while thinner roots are produced under higher plant population
densities. Root configuration may also be altered by soil
temperature (Swiader et al., 1995). Variation in root size may
also depend on carbon fixation rate by the leaves and allocation
to the roots, which can be affected by competition for resources
such as water, nutrients and light that arise due to higher
population density. Water deficit in the rooting media reduces
stomatal conductance and net photosynthesis in carrots leading
to a reduction in shoot and root growth (Rajasekaran and Blake,
2002). Low nutrient status also affects growth and yield of
carrots considerably (Rajasekaran, 2001). Photomorphological
changes are reported for several species. Light, both quantity
and quality, produces significant morphological change in
plants (Lawson and Weintraub, 1975). Plants exposed to low
light intensities tend to produce upright growth while plants
receiving high light intensities produce plagiotropic growth
(Salisbury and Ross, 1978). Seeding rate, line spacing and seed
spacing are thus expected to alter both yield and recovery.
There is limited information about the effects of seeding rate
and seed spacing on yield and recovery of processing carrots.
This study examines the effect of seeding rate and line spacing
on yield and root recovery of processing carrots. It also
examines the relationships between space per seed, and yield
and recovery percentage of three root grades in each of slicer
and dicer varieties. This is done to determine ideal seeding rate
and line spacing for optimizing seed spacing to obtain high
yield and recovery of supreme quality carrots for processing