Garlic is not only an integral part of most dishes, but also a favorite crop for sprouting by many gardeners. It grows rapidly and vigorously, does not require special care and is relatively unpretentious.
Garlic can be easily and quickly grown from cloves. However, like any other, this planting material requires careful pre-treatment. A good and high-quality process will serve as a guarantee of a bountiful harvest and good plant health.
Need for preparation
Autumn planting is not quite “usual” for garlic and requires careful preparation. Simply put, garlic planted in autumn throughout the winter will be in a state in which there is a high risk of various fungal and other diseases. And also it can simply rot. On garlic, and especially on the lower part of the head, pests or their larvae may remain, which will also cause damage to the crop. Pre-treatment will not only help get rid of them, but will also become the key to the health of an already adult plant. Sprouts germinated from treated seed are relatively resistant to colds or other diseases in the future. Pretty simple preparatory manipulations will help the teeth germinate faster in the spring.
It happens that the lack of pre-treatment may not be very noticeable in winter and even in early spring. But some time after germination, the sprouts can suddenly turn yellow and even dry out.
Selection and division into teeth
First of all, you need to understand that only winter garlic is subject to planting. When planting spring garlic in the fall, you can lose the crop – it will freeze. And also winter garlic is more resistant to diseases, pests, endures frosts. The characteristic features of the winter crop are the presence of an old arrow, a purple hue of the skin, as well as cloves arranged in one tier. There may also be a second tier, but it may contain small cloves, while spring cloves are located on several even tiers. Usually on one head of winter garlic you can find from 4 to 12 large cloves suitable for planting. The ideal choice is a large head of garlic with 5 or 6 cloves. An important point is the choice of a suitable variety.
It is best to focus on varieties that have been growing in this region for quite a long time. If the choice of the gardener fell on a variety that is uncharacteristic for the area, then at best (with mandatory pre-treatment) it is worth counting on the fact that the plant will sprout in the spring. The harvest in such cases is very small or, in general, is absent. The heads that will become the “basis” of the crop must be ripe, harvested in the year of planting. It is believed that it is this seed that increases the likelihood of 100% germination. And you also need to dry them thoroughly and properly. The material should not show signs of rot or mold, as the cloves of such bulbs rarely germinate. And also you can’t choose bulbs in which the cloves are very different in size from each other, or have grown together. It is also a bad sign if the cloves have double tops, or there are too few of them in a large-looking bulb.
And also the bottom of the bulb should be dry and whole – without cracks or traces of mold. Garlic collected for sowing is recommended to be stored in a cool and dark place until autumn. A refrigerator or cellar is perfect for this. Before planting, it is necessary to separate the cloves from each other, and also choose the largest and healthiest-looking ones. There should be no dents or other damage on the teeth. As is obvious, the teeth will be spared from the white husk in the process, but you need to try to keep the peel intact and unharmed. And also you need to remove the bottom of the head. It is necessary to remove excess growths. They will interfere with the planting material to take root. It must be remembered that you can divide the cloves only on the day of planting. Larger cloves are used to harvest the garlic itself, and smaller specimens are used to produce greens.
If it so happened that I had to choose specimens with stains or damaged ones, then the entire batch must be treated with antiseptics.
Ways of processing
In order to fully properly prepare the garlic for planting in the fall, it is necessary to disinfect it. It is not necessary to say that after all the seed will be healthy and germinate. However, this procedure reduces the risk of tooth loss. In order to disinfect them before planting, planting material, as a rule, needs to be soaked. However, soaking should not last more than half a day. Otherwise, it will drastically reduce the quality of the crop.
One of the advantages of garlic, as already mentioned, is its relative unpretentiousness in terms of growing conditions. But this also applies to the process of preparing for the autumn planting – you can process it by any means of a suitable category at the choice of the gardener himself. For example, garlic can be disinfected by any appropriate means. Processing is almost always required if the seed was selected or grown by the gardener on his own plot. When buying seed in a store, processing is usually not required.
Special Tools
Soaking in solutions with special products, which are sold today in gardening and hardware stores, should be relatively short. There is no need to wait 12 hours to disinfect the seed. Soaking in Fitosporin is effective. The solution must be prepared according to the instructions on the label, and soak the garlic in it for an hour. Usually, to prepare a solution, you need to take 20 grams of the drug for every liter of water. If the solution turned out to be too concentrated, then the cloves should be left in it for no more than 5 minutes. After that, the liquid is poured out, and is no longer used. Later, in the spring, and after the sprouts have already grown, they can also be treated with this drug.
The drug “Maxim” differs in the same level of efficiency. Both products are safe and do not affect the taste of the future garlic, nor the health of the plant. Another alternative drug in this category is Fundazol. Instructions are also provided for it, which, as a rule, also recommends preparing a solution at the rate of 20 grams of the drug per 1 liter of water. Some gardeners recommend keeping planting material in this solution for a whole day. It is important to remember that garlic cannot be overexposed in solutions with the addition of these drugs – the planting material can get burned.
Folk methods
One of the most popular products in this segment is potassium permanganate. To do this, you need to prepare a light solution, and pour it into a container with seed to the level that the liquid covers it for a couple of centimeters. Soaking, as already mentioned, should last 12 hours. After the cloves must be dried, and later they can be planted before winter. This solution can be watered and the landing site.
Not quite “folk” can be called the method of the same soaking, but in a solution of copper sulphate. The proportions of the product, as well as the technology, remain the same as in the previous soaking method. It must be remembered that it is necessary to soak only in plastic dishes so that rust does not form in it. The most budgetary method is soaking in saline. The solution is prepared as follows – 5 tbsp is taken for 3 liters of water. l. ordinary kitchen salt. The cloves are soaked in the solution for no more than half an hour. Be sure to dry them afterwards.
A two-stage treatment is allowed – first with a saline solution (or a solution with potassium permanganate), and then with copper sulfate. With such processing, garlic should be kept in blue vitriol for no more than 2-3 minutes.
Application area birch tar extensive, and it also includes the processing of planting material. The solution is prepared at the rate of 1 tbsp. l. per liter of water. Tar is a natural disinfectant and helps fight fungus and other diseases.
To suppress the growth of the nematode, you can soak future crops in wood ash solution. To do this, 1 kg of ash is dissolved in 6 liters of water, and the resulting mixture is brought to a boil. After cooling, the solution is filtered. The re-obtained mixture is diluted with the same volume of water. Only after these manipulations can the seed be soaked for an hour. This solution not only disinfects the material, but also saturates it with various trace elements. And you can also carry out another combined processing. First, garlic is immersed in a solution of copper sulfate for 20 minutes, then for the same amount in a solution with potassium permanganate, and finally, in a solution with ash for 6 hours.
After any soaking, all planting material must be thoroughly rinsed (preferably under running water) and dried.. Immediately before planting, each clove must be dipped in potassium humate. It must also be remembered that garlic (after planting) needs fertilizer. He especially needs potassium, which helps to survive the cold time. Without it, and a number of other fertilizers to be applied, pre-treatment of the cloves may become useless, and the “seeds” may die. The disinfection of garlic will also be useless if the seed bed has not been pre-treated.
