To harvest a rich harvest of garlic, you need to take into account a number of basic rules for planting this crop. In the article we will consider the main points of his landing.
Deadlines
You can plant garlic twice a year. The spring species is best planted in the spring, the winter species is sown before winter. Planting time depends on the region, climatic conditions, variety, favorable days. For example, according to folk signs, a good time is October 5th. If a winter type of crop is planted, it is best to do this about 2-3 weeks before the expected first frost. For different regions of the country, the interval varies from the end of September to October 10-14 (no later than the 20th).
Based on the timing of planting, there are 3 types of varieties. Early ripe ones ripen in 80-100 days. Mid-season – for 110-120, late – for 120-140 days. In Stavropol, Crimea and Kuban, it is recommended to plant a plant at the end of March until April 12-15. In the Urals and Siberia, it must be landed before the end of the third decade of May. The recommended time for planting garlic in the Moscow region, Moscow, Ivanovo, Vladimir regions is the first days of May. In the Leningrad region, garlic can be planted until the end of May.
The root system must have time to grow. In this case, the plant will not freeze. Planting depth varies. For example, when planting early before winter, it is enough to deepen the cloves into the ground by 3-5 cm. For better rooting in the regions of central Russia, the teeth are deepened by 10-15 cm. They must be planted no later than the second decade of October. However, in areas with mild winters, landing is carried out after the first snow. In this case, do not use shelter. Subject to all planting rules, this will not affect the quantity and richness of the crop.
If the plant managed to ascend before the onset of winter, it will not die. If possible, it is necessary to sprinkle the sprouts with not yet frozen ground. For these purposes, mulch from the tops of plants of the last harvest is also used.
It is important to choose the right garlic for planting. Winter is larger and may consist of 4-12 large cloves arranged in 1 row around the stem. From above they are covered with a violet-pink film. It has a burning taste, it is not stored in winter, it is used for food, harvesting, as a seed.
Spring garlic does not have a stem. Usually the head contains up to 20-25 small cloves arranged spirally in several rows. Its taste is softer, it does not give arrows, it is stored all winter until spring. Spring garlic is cold-resistant, it is planted in the spring season, when the soil warms up to a temperature of +5 degrees. At this time, the time of spring frosts has passed. The best dates are the last days of April or the beginning of May.
Site Selection
Cucumbers and legumes are ideal precursors for garlic. In addition to them, you can plant a crop in the beds where zucchini, pumpkin, early cabbage, and squash used to grow. Good predecessors are eggplants. The soil after harvesting these crops is replete with organic fertilizers. You can not plant a plant where potatoes or onions were previously grown. This increases the likelihood of disease exchange (eg Fusarium).
Winter garlic should not be planted where manure has recently been introduced. Despite the rapid growth and powerful tops, the heads will grow loose, vulnerable to fungal infections. Do not plant a crop after carrots, celery, parsley. These plants draw soil potassium. A positive neighborhood is the placement of garlic next to strawberries. The previous crop should be removed from the future beds no later than a month before planting winter garlic. This must be done so that the soil has time to recover.
The best place for landing is a bed with fertile soil of optimal or low acidity. The place should be sunny, dry, well lit. The location is from north to south.
Do not plant a plant in places with a close location of groundwater or prone to spring floods.
Prepare
Before planting garlic in the ground, you need to properly prepare the soil and choose the seed. Both stages of work are simple, but have their own nuances.
Ground
Planting spring garlic requires advance soil preparation. The best time is at the end of summer. To do this, it is necessary to dig the earth to a depth in the bayonet of a shovel. If necessary, you can loosen it with sand, peat, agroperlite. It is necessary to fertilize the earth with phosphorus-potassium top dressing or humus, wood ash, chalk. For 1 m2, 10 liters of humus, 0,25 kg of chalk, a couple of glasses of ash are required. It is best to fertilize 1,5 months after the autumn harvest. The width of the beds is made no more than 1 m, the standard height is up to 25 cm. Over time and after watering, the soil will settle. The bed should not be low.
The preparatory stage includes the cultivation of the land from the larvae of parasites. To do this, use a 1% solution of copper sulfate, based on the calculation of 1 tablespoon per 10 liters of water. The soil is shed with a diluted preparation and covered with a film.
If there is no copper sulfate in the house, it can be replaced with potassium permanganate, Bordeaux liquid (0,1 kg per bucket of water), boric acid.
You can not plant garlic immediately after the formation of the beds. Due to the haste and subsidence of the soil, the teeth deepen even more. Therefore, in the spring they germinate longer. This reduces crop yield. Before planting, you can treat the bed with urea, using no more than 20 g per 1 m2. After that, it is necessary to shed the earth with warm water.
In addition to the main method of soil preparation, there is another option that is in demand among gardeners. His initial work is similar to the previous one. First, you also need to dig and fertilize the earth. Then it is shed with warm water in order to subside the soil. After that, markup is performed for a future landing. The row spacing is 35 cm, between the holes – no more than 10 cm. Peas, oats, mustard are planted in the row spacing. As they grow, they will act as a covering material. In the future, they will hold the snow layer, in the spring they will turn into ground top dressing.
Planting material
For planting, the largest, densest and healthiest heads are selected. A month and a half before planting in open ground, they are placed on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator or dug in the snow. This manipulation will help speed up the vegetative process. About a day before planting, the heads are removed and placed in a warm place.
After a visual inspection, the heads must be cleaned, disassembled into individual teeth, and the soft white skin removed. Sorting is needed because strong heads will not develop from small lobules. On average, the weight of a suitable clove is 4 g. Rejection of sluggish, doubled and shriveled slices is the prevention of degeneration of a vegetable crop.
When using planting material of varieties that do not give arrows, you need to take the teeth of the outer tier. Slices of the lower tiers are planted for greenery or simply eaten. In order for the seed to give a rich harvest, it must be disinfected. To do this, the cloves are soaked for 24 hours in a weak solution of copper sulfate or potassium permanganate.
After that, garlic can be planted before winter. Someone carries out dressing from diseases and harmful parasites by treating with a strong saline solution. Other gardeners use a weak solution of potassium permanganate. In order to stimulate growth, the seed can be soaked for 24 hours in various preparations. You can use “Epin”, “Kornevin”, “Zircon” and other nutrient fluids.
Before planting, the teeth are dried naturally in a ventilated area. Pre-germination of garlic is not necessary. This is resorted to when winter plant species are taken for spring planting. To do this, they are placed in a moistened cloth or napkin. Then they put it in a plastic bag and leave it for two or three days in a room at a temperature of +20 degrees.
Sprouted garlic can be planted in the ground. You can speed up the germination time by heating the slices in a water bath. The exposure time is 7-8 hours at a temperature of +40 degrees.
Ways of planting
Culture methods vary. In addition to the manual method, agricultural technicians with various devices (for example, planters with a walk-behind tractor or other machines) can be used. Knowing the basic rules of planting allows you to create comfortable conditions for the growth of tops and the formation of heads.
Separate slices
When choosing this method of planting, the cloves are planted on a prepared and loosened bed. First, at a distance of 15-20 cm from each other, indentations are made in each row. They are spilled with water, ash or sand is placed at the bottom. Then the cloves are planted with their tails up to a depth of 6 cm. At the end of the work, they are sprinkled with a small humus layer.
With the help of bulbs
Bulbs are seed material formed in the inflorescences of a winter plant. The planting scheme for winter sowing is as follows: in the garden, after 10-15 cm, furrows 3 cm deep are created. The bottom is treated with a weak manganese solution, spraying it on sand or ash. Then the seeds are placed with an interval of 3 cm, bottom down. The bed is mulched with peat or compost.
Sevok is collected when the tops turn yellow, and the neck is sluggish and thin. Do this in dry weather, followed by drying at room temperature.
One-piece heads
The material is grown from bulbs at home or purchased at specialized points of sale. Visually, it resembles a medium-sized onion.
Whole single-toothed bulbs, called sets, suggest planting before winter. The planting scheme assumes a distance of 20 cm between rows. The interval between the bulbs should be at least 10 cm.
With a pipe
This technique is designed specifically to facilitate manual labor. According to it, for planting you need a metal pipe with a diameter that is several times larger than the size of the teeth or solid heads.
The planter is immersed in the soil, retaining the earth and forming a hole. Prepared food is poured into it. Planting material is placed there. After carrying out the manipulations, it is sprinkled with excavated soil.
In two tiers
This technique is used when there is a shortage of space for landing. Thus, the plants will not interfere with each other in the growth and formation of heads.
For the lower tier, it is necessary to dig a hole deep (at least 20 cm) and fertilize its bottom. Then a clove is planted, covered with earth on top and another 1 is planted at a depth of 10-13 cm.
With proper care, the bush will be one, and the heads – two.
Aftercare
After the garlic is planted, it is necessary to provide it with the most comfortable conditions for growth and the formation of large heads. It is important not to forget about timely watering, fertilization, shallow periodic loosening of the soil. It is necessary to get rid of weeds, carry out disease prevention and treatment of harmful insects.
Unlike winter garlic, spring garlic is demanding on soil moisture. To provide him with proper care, it is worth properly organizing the irrigation system. During the growth of roots and above-ground mass, it is necessary to water the bed at least 1 time in 5-6 days. The slightest drying of the earth should not be allowed. Because of this, the bulbs will begin to form single-toothed. You need to water the garlic using 1 bucket of water per 1 m2.
During the growing season, the plant needs moderate watering. The volume of water remains the same, the multiplicity changes. Now you need to water it 1 time in 1,5-2 weeks. If it rains constantly at this time, watering is canceled. Excess moisture can cause diseases and rotting of bulbous heads. Approximately 4 weeks before harvesting, artificial moistening is completely abandoned.
The first dressing is applied after a couple of weeks from the moment the planting material is planted. Nitrogen- and potassium-based solutions, herbal infusions, mineral preparations can become a growth-stimulating substance. The next dressing is applied when the plant has already formed 5 true leaves. You can use wood ash diluted in water in a ratio of 150 g per 1 sq. m. Fertilizer is applied again after 10-12 days.
Until the heat is established, they resort to treating the culture with a dilute solution of ammonia. To do this, 2 tablespoons of the substance are diluted in a bucket of water. This will prevent yellowing of the pen and will prevent fungal infections. If the summer is cold, the bulbs do not have time to ripen. To fix the problem, it is necessary to collect feathers in bunches on August 13-15 and tie them in knots.
Due to this, growth will stop, there will be a redistribution of forces for the formation and maturation of heads.
Useful Tips
There are different ways to plant garlic in open ground. There are 3 main types.
- With tape, 2 rows of cloves are placed in each tape. The interval between rows is about 20 cm, the distance between the tapes should be at least half a meter.
- With a wide-row planting method, a strip sowing method is provided. In this case, the teeth are laid into the ground in strips. The gap between adjacent slices is about 6 cm. The row spacing should be about 40 cm.
- The number of rows in the bed method depends on the parameters of the bed. As a rule, several rows fit in it with an interval of at least 20 cm. At the same time, the average values of the gaps between the planted slices are 15 cm.
Determining the depth of planting, take into account not only the variety and type of garlic, but also the size of the selected material. Small heads are planted to a depth of up to 8 cm. Large ones need to be deepened another 2 cm down. Not only sawdust can be used as a covering material after disembarkation. Suitable materials can be dry peat or spruce branches, as well as dry grass. If you choose plant stems, you need to use grass without seeds. It will maintain the level of moisture in the soil and will become an excellent snow-retaining agent.
Care for winter garlic should be correct. As soon as warm spring weather sets in, it is necessary to remove sawdust, branches or other material from the bed with which it was covered for the winter. After that, you need to loosen the bed in the aisles. This will provide oxygen to the crop being grown. You can water it without restrictions until July. Moderate watering will prevent rotting of growing heads.
If the garlic knocks out arrows and forms inflorescences, they must be urgently disposed of. If this is not done, instead of forming bulbs, the forces of the plant will be directed to the development of bulbs.
