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Spring work in the garden. Soil: preparing the site for spring planting Preparing the soil for spring

After harvesting, garden beds need to be properly prepared for the spring sowing season, the most best time for this it is autumn. In addition to preparing the beds, it is necessary to remove and burn the vegetable tops left after harvesting, and carry out a set of necessary measures to create warm beds. This article contains all the necessary steps to prepare your garden for winter. Proper preparation of the garden for the winter is a guarantee of a rich harvest.

In autumn, it is necessary to collect plant residues from the garden plot.

To ensure a vegetable harvest next year, preparing beds in the fall is necessary and important event. Work in the garden should begin with removing tops and weeds from the beds. Old grass is a favorite wintering place for garden pests and rodents, so preparing your beds for winter begins with thoroughly cleaning them.

Tops of vegetable plants, plant debris and weeds can be destroyed in two ways:

Burn – when plant residues are burned, pathogens are destroyed infectious diseases and pests. The ash can be used to fertilize beds and garden trees.
Prepare compost - this method of disposing of weeds takes longer than burning, but the resulting nutrient substrate will help to inexpensively and efficiently increase the fertility of garden beds.

How to prepare compost correctly

Winter compost should be prepared slightly differently than summer compost. Vegetable residues that are not removed from the soil are suitable for composting. summer cottage, including not only vegetable tops, but also branches of trees and shrubs, weeds, household waste, animal manure, bird droppings.

It is very important that in winter the compost heap does not freeze, is not washed away by precipitation and is not exposed to wind, so it must be done according to all the rules.

It is very important to ensure the decomposition of the ingredients in the winter, for which it is necessary to prepare a rectangular shallow hole in the ground, at the bottom of which cut branches of bushes and trees are laid. Then weeds and waste are layered, layered with manure and bird droppings.

It is useful to add double superphosphate, potash fertilizers, ash, lime or dolomite flour to the compost heap. For better air exchange The side and end walls are laid with narrow poles. The height of the compost heap should not exceed 1.2 meters from the bottom of the trench, while the depth into the ground is assumed to be 0.5 - 0.8 m. The heap is watered with infusion of weeds, diluted slurry. Soil is laid on top with a layer of 30 cm, the dock sides are covered with a thinner layer of soil and protected from rain.

The components included in the compost rot by the beginning of summer, allowing you to obtain a nutrient additive to the soil that doubles fertility, and at the same time get rid of garbage and weeds.

Preparing the beds

Tool for digging and loosening beds.

Preparing the garden for wintering includes digging up the beds, which can be done in the classic way by radically digging up the beds. In this case, large clods are not broken up, leaving them until spring. With such autumn digging, moisture is well retained in large clods of garden soil, so when leveling the soil in the spring, the percentage of moisture remains high.

The second option for processing a vegetable garden in the fall is to superficially loosen the soil to a depth of no more than 5 cm, for which a Fokina flat cutter is used. It is useful to mulch loosened soil with sawdust and ash; sometimes it is practiced to sow green manure grasses, the shoots of which are embedded in the soil when digging in the spring.

Preparing the soil for winter involves creating a balanced ecological system in the garden, closest to natural natural conditions using mulch and sowing green manure.

Green manure for winter sowing

The roots of green manure penetrate deeply into the soil, loosening it.

A reliable way to restore soil fertility is to sow green manure, which does not require large expenses when planting. Green manure is one or more annual crops (mixture) that quickly increase green mass and develop powerful root system. The root system of grasses penetrates into the deep layers of the soil, loosening and enriching its composition. The above-ground part of the plants serves for snow retention, is used as mulch when mowing, and is embedded in the soil (green manure).

Green manure is used based on its purpose and desired end result:

Loosening the soil - rye, mustard, oats, and rapeseed are ideal for loosening heavy soil in garden beds.
Disinfection of soil from pathogenic diseases of vegetable crops - winter sowing of a mixture of crops is used, which includes rapeseed, mustard, marigolds, calendula and oats.
Increasing soil fertility - a mixture of vetch with oats or rye, mustard with legumes, alfalfa, sweet clover.
Mulching – phacelia, vetch, alfalfa.

Sowing of green manure herbs can be done scattered or in rows in prepared beds after the autumn harvest of vegetable crops. A properly prepared garden can provide high yield next year.

Sowing vegetables before winter

For early ripening of some vegetable crops, their seeds can be sown in beds in the fall. The harvest of winter vegetables is characterized by early ripening and high vitamin value.

In the fall, you can sow many garden crops; good yields can be obtained by growing carrots, beets, radishes, lettuce, dill, root parsley, celery, and spinach.

Beds for pre-winter planting of vegetables are selected in a dry open area, where the soiling of the beds by groundwater and melt water is prevented. It is useful to protect crops from the directional north wind, and also to mulch the beds with compost or peat. The seeds will be able to successfully overwinter under reliable shelter and produce their first shoots in early spring.

It should be remembered that seed consumption at winter sowing vegetables can double in size.

After all, “a spring day feeds the whole year.” For summer residents, this proverb is like a law, so with the arrival of the first warmth they rush to their plots. Nothing can stop the start of the gardening season, not sudden snow, not still cold wind, not rain. What you need to do in the spring to guarantee yourself good harvest?

Preparing beds in spring - a reminder for beginning gardeners

When preparing the soil in spring, the first thing you need to do is remove what is left in the garden from last year. Plants that were used for snow retention in winter should be disposed of.

Mulching

The easiest way to dispose of plant waste is to collect and put it in a compost heap. But there is a better option. If branches and plant residues are processed into mulch, the soil on the site will receive additional organic matter and will not become depleted.

There is a lot for this useful tool – garden shredder. It is designed for crushing various garden waste of plant origin: branches, tree bark, stems, leaves, weeds, corn cobs and others. All of this can easily be turned into wonderful organic mulch.

Wood chips take quite a long time to decompose - almost 5 years, but this is how Canadians restore soil fertility on depleted lands. Mulching not only enriches the soil with natural useful elements, but also retains moisture in it, protects plants from overheating and recurrent frosts. Thanks to the shredder, the garden becomes more well-groomed.

Weed control

Of course, it is better to border the beds and add the imported soil in layers, interspersing it with organic matter. An example of such a global improvement in soil structure can be seen in our experience of constructing a high bed - we also purchased fertile soil there.

Top dressing

Fertilizing in the spring is a very important agrotechnical practice. It is best to use organic matter: humus, compost, weed infusions. It is last year’s unripe compost that can be used during deep digging (if you decide to dig, of course). It will help to grow a good harvest of pumpkins: cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins. These plants simply adore unripe organic matter. By absorbing nutrients fresh, they will grow and develop quickly. Worms will also be delighted with immature compost, which will immediately form numerous colonies on the site.

We have been laying organic matter in the beds for pumpkin crops since the fall - collecting fallen leaves, carrion and kitchen waste. And in the spring we move apart the immature plant remains and plant seedlings. EM preparations, as well as a little compost left in the underground for the winter, significantly accelerate the decomposition of organic matter directly in the garden bed.

One bucket of compost overwintered in the warmth is enough for 30 m² of beds. We spotted this trick from Yu.I. Slaschinina and use it with pleasure. It has been proven that beneficial microorganisms that have overwintered in warm conditions quickly remove soil microbes from anabiosis and the yield in such beds is higher.

Ash and mature compost are suitable for almost all plants without exception. Carrots do not like ash - the root vegetables are densely overgrown with thin roots and become hairy. If you add both of these fertilizers to the beds, the plants will quickly gain green mass. Ash and rotted compost provide crops with almost all mineral components: potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, sulfur, boron, manganese and others. And all of them are perfectly absorbed by plants.

For a beginning summer resident, high-quality work with soil is the key to a future harvest. Take the time to prepare the beds in the spring, and then throughout the season you will enjoy the juicy and tasty “results” of your work.

It’s the very beginning of autumn, and the entire crop hasn’t even been harvested from the plot yet. But you may not believe that in order to ensure next season’s harvest, it’s time to start preparing the vacated soil for future beds. And this is not a joke at all: this soil needs to be prepared not anyhow, but correctly, so as not to be disappointed in next year’s harvest. How to prepare beds, how to properly dig and apply fertilizers for the most common vegetable crops already now, we will tell you today.

Autumn preparation of beds in the vegetable garden. © Charles Dowding

It is clear that the formation of above-ground mass, the formation of crops that we harvest, consume or store, leads to the removal of a variety of elements from the soil. First of all, it is the well-known nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. So, immediately after harvesting and when preparing the bed for the new season, it is advisable to compensate for the deficiency of these elements in the soil, although it is not visible to the naked eye.

The autumn period is almost an ideal period for applying various types of fertilizers, which winter time“will reach” the soil, and the plants sown or planted in the beds we have made will begin to consume them in an accessible form, and not wait until they turn into such, wasting precious time on their development and forcing us to wait longer for the harvest.

For example, organics and various minerals: in fact, any vegetable crops are perceived and reacted to them purely positively. However, in order for the root system to accept this or that element, it must already be in an accessible, dissolved form, and this takes time. Winter is just such a time.

Of course, when choosing fertilizers, you need to take into account whole line factors - this is the biology of the crop, which will grow in this place in the future, and the type of soil (heavy, sandy soil, black soil, and so on) and even weather conditions at a given time, which determine, among other things, the condition of the soil.

So, enough reasoning, let’s move on directly to the rules for preparing beds in autumn period for the next season.

Why prepare the beds in advance?

This question is often asked: after all, there is spring, when you can have time to prepare the beds, sow seeds, and plant seedlings. Yes, absolutely true, but, firstly, not all fertilizers will have time to transform into a form accessible to plants, as we said above, and secondly, spring is such a fleeting period that in fact you may simply not have time to do everything, how necessary. Remember the Russian proverb in the words of a peasant peasant: “If my hat falls in the spring, I won’t pick it up” (that is, I’m so busy).

On top of everything else, if we prepare the beds for winter in the fall, think for yourself how much we will ease the spring worries: all that will need to be done is to loosen the ready-made beds, make holes for planting seedlings or furrows to sow seeds, and begin to carry out the usual procedures related to shoots or seedlings, without rushing or being late.

In what order should the beds be prepared?

The first step is to clear the areas of future beds from weeds and plant debris and burn them outside the site, although if they are without signs of disease, then it is quite possible to put them in a compost heap, and then add them as fertilizer for digging up the soil and, if necessary, then add chalk or lime along with fertilizers to normalize the pH.

You need to clear weeds as thoroughly as possible; all creeping weeds, wheatgrass with parts of its root system and dandelions should simply be excluded (uprooted) from the garden by all possible ways, they shouldn’t be there, no matter how much effort you spend on it.

When the soil is free from weeds and plant residues, that is, it is in pure form, you can enrich it with the elements necessary for each plant - nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Since nothing will grow in these beds this season, you can add urea (20-25 g per square meter), superphosphate (18-20 g per square meter) and potassium chloride (15-20 g per square meter). In this case, there is no need to be afraid of potassium chloride, since by spring the chlorine will be neutralized and will be safe for plants. In addition, it is advisable to add well-rotted manure at 5-6 kg per square meter, or humus (3-4 kg per square meter) and wood ash (stove or soot) at 250-300 g per square meter of soil.

If the soils of your site are heavy and clayey, then you need to add river sand in a bucket per square meter, preferably mixed with compost in the same amount, this will increase the looseness of the soil and enhance its fertility.

Sandy soils do not retain moisture and nutrients well; here it is necessary to add a bucket of clay per square meter, as well as well-rotted compost (5-6 kg per square meter), leaf humus (3-4 kg per square meter) and sawdust (bucket per square meter). Be careful about sawdust - they can acidify the soil, so you need to use as gray as possible, that is, almost rotted sawdust.

Soils are acidic, where the acid-base balance (pH) is below 6.0, it is necessary to lime or chalk. If the acidity is below 4.5, then lime should be used at 200-250 g per square meter, if the acidity is from 5.5 to 4.6, then chalk: add 250-300 g of chalk per square meter.

Naturally, fertilizers, chalk, and lime - all this is added during the autumn when preparing the bed for digging, by initially scattering it over the surface and then covering it by digging it with a full bayonet of a shovel.

How to dig up beds?

Usually there are two main options for digging the soil - a non-mouldboard method and a moldboard method. Let's start with the dumpless method of digging. With the dumpless method of digging, they try to do so that most of the earthen lump does not break or turn over. The purpose of such digging of the soil is to maximize the preservation of the beneficial microflora of both the lower and upper layers of the soil. Clods of earth also do not break up.

With the dump digging method, lumps of soil are turned over and broken. Typically, the second option is often used when preparing beds in the fall. In this way, we embed fertilizers deep into the soil, and with them chalk or lime, if necessary, and literally pull the overwintering stages of pests and diseases to the surface.

At the same time, it is undesirable to break up clods of soil, because in this case the soil will freeze to a great depth, becoming maximally disinfected. But if you decide to prepare a full-fledged bed with clearly defined edges and in the spring do not worry about breaking up the clods, then it is better to finish the digging job: break up the clods, level the bed and make the bed a couple of centimeters higher by pouring layers of soil when digging on top of each other soil level, so that eventually the soil on it warms up faster than on the rest of the site.

Preparing beds in the fall. © lasercuttingmachine

Preparing beds for certain crops

So, we talked about how to prepare the bed as a whole. There is nothing complicated about this: we clear the area, add fertilizer for digging, try to dig up the bed with an increase in the soil level, thus outlining the edges of the future bed, but this is in general. It seems to us that we also need to talk about how to properly prepare a bed for the main crops, which certainly exist in every garden; beds for them can also be prepared in the fall.

Beet beds

So, in order for red beets to grow beautifully, you need to choose the most illuminated area, where the soil is light and well-drained. Ideally, of course, the bed for beets should be prepared in the fall on sandy loams and loams with neutral acidity. On heavy soils, clayey, for example, beets will grow poorly even with sufficient nutrition. You should also avoid places where melted water accumulates for a long time, rainwater, and, of course, acidified soils.

The best predecessors for table beets are crops that leave the site early - cucumbers, zucchini, early potatoes, early varieties sweet peppers and eggplant and, again, early tomatoes. You should not sow beets after spinach, rapeseed, carrots, chard and cabbage.

In the fall, when preparing the soil for beets, it is advisable to add organic fertilizers, for example, compost or humus in the amount of half a bucket per square meter of the future bed. From mineral fertilizers it is quite possible to add potassium chloride in the amount of 12-14 g per square meter, as well as ammonium nitrate and superphosphate at 22-25 g per square meter.

Next, prepare a bed for pumpkins and zucchini.

You need to know that these crops are generally unpretentious and simply respond wonderfully to various fertilizers contained in the soil. You can apply manure under them, but well-rotted manure and in an amount of 3-4 kg per square meter of bed, no more, of course - for digging.

As for the choice of location, the soil must be neutral, therefore, if acid predominates, then chalk or lime must also be added before digging.

The best predecessors for pumpkin and zucchini are considered to be: potatoes, onions, cabbage, root vegetables and legumes, but cucumbers, zucchini and squash are considered the worst.

Pay special attention to the soil, so if the soil is clay, then as with general training beds, for pumpkins and zucchini you need to add half a bucket of humus and a bucket of river sand per square meter for digging. As for mineral fertilizers, 10-15 g of superphosphate, 250 g of ash and 15 g of potassium sulfate are enough.

On sandy soils on which you decide to grow zucchini and pumpkin, add a bucket of clay and half a bucket of humus per square meter.

Beds for dill and other greens

To get a good harvest of dill and other herbs, you must first deal with the predecessors. Good predecessors for green crops are: cabbage, tomatoes and onions, and bad ones are parsnips, celery and carrots.

Next, try in the fall to choose the most well-lit bed, and, therefore, the one that warms up as much as possible. Ideally, the soil should be made as fertile as possible and try to keep snow on it by covering it with spruce branches. Do not forget to pay attention to the acidity of the future bed, acidic soil green crops grow poorly, so lime and chalk for digging, provided increased acidity, are necessary.

For green crops, preparing a bed in the fall is not difficult; the digging depth should not be very large, only 22-23 cm. Be sure to add 2-3 kg of well-rotted manure per square meter and 15-20 g of ammonium nitrate, 8-10 g of potassium sulfate and 10-12 g of superphosphate for the same area. In the spring, all that remains is to loosen the finished bed, make grooves for sowing, be sure to water them (2-3 liters of water per meter) and lightly compact them before sowing to prevent the seeds from sinking (a couple of centimeters deep is enough).

Preparing beds for tomatoes

Tomatoes - their best predecessors are: beets, cucumbers, onions, beans, carrots, various greens, peas, corn and zucchini, and their worst predecessors are potatoes, late cabbage, peppers and eggplants.

That's sorted out, now let's find a site for tomatoes before it gets colder. The best would be fertile soil; it is enough to dig it up, and if it is acidic, then lime it (150-200 g per square meter), but with fertilizers, in particular superphosphate, which tomatoes adore, you can take your time and simply sprinkle it over the surface of the soil without digging. By the way, tomatoes react very jealously to the level of acidity and the dose that we indicated may not have an effect on different types soil For example, if you have sandstone or loam on your site, then it is better to add 250 g of lime for digging, and if there are medium and heavy loams, then 350 g of lime and also for digging.

Do not make beds for tomatoes that are too high, do not forget that they themselves tall plants, so 22-23 cm is quite enough and about a meter wide, no more is needed either.

Autumn soil preparation in the garden. © Vesna Maric

Beds for cucumbers

Well, cucumbers, because you are unlikely to find a plot where cucumbers do not grow, but only tomatoes or cabbage. The best predecessors for cucumbers are: tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes, onions, legumes, spinach, rhubarb, early and cauliflower, beets, carrots and greens, but the worst are considered to be: cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkin, squash, melon and watermelon.

Ideally, in the fall, the bed should be made so that it is light, preferably loamy or sandy loam. If the only soil you have is clayey and heavy, add a bucket of river sand per square meter for digging. By the way, cucumbers grow well in slightly acidic soil, so if this is the case for you, then there is no need to worry.

The beds for cucumbers must be dug up with a shovel full and 5-6 kg of well-rotted manure added.

Subtleties of fertilizing warm beds in the autumn

In the autumn, you can build a warm bed, first you need to knock down a box from boards, usually a meter wide and two meters long, lay a drainage layer at the base, this can be, in fact, any large debris, for example, various branches, pieces of boards, stumps , plant tops. You can sprinkle all this with river sand, sawdust, wood chips, weeds, peelings from potatoes and other vegetables, lay leaf litter, humus and scatter wood ash on top. Of course, the layer should be such that fertile garden soil (20-30 cm) fits on top, in which vegetable crops will grow next season.

A few words about mulching

Questions arise whether it is necessary to mulch the beds prepared in the fall, the answer will be positive. In principle, mulch, if it is made from natural components (the same leaf litter pressed down with spruce branches), then it will not in any way affect the vital processes of beneficial microorganisms in the bed you have built. Therefore, in the spring, after removing the mulch, the bed will look even fresher. The main thing is to remove the mulch early so that the soil warms up faster.

They begin preparing for the new gardening season ahead of time. Even in the fall, they carefully dig up the soil, supply it with the necessary fertilizers and get rid of debris. At the end of winter, you need to draw up a detailed plan for preparatory and sowing work, which will allow you to plan future plantings and achieve effective use time with the onset of spring.

When do they start preparing the beds?

Typically, all land work for the season begins in April. It is impossible to give a more precise date, since much depends on the prevailing weather and the climatic characteristics of your region. Often there is still snow at this time, and the temperature is below zero. You should not rush into the furrow as soon as the snow melts. At this stage, the earth is still very heavy, filled with moisture and cold. You need to wait for the sun to dry and warm the soil, otherwise your gardening will be like mixing mud. The only thing you can do while the earth recovers after a long winter period, - free shrubs and plants from winter protection.

To know the soil is ready, take some in your hands and crumble it. It should break up into small lumps, and not lie as a heavy massive block. You shouldn’t wait for the soil to dry out. If early sowing of crops is planned, then soil preparation begins earlier - when there is still remnant snow. In this case, the beds must be sprinkled with peat or ash, which will speed up the warming of the earth and allow crops to be planted much earlier.

Preparation stages

Spring preparation and its stages primarily depend on the work done in the fall. The better you do in October, the easier it will be for you when the new season begins. Therefore, it is recommended to begin preparing beds for spring immediately after the end of the previous season.

Digging or loosening

What exactly to do and in what sequence depends on the characteristics of the soil and how the area was processed in the fall. If at the end of the previous season the earth was not dug up, then you will have to do this in the spring - many gardeners do just that, while fertilizing the soil with nitrogen-containing fertilizers - this will allow the remains of weeds and other organic matter to decompose. In spring there is no need to dig deep (no more than 15 cm) - more thorough plowing should be left for autumn. Technique is much more important - try to ensure that the formation rotates so that the lower part ends up on the surface.

After spring digging, the soil should stand for a while and become compacted; vegetables and other plantings cannot be planted immediately. As a rule, 3-5 days are enough, after which you can begin planting work. If the ground was dug up in the fall, then it is loosened. At the same time, it is necessary to remove the roots of weeds as much as possible, otherwise they will quickly fill the space and absorb from the soil the basic nutrients that are so necessary for cultivated plants.

To loosen the soil, use a rotary cultivator or star roller, which easily breaks up earth blocks and makes the soil evenly crumbly. It is enough to “comb” light soil with a regular rake.

What to do with weeds

It is better to put all plant waste that is collected from the beds in the spring into a compost bin. Last year's leaves and various rhizomes, sprouts and flowers of dandelions go here. You can fertilize the compost pit with manure, but in this case you will have to wait until it rots and only then use the resulting humus. Do not put cabbage stumps or tomato roots into compost - all of these can be carriers of diseases. To make the compost ripen faster, do not forget to turn it with a pitchfork on sunny days to saturate the cavities with oxygen.

Soil nutrition

What and how to fertilize the soil in spring is a subject of debate among many gardeners. Some prefer organic fertilizers, others choose mineral ones, and others even make do with proper crop rotation. To understand what exactly is needed, evaluate the soil characteristics - acidity level and moisture supply. Most often used:

compost - retains moisture well, saturating the soil with nutrients;
sand - improves the drainage qualities of clay soil, it is better to use the construction variety;
manure - applied during digging, helps retain moisture and provides drainage, due to its high nitrogen content it reduces the number of weeds;
calcium-containing materials - reduce soil acidity, scattered over the surface before forming beds;
peat moss - perfectly retains moisture, used in sandy soil;
sawdust is an excellent drainage material that eliminates excess water.

When using fertilizers, it is important to observe moderation - an excess of them is just as harmful to plants as a deficiency. Follow fertilizer application recommendations based on the type of soil and crops you plan to grow.

Disengagement

One of the most labor-intensive procedures, requiring considerable experience and skills from gardeners. Many people prefer to dig up only the ridge itself where the crop will be planted. At the same time, the distance between the ridges remains untouched and the weeds have full control. On the one hand, there is less work: there is no need to open and plow the compressed soil (if the path has always been in this place). But on the other hand, it is this path that becomes the source of the spread of weeds. The grass shamelessly grows into carefully cleaned beds, forcing you to weed again and again. Sawdust or mowed grass can cope with this - they are periodically sprinkled between the rows, which does not allow weeds to appear.

If the territory allows, arrange narrow beds - 50 cm wide and with a boundary of 90-100 cm. With this approach, plants get the maximum solar energy, nutrients and moisture, due to which they grow rapidly without much effort on the part of humans. In cold regions, it is advisable to form high beds. Their borders are treated with any suitable material: logs, slate, boards, etc. The width of such a bed is 1-1.2 meters, and the height is 50 cm.

Preparing beds for different crops

For a rich harvest carrots It is recommended to mix the seeds with a small amount sand. Onions are a good neighbor for the orange vegetable - they also add a little sand to it, which, by the way, makes harvesting easier.
cucumbers They grow well if you add a good layer of compost (not fresh, but prepared in advance) to the soil in the fall or early spring. To get rid of various organisms in the soil, it is recommended to steam the soil with boiling water or pour a pinkish solution of manganese shortly before planting.
For garlic use either compost or double superphosphate and other mineral fertilizers, depending on the type of soil. Since this is a sun-loving plant, it is recommended to plant it in high, narrow beds. Some gardeners prepare the ground for planting garlic using a mixture of peas, oats and white mustard.
For tomatoes The soil must be protected from evaporation - when it is slightly dry, it is leveled with a rake, which speeds up its warming up. After some time, weeds appear on the surface - it is important to remove them completely at this stage. Tomatoes love organic (rotted) and mineral fertilizers.
A bountiful harvest potatoes can be obtained by digging the ground well in the fall and repeating the procedure in the spring, but to a shallower depth. At the same time, you need to add nitrogen fertilizers. After plowing, the bed is harrowed. If the soil is too wet, it is necessary to organize drainage channels and sand the soil.
For strawberries treat the ground with a solution copper sulfate(2 tablespoons per 10 liters of water). Poultry manure or compost is used as fertilizer. It is advisable to sprinkle the beds with ash or chopped straw (sawdust). Nitrogen fertilizers will not be superfluous either.
Noble Harvest beets can be obtained if you generously fertilize the soil with humus or compost - 2-2.5 kg are added per 1 m2. A little ammonium nitrate (17-19 g), superphosphate and potassium chloride will not hurt.

Preparing beds in greenhouses

Typically, the same crops are planted in greenhouses year after year, which requires gardeners to pay special attention to the soil in the greenhouse. It is important to properly prepare the soil so that the next harvest is sufficiently abundant. This requires:

Replace the top layer of soil - remove 10-20 cm and add a purchased or self-prepared mixture (one part turf land accounts for one part of river sand, three humus and five peat).
Sow green manure in the inter-row spaces.
Use EM preparations designed to make the harvest environmentally friendly and safe.

Greenhouses are protected from snow in winter, so in spring the soil inside can be dry. To prevent this, add snow at the end of spring. When it melts, the ground will be saturated with moisture and prepared to receive seeds.

Preparing beds using EM technology + video

IN Lately People are increasingly talking about processing beds using EM technology. It's about mixing cultures beneficial organisms, which create optimal microflora in the soil, creating Better conditions for enhanced plant growth. The essence of the technique is to treat the beds with special solutions that saturate the soil with the necessary elements and significantly increase fruit set.

To prepare the land using this technology, it is necessary, as soon as the soil is “ripe”:

Treat it with a Fokin flat cutter or hoe.
Water with EM solution at a rate of 1:100. For every square meter there are approximately 1.5-2 liters of this solution.
Sow if desired.
Plant seedlings directly into green manure crops, which are then mowed and used as mulch in other areas.

After such preparation, seeds and seedlings are planted only after 2-2.5 weeks. Such preparation has a particularly beneficial effect on the yield of root crops and melons: the number of rotten fruits and fruits affected by pathogenic microflora is reduced, natural soil fertility is restored, and humus accumulates.

Despite its apparent simplicity, growing carrots on garden plot- a process that is very responsible and requires a certain amount of knowledge, skills and abilities. Preparing a bed for carrots in the spring is of particular importance. Experienced gardeners start planting carrots in mid-April or early May (depending on the region). The optimal period is when the daytime air temperature stops falling below +10-12 degrees, and the night temperature stops falling below +5 degrees. In the beds sown at this time, the harvest will ripen in July.

What should the soil be like?

Preparing a bed for carrots in spring

Before planting the crop, you should understand what kind of soil carrots like. Practice shows that each carrot variety, without exception, is very demanding in terms of conditions such as soil. Firstly, the soil should not contain anything unnecessary: no pebbles, no roots, no solid debris. The soil should not be acidified under any circumstances. The acidity level should not go beyond the normal range. If the soil is clayey, or planting is carried out in black soil, it is recommended to add sand to the soil for carrots at the rate of 1 kilogram per 1 square meter of bed. If the soil is too sandy, humus, manure or potato peels will come to the rescue. Still, it is sandy soil that is considered more preferable for carrots. This is due to the high breathability of sand and its unique ability to absorb moisture.

Important! Carrots grow more evenly if they are grown in loose soil. In hard soil, crooked and deformed root crops often ripen.

When choosing soil for carrots, you should pay attention, first of all, to sunny areas. Not a single crop variety will produce an extensive harvest if planted in the shade. Likewise, the following are categorically excluded:

soil with a high dryness index;
sloping areas;
areas overgrown with wheatgrass.

Generally speaking, the optimal soil for carrots is open ground It must be perfectly permeable to oxygen and moisture, free from weeds and remnants of the root systems of other plants, and be rich in nutrients.

How to prepare a bed

After choosing the soil, it’s time to find the answer to the question of how to properly prepare a bed for carrots in the spring. The process of preparing the soil for planting carrots begins with a mandatory check of the site for its ability to pass moisture. To do this, you need to do the following: pour about 8 liters of water onto the not yet dug soil for carrots measuring 50x70 centimeters. If spots are visible on the surface an hour after watering, it means that the soil is unsatisfactory (too dry and with a high acidity level), and carrots most likely will not take root in it. If there is no stain, and the condition of the soil is such that you can make a lump out of it without any extra effort, then everything is in order, and you can start sowing the crop without hesitation.

Having figured out what kind of soil carrots love, it’s time to start spring work in the open ground. It is most advisable to do this just half a month before the start of planting work. You must first remove all weeds from the garden bed and leave it to “rest” for a couple of weeks. Then the area will need to be dug up twice, or even better, three times, while simultaneously saturating it with useful substances. Pebbles should be removed during the digging process, and earth clods smash.

If the soil is poor enough, it requires fertilization with humus and careful additional digging, despite the fact that experts recommend fertilizing with organic fertilizers in the autumn

Advice. Every time you apply fertilizer, you need to dig up the soil. This is necessary in order to useful material and microelements turned out to be at a depth of at least 15 centimeters. Otherwise, they can burn the root system of the plants.

Applying fertilizers to the soil

The main answer to the question, what kind of soil is needed for successful cultivation carrots, refers us to the fertility indicator. Accordingly, applying fertilizers to the soil is one of the necessary steps towards obtaining a good harvest.

As already mentioned, it is best to apply organic matter in the autumn, after harvesting. But mineral fertilizers in the spring will be most appropriate. The correct time for fertilizing is two weeks before planting the seeds in the garden. In this case, it is very important that the technology for preparing the fertilizer composition is followed (as a rule, all necessary instructions fertilizers are available on the factory packaging).

If crops are grown in small quantities for personal use, it is quite acceptable to limit yourself to organic matter. In this case, ordinary humus or manure will do.

In spring, it is allowed to treat the soil with fertilizers based on nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. All of the above is chemistry, but it has a positive effect on the growth of carrots. If the soil is acidic, it must be additionally treated with any alkaline component, for example, lime. After this treatment, the acidity of the soil quickly normalizes. As with growing onions, carrots should not be over-dressed with manure. Otherwise, you can forget about the carrot bed for at least a couple of children.

How to land

Typically, the width of the bed is made from 90 to 100 cm, and the height is from 15 to 20 cm

Anyone who has grown onions at least once will also cope with planting carrots without any problems. In addition, making a bed for carrots is not particularly difficult. The most important thing you need to do is calculate right size and prepare the ground for carrots in advance.

Typically, the width of the bed is made from 90 to 100 cm, and the height - from 15 to 20 cm. If the planting area is located close groundwater, it is strongly recommended to increase the height of the bed to 35 centimeters (to its lower border). The length can be completely arbitrary, it all depends on the wishes and needs of the gardener, as well as the size of the plot. You will definitely need to make a wooden side that will prevent water from draining and washing out the bed during watering.

To place the seeds, it is necessary to form special grooves, the depth of which will not exceed three centimeters. It is imperative to maintain a gap of 20 centimeters between them. As for the distance between root crops, it can vary from two to four centimeters.

Important! The seed groove should never be too shallow or too deep. In the first case, there is a high probability that the seeds will be carried away by a gust of wind, and in the second, that they simply will not be able to break through to the surface through the thickness of the earth.

Ideally, seeds should be sown in such a way that there is no need for thinning later. Achieving this is quite difficult, but you should still try. Otherwise, the smell of tops when pulling a root crop out of the ground will inevitably attract the attention of such a harmful insect as a carrot fly.

Immediately before sowing carrot seeds, each furrow should be thoroughly moistened. Because the planting material carrots are very light, often mixed with sand for convenience. In those places where the seeds lie too thickly, experts recommend spreading out the contents of the groove with a brush.

After planting the seeds is completed, the furrow is sprinkled with mulch:

humus;
vermicompost;
compost;
coconut substrate.

After the sprouts emerge through the mulch, it must be removed and the seedlings must be watered.

Important! Until the seedlings appear, it is not recommended to water the sowing site to avoid washing away the seeds.

Carrots grow quite slowly; in addition, as already mentioned, they do not like excess moisture. If you organize ridge beds by raising the planting area by 30-35 centimeters, the problem can be solved. If the soil dries well, simple furrows are sufficient.

Before planting, the seeds should be soaked, and after planting and abundant watering, cover with plastic wrap. This step is necessary in order to preserve the heat and moisture necessary for seed germination in the soil. If all manipulations are performed correctly, the first shoots will appear in less than a week. It is very important not to forget to remove the film after the very first shoots appear.

Planting in narrow beds

IN last years A very popular method among gardeners is planting carrots in narrow beds, also known as the Jacob Mittlider method. Such beds have a significant difference from standard options. They are distinguished by raised side edges and relatively wide aisles. The task of narrow and raised beds is to protect the sown carrots from weeds and winds as reliably as possible. In addition, purely visually, such a bed looks just perfect.

To arrange a narrow bed you will need:

two containers that will be used for mixing fertilizers;
narrow rake (no more than 30 centimeters wide in the area of the working part);
wooden pegs;
hoe;
shovel;
wooden boards for making sides.

The algorithm of actions will be approximately as follows:

Mark the beds and use pegs to mark their boundaries. The optimal width of the bed will be no more than 45-50 centimeters, the length can be any (usually gardeners choose in the range from 3 to 9 meters);
Make fairly wide (about 1 meter) passages between the beds;
Nail wooden boards around the perimeter. The height of the resulting sides should be 10 centimeters and the width – 5 centimeters;
Cover the paths between the beds with gravel or carefully compact them in such a way as to reduce the likelihood of weed growth and the appearance of moles to zero.

Important! It is best to place a narrow bed in the direction from the east to the west. This will allow the carrots to constantly receive the required amount of sunlight.

Proper use of narrow beds allows you to get a much larger harvest (about double) than using standard planting methods.

Secrets of experienced gardeners

Here are some tips to help you properly prepare the soil, build a garden bed, and ultimately grow an excellent carrot crop. experienced gardeners who have been cultivating this crop for several years and have managed to achieve certain successes in this field. Let's consider the most interesting recommendations in details:

If you grow carrots after cucumbers, for each square meter of the bed you will need to add at least one and a half kilograms of cow manure and 5 kilograms of crushed corn leaves. When growing carrots on chernozem, you will need to add potato peels and river sand to the indicated amount - 1 kilogram per square meter of planting;
It is important to track and remember how previous crops grew in the selected area. So, for example, if cabbage grew there before carrots, and the harvest was not pleasing, the likelihood that a similar thing will happen with carrots is quite high. Abundant fertilizing with mineral and organic fertilizers will help correct the situation;
If the tomatoes previously grown in the area for carrots turn black during the growth process, there is no point in planting carrot seeds. It is better to sow the area with parsley or beets;
To get rid of carrot flies, it will be useful to plant carrots as early as possible and in the same bed with onions. Such a move would be beneficial for both cultures;
To distribute the seeds evenly, it is more effective to mix them with closter rather than sand. If you add a certain amount of mineral fertilizers to the latter, the benefits (and, accordingly, germination) will be much higher. It is most convenient to place this mixture in the grooves using a pastry syringe;
Soil that is too wet will promote carrot diseases. Therefore, stagnation of water on the site should be avoided by all means;
If the farm has a sufficiently large amount of compost and physical strength, you can prepare the beds for carrots in a fundamentally different way: dig a trench at least 30 centimeters deep, fill it with compost mixed with fine river sand, and seeds are poured into this fertilized soil.

Despite the fact that carrots are an integral part of the daily diet large quantity our compatriots, growing it with your own hands is not as easy as it might seem at first glance. But if you prepare the bed properly, avoid mistakes when sowing seeds and provide the crop with proper care, a decent harvest will not be long in coming.

Potatoes that are usually sold are grown industrially using mineral fertilizers and pesticides. Real gardeners will never purchase such a product, but will try and grow excellent carrots in their own garden plot. If you strictly follow the recommendations given, there should be no problems with cultivating the crop.