When to tie garlic leaves in a knot and should I do it?

To get high-quality garlic, gardeners use the old "old-fashioned" trick. Garlic leaves are tied a few days before harvesting, imitating a peculiar, not very tight knot. Similar nodules from garlic tops can often be found in the garden of grandmothers, who believe that after such a procedure, the bulbs will be better stored. There is no scientific evidence that this method can extend the shelf life of garlic. But knitting garlic before harvest remains a tradition that can be fully explained.

Important! Garlic, due to biological characteristics, builds up a feather even during the formation of the bulb.

Why tie garlic?

Such techniques have a logical explanation. Why waste energy on a useless process? Perhaps, initially in this way they tried to protect the bulb from infection during its active formation. As a result, the quality of tied garlic was higher. Bulbs kept better. This result is quite understandable.

Unlike onion, in garlic, the transition of substances from the aerial part to the bulb is much slower.

Death of leaves is not so intense. The process of forming teeth and bulbs for some time goes simultaneously with the continued growth of the feather. By tying garlic into knots, they affect the green part of the plant, which is responsible for a number of important functions, including photosynthesis. Biological stress starts the process of intensive outflow of nutrients to the bulb. The rapid drying of the leaves begins, from which protective scales are formed. Bulb - the storage organ of the plant, loses the ability to germinate, but acquires the ability to long-term storage.

Of course, the quality and size of the bulbs are affected to a greater extent by the composition of the soil, proper care. But a simple and completely free reception has a right to exist. And whether it is necessary to spend additional forces on its implementation, everyone has the right to decide on their own.

Pay attention! The timing of harvesting winter and spring garlic is significantly different.

When to tie garlic?

It is customary to tie tops 3-5 days before harvest. Therefore, the cleaning time must be determined for yourself as accurately as possible. Why is this so important?

This is due to the fact that spring and winter garlic differ in terms of planting and harvesting. It is the moment of harvest that determines when to tie the garlic leaves.The winter species ripens in the first half of July, and the spring species, depending on the variety, a few weeks later. In late-ripening spring varieties of the spring vegetation process can last until the end of September or the first days of October.
There are situations when there are several varieties on the site with different ripening periods, how to be in this case. You need to understand that garlic, if harvested untimely, outgrows and is divided into cloves. So you need to approach the cleaning process taking into account the characteristics of the variety. Harvest bulbs as they mature, without waiting for massive feather lodging.
Also, abnormal weather conditions affect the beginning of the harvest. What if the summer is rainy or dry? Elevated temperatures or extended periods of rain change the rate of growth and the quality of the bulbs. So in case of abnormal situations, it is better to remove the garlic earlier than to be late with the harvest.

The main signal for collection is the yellowing of the tips of the pen and the cracking of the husk on the inflorescences. All these signs indicate that the process of bulb formation has begun, you need to prepare for harvesting.

Pay attention! Timely removal of flower arrows increases the yield of bulbs by 3 times.

How to tie garlic?

Before you tie the garlic feather, pay attention to the flower arrows. If your garlic is throwing out flower shoots, then the question arises whether you need to cut off the arrows, which by this point are becoming very stiff. Of course, the arrows are removed, and ideally not before cleaning, but much earlier. About a couple of months after germination, garlic begins to form flower arrows. The hard stem must be cut as early as possible at a level of 2-3 cm. In the event that you did not have time to do this, you will have to remove the arrows at this stage. This procedure applies to winter varieties. Cultivated spring varieties do not produce shooters.

After removing the arrows, the garlic leaves are easily tied into any knots.

The procedure is simple, but it is advisable to tie the garlic with work gloves. By the final stage of growth, garlic feathers become stiff. It is easy to injure your hands with coarse feathers. Fresh juice is quite toxic and can burn the skin.
At the first stage, in plants with a flower arrow, remove it in any convenient way. The arrow is pretty hard. The stem can simply be broken off with your hands, but not pulled out. As a result of a careless break, the bulb can simply be pulled out of the ground, but what is worse, its integrity can be damaged. I cut the stems with pruning shears, but garden shears or a sharp knife are suitable for trimming.
After you cut the stalk of the peduncle, start tying the feather. Grab the garlic leaves with your hands and twist slightly to form a tourniquet to avoid breaking individual feathers when tying. Act carefully, the leaves do not need to be crushed. Tie the feather cord into a regular knot.
If the height of the feather is not enough, twist the leaves into two bundles and tie them with a straight knot. Too high a feather from neighboring plants can be tied together for the speed of work. In the case when the feather turned out to be too short, I simply knitted a pigtail out of it.

It is clear that there are many ways to bandage. In each case, the most suitable node is used. When the procedure is completed, the associated plants are left in this form until harvest. During harvesting, plants are dug up, carefully pulled out of the ground and put under a canopy to dry. The feather is not cut off, as the bulb ripening process is still ongoing. Only after the leaves have completely dried, the roots and feather residues are trimmed.

Of course, with a large planting area, it will not be possible to tie a feather in all plants. But in a small area, this is quite possible. It is customary to loosen the soil shortly before harvesting and rake the ground from the bulbs. It is convenient to do this after the feather is tied in a knot and does not interfere with the processing of row spacing. Of course, such work requires additional time. Here everyone has the right to make a choice. After all, no one can give guarantees that garlic after such pre-harvest preparation will become better and will be stored longer.