Most often, garlic in our country is grown in the winter way. Thus, you can get a big crop. However, spring garlic, although growing smaller, is much better stored. In addition, its teeth contain much more useful substances. Therefore, at least one small bed of spring garlic should be planted in the garden.
How to choose a place
Spring garlic is planted on light loose soils. The fact is that the root system of this plant is not well developed. It is very difficult for her to pull nutrients out of dense soil, which, of course, affects her yield.
Garlic does not like acidic soils, so the pH of the soil should be close to 7. Do not plant garlic after onions, potatoes and tomatoes. This can lead to infection by nematodes. The best precursors for this plant are carrots, pumpkin and legumes. Garlic grows very well in place of those crops, under which a lot of organic fertilizers were applied.
You can not plant garlic in the lowlands, where it can be soaked. The site for this culture for the same reason should be flat, without potholes.
Soil preparation
The soil for planting a plant such as spring garlic should be prepared in the fall. The earth is dug up on the bayonet of a shovel with the simultaneous application of fertilizers (superphosphate 20 g / m 2 , potassium salt 15 g / m 2 , humus or rotted manure 4-6 kg / m 2) . In the spring, they dig the soil again and form a bed with high sides.
Selection of planting material
Chives before planting sorted by size. Previously (for 4-5 days) they need to be divided and exfoliated. Only large and medium sized teeth are suitable as planting material. This condition must be observed. The size of the teeth selected for sowing directly depends on the yield of garlic.
Of course, all decayed, overdried and diseased heads must first be discarded. A good harvest of garlic can be obtained from one-tooth. In this case, it is also important to pay attention to the size of the planting material. Only single teeth with a diameter of at least 1-1.4 cm are allowed to be used.
Store heads in the winter at a temperature of 16-20 degrees. A month before planting, the heads should be moved to a much cooler place (2-5 degrees). This procedure is also required. Harvest grown from seed prepared in this way will be much more plentiful.
Seeds
Sometimes garlic is also grown from seeds. When they are planted, by the end of the growing season, bulbs, single teeth grow. Get the seeds of garlic from the bulbs. After a season, single teeth are used to grow full heads. Garlic seeds are very small and have a good keeping quality.
Landing
Prepared seeds are planted in rows after 6-8 cm, buried in the ground by 5 cm. Put garlic (photo of planting material can be seen a little higher) should be bottom to bottom. The distance between the rows is usually 20-25 cm. Before planting, the soil should be additionally fertilized with humus or rotted manure. After planting, the teeth are sprinkled with soil, and then the peat is mulched in the garden. Its layer will prevent the appearance of weeds and drying of the soil.
Spring garlic: when to plant
It is very important to choose the right landing dates. Being late with seeding can reduce productivity by almost half. The fact is that garlic grows especially well at low temperatures. The roots of it begin to sprout immediately after the soil warms up to 2-3 degrees. Leaves begin to develop at a temperature of 5-6 degrees. The most active garlic (see photo of young shoots below) grows in late April – May. The air temperature is 16-20 degrees. for him is optimal. In the summer, in the heat, all vegetative processes slow down. Spring garlic is planted immediately after the snow melts, and the soil warms up a little.
Fertilizer application
For the first time, spring garlic is fed after its leaves rise 12-14 cm above the ground. At this time, you need to pour the garlic with a mullein solution. Make it like this:
- 20 liters of water are poured into a barrel or any other container.
- They put one cow cake in it.
- Insist the solution for several days.
- Before use, mix everything thoroughly.
Two weeks after the first, you need to do a second top dressing. This time, nitrophoska should be used (2 tbsp. Per 10 liters of water). The last time the garlic is fertilized in late July - early August, just before the harvest. In this case, a solution of superphosphate is used (also 2 tablespoons per 10 liters). In the second feeding, the flow rate is usually 3-4 liters per 1 m 2 , in the third - 4-5 liters.
Watering
So, how to plant garlic, as well as how to fertilize it, we have figured out. Now let's see how to properly water this plant. The soil under garlic should be moistened regularly during May, June and July. This culture does not tolerate drying out. You can check whether the plants need watering, simply by probing the ground with your fingers. If it is dry under the top layer, it means that you need to water the garden bed. To allow drying of the soil - even once - is not possible in any case. Otherwise, not full heads, but single-tooth ones will grow on the bed. Of course, this will greatly affect yield.
Water consumption should be 10-12 liters per square meter. In warm weather, the frequency of watering is usually once every 8-10 days, in hot weather - 5-6 days. You need to moisten the soil in the bed in the morning or in the evening, that is, not in the heat itself.
Garlic Care
After each watering, in order to ensure normal air exchange to the roots, the bed must be loosened. Of course, garlic should be weeded regularly. Doing this is best during cultivation. With proper watering and regular removal of the top dried crust, a very large garlic will grow by the end of the summer. Arrows should be removed before flowering. It also helps increase yields (up to 25%).
After each watering or heavy rain, the garden bed must be inspected. If any bulbs appear on the surface, they should be sprinkled with earth.
Winter and spring garlic needs all the procedures described. Care for this plant should be carefully. Otherwise, it will be impossible to get a good harvest.
How to treat diseases
Garlic crop losses due to various infections are very rare. This plant is extremely resistant to disease. Moreover, garlic infusions are often used to treat other crops. However, sometimes the disease still affects the plant. Of course, with the first detection of infection, appropriate measures must be taken. Most often, garlic is sick:
- Neck rot. The causative agent of this disease usually enters the head tissue through various kinds of mechanical damage. The danger of this ailment lies, first of all, in that at the initial stage it is completely invisible. Its symptoms appear only at the beginning of storage - usually in September. Measures to combat neck rot are primarily in the proper preparation of the heads before laying them for storage. In sunny weather, garlic is usually dried in an open place, spread out in one layer. If it is wet outside, the heads are first kept under a canopy, and then for a week indoors at a temperature of 26-35 degrees. When trimming the bulbs, it is imperative to leave the neck 3-6 cm long. Etching with fungicides (usually Fundazole) can also be referred to measures for controlling neck rot.
- Bacteriosis. This disease also appears during storage. On infected heads, sores or grooves appear, going from the bottom up. The color of the onion tissue changes to yellow-pearly. The causes of this disease, as in the first case, usually become improper preparation before planting, as well as a violation of storage conditions.
- Green mold. Symptoms of this disease are damage and softening of the tissues of the cloves and covering them with a whitish, subsequently greening coating. To prevent the development of mold, garlic should also be stored properly.
- Yellow dwarfism. The main symptom of this disease is yellowing of the leaves and peduncle. Sick plants look dwarf. The carriers of this disease are usually aphids.
Insect damage
Various kinds of pests of spring garlic also do not favor too much. However, crop losses associated with insect damage do occur. Most often, garlic is infected with an onion fly. This pest overwinters in the earth at a depth of 15-20 cm in the pupal stage. Departure begins in mid-April and can last all May. After about a week, the females lay their eggs under lumps of earth in the immediate vicinity of the plants. A few days later, larvae hatch from them. They penetrate the bottom of the heads and affect the soft tissues of the cloves. Three weeks later, pupation begins, and another twenty days later, the second year of the fly. This happens around the beginning of July. Thus, a fly in one season alone can produce 2-3 generations.
To combat this insect, you can spray with a solution of the following composition:
- 200 g of tobacco dust;
- ground red or black pepper;
- 1-2 tbsp. l liquid soap.
Tobacco or pepper is poured into a jar and poured with hot water in an amount of 2-3 liters. Next, the container is wrapped in a blanket and kept in this way for 2-3 days. Then the solution is filtered and adjusted to a volume of 10 liters. After that, soap is added to it and sprayed.
Also, garlic is sometimes affected by a root tick. The female of this insect lays eggs directly in the cloves. Larvae emerge from them after about a week. In the damaged heads, when damaged by a root tick, brown dust is always present. Donets lags behind and rots. Heads affected during the growing season and during storage must be removed and destroyed. Garlic is much less likely to get a root tick if it is planted after cucumbers, tomatoes or cabbage.
Cleaning time
You now know how to plant garlic and how to care for it. Harvest this plant, as well as lay it in storage should be on time. Signs of head maturation are:
- neck softening;
- cessation of leaf growth;
- their drying and yellowing of the tips;
- drying and dying of the root system.
If you collect garlic too soon, it will be poorly stored. It is also impossible to be late with cleaning dates. Otherwise, the scales of the bulbs will crack, and the cloves will crumble. This will lead to the loss of part of the crop and the deterioration of the keeping quality of the heads.
In central Russia, spring garlic usually ripens in late June – August. In rainy summers, the vegetative period of this plant lasts longer.
How to choose a grade
Garlic is a plant that reacts very painfully to changes in vegetation conditions. Therefore, it will be very difficult to grow a good crop from, for example, planting material brought from another region. In any case, the best solution would be to plant a zoned variety. Unfortunately, breeding work with this plant in our country was not carried out very actively. Varieties of garlic are not particularly numerous. We will talk about the most popular below.
Garlic "Gulliver"
This variety was obtained in Penza, but the experimental point of VNIISSOK. Included in the register in 2001. It can be grown in almost all regions of Russia. Bulbs of garlic of this variety have a rounded flat shape, a mass of about 90-120 grams and are dense. Each head consists of 3-5 cloves with white flesh. The scales of this variety are dirty white. Gulliver garlic can be stored for quite some time - 8 months.
Variety Sochi-56
This garlic was bred in Krasnodar at one of the experimental vegetable and potato stations. Refers to a non-shooting group. The bulb of “Sochi” garlic has a round shape and a mass of 25-50 g. Scales of the head can be purple or white. This garlic gives good yields when grown in the North Caucasus region.
Aleisky Garlic
This variety was bred in Western Siberia, at one of the VNIIO stations. Refers to mid-season non-shooting. The onion of garlic of this variety is round-flat and has a mass of about 17 g. Aleisky garlic is very well stored and is suitable mainly for cultivation in Siberia and in the middle zone of Russia.
Variety "abrek"
This garlic was bred at the All-Russian Research Institute of Seed Production and Breeding in 2003. This variety is intended specifically for cultivation in household plots and garden plots. The bulb is rounded flat with white scales. The mass of the head is approximately 26 g. There are a lot of teeth in it - 12-21. A distinctive feature of the variety is a very good keeping quality. With almost no loss, this white garlic can be stored for about 8 months.
Elenovsky
This variety was also bred at the Krasnodar Research Institute. Refers to mid-season, non-shooting. His bulb is rounded with a run up, dense, but not too large - only about 17 g. There are 15-18 teeth in the head. The best yields "Elena" gives in the West Siberian region.
All varieties of garlic discussed above have a very good yield and are resistant to disease.
Scope of use
A plant is one of the oldest used by humans for food. First, garlic was harvested along with other edible plants. Later they began to grow near dwellings. Garlic is very widely used in the national economy today. You can eat it both fresh and as a seasoning in the preparation of all kinds of fried and stewed foods. Very often this burning vegetable is also used for procurement of products for future use. It is put in jars with cucumbers and tomatoes, canned meat, etc. Dry powder and garlic oil are prepared from fresh teeth .
Among other things, the juice of this plant is used in folk and scientific medicine. Using garlic, about ten types of drugs are made. The infusions of this plant are also used to cure other cultures from various kinds of viral diseases and insect damage.
What is useful
The heads of this plant contain 35-42% solids, 53.3% sugars, about 8% protein, 20% polysaccharides, about 5% fat. In addition, the composition of garlic includes vitamins B 1 , B 2 and PP, as well as salts of copper, calcium, phosphorus, iodine, titanium, sulfur. This burning vegetable also contains a lot of iron. It is almost as much in it as in apples - 10-20 mg per 100 grams.
Included in the composition of garlic are elements such as germanium and selenium, as well as volatile products. It is due to the presence of the teeth of the latter in the juice, this plant is bactericidal.
The specific chemical composition of the juice depends mainly on the variety, planting and harvesting dates, storage conditions used in the process of growing fertilizers and many other factors.
Green garlic
Not only the heads, but also the leaves are useful in this plant. They are the richest source of ascorbic acid. Also quite a lot in green garlic and sugars - about 3.7-4.2%. The leaves of garlic are used for the preparation of second courses, for the preservation of products, etc. The arrows of this plant are quite popular with housewives. They are mainly added to stewed and baked meat dishes.
Garlic as a medicine
In medicine, garlic is used to treat diseases such as:
- hypertonic disease;
- atherosclerosis;
- tuberculosis;
- colitis.
Most widely, this plant is used as a bactericidal. Hoods from it effectively suppress:
- typhoid and paratyphoid bacteria;
- cholera vibrio;
- dysenteric amoeba;
- staphylococci and streptococci.
Very often, garlic is prescribed for diseases such as tonsillitis, flu and pneumonia. A garlic head crushed into gruel can be used as a wound healing agent. Apply grated garlic and with a cold.
In chronic gastritis, habitual constipation, holicystitis and cholangitis, pills are prescribed, which, in addition to garlic extract, include components such as animal bile, activated charcoal and nettle extract. This plant has found very wide application as an anthelmintic agent. Extracts from it can kill parasitic worms and protozoa. Suppress drugs made using the heads of this plant, and all kinds of putrefactive and fermentation processes in the digestive tract. Garlic seeds are often used as a diuretic and normalize the menstrual cycle.