Pre-winter crops of carrots, beets, and a number of other vegetables are very popular among Russian summer residents. Firstly, this significantly saves time at the height of the planting season, allowing attention to be given to a larger number of crops that people want to grow, and secondly, the same carrots, being a biennial crop, sown in the spring, are only suitable for consumption in the same year , namely the winter one can be stored for a long time. But by all indicators, it’s time to show up, but they’re still not there. Meanwhile, precious time goes on and on. What to do in such a situation? Let’s talk to an expert.
Agronomist Denis Terentyev answers:
— It is unnecessary to immediately grab your head and immediately start reseeding. Take your time. First, try to figure out the resources you already have. There can, of course, be many reasons why winter sowing fails.
The most common is seed quality. It is quite possible that you did not pre-calibrate them, weeding out dummies. It is no less likely that you missed the time for sowing or that there is something wrong with the soil and its composition.
Violations – voluntary or involuntary – with the depth of seeding cannot be ruled out: after all, in the fall they must not only be sown more (30 percent of the norm), but also planted deeper than when sowing in spring.
In a word, there may be a lot of reasons for failure, but you will not be able to accurately determine them now. Therefore, a priori, you need to convince yourself that there were no mistakes and try several reliable methods of stimulating seedlings.
To begin, carefully loosen the bed of winter sowing. Carefully, but carefully – there is an assumption that potential seedlings simply do not have enough oxygen. At the same time, you can add small doses of peat and sand – it is likely that all this together will contribute to the appearance of the desired seedlings.
Another stimulating measure is unscheduled additional (but not too abundant) feeding with basic elements. The greatest effect is achieved, as experience shows, with diluted chicken manure or granulated urea. These fertilizers should be applied between rows.
The possibility of hypothermia should also be ruled out. Try lightly spilling the garden bed with water at room temperature and cover it with film for a while, creating a greenhouse effect.
As a rule, all of the listed measures – with all other initial factors being equal – have a beneficial effect, and winter crops are born, subsequently giving the expected harvest. And only if they have no effect, you need to move on to reseeding. But not before.