For perfect carrots, instead of aggressive chemicals, experienced summer residents use ordinary mustard cake. It turns thin tails into juicy and smooth roots. And most importantly, it must be applied strictly in June.
What does this feeding give to carrots?
Soft power instead of growth explosion
If you give carrots too much nitrogen right at the root, you can get lush curls of tops with thin tails. Mustard cake works differently. The protein it contains decomposes gradually in the soil, day after day releasing phosphorus and nitrogen to the plants. The root crop does not rush into the leaf, but calmly, without stress, begins to go deeper, fill up and grow stronger. It is this kind of nutrition that forms smooth, juicy and sweet carrots.
Invisible cloud from carrot fly
Anyone who has grown carrots knows this moment of fear: after thinning, a strong spicy aroma hangs over the garden bed, and as if on schedule, a carrot fly arrives. She can smell damaged tops hundreds of meters away.
“Last year, a couple of days after I spread the cake, the bed began to smell completely different. A subtle, warm mustard spirit appeared. And you know, the fly flew around my plantings.” — the author of the blog “Garden and vegetable life” (12+) shares his experience.
Pure land without unnecessary chemicals
Mustard is a famous phytosanitary plant. Even processed into cake, it retains the ability to heal the soil. During the decomposition process, substances are released that gently suppress pathogenic microflora. The bed becomes cleaner, the root crops get sick less and the tips don’t turn black when it’s time to harvest.
Helper worms and no crust
The cake plays the role of light mulch. The soil underneath remains loose and moist longer than usual. And after a couple of weeks, the earth begins to literally swarm with earthworms. They come to the ready-made protein “table”, simultaneously loosening and fertilizing the bed with their own moves.
And remember that no need to put the cake directly into the holes and close to the stems: back off a few centimeters.
Read also what varieties of strawberries produce 35 kg of berries per plantation.
