Garlic is a frequent visitor to summer cottages, and the crop is often planted for the winter. Harvesting garlic depends on the timing of planting the crop and the region of residence. Properly harvested garlic is stored for a long time and does not spoil. Until the onset of spring, it will be as tasty as after harvest.
When to plant winter garlic?
Autumn planting of garlic has more advantages compared to summer. A good harvest also grows in summer, but it is the bulbs planted in winter that grow large and fragrant. Spring garlic has small cloves and are arranged in a chaotic manner.
Before preparing the bed and planting garlic for the winter, we decide on the planting location. It is better if the garlic bed is located in the place of potatoes, legumes, cauliflower, lettuce, pumpkin and eggplant. It is not recommended to plant garlic after tomatoes and onions.
The soil should be prepared 2 months before planting winter garlic. Humus, manure, liquid mullein and superphosphate are added to the soil. It is not advisable to use saltpeter for fertilizing. It is only suitable for spring plantings.
Planting begins in late October - early November. It is best to navigate by region of residence and climatic conditions. If the weather is warm at the end of October, then planting is postponed to a later date. It is easy to determine the time of planting by looking at the soil temperature. It should be warmed up by less than 12 degrees.
Proper care and cultivation features
By following the rules of agricultural technology, you can grow a rich harvest. Before winter, it is better to plant only winter-hardy varieties. For example, Alcor, Novosibirsk, Podmoskovny, Lyubasha or Dobrynya. Winter beds must be covered so that frost does not spoil the bulbs.
Before planting, the cloves are divided into separate parts no earlier than 1–2 days before planting. It is not advisable to peel the onion before. The cloves need to be thoroughly dried for 2-3 weeks. If the bulb is poorly dried, there is a high risk that the plants will suffer from fungal diseases.
1–2 days before planting in open ground, the cloves need to be disinfected. To do this, you should prepare a solution of potassium permanganate or drugs such as Thiram or Maxim. You need to soak the garlic for about 1 hour.
The soil is prepared in advance. The soil is dug up, all weeds are removed and fertilizers are applied. If the soil is too poor, then fertilizing should be done several months before planting.Light loamy or medium loamy soils are best suited for cultivation.
Peat and fresh manure are not suitable as fertilizers. If you add exactly these fertilizers, then garlic will actively increase the leaf mass, and the fruits will be small.
Growing the plant in acidic soils is not recommended. The garlic will begin to quickly turn yellow, and the heads will form underdeveloped and small. To deoxidize the soil, use lime, dolomite flour or fluff. The effect of these substances does not begin immediately. You'll have to wait a couple of years for the soil to deoxidize. It is important not to forget that lime helps to wash out potassium from the soil, so potassium fertilizers are regularly applied.
In the spring, when all the snow has melted, you need to start caring for the garlic. First of all, remove the shelter that protected the sprouts from winter frosts. It is recommended to remove it in the morning so that the frost “freezes” the soil and a crust forms on it. Several times a week, the beds are loosened, watered and weeds are removed. You can’t do without fertilizing.
Loosening is carried out after each rain to a depth of 2–4 cm. It is important not to damage the bulbs at this moment. Each subsequent loosening is carried out 1 cm deeper than the previous one. The depth of bulb formation is 10–14 cm.
Water the garlic beds rarely possible. This plant is drought-resistant. But if the garlic does not receive moisture, the heads will be small and dry. Watering should be moderate. If the spring turns out to be dry, then their number is increased. In moderate heat, 2-3 waterings are needed per week. In extreme heat, the beds will have to be watered every other day.
Favorable time is evening after sunset.If you water when the sun's rays are very bright, the stems will get burned, and the plants themselves, along with the fruits, will die. It is not advisable to water early in the morning, especially in summer.
When to dig up garlic?
There are two types of crops depending on the timing of planting. These are spring (planted in summer) and winter (planted in late autumn).
Usually, harvesting winter garlic in the Leningrad region it falls at the end of August - beginning of September. To understand that plants need to be collected, you just need to take a closer look at the bushes.
Signs of garlic ripeness are:
- The skin of the inflorescences begins to crack.
- The leaves are turning yellow.
- The stems become very soft.
- The husk of the underground part of the garlic has become dry and is easily separated from the fruit.
The presence of all these signs indicates that the deadline for garlic harvesting in the Leningrad region has arrived. Once the signs of maturity are clearly visible, it is not recommended to delay cleaning. Of course, you can eat fruits, but they will no longer taste good and will not be able to retain nutrients. In overripe heads, the husk quickly crumbles, and the cloves themselves do not adhere well to the stalk.
Collection is carried out only in dry sunny weather. It is advisable that the ground is dry at this moment. Winter garlic should be harvested before heavy rains.
The second important point is to dig up the garlic correctly. If the plant grows on light soils, then you just need to pull it out. And if the heads are firmly in the ground, then it is better to use a shovel.
After the bulbs have been removed from the ground, they need to be cleaned from the soil by hand. It is not recommended to knock them against each other, so as not to damage the fruits.
When to harvest spring garlic?
The harvesting time for spring garlic in the Leningrad region is practically no different from winter garlic. You can understand that the time for collection has come by the same signs that were given earlier.
The optimal time for harvesting is the end of September. Provided that the weather is warm and dry throughout September. The difference between harvesting winter and spring garlic is 3–4 weeks. Garlic is pulled out by hand. If it doesn't work, you need to dig it.
When to harvest garlic and how to store it properly?
To preserve all the beneficial qualities of garlic, it is not enough just to collect it in due time and prevent the bulbs from overripening. The storage conditions of the crop after collection are also important.
Harvested garlic will last through winter and spring if the necessary conditions are provided. The shelf life of dug garlic depends only on the quality of storage conditions.
The bushes are carefully pulled out of the soil. If necessary, you need to take a shovel so as not to damage the bulbs. After this, they are laid out on the garden bed so that the cloves dry in the sun. You need to watch the weather forecast every day, and if there is rain in the coming days, the plants are moved indoors.
When the fruits are dry, their stems are cut off and sorted into three categories - for storage, for eating and for planting.
The largest and healthiest bulbs are left for planting for the winter. There are not many such bulbs. The remaining good fruits without damage are selected for storage. And damaged and small heads are used for consumption. Such bulbs will still not be able to be stored for long and must be eaten first.
Bulbs for storage are placed in boxes with holes for air circulation.The air temperature in the room with the harvest should not be too high, but also not close to minus values.
After harvesting and sorting the harvest, the bulbs are sorted several times before they run out. The point is that during bulb storage begin to rot or become moldy. And from this a fungus appears. To prevent fungi from destroying the harvest, damaged bulbs must be thrown away in a timely manner.
