On the eve of spring, amateur gardeners are becoming more active, they are starting to work on seed selection and preparing seedlings for planting on household plots. Among the vegetables that are usually planted in the vegetable gardens, a large place is occupied by potatoes, onions, carrots and beets. In the article we will consider popular varieties of carrots and try to determine what sort of its variety for what purposes will be the best.
When choosing carrot seeds for planting, you need to know what it will be designed for. Varieties of carrots can be divided into the following categories:
- selection - foreign and domestic;
- terms of maturation;
- the content of carotene;
- productivity;
- shelf life;
- color and shape.
Choosing between the varieties of carrots of foreign and domestic selection, it is necessary to remember that foreign selection mainly draws attention to the appearance of carrots: the size and smoothness of root crops, while their taste qualities suffer. Sorts of domestic selection also benefit from the content of carotene, flavor, shelf life and fitness for our climatic conditions.
Early varieties of carrots
Designed for rapid harvesting (May-July), which are not stored, but are immediately used for food. The best varieties: Amsterdam, Lenochka, Beloved, Nantes, Orange Muscat, Parisian caroton, Shantene 2461, Fairy; hybrids: Bangor, Yaya, News, Napoli.
Late carrot varieties
The shelf life of carrots directly depends on the timing of maturation, as the harvest is collected, the longer and better it is stored. Late varieties include Alenka, Berlikum Royal, Doljanoku, Golden Autumn, the Emperor, the Red Giant (or Rote Rizen), the Queen of Autumn, Morevna, Monastyrskaya, Olympus, Flacoro; from hybrids: Jobu, Canada, Cascade, Narbonne.
Varieties of carrots for long winter storage
For winter storage choose such varieties of carrots: Biryuchekutsk, Vitamin-6, Geranda, Gross, Cardinal, Autumn Queen, Losinoostrovskaya 13, Moscow Winter, Nantes-4, Samson, Flacoro, Forto, Shantene 2461; hybrids F1: Altair, Aristo, Askania, Basel, Cascade, Nigel, Nelix.
The sweetest varieties of carrots
These varieties are recommended for baby food, as they have a higher content of carotene and sugar. Such carrots are also good for people, whose activities are associated with a permanent job at the computer. To sweet carrot varieties include Children's Sweets, Children's Joy, Emperor, Karotan, Beauty girl, Loved, Nastenu, Orange boyfriend.
Among the types of carrots that are represented on the market, are of particular interest to those in which the root crop has an unusual color and shape:
- variety Dragon - bright purple carrots with orange center;
- White Belgian White - white carrot;
- grade Yellowstone Stone - yellow carrots;
- varieties Queen of Autumn, Joba, Delicatessen, Pharaoh - red carrots;
- varieties of the Parisian carothel, Round baby and Parmex - small round carrots.
Among the varieties of carrots, you can still distinguish a long red without a core, heartless (or Longe Rote) and Karotinka without a core.
For those people who grow it for sale and are interested in a very high yield, varieties will be of interest: Delicacies, Golden Autumn, Red Giant, Queen of Autumn, Flacoro, Lenochka, Red Corot, Romosa; hybrids: Anastasia, Coupar, Nandrin, Nectar, Nelix.
In 2011-2013, many new varieties of carrots appeared, among which the best are:
- Anastasia is a high-yield medium term maturing hybrid with a high content of carotene, which can be stored for up to 8 months. Its root crops are bright orange up to 22 cm long and weighing up to 160 g.
- Golden autumn is a high-yielding universal variety of late maturity, large even roots grow to 27 cm in length and weigh to 220 g.
- Lenochka is an early-ripening universal high-yielding variety, the root is even with a small middle weight of 150 g and a length of up to 16 cm. Carrots of this variety are resistant to rashness and do not crack .
When choosing the best varieties of carrots for planting, be sure to consider what kind of soil you have on the site. To ensure that you have been provided with this useful and tasty vegetable all year, it is best to plant a few varieties of carrots of different maturation periods.