, begins to be deposited in root crops 5-7 days before their full maturity. The dug out beets are dried a little and put in bags and boxes, then put away for the winter in the cellar.

The biological signs that determine that the beets are ready for digging are as follows:

  • tubercles appear on the head of the upper part of the root crop;
  • the lower leaves wilt.

The table below shows the approximate dates for harvesting carrots and beets by region:

Region

Beet

Carrot

Kirov region

Early October

End of October - beginning of November

Bashkiria

First half of September

Second half of September

Udmurtia