Nantes carrots are a vegetable crop actively cultivated in Russia. It characterized by a high content of sugar and carotene, which are beneficial for eye health... Many nutritionists recommend including it in medical, children's and dietary diets. A detailed description of this variety is given below.
Description and characteristics of Natanskaya carrot variety
Nantes carrots are excellent for spring and winter crops. Shoots are friendly. The aboveground part of the plants is high, semi-spreading. The root vegetable has a beautiful orange color, sweet taste, good weight (100-150 g) and almost ideal dimensions (length - 11-17 cm, thickness - up to 6-8 cm)... After technical maturity, its head takes on a purple or greenish tint.
High table qualities and the ability to store for a long time could not but arouse the desire of breeders to improve the variety. Therefore, today it comes in several varieties:
- Nantes 2 - an early variety of foreign selection. Root length - 10-16 cm, color - light orange, ripening period - 80-100 days from the moment of planting.
- Nantes 4 Is an elite early maturing variety of Russian origin. Cylindrical root crops, up to 17 cm long, weighing up to 160 grams. Vegetation - 3-4 months, yield - up to 6.5 kg per 1 sq. meters.
- Improved Nantes Is a mid-season sweet variety bred by Europeans. Recommended for growing to obtain juice. Roots are bright orange in color and have a small pith. Their height is up to 20 cm, weight is up to 150 grams.
- Nantes red Is a mid-season variety that is able to withstand disease and bloom. Root crops are cylindrical, weighing up to 160 grams, up to 17 cm long. They are colored orange-red.
Each of these varieties is famous for its excellent taste, good keeping quality, health benefits, as well as ease of planting and maintenance. Therefore, they can be safely planted in your garden.
Advantages and disadvantages
This root vegetable contains many vitamins (K, PP, C, B2, B1), essential oils, phosphorus, calcium salts, iron and iodine. It can be safely used to treat anemia, heart disease, liver and kidney disease, as well as to improve the velvety skin. But these are not all of its advantages. The advantages of the variety include:
- high yield (up to 7 kg from 1 sq. meter);
- excellent keeping quality (retains juiciness for a long time and does not rot);
- absence internal voids;
- universality in application;
- lovely taste qualities.
There are practically no disadvantages of this variety.... These include perhaps the exactingness of the soil, the love of warm sunlight and the need for frequent watering.
Soil requirements for planting
Nantes carrots grow well on loamy, peaty and light sandy soils, which must be loosened and fertilized. With this in mind, in the fall, the beds should be dug up and the humus of cow dung mixed with sand and peat should be introduced. After that, it is recommended to sow winter rye on the site. It will avoid the appearance of malformed root crops with many "fingers".
The best predecessors for carrots are tomatoes, potatoes, onions, zucchini and cucumbers.
Rules for planting carrots of Nantes
Planting should begin with digging the soil onto a shovel bayonet in the second decade of December. Immediately it is worth creating a bed. It should be located in a well-lit place and be about 30 cm high. In order not to crumble, you can block it with boards. Further procedures are as follows:
- Flatten the garden using a rake and a plank, remove the pebbles.
- Using the bar make several grooves on it 1-1.5 cm deep.
- Place seeds in the groove and cover them with earth, lightly compacting with your hand.
- Make next groove at a distance of 25-30 cm from the previous one.
- And so on until the bed ends.
Upon completion of planting, it remains to gently water the garden bed with warm water and wait for the first shoots to appear (this is somewhere in 10-15 days).
If desired, the bed can be covered with sawdust or agrofibre, this will keep the life-giving moisture on the surface of its soil.
Variety care after planting
After emergence, covering material, if used, should be removed. Water the crops first every day, and after reaching the molded ripeness - after 1-2 days. 30-40 days after sowing, carrots that have sprouted too heap must be thinned out. The final distance between root crops should be at least 6 cm. Also, do not forget to loosen the soil between the plants.
To increase the quantity and quality of the crop, it is necessary to fertilize the carrots at least 2 times per season. To do this, you can use the drugs "Agrovita", "Hera", "Fasco" and any others that contain urea, superphosphate or potassium salts. They should be used according to the instructions.
In the heat, carrots must be mulched with bunches of dried grass.
Diseases and their prevention
Nantes carrots can be prone to black, white or bacterial rot. These diseases destroy the crop, first covering the harvested roots with bloom, and then creating wet or dry rot on them. To avoid the manifestation of their symptoms, it is necessary to harvest vegetables in warm weather, carefully sorting out before this and creating all the conditions for proper storage.
The carrot fly can destroy crops. To get rid of it, it is worth spraying the seedlings with the preparations "Stefesin", "Baylon", "Karatan" or "Volaton". In doing so, do not forget to follow the precautions.
Harvesting and storage rules
The best harvest is at the end of September. It is possible, of course, in October, but the keeping quality and quality of root crops will decrease because of this. It is recommended to wash and dry carrots before harvesting for storage., cut the tops off completely together with the tip of the vegetable to prevent re-germination. Next, the fruits must be packed in dark plastic bags and lowered into the cellar.
You can also store carrots in boxes with sand or sawdust, or in the refrigerator.
Reviews
Judging by the quality of Nantes carrots according to people's reviews, then it is very good. Most gardeners speak positively of her. This is what they post on the forums and on their blogs.
Nadezhda, Orenburg region.We have the most popular carrots of Nantes. I plant it 2 times: at the end of April for pickling and in June for storage. I'm happy with the variety!
Angela, Bryansk region.I personally like the carrots of this variety because of their good germination and excellent taste. The only drawback is that it requires frequent feeding.
Vsevolod, Nekrasovskoe.Of the several varieties of carrots that I have planted, this is the only one that brought a rich harvest. I was satisfied, I will plant next year.
However, there are a number of negative reviews about carrots of Nantes... For the sake of fairness, let's give their examples:
Anastasia, Saraktash.When I planted it, I hoped that the carrots would give birth well and survive at least January. The harvest is rich, but as soon as it was removed to the cellar, it was lost. Conclusion: Nantes is suitable for use only after collection.
Larissa, Kinel-Cherkasy.Most likely due to the density of planting of large root crops. But it's still a shame, because I thinned out the seedlings.
It is worth noting that in order to get a harvest, carrots really need to be looked after, and removed to the cellar, only having prepared the vegetables for storage in advance. Then there will be no negative reviews.
Conclusion
Nantes carrots are endowed with high consumer qualities, significantly surpasses other varieties in efficiency, with proper care, it gives a decent harvest. All that is required from the gardener is to follow the rules of sowing, care and storage.