Content
Garlic is a cultivated plant of the onion family. They started growing it a long time ago, and garlic appeared in central Asia. This crop is eaten in almost all countries, and not only the heads are eaten, but also the stems, leaves, and flowers. In Russia, it is customary to season dishes only with garlic cloves. This crop is completely unpretentious, but in order to get a good harvest, you need to know how to plant and how to care for the plant.
From this article you can learn how to properly plant garlic in the fall, when is the best time to do it, and what fertilizers for garlic to apply to the soil in the fall.
When to plant garlic
This crop can be grown both spring and winter. Usually, bulbs are planted in the spring, but before winter the crop is often grown with cloves.
Bulbs are plant seeds that ripen in shoots and flowers. If garlic bulbs are planted in the spring, then in the fall the gardener will be able to collect one-toothed young heads. Such heads are not yet full-fledged, they will have to be planted again, and the real harvest will be harvested only in the next season.
Basically, garlic is planted before winter, thereby ensuring stable and high yields. This crop is frost-resistant and can withstand even the most severe frosts, but planting garlic in the fall must be done correctly.
To properly plant garlic in the fall, you must first determine the planting date. Winter plants should be planted 2-3 weeks before the onset of real frost. In the central zone of the country, this period occurs at the end of September; under favorable weather conditions, planting can be postponed until mid-October.
Before the first frost, the garlic should acquire approximately ten-centimeter roots, but there should be no greenery on it at all. If you plant the cloves too early, they will sprout - such plantings will inevitably freeze.
Planting winter garlic too late can also lead to its freezing, because in this case the cloves will not have time to take root well and the plant will be weakened.
Planting garlic with seeds (bulbs) is usually done in April. In spring, planting begins only after severe frosts have passed and the ground has thawed.
Where to plant winter garlic in the fall
Garlic is an unpretentious crop; it does not have to be watered often and fertilized many times during the growing season; bulbous plants rarely get sick, and they are not damaged by insects and other pests. But still, To reap a good harvest, you need to grow plants correctly.
The site for autumn planting is chosen taking into account the following facts about the culture:
- The crop must be planted on rested soils. After harvesting the previous crop, at least 1.5-2 months must pass, so choose a place that will remain free at the end of July.
- Winter garlic, like spring garlic, loves loose, light soils with neutral acidity. If the soil on the site is too dense, during frosts it will push out the teeth and the plantings will freeze. In too light soils, the seeds may go too deep - the cloves will fall into the ground under the pressure of snow, after the water melts, etc.
- When planting, choose a well-lit place for the crop.located on a hill or on a flat area. Low-lying areas are often flooded in the spring, where there is a greater likelihood of onion plants freezing and becoming infected with fungal infections. If it was not possible to find a fully illuminated area for planting garlic, they stop in partial shade. In this case, it is better to increase the distance between plantings.
- It is important to consider after which you can plant garlic. To grow a decent harvest, crop rotation should be observed - this rule also applies to garlic. It is recommended to plant the winter variety in places where cucumbers, peppers, eggplants, zucchini, pumpkins, and berry bushes grew in the previous season. Garlic does not like being near root vegetables, because they, like the onion crop itself, need potassium. The soils left behind by potatoes, carrots or beets, for example, are too depleted and unsuitable for planting onion crops. They also do not grow the crop after onions or garlic (you can plant the crop in the same area after 3-5 years).
- Garlic cannot be grown in manured soil., because of this, the crop is crushed, the heads will be loose and unsuitable for storage. Onion crops feel best in soil that has been fertilized with manure for previous plants. At the same time, garlic needs some fertilizers, so when planting cloves in the fall, the soil is additionally nourished.
How to plant garlic in the fall
Garlic planted before winter is pleased with its resistance to disease, hardening and high yield.
It is important to comply technology for planting onion crops:
- the ground needs to be prepared. Immediately after harvesting the previous crop, the soil should be dug up and, if necessary, fertilized. Fertilizer should be applied no later than 1.5-2 weeks before the intended planting of the cloves. If the soil is depleted, you can use compost, humus or wood ash. These fertilizers are applied to the soil, after which the soil is dug up onto the bayonet of a shovel. The crop definitely needs components such as potassium and phosphorus, so it is worth diversifying the fertilizers with superphosphate and potassium salt. A solution of copper sulfate will help disinfect the soil (a teaspoon of this substance is diluted in a bucket of water).
- Preparation of planted material. The heads of garlic collected this season need to be sorted out, inspected, to identify sick, damaged or infected specimens.The largest and absolutely healthy teeth should be planted! Before planting, it is imperative to remove the mother bottom, otherwise it will interfere with root growth. The teeth must be intact; the peel cannot be removed from them. Before planting garlic in the fall before winter, you should disinfection of material. This can be done in several ways: soak for several minutes in a strong salt solution (3 tablespoons of table salt are dissolved in five liters of water), immerse the seeds in a solution of copper sulfate for a minute (a teaspoon per bucket of water), soak in a strong solution of potassium permanganate (about twelve hours ). A more affordable alternative to these products is an alkaline solution of wood ash. It is prepared like this: dissolve 0.4 kg of ash in two liters of water, mix and put on fire, the mixture should boil for 30 minutes. The teeth are soaked in the solution only when it has cooled completely.
Garlic planting scheme
It is difficult for novice gardeners to decide at what depth to plant garlic, how much space to leave between the rows and between the cloves themselves. The answers can be found below:
- large cloves are planted in furrows, the depth of which is about 20 cm. The distance between the cloves is 12-15 cm.
- Small teeth are deepened by 10-15 cm; at least 8 cm should remain between adjacent teeth.
- The garlic is sprinkled with dry soil on top; its layer should be approximately 2-3 cm.
- There should be at least 25-30 cm between the rows. It is more convenient to work with garlic that is planted at intervals of one meter.
- To prevent the cloves from rotting in the ground, it is recommended to pour coarse river sand into the furrows, in a layer of about 1.5 cm.
- There is no need to press the teeth to the bottom of the furrow; this can compact the soil and make it difficult for the roots to break through it.
- If the soil on the site is too dry, you can water it. But they do this before planting garlic, and not after it.
- The top of the planting must be mulched to prevent premature germination of the teeth and protect them from freezing. Sawdust, peat, humus, autumn leaves, spruce branches, etc. can be used as mulch. The mulch layer is about two centimeters.
Caring for winter plantings
Caring for onion crops is very simple:
- in the spring, remove the cover and remove the mulch from the beds;
- fertilize the plantings with nitrogen fertilizers when the first greenery appears on the beds;
- It is necessary to water the crop in the active phase abundantly; when the heads grow, the amount of water is significantly reduced;
- at the end of June, the arrows should be removed before they become longer than ten centimeters;
- When the lower leaves turn yellow, the crop is harvested. Typically, winter varieties are harvested at the end of July or beginning of August.
We plant onion crops correctly and get a good harvest of this irreplaceable spice!
Details on how to plant garlic in the fall video instructions:
