Porkkana Daucus carota "Rubyprince H" (Žalia stotelė-siemenet, 0,5 g)

• Type: root vegetable, seeds
• Botanical name: Daucus carota "Rubyprince H"
• Producer: Žalia stotelė (Agrofirma Sėklos, Lithuania)
• Group: F1 hybrid, red carrot
• Root: cylindrical, 20–25 cm, red with a yellow core
• Sowing: IV–V, late sowing until early VI
• Germination: 7–14 days at 10–20 °C
• Spacing: 20–25 × 4–5 cm
• Feature: high lycopene content
• Light: full sun
• Soil: loose, humus-rich loam or sandy loam, no fresh manure
• Size: packet 0.5 g

Planting. Sow carrots outdoors from late April to May, or late – at the end of May or early June, 1.5–2 cm deep in rows 20–25 cm apart. Seeds are slow to germinate – 2–3 weeks; you can soak them for a day before sowing. Dig the bed deeply, 25–30 cm, without fresh manure, which makes roots fork.

Watering and feeding. Keep the soil moist until emergence, then water generously once a week so the soil is wet to root depth. Irregular watering causes splitting. A month after emergence you can give a potassium feed or wood ash.

Care. Thin twice: at 1–2 leaves to 2–3 cm, three weeks later to 4–6 cm. Hoe and weed between rows. Fleece and onions in the next row help against carrot fly.

Gardener's tip. The 0.5 g packet holds hybrid seed – space-sow it one by one 2–3 cm apart to avoid thinning. Red carrots look especially striking in salads together with orange and yellow ones.