Even novice gardeners are very well aware of the benefits of garlic. This plant is rich in substances that strengthen the human immune system (allicin, phytocides, protein). In addition, garlic lowers blood cholesterol levels and is even used to prevent cancer. Today, it is widely used both in folk medicine and in cooking for its characteristic piquant taste and expressive aroma.
As a garden crop, this plant is extremely hardy and unpretentious, which is a huge plus for the gardener. Garlic easily withstands the low temperatures of winter and the suffocating heat of summer, humidity and deadly drought. But if you want to get large and juicy heads, you should pay attention to how to properly care for garlic.
What is garlic
There are two varieties of garlic:
- winter;
- spring.
This classification is due to the period of his landing.
Winter garlic is planted in the fall. It has a large bulb and high yield compared to other varieties, but is not suitable for long-term storage. Zubkov - from 6 to 10, they are located in one row. Winter garlic can shoot, resulting in the formation of bulbous bulbs.
Spring garlic is sent to the soil on April 20–25. Its heads are smaller, as are the cloves, which are arranged in a spiral, there can be up to 30 of them. This variety has a lower yield, but high keeping quality. It reproduces exclusively by teeth, since it is not typical for it to shoot.
Winter garlic: planting and care
garden bed
The most successful option is loamy neutral soil on which garlic or onions have not been grown for 3-4 years. Beans, pumpkin, cabbage or greens are considered good predecessors. It is desirable that the site be flat, without elevations and depressions, in an open area that receives a lot of direct sunlight.
It is advisable to fertilize the soil before planting. For this, humus or compost is perfect. Use a bucket of fertilizer per square meter. It is also recommended to add a tablespoon of superphosphate or nitrophoska and a glass of fluffy lime or dolomite flour.
In case you are unfortunate enough to have suitable soil, its quality can be improved by supplements.
- If the soil is clayey, then a bucket of peat will save the situation.
- Peaty soil is corrected with a bucket of loamy soil.
- A bucket of loamy soil, peat and all the necessary additives for the standard option are added to sandy soils.
Landing dates
Planting winter garlic 1–1.5 months before the first frost. In regions with a more severe climate - around September 20, in warm regions - from October 15.
It is not desirable that the garlic sprouted. This usually indicates that he was dropped off too early. But this is not critical - it is important that the plant develops a strong root system. In this case, he is not afraid of any cold.
Landing pattern
In the garden before planting create grooves 6–10 cm deep. The depth depends on the size of the clove, larger ones are planted in deeper grooves. It is desirable to compact the soil: this contributes to the development of a larger bulb.
After 2-3 weeks, peat is added for insulation., a layer of about 2 cm.
If severe frosts are possible, the bed must be carefully insulated. Straw, branches or grass are suitable for this. But before the appearance of sprouts, it is necessary to remove any obstacles to the growth of the plant.
Garlic care in spring
The most important period for caring for winter garlic is spring.. When the temperature rises to just zero degrees, it throws out the first sprouts. This is the first signal that it is time to get to work.
As soon as the soil dries out a little, it is necessary to loosen the soil a little - by 2–3 cm, no more. This procedure will destroy the crust, which prevents normal growth. But it is important not to overdo it - at a distance of 6–8 cm there are not yet fully formed heads that can be damaged by careless actions.
Garlic during its spring growth needs a lot of moisture.
- Under the condition of dry weather, watering should be carried out every 5-6 days, spending about 10-12 liters of water per square meter.
- If there is a moderate amount of precipitation, the air temperature does not rise above 30 degrees, it is worth repeating watering with the same amount of water every 8–10 days.
- In rainy weather, garlic does not need watering.
Stop moistening the soil no earlier than 18–20 days before harvesting.
An important element of garlic care is his feed. After all, the amount of nutrients contained in a fragrant plant directly depends on the elements that are introduced into the soil during its growth and development.
Weed control
The high immunity of garlic to various external factors does not negate the fact that the necessary care is in regular weed removal. In any case, there will be a harvest, but its quality directly depends on the efforts made.
It is worth recognizing that regular soil mulching significantly slows down the growth of weeds, which is a definite plus.
Arrows can be another problem., to which winter garlic is prone to release. They must be removed - broken off or cut off. You can leave a few of the strongest shooters and use them for growing in the future.
Growing winter garlic from bulb bulbs
Before planting it is necessary to free the bulb from the inflorescence. Material is sown from September to October, depending on the air temperature. First, the soil is fertilized with 3 kilograms of humus or compost and a tablespoon of superphosphate, the bed is carefully dug up and leveled. Then, at a distance of 10-15 centimeters, grooves are made with a depth of 2-3 centimeters. At intervals of 1–2 centimeters, prepared onions are laid out, covered with a small layer of soil and left for the winter.
Harvesting
Gathering winter garlic late July - early August. The main sign by which its suitability for collection is determined is yellowed and fallen leaves. After digging, the heads must be dried for two weeks in the sun and not exposed to moisture. Such garlic is suitable for long-term storage.
Spring garlic: planting and care
The requirements of spring garlic to the soil are identical. Fertile loamy soil is needed, into which mineral and organic fertilizers are applied before planting. Do not plant garlic where potatoes or tomatoes used to grow.
The soil must be moist. The dug-up bed is dotted with furrows with a distance of 20-25 centimeters from each other. The cloves of spring garlic are noticeably smaller than those of winter garlic. They do not need to be buried deeper than 2-3 cm. The distance between the teeth is about 6-8 cm. You should also not press them into the soil - this does not contribute to stable and healthy growth.
Spring garlic is also very picky about watering. The doses of water needed for its growth are similar to winter garlic. Dry leaf tips are a sign of insufficient watering. But an excessive amount of water can adversely affect the safety and nutritional characteristics of the future head.
Feeding plays an important role in care.
To get a large bulb of spring garlic, it is necessary after each watering loosen the beds. It is also recommended to tie up the leaves to reduce their nutrition. In this case, all the nutrients will flow to the teeth, making them more juicy and large.
Spring garlic is harvested in late August - early September. The heads are dug up and left to dry for 6-8 days right in the garden. The leaves are then harvested and cut off. After that, it is suitable for storage.
Conclusion
Caring for garlic is easy, just necessary follow certain instructions. This will allow you to grow large and strong heads that are full of benefits and essential minerals.
Garlic is today one of the most common garden plants, which is found in every suburban area. It is included in the recipes of many dishes, in addition, it is an excellent drug that can fight many microbes in the human body.
Caring for garlic, especially in spring, does not require much effort. This plant is cold-resistant, capable of starting its growth process at zero or even slightly sub-zero temperatures. The teeth in the bulbs are formed at five degrees of heat, and ripen already at twenty or more.
The first weeks after planting, garlic care consists in frequent watering. During this period, intensive root growth begins. The next day after watering, it is necessary to loosen the aisles at a depth of two or three centimeters in order to break the crust formed on the surface of the earth and improve soil air exchange.
In addition, as the garlic grows, caring for the garlic consists in weeding the beds from weeds and watering as the soil dries. Experienced summer residents who do not have enough time to travel to the site often know that in this case it is necessary to loosen the soil around the roots and sprinkle them with sawdust. In this case, garlic survives even with rare watering.
Pre-harvest care for garlic is reduced. At this time, watering stops, however, in order to get large heads, the plant needs to be broken out in about two or three weeks at a height of about fifteen centimeters from the top leaf. Thus, the yield increases by about a quarter.
In early November, such care for winter garlic is necessary as mulching with a two-centimeter layer of well-decomposed dry peat or humus.
Fallen leaves, which need to be laid out in the garden, are also well suited as mulch. In early spring, when the shoots of winter garlic are just beginning to appear from the ground, the mulch is removed. This is done in order to prevent the plant from overheating.
In spring and summer, during the period of growth and development, garlic care includes mandatory feeding with mineral fertilizers. During the time it needs nitrogen replenishment, and after mid-June, when the formation and growth of the bulb begins, it needs phosphorus-potassium. However, you need to be aware that the excess can cause increased growth of vegetative masses and a decrease in the yield of bulbs.
The first feeding is carried out after the appearance of two or three leaves. To do this, a tablespoon of urea is diluted in ten liters of water. The beds are watered with this solution from a watering can (five liters per square meter). Feeding is repeated after two weeks. The third and last time fertilizers are applied at the end of June.
However, the most important step that makes up the care of garlic is still constant watering. The plant does not tolerate excess moisture. With rare watering, its bulbs become smaller. It is best to supply water to the beds in the morning or evening. At the same time, if the temperature is below fifteen degrees, the plant does not need moisture. In June, winter varieties form their flower arrows, at the end of which air bulbs develop.
Today, spring is gaining more and more popularity and care for which is basically not very different from winter.
Many gardeners set aside 1-2 beds for winter garlic on the site. Garlic cloves planted in autumn, after wintering in the ground, begin to grow in early spring. Already 2-3 weeks after the snow melts, the garlic plantation is covered with tender young greenery, pleasing the eyes of hardworking summer residents. Young shoots of culture are widely used in cooking for dressing cold and hot dishes.
In order for garlic to form large and juicy heads by mid-summer, the plant needs to provide quality care, which consists in top dressing, organizing watering, loosening and weeding. Only compliance with the rules of garlic agricultural technology leads to a bountiful harvest of the crop.
Watering
Garlic suffers both from excess moisture (leads to the activation of fungal and bacterial infections and rotting of the bulbs), and from its lack (provokes chopping heads).
If in spring the amount of precipitation is minimal, then the beds are watered with sprinkling method 1 time in 4-6 days. In the rainy season, watering the plantation is not required, and it is recommended to dig drainage grooves between rows to drain excess water.
It is especially important to organize watering in the summer heat, the frequency of events is 1 time in 5 days. 3 weeks before digging the heads, watering is stopped, as an abundance of moisture worsens the keeping quality of the bulbs and can lead to rotting of the crop.
top dressing
In spring, garlic is fed twice, enriching the soil with nitrogen compounds. The first time the fertilizer is applied 3 weeks after the emergence of mass shoots, and the second - after 15 days. Fertilizers shed the plantation after the planned watering. Nitrogen substances are necessary for seedlings for the speedy set of green mass and activation of vegetation processes.
Ammonium nitrate (20 g / 10 l of water), urea (20 g / 10 l of water) or slurry diluted with water 1:10 are used as fertilizers. The fermented infusion of weeded weeds and mowed grass is also rich in nitrogen (a bucket of rammed greens is poured into 10 liters of water and infused for 10 days, setting the container in the sun; the filtered mother liquor is diluted with clean water 1: 4; the remains of the green mass are laid out in the aisles to enrich the soil with biohumus).
In the summer, around mid-July, experienced vegetable growers are advised to carry out another top dressing, already using phosphorus-potassium compounds. Both phosphorus and potassium are needed by the bulbs that form in the soil. These same chemical compounds help plants ripen in a timely manner.
From mineral fertilizers in summer, liquid solutions of superphosphate (40 g / 10 l), potassium sulfate (15 g / 10 l), complex potassium monophosphate (20 g / 10 l) are used. Of the biological agents, vegetable ash has proven itself best as a source of potassium, phosphorus and a whole complex of microelements. The beds are powdered with sifted ashes (1/2 l for each sq. M) before watering, or an ash infusion is used (5 tablespoons per bucket of water, leave for 2-3 days).
Loosening and weeding
At the beginning of the growing season, weeds should be regularly destroyed, which take away valuable nutrients from the still fragile garlic. Loosening the soil in the beds improves the water and moisture permeability of the earth and ensures the supply of oxygen to the roots of seedlings lying in the upper layers of the soil. The event is recommended to be carried out in spring and early summer each time after planned watering, carefully loosening the ground to a depth of 3-4 cm.
Why remove the arrows from the arrowing varieties of garlic?
Winter garlic can be arrowed and non-shooting. Shooting varieties at the beginning of summer throw arrows, at the end of which inflorescences with air bulbs ripen. Experienced vegetable growers recommend removing arrows when they reach a height of 10-15 cm. This agricultural technique allows you to redirect nutrients to the bulbs and thereby increase the size of the heads.
Have a good harvest!
It is beneficial to grow winter garlic in dachas and household plots: it has a higher yield, and larger cloves than spring garlic, and it ripens earlier, but is not always well stored. Spring garlic, on the contrary, forms small heads with smaller teeth, which are perfectly stored until the new harvest. Therefore, depending on the specific circumstances, both spring garlic and winter garlic are of value.
Winter garlic loves a sunny place and is picky about the soil. It grows well on structurally fertile soils, best on sandy and light loams with a neutral reaction. Even with a slight increase in acidity, plants feel oppressed.
It is better to grow winter garlic in beds located from north to south, 15-20 cm high and up to 1 meter wide. Such beds are better warmed by the sun, and the plants suffer less from waterlogging. The beds for winter garlic are prepared in advance, a week and a half before planting.
Under the autumn digging of the soil, 1 bucket of compost and humus, 1 tablespoon of superphosphate and potash fertilizers, 1 cup are applied per 1 m2. On acidic soils, 200-300 g of fluffy lime is applied. But it is better to do this not in the year of planting, but under the previous crop.
The best predecessors of winter garlic - legumes, zucchini, pumpkin, cucumbers, tomatoes, early cabbage, green crops harvested early roots under which a sufficient amount of organic matter was added.
The precursor of garlic must vacate the site no later than the end of July. It is not recommended to return the garlic to its original place earlier than after 4-5 years. Due to common pests and diseases, garlic is not planted after Luke And potatoes.
Winter garlic is propagated by bulbs or cloves.
Planting winter garlic bulbs
It is most profitable to grow garlic from bulbs - you get a lot of planting material at minimal cost, just leave a few arrows. At the same time, garlic is rejuvenated and disinfected. True, the harvest will have to wait longer.
Annually it is necessary to replace up to 30% of the garlic seed with single cloves grown from air bulbs. They usually ripen in the second half of September.
Before sowing garlic, bulbs should be sorted by size and planted separately: larger ones will ripen for planting in two seasons. When sowing small bulbs in the first year, small single-toothed ones will grow, in the second year - large single-toothed ones, and only in the third year - marketable bulbs.
The best time for planting bulbs is the second half of September, that is, about a month and a half before the onset of stable winter cold. The garlic planted at this time manages to form a powerful root system, and this is one of the main factors for obtaining a high yield.
On the beds prepared for winter garlic, grooves are made 4 cm deep at a distance of 20-25 cm from each other. To protect garlic from diseases, planting material is pre-soaked for 2-3 hours in a warm solution of pink potassium permanganate or 1% copper sulfate solution. At the same time, the floating bulbs are discarded.
Then the bulbs are laid out at a distance of 2 cm from each other and sprinkled with loose soil. The bed is mulched with peat or sawdust, which is removed in early spring.
Planting winter garlic with teeth
Large bulbs grow only from the largest cloves. Therefore, for planting, it is necessary to select the largest cloves from the largest bulbs - from 6g and medium - 3-6g - cloves from healthy bulbs typical of the variety. The planting rate is 40-50 teeth per 1m2.
Separate the teeth immediately before planting, so that the lower part of the teeth does not dry out, where the roots form. Before planting, garlic cloves should be sorted by size, carefully removing parts of the old bottom that will interfere with root germination.
The teeth are planted in rows in grooves at a distance of 8-10 cm from each other and 20-25 cm between rows. The larger the garlic cloves, the deeper they are planted. No need to press the teeth into the ground, this will delay the growth of the roots. Deep planting of large teeth contributes to their rapid strengthening and preservation from freezing. The planting depth of large cloves (from the top of the cloves to the surface of the soil) should be 6-7 cm, and for small ones - 3-4 cm.
Plantings are mulched with a layer of peat, humus or sawdust 2-5 cm thick, and with the onset of stable cold weather with insufficient snow cover, you can additionally cover with peat. In early spring, the layer of mulch is removed and winter garlic begins to quickly gain strength.
Care for planting winter garlic in spring and summer
In the spring, as soon as the soil allows, the soil is loosened to a depth of 2-3 cm. During the growing season, garlic must be fed 3 times:
- the first dressing of garlic - 3-4 days after the snow melts with a 1:10 solution of mullein, or a solution of urea (1 teaspoon per 10 liters of water) on frozen soil;
- the second dressing of garlic - 2 weeks after the first with a 1:10 solution of mullein with the addition of nitrophoska (1 tablespoon per 10 liters of water).
- third
Hello dear friends!
At the end of last summer I wrote about how to fall. Now it's time to tell you about caring for winter garlic from spring to harvest.
In early spring, shoots of winter garlic appear. The soil between shoots must be loosened to a depth of about 2 - 3 centimeters and covered with a layer of peat or humus mulch.
Garlic should be watered during May, June and early July. Approximately 18 - 20 days before harvesting garlic, watering should be stopped. The rate of watering garlic largely depends on the air temperature. I will give approximate doses of watering:
- If the weather is moderate, not very hot and moderately rainy, then 10 - 12 liters of water should be spent per 1 square meter with an interval between waterings of 8 - 10 days.
- In a very hot phase of summer, garlic is watered with the same dose of water, only the period between waterings is reduced to 1 time in 5-6 days.
- In rainy summers, winter garlic does not need to be watered.
Watering can be combined with top dressing:
- Top dressing No. 1: done when the plant has 3-4 leaves. To do this, 1 tablespoon of urea or 1 tablespoon of Agricola Vegeta liquid fertilizer must be diluted in 10 liters of water. You need to water from a watering can, by sprinkling, spending per 1 sq. meter for 2 - 3 liters of solution.
- Top dressing number 2: carried out a couple of weeks after the first. Here the solution is prepared as follows: dissolve 2 tablespoons in 10 liters of water. Also, good results are obtained when using Effekton liquid fertilizer (2 tablespoons per 10 liters of water). The consumption of these solutions is 3 - 4 liters per 1 square meter.
- Top dressing #3: This is the final top dressing. It should be carried out approximately in the second decade of June. At this time, the formation of the bulb is just underway. It is necessary to dilute 2 tablespoons of superphosphate (crushed) in 10 liters of water and consume this solution at 4-5 liters per 1 square meter of garlic plantings.
As you can see, caring for winter garlic will not take you much time and effort, but by applying these simple actions, you can increase the yield by 40 - 50 percent. These norms of fertilizers are optimal for plants and are completely absorbed by them, without causing further harm to those who eat them.
I wish you good health and success!
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