Garlic bulbs: when to collect, how to store and prepare for planting?

Almost all gardeners who grow vegetables plant garlic in their gardens. At the same time, some of them also grow garlic bulbs, which will be used for planting next year.

Before you start growing this plant, you need to know when you can collect garlic bulbs and how to grow them correctly.

Planting material: harvesting and storage

Many people are interested not only when it is necessary to collect garlic puff, but also how to store it properly. After all, the quality of the future harvest depends on proper collection and storage.

It is recommended to harvest planting material when arrows appear on garlic bulbs. It is not recommended to harvest the plant before, since only 5-10 teeth will form on it. This number of cloves is not enough to get a good harvest. When arrows appear, the number of emerging teeth increases to 50-70 pieces.

All collected planting material must be properly stored. There are several common methods for storing garlic.

In flour

Some people prefer to store the finished one-tooth bulb in flour. This storage method is used to protect planting material from high humidity. When using this method, a small layer of flour is poured onto the bottom of the saucepan. Then heads of garlic are placed in it, which are sprinkled with flour on top.

In the ashes

For long-term storage of very small bulbs, you can use ash. To do this, a layer of ash 2-4 cm thick is poured into a small box, after which a layer of garlic heads is tightly laid on top. When all the heads are placed in the container, they are re-sprinkled with ash. Bulbs equipped with this method should be stored in a room with a temperature of at least 20 degrees.

The right time

When garlic bulbs ripen, they can be planted in the ground. Most often, gardeners do this in autumn or spring. At the same time, experienced people prefer spring plantings, since in autumn the soil can be frozen and this will negatively affect the cultivation of garlic. However, sometimes it is not possible to plant a plant in the spring and you have to do this in the autumn.In this case, the beds are covered with dry leaves and branches. For better heat retention in the top layer of soil, the beds are mulched with straw or sawdust.

If it is decided not to plant the plant until spring, they collect all the garlic bulbs, sort them out and transfer them to plastic containers in February. During the inspection of the bulbs, attention should be paid to their condition. There may be empty and small garlic heads among them, which are better to get rid of, as they will not germinate.

Soil preparation

Having figured out when to remove garlic bulbs from the garden, you can begin to prepare the soil. First you need to figure out where it is better to plant garlic. The plant is not recommended to be planted in the area where potatoes or tomatoes were previously grown. The fact is that the next year after these plants, Fusarium spores remain in the soil, which lead to the death of garlic.It is also impossible to plant bulbs in the beds where onions were grown for several years before.

The best choice for planting a vegetable would be an area where cabbage or legumes were previously grown.

Having chosen the most suitable site, you can start fertilizing it. The garlic plant does not like an overabundance of organic fertilizers and therefore a lot of chicken manure or manure should not be added to the soil. This will deform the cloves and seedlings.

If the soil has neutral acidity, then 5-7 kg of humus is used to fertilize a square meter of land. If necessary, 50 grams of superphosphate and 40 grams of calcium are added to the ground. Lime is additionally added to the area with an increased level of acidity in the amount of 400 grams per square meter.

After fertilizing the soil, you can learn more about how to plant garlic.

Winter planting of bulbs

To get a good harvest of garlic, you need to familiarize yourself with the features of planting this vegetable.

Before planting garlic bulbs, they will have to be disinfected with a manganese solution. To do this, bulbs with small and large sizes are placed in a container with manganese for 20-30 minutes. After that, the planting material is washed with warm water and dried.

Having prepared the garlic heads for planting, they are preparing the site. To do this, the bed is divided into 2-3 rows with a width of about 70-80 cm. The distance between the rows is not very large - 20-30 cm from each other. Before planting, we provide moisture in the ground, which is very important for the rapid germination of seedlings. To do this, each row is carefully watered with warm and settled water.

Prepared planting garlic bulbs are planted only after watering all rows. During planting, garlic heads are carefully laid out at the bottom of the rows. The distance between each air bulb should be at least 5 cm. When all the bulbs are planted, they are covered with a thin layer of soil on top and carefully rammed with a plank. To retain moisture, the beds are sprinkled with a layer of peat 2-3 cm thick.

Care

When the garlic bulbs are planted and ready to grow, care must be taken to care for them.

Irrigation

In order for the head, roots, stem and leaves of the plant to be strong, it must be watered periodically. For irrigation, it is recommended to use cool well or tap water, which must be settled before use.

You can moisten the soil with an ordinary bucket or a hose with a special water gun. Watering is carried out carefully so that the liquid does not get on the leaves of the plant. This can cause the garlic to turn yellow and dry out.

Feeding

To protect the crop from diseases and pests, we must take care of the immunity of plants. This is what plant nutrition is for. For the first time, such a procedure is carried out a month after the emergence of shoots. During fertilization, each square meter of the plot is treated with 20 grams of superphosphate and s altpeter.

Next time fertilizer is added in two weeks. In this case, the amount of added superphosphate with nitrate is reduced by 2-3 times.

Weeding

When growing garlic, periodically loosen the soil. Experienced vegetable growers advise doing this three times a month. This procedure is carried out to improve the supply of oxygen to the upper layers of the soil after heavy rains.

Harvest

Harvesting garlic from puffballs is carried out in August, when the stems of the plant begin to turn yellow and dry out. However, sometimes the timing of harvesting garlic bulbs may be different. It all depends on when the plant was planted.

During the collection of garlic heads, the plant is carefully dug out of the ground with a shovel, cleared of the ground and dried under the sun. During drying, the heads are periodically turned over for better drying.

Many are interested in when to cut the stems of garlic bulbs. You need to do this after they are completely dry. At the same time, the stems must be cut along with the husk.

Conclusion

Growing garlic bulbs is a lot of gardeners. To properly grow and plant them, you need to familiarize yourself with the main features of storing and planting garlic heads.

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