Scientific Name of Carrot
Daucus carota
Synonyms:
Pastenade, faux chervis, gironille
Family:
Carrot Family – Apiaceae (Umbelliferae)
Type of growth:
Biennial (sometimes annual). Root thick, swollen and orange-red or slender and light in color.
Height:
30–70 cm. Stem furrowed, hairy or glabrous, thick.
Flower:
Regular corolla (actinomorphic), peripheral florets slightly mirrored and larger, white – yellowish – reddish, central florets often darker than peripheral florets, 4–7 mm wide, five petals, deeply toothed. Five sepals, small or absent. Pistil formed by two fused carpels, two styles. Five stamens. Inflorescence a compound umbel, often concave, umbel peduncles enclosed in the bud and after flowering. Bracts enveloping the main umbels long, with pinnate lobes, secondary umbels with bracts.
Leaves:
Alternate, with a petiole. Leaf-blade ovoid, bipinnate or tripinnate. Leaflets lobed, lobes linear and narrowly elliptical, bright gray-green, downy.
Fruit:
An oval, two-part schizocarp, laterally flattened, 2–4 mm long, covered with hooked bristles.
Habitat:
Inhabited places, gardens, landfill sites, wastelands, stations, roadsides, ports.
Flowering period:
June – August.
The carrot is a very diverse species:
In Europe there are 12 subspecies, including the cultivated carrot (ssp. Sativus ), which resembles the wild subspecies (ssp. Carota), and which can sometimes be found in Finnish nature, possibly introduced via the seeds of hay. The wild carrot resembles the edible carrot, but it is usually annual and its main white root is modest in size. In a vegetable garden, carrots bloom only rarely, but in nature they are very characteristic umbel lifers. Among the flowers of this species, we often find one or more dark red flowers larger than the others. Thanks to its color, this flower probably helps attract the blue flies that pollinate the plant. Carrot fruits have long, hooked bristles which, by clinging to the fur of animals, participate in the spread of the plant. The infructe-scence closes in humid weather conditions,
When growing like a biennial, the carrot stores food in the first season for the production of flowers and seeds. In a vegetable patch, the carrot is grown as an annual plant, and the root, which contains a lot of carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals, is harvested in the first fall for consumption. The nutritious roots of the carrot were probably already eaten by humans during prehistoric times, in the era of hunting and gathering, before the advent of agriculture. Its development as a cultivated vegetable probably began in the Middle East, the cradle of agriculture.
At first, the blue-red and yellow types predominated. The more well-known current varieties of orange carrots were probably developed in the Netherlands in the 17th and 18th centuries. Among the many varieties, the best known, apart from the popular elongated varieties, are the small radish-shaped carrots. The carrot is one of the most productive cultivated plants. When it benefits from a sandy soil rich in humus, it can give rise to huge harvests. Today, carrots are cultivated almost everywhere in the world, from the tropics to cold climates.
Harvest and make your carrot seeds:
To harvest carrot seeds, it will be necessary to wait for the second year of cultivation. Follow these few tips to select and keep them.
Most root vegetables like carrots are biennial plants, that is, cultivation takes place over two years. They spend the year after sowing to develop their root and foliage. Carrots do not flower and produce seeds until the following year. Also read more about: what do carrot sprouts look like.
Method to harvest carrot seeds:
The first carrot jellies are pulled out before they are stored in a silo. A few roots of the variety to be reproduced and roots of the variety to be reproduced are selected, without damaging them. The carrots selected must represent all the characteristics of the variety.
Remove the leaves by cutting them 2 cm from the collar. Tear them out with a little soil and store them for the winter in a cellar or other cool room in sand, but frost-free and in the dark.
In March / April of the following year, these roots are taken out to be replanted together, spaced 30 to 50 cm apart, pushed in to the collar. New foliage appears, followed in the summer by flower stalks.
Carrot flowers are cut to seed in August.
Be careful, that there are no wild carrots nearby in the garden, there would be a risk of hybridization.
Storing carrot seeds:
The stems are hung upside down in a ventilated shelter to dry. The seeds are then harvested and stored in kraft paper bags or airtight boxes.