Garlic is one of the most favorite vegetables of our gardeners and gardeners. It can be grown in almost all regions of Russia. In order to receive good harvest, the technology for planting, caring for and storing bulbs should be followed. Let's take a closer look at how to grow garlic.
When to plant garlic
Garlic is one of the few cultivated plants, which can be planted both in spring and autumn. In the first case it is called spring, in the second - winter. In cold regions, garlic is usually planted in the fall, and in warm regions in the spring. In the latter case, the cloves are buried in the ground, already slightly sprouted. Spring planting should be done as early as possible. Ideally, the ground should not even dry out after the snow melts. Only in this case can you get large enough heads.
Choosing a location and preparing a bed for spring garlic
How to grow garlic into heads and greens to achieve a good harvest? Of course, the bed for this vegetable must be carefully prepared. This crop grows best on loose soils well fertilized with organic matter. To obtain large heads, garlic is planted in a sunny place. If you need greenery, create a garden bed fruit trees, somewhere in partial shade.
The best predecessors for this vegetable are cauliflower, cucumbers, pumpkin, zucchini, beets, carrots, beans and peas. After onions, garlic can be planted only after 3-4 years. Every year the bed is laid out in a different place. It is not recommended to plant garlic next to potatoes. The fact is that these plants are susceptible to similar diseases.
Spring garlic planting scheme
How to grow good garlic? This is quite possible, you just need to follow all the rules. First of all, the heads must be seated correctly. Garlic is grown both in mulched and regular beds. In the first case, the cloves are planted to a depth of about 5 mm. If mulch is not provided, planting should be done to a depth of 7.5-10 mm. Of course, the cloves must be buried in the soil with the root part down. The distance between the holes should be 10-15 cm, between the rows - about 25-30 cm. If the garden is small, you can plant garlic more often. However, the heads will grow smaller.
How to grow spring garlic
It is still worth using mulch in garlic beds. This significantly increases productivity. The beds for plants can be covered with straw, reeds, leaves, etc. Arrows should be removed immediately as they appear. Otherwise you won't get big heads. Arrows take a lot out of the plant nutrients. Many summer residents use them as a seasoning when preparing baked meat dishes. They also go well as a frying dish for borscht. Water the garlic moderately, but do not allow the soil under it to dry out.
Preparing beds for winter garlic
We have found out how to grow a good harvest of spring garlic. Now let's see how to get large number large heads of winter crops. They begin to prepare the beds for it two weeks before planting. The fact is that the soil must first subside thoroughly. If you are planting garlic after cabbage, eggplant or legumes, under which a lot of compost or manure was added in the summer, there is no particular need to fertilize the soil with organic matter. However mineral fertilizing Still worth doing. In this case, a mixture of the following composition is used: 40 g of superphosphate, 15-30 g of ammophosphate, 10 g of potassium chloride. The specified amount of ingredients is used to fertilize 1m2 of soil. If garlic is planted where organic matter has not been added, the soil should be fertilized with humus or compost in an amount of approximately 6 kg/m2.
Compost, humus and mineral fertilizers should be applied as evenly as possible. Scatter them over the garden bed and dig it up. Then thoroughly loosen the soil with a rake.
Preparation of planting material
Now let's see how to grow winter garlic. The cloves should be prepared before planting. The heads are kept in a cool room for two weeks (at a temperature of approximately 5 o C). They should be separated into cloves the day before planting. Planting material should be carefully sorted. It is best to plant the teeth of the middle and large size. Cracked, double-topped and rotten ones should be discarded. In order to protect future plants from various diseases, the teeth must be disinfected. To do this, prepare a solution of copper sulfate (4 g per liter of water). Keep the planting material in it for half an hour. You can also use a lye solution for disinfection. It is prepared from ash (1 tbsp boiled in a liter of water for half an hour).
When to plant winter garlic?
If you have asked the question “how to grow a good harvest of garlic,” you should definitely find out what rules for planting it exist. It is very important to meet deadlines here. Before frost, garlic must take root, but not grow. Approximately the landing begins somewhere in the twentieth of September (for middle zone Russia).
How to plant winter garlic
It is worth preparing beds about 20 cm high and a meter wide for winter garlic. They should be oriented from north to south - this is prerequisite! This will ensure maximum soil warming in autumn and spring. The distance between the holes is 15 cm. Garlic is planted in three rows. The distance between them is 25 cm. The row spacing should be 50 cm wide. The planting depth is two clove heights.
Caring for winter garlic
How to grow winter garlic correctly? You need to start caring for it in the fall. Immediately after planting, the beds must be mulched with manure or humus in a two-centimeter layer. In the spring, immediately after the leaves begin to sprout, the garlic should be fed. You can use urea or ammonium nitrate (at the rate of 15 g/1m2).
The second time the garlic is fed in mid-May. Nitrogen-potassium fertilizers are applied to the soil. The third time, fertilizing is done in the seventh leaf phase. In this case, a mixture of potassium chloride (10 g/m2) and superphosphate (20 g/m2) is used. After each feeding, the garlic should be watered thoroughly. The frequency of watering in summer is once a week. There is no need to create swamps under the plants. Water in moderation, otherwise the bulbs will simply rot. You should stop moistening the soil under the plants two weeks before harvesting. This will increase the shelf life of the bulbs.
As in the case of spring garlic, the arrows of winter garlic should be broken off. They can reduce the harvest by almost three times.
Diseases of culture
When discussing how to grow garlic in the garden, it is impossible not to dwell on pests. Various kinds insects are not particularly fond of this vegetable. Infection occurs rarely and mainly only with nematodes or onion thrips. The first ones look like microscopic “worms”. They live inside the plant itself. They do not cause much damage, but in some cases they can destroy the entire crop. Thrips feed on garlic leaves, drinking the juice from them. This leads to slower growth of the bulb. Of the diseases, garlic most often affects white rot. After infection, the leaves of the plant begin to turn yellow, causing it to die. Garlic also suffers from fusarium and downy mildew.
You can get rid of nematodes by planting the beds low-growing marigolds With strong odor. Plants are eliminated from thrips by treating them with a solution of karbofos (60 g per 10 liters of water).
Growing Garlic Seeds
Many gardeners would like to know how to grow garlic seeds, the so-called bulbs. Later they are used to produce single-prong heads. In spring, the largest cloves are selected and planted in a sunny place. Plant garlic bulbs a little sparser than commercial ones. Looking after seed plants exactly the same as for ordinary ones. After the arrows straighten completely, the plants are dug out of the ground with roots and hung out to dry in bunches in a dark, dry place (possibly in the attic). They are kept like this for a month, until the stem is completely dry. After this, it is cut off, leaving a stump of 2-3 cm near the bulb itself. The seeds should be stored in a dark, dry place.
Growing garlic from bulbs
Next, let's figure out how to grow garlic from seeds. Sometimes this method is practiced at dachas. Bulbs are planted in the spring, after the soil has warmed up. Before planting, they must be kept in the refrigerator (at a temperature of 5 o C) for about a month. Otherwise you won't get any bulbs. Only greenery will grow from unprepared seeds.
The bed is laid out in a sunny place. Apply to the soil organic fertilizers and loosen it thoroughly. You should not bury the seeds too deeply, otherwise they will take a long time to germinate. After planting, the bed must be watered. We hope you now understand how to grow garlic from bulbs. By planting seeds in compliance the required technology, in the spring you will collect good harvest single-clove garlic. It can be eaten or used as planting material.
This method is good because the bulbs do not tolerate infection. This means that the plants will not get sick in the summer. In particular, such garlic is never infected with nematodes. Besides everything else, this technology allows you to significantly save seed material.
Harvest
We have found out how to grow winter and spring garlic from cloves and seeds. Now let's figure out how to properly harvest the resulting crop. Bulbs should be dug up after ¾ of the bulbs have withered. lower leaves. Winter garlic usually ripens at the end of July. Yarovoy - at the end of August. Dig it out after most of the lower leaves turn yellow. First, for testing, you need to pull two or three heads of garlic out of the ground. The bulbs should be well formed and dense. Digging up the crop with a pitchfork. Pry up a lump of earth with garlic and pull it out with your hand along with the heads. The dug up plants should be spread around the perimeter of the bed for several hours to dry.
There is no need to trim the leaves immediately. They store reserve nutrients that continue to flow into the bulb. The existing arrows should be removed. The leaves are cut off after drying. The roots of garlic intended for human consumption are cut off.
Experienced gardeners believe that it is better to under-expose garlic in the ground than to over-expose it. The fact is that unripe bulbs may well survive even after digging. Overripe ones fall apart and are stored much worse.
Storage
It is better to store garlic that will be used as planting material in the future separately from food. For the winter, the heads should be placed in a cool (temperature +16...+20 o C for food and +18... +20 o C for seed), well-ventilated room. The air humidity in it should not exceed 90%. Air that is too dry is also not good for garlic (at least 60%), as it can dry out and begin to disintegrate into cloves. It is best to put the bulbs in slatted boxes.
Now you know not only how to grow garlic in the garden, but also how to properly preserve it. Next we will give a few useful tips, which may be useful to someone.
1. In order to protect garlic from drying out during storage, you can put it not in boxes, but in bags made of thick fabric, pouring the heads onion skins. Also sometimes the heads are lubricated with boiled vegetable oil(0.5 l), to which iodine (10 g) is added. Apply this composition to the bulbs with a cotton swab.
2. Winter garlic is stored worse than spring garlic. If you want to use it for seeds in the spring, after the onset of cold weather, simply bury the bulbs in the ground, to a depth of about half a meter, placing them in plastic bag. Planting material preserved in this way can be planted very early.
So, we have discussed in detail how to grow garlic from bulbs or cloves yourself. Take care of the beds, observe planting and harvesting times, prepare and store the seeds correctly - and this wonderful vegetable will always delight you with good harvests.
Instructions
In the autumn (from mid-September to the end of October), after harvesting the previous crops, apply mineral and organic fertilizers (30 grams of superphosphate, 5-6 kilograms of compost or humus, 20 grams of potassium chloride per square meter). Then dig up the area with a full shovel, evenly mixing the soil with fertilizers.
Having prepared the area, start planting the cloves in a row, the distance between the rows should be 20-25 centimeters. Depending on the size of the cloves, plant them at a distance of 5-8 centimeters from each other. Planting depth is 3-4 centimeters. Then mulch the soil with a two-centimeter layer of humus or peat.
Features of caring for garlic
For garlic, it is recommended to use mineral and organic fertilizers. The area where the garlic was planted in the fall is fertilized with compost or humus (consumption: 6-7 kg per 1 sq.m.). But you should not fertilize the plant fresh manure, since such fertilizing will lead to powerful growth of the vegetative part and a decrease in yield. In addition, garlic is responsive to potassium and phosphate fertilizers: these elements increase the winter hardiness of the plant. In the spring, after the first shoots appear, the soil is fed with mineral fertilizer: to cultivate a plot of 10 square meters you will need 90-100 g of superphosphate, 60 g of ammonium nitrate and 55-60 g of potassium sulfate. Second spring feeding performed 30 days after the first (same dosage).
Signs of garlic ripeness: a dense shell forms around the head,...
Although garlic does not tolerate waterlogging well, it must be constantly watered during the growing season. The plant is watered once a week to soak the soil to a depth of 30 cm. Watering is stopped 27-30 days before harvest.
Related article
On the prepared bed, make transverse grooves at a distance of 12–15 cm. The grooves should be sprinkled with a pinch of ash and table salt. Before planting, soak the planting material overnight in a solution of potassium permanganate.
Fertilizers
Garlic and onions are actively distracted by feeding with superphosphate. To do this, dilute 1 tbsp. a spoonful of superphosphate in two glasses warm water. Place in a dark place. Dilute the solution in a bucket of water and water the plants at the root. You can do it even simpler: scatter a handful of superphosphate in the garden bed between the plants, sprinkle with soil and water generously.
It is not recommended to apply manure to beds with garlic and onions, since it will have little benefit, and weeds will grow with incredible force, making it difficult to get rid of them. In addition, the application of manure leads to onion disease and a significant reduction in yield. Of the organic fertilizers, it is best to use humus (2 kg per 1 square meter). Among mineral fertilizers, in addition to superphosphate and potassium salt, onions and garlic also respond well to ammonium nitrate.
In order to grow garlic, choose areas with fertile loamy soils located in dry and well-lit places. In August, superphosphate is added to the soil, dolomite flour, as well as humus or compost.
Instructions
Before planting, the soil should be dug to a depth of 18-20 cm, after which the beds should be leveled and compacted slightly. The soil needs to be treated with a solution copper sulfate, it is prepared at the rate of 40 g per 10 liters of water. Use 1 liter of this solution per 10 square meters. m. landing. After this, the ground is covered with film until planting.
For autumn planting take garlic from the latest fresh harvest, select healthy dry bulbs, then separate them into cloves. In this case, no damage should be caused. The cloves are arranged according to size, distinguishing large, medium and small, this will allow you to obtain uniform shoots.
Planting spring garlic
- To avoid crushing the garlic, use only large cloves for planting. Small change is not suitable for landing.
- The distance between the teeth when planting should be at least 15-20 centimeters. Plants need both light and air.
- We plant it deeper, 20 centimeters deep. Finely planted spring garlic overheats in the heat and its leaves turn yellow.
- Be sure to mulch the garlic bed with a thick layer immediately after planting. Mulch keeps the soil from drying out, and the gardener from frequent watering, weeding and loosening.
- Not enough space? Garlic grows well in mixed plantings. Plant it in strawberry rows or in a beet bed, along the edges of a tomato or potato plantation.
Growing spring garlic
This crop is very demanding on the soil. On poor soils, the harvest will be small and stunted. Let's provide nutrition with the right predecessors. Ideal option, if the bed in front of the garlic was sown with green manure or legumes.
Spring garlic needs feeding during the summer. To suit your taste and experience. I don’t use factory-made mineral fertilizers in the garden; I prefer to cook herbal tea and pamper them with plantings in the garden every 3-4 weeks.
Don't forget to add mulch! This is also a source of nutrition, located almost near the very roots. Its layer gradually becomes thinner, and the bed begins to dry out.
Even if all conditions are met, any garlic becomes smaller and degenerates. This is a two-year crop. Growing it like annual plant, we are cutting off the most important phase of its development. Therefore, planting material must be renewed every 6-7 years.
Video on the topic
Garlic is divided into winter and spring. Each has pros and cons. Winter yields big harvest, but poorly stored. Spring yields a smaller harvest, but lasts until next year.
Plant species
How to distinguish spring from winter by appearance? From the middle of the onion winter crop a rigid rod sticks out - the remainder of the arrow. The spring one does not have such a rod, so it does not shoot. The teeth of the winter onion are large and form one layer. The denticles of the spring onion are small and can be arranged in two or more layers. And the main difference is different terms landings. Spring crops are planted in spring, and winter crops in autumn. And now about the main thing – the landing rules.
Video about growing garlic
The technology for growing garlic is constantly being improved. This is how several planting methods appeared, which we will now tell you about.
Method No. 1 - traditional
Space is allocated for the crop from early harvested plants: cucumbers, early cabbage, radishes, legumes. The site should not be located in a low-lying area and should not be flooded with meltwater in the spring - the teeth will rot and die. The soil is fertilized: humus or rotted manure is added, dug up with a shovel and furrows are made every 25 cm. Unpeeled cloves are planted every 10-12 cm. The plantings are covered, watered and mulched.
Landing photo winter garlic
Method number 2 - double landing
Double planting of garlic is relevant for small areas. The main secret is that garlic is planted in 2 levels (tiers). This is done in the fall or at the end of August. The first row is located below, the second - above. We dig a groove deeper and lay out the first level of cloves at a depth of 11-12 cm. Some will say deep. Don't worry. They will feel great there.
We fill it with earth and lay out the second row at a depth of 6-7 cm. Make a distance of 10-15 cm between the cloves, and 25 cm between the grooves. Sprinkle with earth. It turns out one clove on top of the other. No one bothers anyone, there is enough for everyone.
Method No. 3 - sowing
You can also not stick the cloves into the ground, but sow them, that is, lay them out on a side or simply throw them in rows. The only thing that might confuse you is the garlic head lying on its side and the crooked neck. But this does not affect the quality of the product, taste and size of the onion.
The photo shows garlic sowing
The teeth were planted and mulched. In the spring they immediately begin to grow. The tooth that turned out to be lower is more favorable conditions. He's deeper and warmer there. He has developed better root system. And the one that is higher warms up faster in the spring.
When to harvest garlic? The bulbs are removed when the arrow bursts. Why then break out the arrows? If you leave them, the garlic heads will grow less. The arrow takes up the food, as bulbs form on it, but it’s worth leaving a few. Garlic arrows will show you when it is ready to harvest. The arrows are broken off not when they have just emerged from the stem, but when they have made a circle.
When to plant garlic?
Every autumn this question arises for all gardeners. And here, as they say, how many people, so many opinions. Some people prefer to plant the bulb 2-3 weeks before the soil freezes. The tooth has time to take root and readily begins to grow in the spring. But early August and September planting is considered incorrect, since the tips of the plant’s feathers begin to turn yellow early. We will not convince you of the correctness or incorrectness of a particular method. We will tell you about the interesting experience we have done.
We planted garlic on three dates: August 20, September 20 and October 20. Most best harvest gave the August landing. He overwintered best. If you think about it, it immediately becomes clear why this is so. We planted it early, it managed to take root well, gained strength and immediately began to grow in the spring. And the worst harvest was from the October planting. It did not really take root, did not overwinter well and grew little.
If the plant managed to sprout from the August and September planting, then nothing bad happened. That's how it should be. To check whether August planting is effective, plant some of the cloves early, and some when it seems right to you, and then compare the results.
You may ask why sprouted garlic does not freeze? When it produced roots, the composition of the cell sap changed and it contained more sugar. Try freezing the syrup. The syrup won't freeze, but the water will. That is, after germination it goes into another state, simply “falls asleep” for the winter.
Feeding
Feeding garlic in the summer closer to harvest is already useless. If you are going to feed him, then you need to do this in May - June. Then, from the feather, it gains the weight of the bulb itself. When he wakes up, he needs it. An infusion of vermicompost or horse manure is used as a top dressing. It is advisable to mulch the plantings with humus or straw cut into pieces.
The row spacing is sprinkled with ash to prevent pests. Mulching helps retain soil moisture and protects the bulbs from overheating. You don't have to mulch the garlic. Cultivation and care then consist of fertilizing, regular loosening, weed removal and watering.
Another rule: choose the largest cloves for planting. Let's plant small - small bulbs and get it. If the tops turn yellow, this indicates damage to the root system. Causes: root gnawing by pests or the action of soil rot.
If the plantings are mulched, there is no need to water them. Under normal conditions weather conditions There is enough rain moisture. After all, the clove has already grown roots, will draw moisture from the soil itself, and form a good bulb.
Also prefers fertile soil. If necessary, humus or rotted manure is added to the soil in an amount of 3-5 kg/m2. The teeth are planted in rows at a distance of 6-7 cm from each other. A distance of 25-28 cm is maintained between the rows. The approximate depth of planting garlic cloves is 3 cm. We will describe two methods.
Method No. 1 - traditional
Spring crops are planted early spring April 15-25. Before planting, the heads are divided into cloves and sorted by size. It is advisable to plant slices of each size in separate grooves. Care consists of regularly loosening the rows, watering and removing weeds. If the plantings are mulched, as mentioned above, there is no need for watering.
Method No. 2 – with sprouted teeth
Garlic heads are stored all winter at a temperature of 20 0 C. At the end of March, the bulbs are disassembled into slices, soaked for 3 hours in water at room temperature, taken to the cellar, where they are laid out in one layer and covered with rags or film. When the roots grow 2-5 cm long, the cloves are planted in moist soil.
Photo of planting garlic
Spring plants are fed in the same way as winter plants, with an infusion of mullein, vermicompost or horse manure. Of the inorganic fertilizers, urea is used at the rate of 1 matchbox on a bucket of water when shoots appear, then after 10 days and a third time at the end of June. To prevent pests, ash is scattered between the rows.
Spring bulbs are harvested when the feathers of the lower tier of the plant dry out massively in the third ten days of August - the first ten days of September. The bulbs selected from the soil are laid out in one row to dry under a canopy. The tops must be completely dry. Do not rush to cut off the green shoots of garlic, as the bulb receives nutrition from them and continues to grow during drying. Dry tops are cut off, leaving 5 cm.
Garlic tends to degenerate, just like potatoes. When propagating by cloves, diseases gradually accumulate in the crop and the yield decreases. To prevent this from happening, from time to time the garlic is renewed from bulbs (balloons). In the first year, the balloons produce one-toothed ones. In the second year, full-fledged bulbs grow from them. The garlic turns out healthy and there is no need to run around looking for planting material, especially since it is quite expensive.
Garlic in the photo
Bulbs are taken from plants from which the shoot was left. When the inflorescence bursts and the bulbs turn the color characteristic of this variety, the inflorescences are broken off and placed in a dry place to ripen. For planting, take bulbs with a diameter of 4-5 mm.
Method No. 1 - traditional
Bulbs are sown in the first days of October. Humus of 3-4 kg per 1 m2 is added to the soil and dug up. Make rows up to 4 cm deep at a distance of 10 cm from each other. The rows are watered, air balloons are laid out every 3 cm and sprinkled with earth. In spring and summer, caring for crops is the same as for ordinary garlic. By the beginning of August, one-toothed bulbs grow from the bulbs, which are dug up when the tops turn yellow. They are dried and used for autumn planting on a full-sized bulb.
Method No. 2 - direct
In the first year from balloons traditional method monotooths are grown. In August, the one-toothed ones are not dug up, but are left in the soil for the winter. Next spring The plants are carefully thinned out, thus increasing the distance between the remaining bulbs. By the end of May, the distance between the rows should be 25 cm, and between the single-claws in the row - 10-12 cm.
Video about growing garlic and caring for it
Method No. 3 - growing through winter
In the first half of June, bulblets are sown. Before this, they are stored unthreshed in the refrigerator. By the second ten days of September, the plants already have 4-5 leaves, a good root system and a thick stem as thick as a pencil. In October, winter plants harden and winter well. On next year from them full-fledged bulbs develop.
We shared with you all the secrets that we used ourselves. Now you know how to grow garlic. It's up to you. Choose the method you like, or better yet several, so you can compare the results later and grow huge harvest, to your delight and to the envy of your neighbors.
A close relative of onions is garlic. Of course, it has peculiarities of planting, care, storage and preparation for planting, just like any other plant. vegetable crop. But there is nothing difficult about growing garlic. We'll figure it out. There are bolting and non-bolting, winter and spring varieties of garlic - it depends on biological features plants. Non-shooting garlic reproduces only by cloves, while shooting garlic also reproduces by aerial bulbs (bulbs).
Shooting varieties are winter varieties. They give a good harvest when planted before winter. Among the non-shooting varieties there are winter and spring varieties. Planting spring garlic in the fall leads to poor rooting of cloves, thinning of crops, and crop failure. However, there are varieties that grow well in autumn and during spring planting.
The main thing when growing winter garlic is to create conditions for a good overwintering. This is ensured the right choice places for planting, timing of sowing, depth of seed placement. The culture should be placed on fertile lands With flat surface, clean of weeds, not flooded by autumn or melt waters.
The best predecessors are crops that clear the field early and are treated with organic fertilizers: cucumbers, zucchini, early cabbage, salad, legumes. Garlic good predecessor for all crops except onions, since they are affected by the same pests and diseases.
Preparing a bed for planting garlic
The soil in the garden bed is cultivated in advance so that it settles somewhat. Directly under plowing or digging, you can add humus (40-60 t/ha) and mineral fertilizers. Norm mineral fertilizers per 1 hectare: 30-40 g of ammonium nitrate, 50 g of superphosphate, 15-20 g of potassium chloride. Saltpeter is not applied in the fall, only in the spring.
Preparation of planting material - garlic cloves, bulbs
To plant winter or spring garlic, three types of planting material are used:
- teeth,
- aerial bulbs (bulbs);
- sets (singles grown from aerial bulbs).
Only garlic heads with healthy cloves are selected. All diseased, shriveled or sprouted bulbs are discarded. Large or medium-sized cloves are the most suitable material for planting.
Cloves prepared for planting are pickled and disinfected with a 1% solution of copper sulfate or a 3% suspension of TMTD for 10-15 minutes. If disinfection is not carried out, then it is useful to soak them for 12-24 hours in a weak solution of potassium permanganate. Such preparation promotes the health of planting material and protects it from diseases.
Planting garlic in the fall before winter - timing
In order for garlic to take root but not germinate, it must be planted before winter two to three weeks before the onset of a steady cold snap. Optimal time planting winter varieties of garlic before winter is the third ten days of October in Kuban. With more early boarding, for example, in September, sprouted cloves go into winter with 2-3 true leaves. To prevent the leaves from being damaged by frost or cold winds, plants are hilled up and, in early spring, transverse harrowing is done to free the plant neck.
With more late disembarkation the teeth do not have time to take root - there is a greater sparseness of crops due to the influence of cold winds and frosts.
Check the dates for planting garlic with.
Aerial bulbs are sown in autumn or early spring. From them grows the so-called sets - these are not cloves, but small roundish onions. If you plant aerial bulbs in the fall, then most of them will shoot in the summer, but when planted in spring, there is no shooting, but round one-toothed bulbs (apples) are formed. They are planted in the fall, as they do not store well until spring.
Spring varieties are planted in early spring, as soon as it is possible to go into the field, since they are very demanding on soil moisture and low temperatures at the beginning of growth. When planting is delayed, the growth and development of plants is delayed, the yield is reduced, and the commercial quality of the products deteriorates.
Norm and scheme for planting garlic
Garlic is usually planted in rows, the distance between which is 20-30 cm. The cloves are placed at a distance of 6-8 cm, but this distance depends on their size: for large ones - the distance is greater, for small ones - they are planted closer to each other. One or two days before planting, the heads should be disassembled into teeth. If this is done, for example, a week before sowing or even earlier, then they will lose a certain percentage of germination.
How many cloves will be needed to plant, for example, 1 sq. meter of vegetable garden, it’s hard to say. The planting rate depends on the size of the cloves you are planting. Typically, agronomist experts cite the figure as 130-380 cloves per 1 m2. They get the first figure based on their average weight of one clove of 3 g, and the second - if it weighs 7 g.
Larger teeth produce larger heads. It is not worth planting cloves weighing less than 3 g, as small heads will grow from them.
At what depth should I plant? This depends, firstly, on the size of the cloves, and secondly, on the timing of planting.
In autumn, before winter, winter varieties are planted. Large cloves are planted no deeper than 5-7 cm. Smaller cloves are planted no deeper than 4-5 cm. But whether planting in spring or autumn, you need to make sure that the layer of soil on top is at least 3-4 cm. You can cover the beds with a small layer of soil. layer (5-7 cm) of mulch - straw or dry grass.
Spring varieties are planted in spring. The depth of planting spring garlic is 4-5 cm. Also make sure that the layer of soil above the cloves is at least 3-4 cm. This will ensure optimal conditions for good rooting, for the formation of heads of the correct shape.
Caring for garlic plantings, fertilizing
One of the secrets of growing garlic is feeding.
In early spring, after the snow melts, as soon as the first warm days arrive, it would be a good idea to feed the crops nitrogen fertilizers, for example, urea (1 tablespoon/10 liters of water). Approximately 5 liters of solution should be used per 1 m2.
In April, when the seedlings have grown, fertilizing is carried out twice, for example, this is mid and late April. The first fertilizing should contain more nitrogen. Its composition can be as follows: half a liter of chicken manure + 1 tbsp. spoon of nitroammophoska per bucket (10 l) of water. The second feeding should contain more phosphorus and potassium. The composition is as follows: 1 tbsp. spoon of double superphosphate + 1 tbsp. spoon of potassium sulfate + 1 teaspoon of urea per bucket (10 l) of water. We also consume approximately 5 liters of solution per 1 m2.
Be sure to loosen the soil between the rows the next day after fertilizing, loosen it again after a week or a week and a half, if the soil is dry, water it. Garlic loves loose soil without - oxygen must necessarily reach the roots and bulbs of the plant, so loosen the soil between the rows after each watering or after rain. By the way, if there is no rain, then watering should be done at least weekly. Water abundantly - 12-15 liters per 1 m2.
Mulching between rows can make the gardener’s work easier. Mulch will retain moisture, and the soil under the mulch always remains loose.
In order for you to grow large heads, the arrows must be broken out in time. Try to break or cut them, and do not pull them up - this can inadvertently pull out the entire onion or damage its root system. Break the arrows when they have reached a length of 12-15 cm; the breaking point should be as close as possible to the rosette of leaves. If you break it at a shorter length, it will continue to grow - you won't get a large head.
Breaking out the arrows is a special agricultural technique that allows not only to increase the size of the head, but also accelerates their maturation.
By the way, do not throw away the broken arrows - they can be used when canning preparations, as a seasoning for food.
For example, add finely chopped garlic arrows to boiled potatoes, after you have drained the water, lightly dry them. Add butter or sour cream, stir and serve. Once upon a time, a long time ago, I read this recipe - it was called “Phytoncidal Potatoes”. Since then it has been one of our family's favorite dishes.
Finely chopped arrows can be added to boiled hot pasta or noodles - this is also tasty and healthy, especially in the spring, when vitamins are so lacking.
Harvesting garlic, when to do it
Usually at the end of July, garlic leaves begin to turn yellow. This means it's time to clean up. There is an unwritten rule among gardeners: it is better to remove sooner rather than later. Even a 5 day delay matters. When cleaning earlier, it is left for outdoors under a canopy for ripening. Don't pick off the leaves yet. At the same time, nutrients from the leaves enter the bulbs, which increase their mass. In this case, the heads are dense, covered on top with dry integumentary scales, good attractive looking. And if you are literally 3-5 days late with cleaning, then the scales covering the heads burst, the teeth crumble, and the head itself becomes loose. This garlic will not be stored for long.
But I would like to say separately about the timing of cleaning. There are many varieties that have different ripening periods, which means they should not be harvested all at once, but one by one. No matter how many times I talk to gardeners I know, almost no one knows what variety they grow. By the way, me too. But the differences in the variety can be seen by the color of the outer shell of the head and the number of cloves in the bulb. I try to sort the heads before planting so that I can at least approximately plant the varieties separately.
How do you know when it's time to remove garlic from the beds?
Very simple. I always leave a few arrows, I don’t cut them all off when they start to grow. At first, during growth, the arrows bend bizarrely and are curly. But as soon as I noticed that the arrow had straightened and was standing vertically up, this was the first sign that it was time to dig up the garlic.
There is another sign - the flower heads, which have already formed bulbs, have burst - remove them for now.
Thus, knowing these signs of ripening, no matter where you live, you will never be late to harvest garlic on time. Although everyone's cleaning time will be different.
Ripening and storage of air bulbs (bulbs)
So that next year you have your own garlic for planting, leave some part of the plants with arrows in the garden, do not break them out. These plants with the arrows left should be left in the garden for another one to two weeks after harvesting the main crop. Then the arrows with air bulbs are cut off. You can tie them in small bunches and hang them under a canopy (not in the open sun) to dry. This is how garlic arrows with air bulbs are stored for 20-30 days. During this time, there is an outflow of nutrients from the arrows into the bulbs, they become covered with dense scales, become light straw or lilac color(color depends on variety). The bulbs become very large and the shell bursts. If you are going to plant them in the fall, before winter, then clean them and sort them by size. And if the bulbs are intended for spring-summer planting, then it is best to continue storing them in bunches until spring, since when cleaning and sorting in the fall, the bulbs are injured, can dry out, and lose their germination capacity. They should be stored in a cool, dark place.
Ripe, mature, well-dried heads with intact scales are selected for storage. Best temperature for storage at home - +18°C. It is better to store garlic in mesh bags, braids or cardboard boxes.
How can you get single clove garlic?
To obtain one-toothed bulbs, aerial bulbs can be planted in autumn or spring. It should be remembered that when autumn sowing Some of the bulbs freeze and rot. Therefore, sparse seedlings are obtained. With early spring sowing, seedlings appear on the 10-20th day, usually amicable. Sowing scheme: distance between rows is 20 cm, continuous planting of bulbs along the row. Care consists of watering followed by shallow loosening and fertilizing. complex fertilizers. Single-toothed bulbs are removed as soon as the leaves begin to lie down. After ripening (10-12 days), drying, cut off the roots and dried leaves. Single tooth is stored at a temperature of 16-18°C, relative humidity 70-75%.
One last thing... Avoid planting garlic from greengrocers or supermarkets, as in the process of growing garlic you risk introducing serious viral diseases to your site.