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Family: Umbelliferae
Genus and species: Daucus carota var sativus
Soils: Deep, friable soils free of obstructions.
- Poorly drained soils are likely to encourage the spread of bacterial diseases
- Heavy clay soils are also likely to encourage production of twisted, malformed roots of poor quality
- Optimum soil pH 5.5-6.5
Fertilizers:
- Fertilizer requirements depend on soil fertility and are applied at planting
- Carrots require 70-120kg/ha of N, 30-35kg/ha of P and 0-55kg/ha of K
- Avoid fresh manure as this causes root hairs on carrot root
Water:
- Adequate soil moisture necessary at germination
- Avoid crusting which affects root development.
- Growth requires both adequate moisture and drainage
- Excess water can reduce root color intensity
- Drought stress lowers quality
- Inadequate drainage leads to impeded growth, misshapen roots.
- Fluctuating water leads to cracking.
- More foliar diseases with overhead irrigation or high RH
- Adequate moisture of 45-90cm is required during the growing season
Harvesting and handling
- Carrots for the fresh market are harvested when the majority of the roots are 2.5-3.5cm in diameter at the crown
- They can be harvested 65-85days or longer after planting depending on the temperature
- Processing carrots are left in the ground longer as both the dry matter and color, increases with maturity
- The carrots are hand pulled or fork lifted.
The ground may need to be irrigated to facilitate easy harvesting
Classic agronomy is a start-up agricultural consultancy firm that helps farmers of all levels to maximise their produce by providing agronomic expertise according to the farmer's capacity. It is doing this, to aid in fighting hunger and poverty that comes with climate change and other economic difficulties.
Founded by Agronomist Chengetai T Koza
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