This question worries gardeners quite often. Garlic, when to plant before winter? To what depth is garlic planted in the fall? How to plant garlic in the winter? How many questions ... We will understand when and how to plant garlic in the winter. Features of planting this bulbous plant, care, storage, of course, are, like any vegetable culture. But growing garlic is no big deal. Choosing a place and planting dates, preparing a garden, creating conditions for wintering are some of the main conditions for obtaining a good harvest.
Distinguish between shooting and non-shooting, winter and spring varieties of garlic - it depends on the biological characteristics of the plant. Non-shooting garlic propagates only with its teeth, strelkovaya - plus them with air bulbs (bulbs).
Shooting varieties are winter varieties. They give a good harvest when planting in the winter. Among the non-shooting varieties there are winter and spring. Planting spring garlic in the fall leads to poor rooting of the cloves, thinning out of crops, and crop shortages. However, there are varieties that grow well during autumn and spring planting.
The main thing when growing winter garlic is to create the conditions for a good wintering. This is ensured by the correct choice of the place for planting, sowing dates, the depth of insertion of teeth or bulbs. The culture should be placed on fertile lands with a flat surface, clear of weeds that are not flooded by autumn or melt water.
Then plant garlic in the winter
The best predecessors are crops that early release the field, under which organic fertilizers are applied: cucumbers, zucchini, early cabbage, lettuce, and legumes. In other words, plant garlic in the ground into which organic matter was introduced a year ago, not later. He does not like freshly fertilized manure soil - feathers will be lush, heads small and loose. In addition, an excess of fertilizers will contribute to the development of fungal diseases.
You can not plant garlic repeatedly in the same place. And after the onion, it is not recommended to plant it, because they are affected by the same pests and diseases. But garlic itself is a good precursor for all crops, naturally, except onions.
Preparing the soil for planting garlic in the fall
Where to start planting garlic in the fall? First, we dig or plow the garden (plot) where we planned to plant garlic. The soil on the bed is treated in advance, no later than two weeks before planting, so that it settles somewhat. If there is no rain during this time, then we water the garden. If you plant garlic in the soil that you just dug up, the teeth will deepen and the plants will have to spend more energy on germination.
Directly under plowing or digging, you can make humus (100 kg / per hundred square meters), mineral fertilizers. The rate of mineral fertilizers per 1 hundredth: 30-40 g of ammonium nitrate, 50 g of superphosphate, 15-20 g of potassium chloride. Nitrate is not added in autumn, only in spring.
Fungal diseases are now the scourge of any garden plants. Garlic is no exception. For prevention, we advise shed the beds to be shed with a 1% solution of copper sulfate (1 tbsp.spoon per 10 liters of water).
How to prepare garlic for planting
For planting winter garlic or spring, three types of planting material are used:
- teeth
- air bulbs (bulbs);
- sevoc (single-tooth cultivated from aerial bulbs).
Only garlic heads with healthy teeth are selected. All diseased, shrunken, or sprouted bulbs are discarded. Large or medium-sized teeth are the most suitable material for planting.
Tooths prepared for planting are etched and disinfected with a 3% suspension of TMTD for 10-15 minutes. If disinfection is not carried out, then it is useful to soak them not for 12-24 hours in a weak solution of potassium permanganate or in a 1% solution of copper sulfate. Such preparation contributes to the improvement of planting material, protects it from diseases.
Garlic planting dates for the winter
The timing of garlic planting in the fall depends on the region where you live. In order for the garlic to take root, but not germinate, it must be planted in the winter three to four weeks before a steady cooling.
The optimal time for planting winter varieties of garlic in the winter is the third decade of October in the Kuban. In recent years, for example, I have planted garlic in the first ten days of November. In the middle lane, the best dates will be mid-September-early October. But, again, year after year is not necessary, follow the weather forecasts.
With an earlier planting, the sprouted teeth go under the winter with 2-3 real leaves that may suffer from early frosts. So that the leaves do not suffer from frost or cold winds, they carry out the hilling of plants, and in early spring transverse harrowing in order to free the neck of plants.
At a later planting, the teeth do not have time to take root - there is a large thinning of crops from the influence of cold winds and frosts.
Check the timing of garlic planting with the lunar seeding calendar.
Spring varieties of garlic are planted in early spring, as soon as the opportunity arises to enter the field, since they are very demanding on soil moisture, low temperature at the beginning of growth. With a delay in planting, growth and development of plants are delayed, the yield is reduced, and the product quality is deteriorating.
The rate and pattern of planting garlic
One to 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 some percentage of germination.
Garlic is usually planted in rows, the distance between which is 20-30 cm. The teeth are placed at a distance of 6-8 cm, but this distance depends on their size: for large ones, the distance is greater, small ones are planted closer to each other.
How many teeth will be needed in order to plant, for example, 1 square. meter garden, difficult to say. The planting rate depends on the size of the cloves that you plant. Usually, agronomists call the number 130-380 teeth per 1 m2. They get the first figure based on their average weight of one tooth 3 g, and the second - if it weighs 7 g.
From larger teeth, larger heads grow. It’s not worthwhile planting cloves weighing less than 3 g, as small heads will grow out of them.
What depth should I plant? This depends, firstly, on the size of the teeth, and secondly, on the timing of planting.
In the photo below you can see homemade devices that facilitate the planting of garlic in the winter.
Photo of a device made of a holder from a shovel or chopper. A self-tapping screw limits the depth of the hole by about 8-10 cm, and you can make the recesses smaller.
And this device will not only form the holes of the required depth, but also make a mark at which distance to plant the teeth in the next row.
In autumn, winter varieties are planted in the winter. Large teeth are planted no deeper than 5-7 cm. Smaller teeth - no deeper than 4-5 cm. But, when planting in spring, that in autumn, it is necessary to ensure that the top layer of the earth is at least 3-4 cm. You can cover the beds with a small a layer (5-7 cm) of mulch - straw or dry grass.
Spring varieties are planted in spring. The depth of planting of spring garlic is 4-5 cm. Also make sure that the soil layer above the teeth is at least 3-4 cm. This will provide optimal conditions for good rooting, for the formation of heads of the correct shape.
Planting garlic bulbs and odnozubki
Aerial bulbs (bulbs) are planted in autumn or early spring.
The so-called one-tooth grow out of them. These are not little teeth, but round small onions.
It should be remembered that during autumn sowing, part of the bulbs freezes and rots. Therefore, sparse shoots are obtained. With early spring sowing, seedlings appear on the 10-20th day, as a rule, friendly. Sowing pattern: the distance between the rows is 20 cm, in a row there is a continuous landing of bulbs.
If you plant bulbs in the fall, then most of the summer will give arrows, and with spring planting there is no shooting.
One-tooth bulbs are removed as soon as the leaves begin to lie down. After ripening (10-12 days), drying, prune roots, dried leaves. Store at a temperature of 16-18 ° C, relative humidity of 70-75%.
Single teeth are planted in the fall, as they are poorly preserved until spring.
Leaving consists in watering and following shallow loosening, top dressing with complex fertilizers.
Dosing and storage of bulbs (air bulbs)
So that next year you have your own garlic for planting, leave some part of the plants with arrows on the bed, do not break them out. These plants with arrows left should be left in the garden for another one to two weeks after harvesting the main crop. Then shooters with air bulbs cut off. You can tie them in small bundles, hang them under a canopy (not in the open sun) for drying. So the arrows of garlic with air bulbs are stored for 20-30 days. During this time, the outflow of nutrients from shooters to bulbs occurs, they are covered with dense scales, become light straw or purple (color depends on the variety). Bulbs are very large, the shell bursts. If you are going to plant them in the fall, in the winter, then clean, sort them by size. And if the bulbs are intended for spring-summer planting, it is best to continue to store them in bunches until spring, because when cleaning, sorting in the fall, the bulbs are injured, can dry out, and lose germination. Keep them in a cool dark place.
Garlic planting, dressing
One of the secrets of growing garlic is nutrition.
In the early spring, after the snow melted, as soon as the first warm days arrived, it would be nice to feed crops with nitrogen fertilizers, for example, urea (1 tbsp.spoon / 10 l of water). On 1 m2 approximately 5 liters of solution should be used up.
In April, when the seedlings grow up, top dressing is carried out twice, for example, this is the middle and end of April. The first feeding should contain more nitrogen. Its composition may be as follows: half a liter of chicken manure + 1 tbsp. a spoon of nitroammophoski per bucket (10 l) of water. In the second feeding, there should be more phosphorus and potassium. The composition is: 1 tbsp. spoon of double superphosphate + 1 tbsp. spoon of potassium sulfate + 1 teaspoon of urea per bucket (10 l) of water. On 1 m2 also spend about 5 liters of solution.
Be sure to loosen the soil between the rows after top dressing the next day, after a week and a half, loosen the soil again, if the soil is dry, water it. Garlic loves loose soil without weeds - oxygen must necessarily come to 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 carried out at least weekly. Water abundantly - 12-15 liters per 1 m2.
To facilitate the work of the gardener will be able to mulch the aisles. Mulch will retain moisture, and the soil under the mulch always remains loose.
In order for you to grow large heads, arrows need to be broken in time. Try to break or cut them, but do not pull them up - this way you can accidentally pull out the whole bulb or damage its root system. Break the arrows when they have reached a length of 12-15 cm, the breakout point should be as close as possible to the outlet of the leaves. If you break it of a shorter length, then it will continue to grow - you will not get a large head.
Breaking out arrows is a special agricultural technique that allows not only increasing the size of the head, but also accelerating their maturation.
By the way, do not throw out the broken arrows - they can be used when preserving blanks, as a seasoning for food.
For example, add the finely chopped arrows of garlic to the boiled potato, after you have drained the water, dried it slightly. Add butter or sour cream, mix and serve. Once upon a time I read this recipe - it was called Fitontsidnaya Potato. Since then, this is one of our family's favorite dishes.
Finely chopped arrows can be added to boiled hot pasta or vermicelli - it is also tasty, healthy, especially in the spring, when there is so little vitamins.
Harvesting Garlic When To Do It
Typically, at the end of July, the leaves of the garlic begin to turn yellow. This suggests that the time has come for cleaning. Gardeners have an unwritten rule: it is better to remove earlier than later. Even a 5 day delay matters. With earlier harvesting, it is left outdoors under a canopy for ripening. Leaves do not break off yet. At the same time, nutrients from the leaves enter the bulbs, which increase their mass. At the same time, the heads are dense, covered with dry coverslips on top, of a good attractive appearance. And if you are literally 3-5 days late with cleaning, then the scales covering the heads burst, the teeth scatter, the head itself becomes loose. Such garlic will not be stored for a long time.
But I want to say separately about the timing of cleaning. There are many varieties that have different ripening periods - it means that they must not be removed all at once, but in turn. How many I did not talk with familiar gardeners, almost no one knows which variety they grow. By the way, me too. But the differences of the variety can be seen by the color of the outer shell of the head, by the number of teeth in the bulb. I try to sort the heads before planting in order to at least plant varieties separately.
How do you know when it is time to remove garlic from the beds?
Very simple. I always leave a few arrows, I do not cut off everything when they begin to grow. At first, during growth, the arrows curiously bend, stand curly. But as soon as I noticed that the arrow straightened, it stands vertically upward - this is the first sign that it is time to dig out the garlic.
There is another sign - the flower heads, which have already formed bulbs, have burst - for now, to clean.
Thus, knowing these signs of ripening, wherever you live, you will never be late to remove the garlic on time. Although the timing of cleaning will be different for everyone.
Garlic storage
For storage, ripe, mature, well-dried heads with a whole intact scale are selected. The best temperature for storage at home is + 18 ° C. It is better to store garlic in mesh bags, pigtails or cardboard boxes.
And the last ... Avoid planting garlic from vegetable shops or supermarkets, as in the process of growing garlic you risk introducing serious viral diseases into your area.