Carrots: cultivation, harvest and storage

During three years (2003 – 2005) carrot varieties Bolero and Maestro (Villmorin) were cultivated to study the influence of cultivation systems and harvest time on yield, carrot size and the incidence of carrot-rots after six months storage at 1°C and 92% RH. In all three years similar tendencies were observed with respect to yield and storability. Depending on the harvest time, first after 95 days, (mid-September), the losses by root disease after storage (Sclerotinia, Alternaria and or Botrytis) where highest. As later the harvest time, mid-October (125 days) or mid-November (155 days), as lower the losses after six months storage. The incidence of disease during storage varied from year to year, depending on fungal infections and root damage at harvest, as the results from 2004 show. In addition, there were indications that soil temperature and the dry substance of the harvested carrots have an influence on the occurrence of root disease. With prolonged growing period, at a sowing density of 100 seed per meter (approximately 60 carrots per meter) the number of oversized carrot roots increase. Following the results obtained in the three successive years, it is concluded that carrots should not be harvested before mid-October, when sown in June