Everyone loves sweet and healthy carrots. Summer residents consider it an environmentally friendly product, if harmful insects and rodents also do not refuse to taste it. This is an indicator that the vegetable does not contain any chemicals and harmful substances. But our smaller brothers can significantly outstrip the owner of the garden and spoil the entire crop. How to preserve the harvest without the use of chemical fertilizers? How to protect yourself from pests?
Preventive measures to protect carrots from pests
Preventive measures should not be forgotten when choosing a bed for sowing carrots. The most famous pest for this plant is the carrot fly. She loves carrots very much, but hates the smell of onions. Therefore, this sweet root vegetable must grow in the neighborhood of the onion. You can alternate the beds of onions and carrots. Onion aromas keep pests away from carrot beds.
It is very important to take into account the crop rotation when planting a root crop; you need to change the place of planting carrots every year. It will grow well after potatoes and cabbage, cucumbers and tomatoes, onions and beans. But such predecessors as zucchini and eggplant, parsley and celery will negatively affect the development of the vegetable and the expected result. Bad neighbors for carrots are apple, beet, dill and anise. And with radishes, garlic, peppers, radishes, peas and spinach, she will feel great and give a great harvest.
But still, the most effective way of prevention is the use of organic fertilizers. With their help, the immunity of the plant is increased, which is very important in resisting diseases and pests.
The use of mineral fertilizers in vegetable gardens leads to a change in the chemical composition of vegetable crops, which can lead to an invasion of pests. Indeed, in such vegetables, the sugar content rises, and this is very popular with rodents - pests.
How to fight insect pests of carrots?
Carrot flies and carrot moths, slugs and winter scoops, as well as carrot flies are of great danger to carrots. In order to prevent and control pests, many methods and techniques are used.
If you sow carrots a little later than usual (in late May or early June), then the carrot fly will no longer be able to harm. She does not fly at this time.
Mulching - this is one of the proven effective ways. First, a layer of fresh grass is laid on the beds, and on top are coniferous needles or sawdust of coniferous trees. The scent of the needles will keep carrot flies and other harmful insects out. And it will also provide the plants with constant soil moisture and provide full, healthy nutrition. Mulching will not allow the soil to dry out, let alone the formation of "crust2" on the ground.
Treating the soil with a mixture of tobacco dust and ash will also scare away harmful insects. It is carried out no more than three times a summer every seven days. For each square meter, it is permissible to spray no more than ten grams of the drug.
When insects appear, spraying and special watering work effectively.For watering, they prepare decoctions from the tops of tomatoes or make a tincture on orange peels and occasionally water the beds with carrots with them. For spraying, you need to prepare decoctions of one of the herbs - chamomile, burdock or yarrow. They will reliably protect against winter scoops.
Much damage to the root crop is caused by slugs, which spoil the carrots, leaving whole passages in it. They are easy to find in places with high humidity - under rotten boards, in leaves, under small stones. Their number increases especially rapidly under favorable weather conditions - rainy autumn or wet and cool previous summer. Often you have to destroy them by hand, but you can use spraying. A common 10% saline solution will help get rid of them.
Experienced summer residents also advise using folk methods of dealing with slugs - these are traps that are filled with juice or spoiled jam. These traps are easy to make from regular plastic bottles or watermelon and melon rinds.
You can try to prevent the appearance of insects - pests even during the sowing of the seeds. Finished beds with carrot seeds should be covered with a non-woven cloth if planting is carried out in early spring. The canvas can not be removed until the very thinning of the seedlings, and so that it does not interfere with the growth of carrot tops, it is better to dig in small arcs along the edge. Instead of arcs, you can plant, for example, mustard. It grows very quickly, and its strong stems will "lift" the canvas a little during the growth process.
How to protect carrots from rodents?
Although little pleasant from harmful insects, pests - rodents cause even more damage. Rats and mice are very dangerous rodents for carrots. They are able to completely spoil or destroy the entire long-awaited crop. How can we resist them?
When choosing a place for carrot beds, be sure to set aside a small area next to the black elderberry bush. This plant is unique in pest control. With its barely perceptible smell for humans, it scares away mosquitoes and midges. Elderberry roots release into the soil such unusual substances that are poisonous to rodents (such as mice and rats). This "poison" will keep pests away from the beds.
If there is no free site for planting an elderberry, then you can use its branches. They just need to be stuck into the soil next to the root crops. Dried branches will need to be replaced with fresh ones.
Plant healthy aromatic herbs (mint, anise) near the carrots and mice will not come close.
Harvest the ripe crop on time, do not involve rodents!
