Almost all gardeners who grow vegetables plant garlic in their gardens. At the same time, some of them also grow garlic bulbs, which will be used for planting next year.
Before you start growing this plant, you need to know when you can collect garlic bulbs and how to grow them correctly.
Planting material: preparation and storage
Many people are interested not only in when to collect puffed garlic, but also in how to properly store it.After all, the quality of the future harvest depends on proper collection and storage.
It is recommended to prepare planting material when arrowheads appear on garlic bulbs. It is not recommended to harvest the plant earlier, since only 5–10 teeth will form on it. This number of cloves is not enough to obtain a good harvest. When the arrows appear, the number of teeth being formed increases to 50–70 pieces.
All collected planting material must be properly stored. There are several common methods for storing garlic.
In flour
Some people prefer to store the finished onion in flour. This storage method is used to protect planting material from high humidity. When using this method, add a small layer of flour to the bottom of the saucepan. Then the heads of garlic are placed in it, which are sprinkled with flour on top.
In the ash
For long-term storage of very small bulbs, you can use ash. To do this, pour a layer of ash 2-4 cm thick into a small box, after which a layer of garlic heads is placed tightly on top. When all the heads are placed in the container, they are re-sprinkled with ash. Bulbs prepared using this method must be stored in a room with a temperature of at least 20 degrees.
Right time
When the garlic bulbs ripen, they can be planted in the ground. Most often, gardeners do this in the fall or spring. At the same time, experienced people prefer spring planting, since in the fall the soil may be frozen and this will negatively affect growing garlic. However, sometimes it is not possible to plant a plant in the spring and you have to do it in the autumn. In this case, the beds are covered with dry leaves and branches.To better retain heat in the top layer of soil, the beds are mulched with straw or sawdust.
If you decide not to plant the plant until spring, collect all the garlic bulbs, sort them and transfer them to plastic containers in February. When examining the bulbs, you need to pay attention to their condition. Among them there may be empty and small garlic heads, which are better to get rid of, as they will not germinate.
Soil preparation
Having figured out when to remove garlic bulbs from the garden bed, you can begin preparing the soil. First you need to figure out where it is best to plant garlic. It is not recommended to plant the plant in an area where potatoes or tomatoes were previously grown. The fact is that the next year after these plants, fusarium spores remain in the soil, which lead to the death of garlic. Also, bulbs cannot be planted in beds where onions have been grown for several years before.
The best choice for planting a vegetable would be an area where cabbage or legumes were previously grown.
Having chosen the most suitable area, you can start fertilizing it. The garlic plant does not like an excess of organic fertilizers and therefore you should not add a lot of chicken droppings or manure to the soil. This will lead to deformation of the cloves and shoots.
If the soil has neutral acidity, then 5–7 kg of humus is used to fertilize a square meter of land. If necessary, add 50 grams of superphosphate and 40 grams of calcium to the soil. In an area with a high acidity level, additional lime is added in the amount of 400 grams per square meter.
After fertilizing the soil, you can learn more about the methods of planting garlic.
Pre-winter planting of bulbs
To get a good harvest of garlic, you need to familiarize yourself with the peculiarities of planting this vegetable.
Before planting garlic bulbs, you will have to disinfect them with a manganese solution. To do this, small and large bulbs are placed in a container with manganese for 20–30 minutes. After this, the planting material is washed with warm water and dried.
Having prepared the garlic heads for planting, they prepare the site. To do this, the bed is divided into 2-3 rows with a width of about 70-80 cm. The distance between the rows is not very large - 20-30 cm from each other. Before planting, we provide moisture in the ground, which is very important for the rapid germination of seedlings. To do this, each row is thoroughly watered with warm and settled water.
Prepared garlic bulbs are planted only after watering all rows. During planting, garlic heads are carefully laid out on the bottom of the rows. The distance between each aerial bulb should be at least 5 cm. When all the bulbs are planted, they are covered with a thin layer of soil and carefully compacted with a plank. To retain moisture, the beds are sprinkled with a layer of peat 2–3 cm thick.
Care
When the garlic bulbs are planted and ready to grow, you need to take care of their care.
Watering
To keep the head, roots, stem and leaves of the plant strong, you need to water it periodically. For irrigation, it is recommended to use cool well or tap water, which must settle before use.
You can moisten the soil with a regular bucket or a hose with a special water gun. Watering is carried out carefully so that the liquid does not get on the leaves of the plant.This can cause the garlic to turn yellow and dry out.
Top dressing
To protect the crop from diseases and pests, you need to take care of the plant’s immunity. This is precisely why plants are fertilized. For the first time, such a procedure is carried out a month after the emergence of seedlings. During fertilization, each square meter of area is treated with 20 grams of superphosphate and nitrate.
Next time fertilizers are added after two weeks. In this case, the amount of added superphosphate with saltpeter is reduced by 2–3 times.
Weeding
When growing garlic, the soil is periodically loosened. Experienced vegetable growers advise doing this three times a month. This procedure is carried out to improve the supply of oxygen to the upper layers of the soil after heavy rains.
Harvest
Harvesting garlic from the air is carried out in August, when the stems of the plant begin to turn yellow and dry out. However, sometimes the timing of harvesting garlic bulbs may be different. It all depends on when the plant was planted.
When collecting garlic heads, the plant is carefully dug out of the soil with a shovel, cleared of soil and dried in the sun. During drying, the heads are periodically turned over for better drying.
Many people are interested in when to trim the stems of garlic bulbs. This should be done after they are completely dry. In this case, the stems must be cut along with the husk.
Conclusion
Many gardeners are engaged in growing garlic bulbs. In order to grow and plant them correctly, you need to familiarize yourself with the main features of storing and planting garlic heads.
