Garlic is one of the favorite plants of Russian summer residents. It is used in many dishes as a seasoning and serves as a flavor enhancer. In addition, garlic has antimicrobial properties, which is important in the harsh Siberian winter. Many people use it as a means to prevent influenza and ARVI. In addition, the culture is also useful for other plants grown on the site, as protection against pests.
There is nothing complicated about growing garlic; it does not require a lot of labor. Therefore, knowing only the basics of gardening, you can get a good harvest.So, when to start harvesting this crop and how to preserve it throughout the entire cold period.
When to dig up garlic?
If you want to get a good quality harvest of garlic, it is extremely important not to be late with the harvesting period. This is an extremely sensitive plant and a few missed days will significantly reduce the properties of the bulbs. To prevent this, you need to learn how to correctly determine the timing of garlic harvesting.
When kept in the ground, even for a short period, the garlic heads lose their taste, and their appearance becomes much worse. From them, peeled scales and teeth begin to disintegrate, this affects its keeping quality and it becomes extremely difficult to preserve it until the next sowing season.
If, on the contrary, the vegetable is dug up too early, then it will be unripe, and during storage it will begin to shrink and lose its benefits.
Winter garlic harvest period starts from July 20 and ends in early August.
First of all, you need to make sure that the vegetable is ripe; a signal for this is yellowed and drooping lower leaves. All the substances received by the plant are concentrated in the bulbs and there is absolutely no point in leaving it in the ground.
If you have any doubts, you can dig up a couple of heads and inspect them. Ripe garlic should be firm, the husks should be easy to peel, and the cloves should be well separated from each other.
The second way to determine the maturity of garlic is to open the seed capsule located at the ends of the arrows.
Don’t miss this moment, otherwise when a rainstorm appears, the garlic may not survive winter storage.
When to start harvesting garlic in rainy summer?
Everything is now clear with winter garlic, but how can you determine whether the summer harvest can be harvested?
Experienced gardeners start digging spring garlic about two weeks later than winter garlic. This period lasts from mid-August to mid-September.
Growing conditions significantly affect the ripening period of the garlic head. The growing season and the quality of the harvest depend on weather conditions, the variety, and whether there was fertilizing.
The ripeness of summer garlic is determined by the leaves - the lower ones should turn yellow, the upper ones should lie down, the bulb should be hard and strong, peel well and not separate into cloves.
Based on the above signs, it is clear when to harvest garlic in a rainy summer. The ripening period under such conditions is reduced, but the signs of maturity remain the same.
How to improve the quality of the harvest?
To properly harvest, you need a set of preparatory measures. They begin to make them from the moment the arrows straighten - this is a signal that the onions have begun to fill. To increase the flow of nutrients to the heads, the following manipulations are performed:
- Tie the leaves in a knot (this increases the ripening time by about 2 weeks; it is not recommended to do this in rainy weather).
- Removing soil from the bulbs will increase the access of oxygen to them; this method speeds up ripening by 3-4 days.
Harvesting garlic depends on the weather, planting time and destination. First, they begin to harvest the crop intended for canning. Later, winter and spring crops are harvested. In addition, seed heads need to be collected 5 days later than those intended for food use. A delay in harvesting, especially in rainy summers, leads to secondary formation of the root system and sprouting of the heads.
Cleaning
In order to get a high-quality harvest that can last in bins all winter, you need to properly harvest it. First of all, you need to stop watering a month before the procedure. You need to collect garlic on a dry sunny day, while protecting it from sunlight.
The bulbs need to be dug up with a pitchfork, the soil should be shaken off and laid to dry in the shade. During this procedure, the leaves give up the remaining nutrients to the heads. The dug up garlic can be tied in bunches and hung in the sun, so the process will go faster. When it rains, it is dried in a closed, ventilated area.
How to preserve and save garlic from diseases?
When all the crops are harvested, the question arises of how best to preserve them:
- before cleaning in the basement, the heads must be completely dry;
- the storage room should be dark;
- Winter varieties prefer temperatures up to plus 3 degrees, summer varieties tolerate up to plus 18 degrees.
Under no circumstances place the crop in a humid environment, the air should be dry, also avoid drafts and too high a temperature, it should not exceed 20 degrees.
Enterprising summer residents have come up with many storage methods for garlic:
- braids - save space and are easily viewed to detect damage;
- baskets - take up little space and are ventilated;
- bunches - can be used for storage in a barn or attic;
- grids - hung on the wall and save space;
- in addition, you can use boxes, boxes, linen bags;
- In a city apartment, you can store vegetables in jars.
It is necessary to monitor the safety of the crop during the wintering period. Some difficulties may arise with it, and then you should know how to save garlic:
- Rotting and mold appear due to high humidity; when they appear, it is necessary to remove the affected heads, and dry the remaining ones in a warm place for a week, then place them in a dry place. You can protect yourself from rot by sprinkling the bulbs with salt.
- Winter varieties may dry out towards the end of storage; this can be delayed by wrapping them in cellophane film.
- Damage by stem nematode requires separation of the healthy from the infected. Surviving bulbs must be treated with an insecticide, dried and stored again until next year.
- Germination, if this happens, the garlic must be peeled and covered with vegetable oil and stored at a temperature no higher than 2 degrees.
The safety of the crop directly depends on the correctness of its harvesting and compliance with its deadlines. And choosing the most convenient storage method is a personal matter for everyone.
