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Not a single summer cottage is complete without garlic beds. After all, it is a seasoning, a medicine, and protection against pests.
Growing a vegetable is not difficult, but if you miss the harvest time, it will be problematic to preserve it until spring. You need to dig garlic on time, otherwise the heads will fall apart and be poorly stored.
There are two types of garlic - spring and winter. Planting dates are different, so harvesting will also have to be done at different times. The culture itself tells you when to remove garlic from the garden. Observe the plant carefully and you will accurately determine the time to harvest garlic.
Main signs of ripeness
It is unacceptable to remove unripe or overripe garlic. In this case, all the effort spent on growing the vegetable will be lost. If you dig it up earlier, the cloves will be soft. Although some summer residents use digging ahead of schedule so that the heads ripen during drying.
An overripe vegetable can germinate and sprout again. The integumentary scales will crack, and the teeth will remain without husks. Naturally, such heads will not be stored well. Therefore, garlic must be harvested on time.
By what signs do summer residents determine the ripeness of the heads? The main indicators that it is time to harvest garlic are:
- yellowing of leaves, primarily the lower ones;
- the moment of drying of the outer films on the inflorescences;
- purchasing films of varietal coloring;
- straightening of the arrows in a shooting variety;
- lodging of stems;
- separating the cloves effortlessly;
- cracking of seed pods.
These signs show that the garlic has reached technical maturity, but the formation of bulbs has not yet occurred. The process will finally end after harvesting.
How to determine the date when you need to remove garlic from the garden? There is no single number for all regions. Several factors have to be taken into account. The main factors are climatic conditions. For the middle zone, the reference point is July 12 - the day of Saints Peter and Paul. In the northern regions, the time to harvest garlic comes a couple of weeks later. The date to remove heads in other regions is calculated according to the recommendations of the lunar calendar and the weather forecast.
It is necessary to shift the harvesting date based on the external signs of the plant. Frequent rains will cause garlic to ripen earlier than usual; hot and dry days will delay this process a couple of weeks later. Another important factor is the fulfillment of agrotechnical requirements, namely the amount of fertilizing. Therefore the date when to dig garlic, must be determined every year.
Summer residents advise starting to dig up spring garlic in August, taking into account the time of planting and the growing season of the variety. The spring variety is stored better than the winter variety, so be sure to meet the deadline when its heads need to be harvested. storage.
Ways to improve the quality of garlic heads
To properly harvest a vegetable, you need to start with proper preparation. Before harvesting garlic, gardeners carry out pre-harvest measures that significantly improve the quality of the heads. Preparation begins at the moment when the arrows straighten.This indicator signals that the bulbs are beginning to fill. It is necessary to increase the flow of nutrients to the garlic heads. This can be done by tying the leaves in a knot.
But it should be remembered that this technique will increase the ripening period of garlic by 2 weeks.
The next nuance is to rake the soil away from the bulbs to increase air access to the roots. This is done while the inflorescences are straightening. The intake protects the bulbs from getting wet and accelerates their formation by 3-4 days.
Harvesting garlic according to the rules
Harvesting garlic has its own subtleties. How to harvest correctly in order to properly preserve all the bulbs? Gardeners adhere to certain rules.
Choose a sunny and warm day. The main thing is that it didn’t rain the day before.
You can dig up the bulbs with a pitchfork or shovel. This must be done very carefully, trying not to damage the heads with a sharp tool.
It is strictly forbidden to trim tops and roots.
After digging up the plant, lightly shake it off the ground and set it aside to dry. The place should be chosen dry, but without direct sunlight. Experienced summer residents prepare a canopy in advance.
Dry the vegetable for at least 14 days. Then it must be cleared of soil and the leaves trimmed. 1-2 layers of integumentary scales are removed from the bulbs, no more. Otherwise they will not be stored well.
The heads are stored much better if the roots are cut with a sharp knife at a distance of 2-3 mm from the bottom, and the bottom itself is scorched. Can be sealed with wax.Tops are trimmed depending on the storage method. For a bunch, it is enough to leave 10-20 cm of the stem, and for a braid you will need at least 35 cm. The flower stalks are tied and stored separately.
Storing bulbs before planting
There are general requirements for high-quality storage of garlic:
- the bulbs must be perfectly dry;
- the room should be dark;
- The winter variety requires cold (+3°C), while the spring variety can withstand heat (+18°C).
Places with high humidity, drafts and air temperatures above 22°C are strictly not suitable for storage. Therefore, the refrigerator is not suitable for storing any type of garlic due to high humidity.
Methods for storing spicy vegetables are known to many summer residents.
The option is chosen depending on the possible conditions. If you have a dry basement or attic, garlic is well preserved in:
- Braids. The advantage is that it does not require much space, and it is easy to detect and remove a damaged head.
- Baskets. They allow air to pass through well and are very compact. The bulbs are folded in 3 layers, and at high humidity they are sprinkled with onion peels.
- Bunches. Suitable for storing small quantities of garlic (up to 20 pieces) in a barn or attic.
- Grids. Hang on the wall in the basement, attic, barn.
In apartments Only the option with glass jars is possible, but in a private home they use linen bags, boxes, jars and boxes.
Summer residents believe that harvesting garlic is easier than preserving it well. Problems that may arise during winter storage include:
- The heads become moldy and rot. This occurs due to high humidity. The heads must be sorted, removing damaged ones. The rest are placed in a warm place to dry for a week and continued storage in a dry place. You can sprinkle the garlic with salt.
- Teeth dry out.The winter variety is prone to natural drying out at the end of the storage period. To delay this period, the heads are wrapped in cling film. If the bulbs dry out early, move them to the refrigerator for several days, then wrap them in film.
- Color changes. Occurs when attacked by a stem nematode. It is necessary to sort and separate healthy garlic from infected garlic. Burn the diseased one, be sure to treat the rest with an insecticide, dry it and continue storing it under optimal conditions.
- Teeth are sprouting. In this case, they are cleaned and filled with oil (vegetable). The storage temperature is maintained either no higher than +2°C, or +20°C and higher.
- Pest infestation. For low heat, heat the garlic in the oven at 100°C. Then they sort through and burn the affected ones.
You can store garlic in different ways at the same time. You should choose the most suitable ones in order to save the harvest before planting.
The best position will always be the one who collects the garlic efficiently and on time.
