Organic production is one of the fastest growing food sectors globally. However, average yield in organic vegetable production is up to 33% lower than in conventional production. This difference could be due to higher fertilization rates in conventional, compared to organic, farming. We aimed to compare yield and quality characteristics of carrots produced under equal nitrogen fertilization rates over four years in organic and conventional conditions. We found a 14.5% higher marketable, and 10.0% lower discarded, yield in the organic compared to the average conventional treatments. In addition, carrots managed organically had 14.1% lower nitrate and 10.0% higher vitamin C content than carrots managed conventionally. There were no convincing effects of cultivation system on the nitrogen, total sugar, or dry matter content of carrots. Organically managed carrots were free of pesticide residues, while several residues were found in carrots managed conventionally. Our study reveals that organic management of carrots may exceed that of conventional methods in yield and several quality characteristics, while being free of pesticide residues. Organic fertilizer gave an advantage over mineral fertilizer, when equal rates of nitrogen were used in both production systems.

中文翻译：

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有机胡萝卜（Daucus carota L.）的生产在数量和质量上均优于常规胡萝卜

有机生产是全球增长最快的食品部门之一。但是，有机蔬菜生产的平均单产比传统生产低多达33％。与有机耕作相比，这种差异可能是由于常规施肥率较高。我们旨在比较在有机和常规条件下四年内在相同氮肥下生产的胡萝卜的产量和品质特征。与传统的常规处理方法相比，我们发现有机产品的可销售量提高了14.5％，而废弃率降低了10.0％。此外，有机管理的胡萝卜比传统管理的胡萝卜硝酸盐含量低14.1％，维生素C含量高10.0％。耕作系统对胡萝卜的氮，总糖或干物质含量没有令人信服的影响。有机管理的胡萝卜不含农药残留，而常规管理的胡萝卜中发现了一些残留。我们的研究表明，在无农药残留的情况下，胡萝卜的有机管理在产量和几个品质特征方面可能会超过传统方法。当在两种生产系统中使用相等的氮比率时，有机肥料比矿物肥料更具优势。