At first glance, it seems that growing good garlic is quite difficult. Many believe that this culture is very picky about the conditions of cultivation and planting. In fact, everything is much simpler. Knowing a few tricks, you can grow excellent garlic without much effort.
The need for crop change
A huge role in the cultivation of this product is played by the precursors of garlic. Almost all vegetables require fruit turnover. Thus, the soil is not depleted, but even vice versa, enriched with all the necessary elements. An important detail when choosing the precursors of a vegetable is the length of the root of the plant. Every year, it is recommended to plant vegetables with different root lengths on the same site. Thus, each of the plants depletes the soil at different levels.
Garlic has a rather short root, which means that the precursor for garlic must have a long root system. A great option would be a vegetable like zucchini. It has a very powerful root system. In addition, before planting zucchini, as a rule, the earth is saturated with potassium. And the soil for garlic also needs a lot of potassium. An important factor when
planting garlic is the acidity of the soil: this vegetable grows only in non-acidic soil.
Fertilizer before planting garlic
It is not recommended to use organic fertilizers before planting garlic. This vegetable is very sensitive to various fungal diseases. Together with such fertilizer, many different fungi fall into the soil that can harm the heads of garlic. Use of mineral fertilizers in small quantities is allowed. Many gardeners insist that the precursors of garlic are fertilized with organic matter. For example, organic fertilizer is imported to a plot of land and cucumbers or zucchini are planted. In July, these vegetables are harvested and give the land a rest. About a few weeks before the cold snap begins, garlic can be planted in this area.
Bad predecessors of garlic
Not all vegetables can be the precursors of garlic. It is not recommended to plant garlic where onions or carrots grew before. Onions belong to the same family as garlic, and impoverishes the soil for the necessary elements. As for carrots, although it belongs to another family and has a longer root, it depletes the soil very much. If you plant garlic after carrots and onions, the crop will be very scarce. It is also undesirable to plant it after potatoes and beets.
Good precursor plants
The best precursors for garlic are cereals and winter herbs. As a rule, oats, barley, wheat, alfalfa, clover have a good root system. Due to this, they extract useful elements from the deep layers of the soil to higher ones. The use of crops and winter herbs as precursors is called "green manure." After crops grow by 15-20 cm, the plot is dug up together with overgrown plants, and the land is preparing for the planting of garlic.
In addition to the fact that after the grain the soil is saturated with many elements, a powerful root system clogs various kinds of weeds and weeds. Another advantage of crops is that they kill various kinds of fungi and other pathogens. Thus, the use of grain crops and winter herbs not only saturates the soil with all the necessary elements, but also disinfects it.
When to plant garlic
As a rule, garlic is planted either in early spring or in autumn. It depends on the variety and the expected harvest date. Spring garlic (also called spring) sings longer than winter and has a lower yield. However, such garlic is stored much better. The precursors of spring garlic are cereal and winter herbs. And squash, zucchini, cabbage are the predecessors of garlic for winter planting.
For spring garlic, for example, in late August, a piece of land is planted with wheat. After sprouts of 15-20 cm, they mow it and dig the plot. The earth rests and hibernates in this form, and in early spring on this site, you can start planting spring garlic.
Winter garlic is planted in areas where the predecessors of garlic grew in the winter. It is very important that the land rests in a dug form for at least several weeks before planting the vegetable.
By following the tips above, you can grow a good garlic crop on your site.