When to harvest garlic in a rainy summer: how to save it from rot?

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 use it as a means to prevent influenza and SARS. In addition, the crop is useful for other plants grown on the site as a pest control.

There is nothing difficult in 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 keep it during the entire period of cold weather.

When to dig 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 time for harvesting garlic.

When overexposure in the ground, even for a short period, garlic heads lose their taste, and their appearance becomes much worse. From them, exfoliated scales and teeth begin to disintegrate, this affects its keeping quality and it becomes extremely difficult to keep it until the next sowing season.

If, on the contrary, the vegetable is dug out too early, then it will be underripe, it will shrink and lose its benefits during storage.

The harvest period for winter garlic starts on July 20 and ends at the beginning of August.

First of all, you need to make sure that the vegetable is ripe, the signal for this is the yellowed and fallen 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 there are some doubts, then you can dig a couple of heads and inspect. Ripe garlic should be firm, peeling easily, and the cloves should separate well.

The second way to determine the maturity of garlic is to open the seed box at the ends of the arrows.

Don't miss this moment or garlic may not survive winter storage when it rains.

When to start harvesting garlic in a rainy summer?

With winter garlic, everything is now clear, but how to determine whether it is possible to harvest the summer crop?

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 crop depends on weather conditions, varieties, whether there was top dressing.

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 be divided into teeth.

The above signs make it clear when to harvest garlic in a rainy summer. The ripening period under such conditions is reduced, but the signs of the signals for maturity remain the same.

How to improve the quality of the crop?

To properly harvest, you need a set of preparatory measures. They begin to be made from the moment the arrows are straightened - this is a signal that the onions have begun to pour. To increase the flow of nutrients to the heads, the following manipulations are performed:

1. Tie the leaves in a knot (this increases the ripening time by about 2 weeks, not recommended in rainy weather).
2. Remove the earth from the bulbs - this will increase the access of oxygen to them, the method accelerates ripening by 3-4 days.

Garlic harvesting 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, the seed heads must be collected later than those intended for food use, by 5 days. Delay in harvesting, especially in rainy summers, leads to secondary formation of the root system and germination of heads.

Cleaning

In order to get a quality crop that can lie in the bins all winter, you need to properly clean it. First of all, you need to stop watering a month before the procedure. Harvesting garlic should be done on a dry, sunny day, while sheltering from sunlight.

The bulbs need to be dug up with a pitchfork, shake off the ground and lay to dry in the shade.During this procedure, the leaves give the remnants of nutrients to the heads. Dug out 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 room.

How to preserve and save garlic from diseases?

When all crops are removed, the question arises how best to save them:

• before cleaning in the basement, the heads must be completely dry;
• Storage room should be dark;
• winter varieties prefer temperatures up to plus 3 degrees, summer varieties tolerate up to plus 18 degrees.

Never put the crop in a humid environment, the air must be dry, also avoid drafts and too high temperatures, it should not exceed 20 degrees.

Enterprising gardeners have come up with many storage methods for garlic:

• braids - save space, easy to look through to detect damage;
• baskets - take up little space, are ventilated;
• beams - 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 save 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:

1. Rotting and mold appear due to high humidity, when they appear, the affected heads must be removed, and the remaining heads should be dried in a warm place for a week, then placed in a dry place. You can protect yourself from rot by sprinkling s alt on the bulbs.
2. Winter varieties may shrink towards the end of storage, you can delay this by wrapping them in plastic wrap.
3. Infection with the stem nematode requires the separation of the he althy from the infected. The surviving bulbs must be treated with insecticide, dried and stored again until next year.
4. Sprouting, if this happens, garlic should be peeled and poured with vegetable oil and stored at a temperature not exceeding 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 already a personal matter for everyone.

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