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Growing garlic is a fairly simple matter, so gardeners do not always pay due attention to it. Although, with the right approach and the use of fertilizers, you can grow a harvest that is not comparable to that obtained when garlic is left to its own devices. Those who practice growing this plant for sale know this especially well. After all, with proper and timely feeding, you can get almost twice as much garlic.
The bigger problem is sometimes the answer to the question: what fertilizer to choose for garlic in order to get the most out of it and not do any harm? After all, you need to remember that garlic is a crop that is very sensitive to the concentration of mineral salts in the soil, so in no case should you apply high doses of mineral fertilizers at once. Therefore, when feeding garlic it is necessary to approach the implementation of this procedure comprehensively, using, if possible, different types of fertilizers at different periods of development.
Varieties of Garlic
To choose the right timing for fertilizing garlic, you need to take into account all the features of its growth and development.
Winter garlic is usually distinguished by its early ripeness (the growing season ranges from 80 to 120 days), good yield (up to 1.5 kg per square meter), but it is not stored for very long. It is typically grown for consumption in the fall and early winter. The bulbs and cloves themselves in winter varieties are often large (the weight of the bulb can reach 50-60 g), and there are few cloves in the bulb (an average of 4-9 pieces). All the cloves are located around a rod located in the center of the bulb.
Spring garlic has small bulbs (20-30 grams), there can be much more cloves in the bulb (from 15 to 30 pieces), there is no stem in the middle. Spring varieties are usually late-ripening (the growing season is 80-150 days), less productive (0.5-0.8 kg per 1 square meter), but are well stored until spring, and sometimes even until the next harvest.
Winter garlic, according to its name, is planted in the fall, before winter, and spring garlic - in the spring. Hence the difference in the timing of their feeding.
Demanding requirements of garlic to soils
For both winter and spring garlic, the choice of suitable soil for growing is very important.
- For both varieties, the soil must be fertile with a neutral reaction or close to it. Garlic does not like acidic soils.
- Winter varieties prefer sandy loam soils, while light and medium loamy soils are most suitable for spring varieties. Spring varieties of garlic feel quite good even on light saline soils.
- Areas with high groundwater levels or depressions in the topography with the possibility of flooding are unsuitable for garlic.
- The best predecessors in the garden for garlic are legumes, cucumbers, cabbage and potatoes.
Mineral supplements for garlic
When planting garlic in the fall before winter, it is necessary that the planting material forms a good root system, but the active growth of the above-ground leaf part does not begin. Typically, garlic beds are fertilized in the fall by adding organic fertilizer several weeks before planting. Most often, compost or humus (rotted manure) is used for these purposes, since their effect on plants is not as fast, but longer over time. For every square meter of planting, about one bucket of organic matter is added.
Along with organic matter, it is very important to add superphosphate and potassium sulfate to the soil for the beds before planting garlic. The following fertilizer application rates are recommended:
1 tablespoon of superphosphate and 0.5 tablespoon of potassium sulfate per square meter of planting.
This amount is enough for the plants to take root well and survive the winter safely. It is precisely to prevent garlic leaves from growing rapidly that nitrogen fertilizers are not applied specifically before winter.
But in the spring it’s a completely different matter. Even before the snow finally melts, the first sprouts of winter garlic usually appear from under the ground. As soon as the seedlings reach 10-12 cm in length, the first feeding of garlic in the spring is carried out. Since at this moment fertilizing is used for intensive plant growth, mineral fertilizers containing nitrogen are most often used: urea or ammonium nitrate.
One tablespoon is dissolved in a 10-liter bucket of water. One bucket is usually enough to water 5 square meters. meters of landings.In early spring, when there is excess moisture, fertilizing is usually carried out instead of watering so that the roots of the plants do not have excess moisture. If the spring is warm and dry, then before fertilizing the garlic beds must be shed with water.
The second feeding is traditionally carried out 10-15 days after the first, for both winter and spring varieties.
To carry it out, it is advisable to use any complex fertilizer. Most often, nitroammophoska is used for these purposes, which contains all three main nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) in equal proportions. It is usually diluted in the following proportions: 2 tablespoons of fertilizer are diluted in water with a volume of 10 liters, and the garlic bed is watered, spending this volume on 3 - 5 square meters of land.
Experienced gardeners advise carrying out a third feeding of garlic several weeks before its leaves begin to dry out. It is usually produced somewhere in the middle or end of June, depending on the variety of garlic: winter varieties earlier, and spring varieties later.
For these purposes, a superphosphate solution is most often used. Dilute 2 tablespoons of fertilizer in 10 liters of water and water the beds with plants with the resulting solution.
It is important to clearly guess the timing of the third feeding, which is responsible specifically for the growth of the bulbs themselves.If you are late with it, then the leaves will begin to dry out and there will be practically no use from it; if carried out too early, all its strength may go into the leaves and not into the bulbs. It is best to focus on the size of the leaves - if they have reached their maximum size, then you can feed them.
Organic feeding
Garlic loves organic matter very much, so it usually responds well to feeding with natural fertilizers. Immediately after the winter cold, the sprouts of winter varieties can be treated with diluted slurry.
Dilute it in a ratio of 1:10 and water the plants close to the roots, being careful not to touch the leaves to avoid burns. If you want to add other nutrients, you can sprinkle the ground around the garlic bushes with wood ash and pour water on top of it.
You can also pour the ash solution onto the garlic plants several more times during the season. To prepare it, 2 liters of ash are diluted in a 10-liter watering can and the plants are watered at the roots instead of water.
A solution of chicken manure is also used to feed this plant, but very carefully. It is diluted in a ratio of 1:15 and when watering, make sure that the solution does not get on the leaves.
When answering the question: “What are the best fertilizers for garlic?” It is important to remember that everything depends on the timing of fertilizing and the specific situation with the plants.
In addition, mineral fertilizers act quickly, but they are easier to harm sensitive garlic if you accidentally overdo the doses.Perhaps ash is the only fertilizer that cannot harm plants, but it does not contain nitrogen and in early spring it is still advisable to use something else containing nitrogen. Among the so-called folk remedies, ammonia is a good choice, the use of which can easily replace urea. If you dilute 2 tablespoons of ammonia in 10 liters of water, then you can both water and spray garlic beds with this solution.
Foliar feeding
When any fertilizer is diluted in water and used to spray plants, this is called foliar feeding. They are very effective in unfavorable weather conditions when the roots have difficulty absorbing nutrition from the soil. Foliar feeding of garlic allows you to feed the plants through the leaves. This is the fastest way to help plants with a lack of one or another nutrient, since garlic, like any plant, absorbs nutrients through its leaves several times faster than through its roots.
For some reason, foliar feeding for garlic is not very common, but for “first aid” to plants, for example, when leaves turn yellow, they can serve well. Most often, for foliar feeding of garlic, the same solutions are used as for watering, but only diluted three or even four times.
If the weather outside is windless and cloudy, then spraying the leaves can be done at any time of the day.But in sunny weather, it can only be done early in the morning or in the evening after sunset, so that the leaves do not receive additional burns.
Conclusion
It is important to remember that it is always better to underfeed garlic a little than to overfeed it. Fertilizing is absolutely necessary in poor, depleted soils and in unfavorable weather conditions. In all other cases, it is necessary to carefully monitor the condition of the plants, and if the garlic grows well and develops quickly, then the next feeding can be postponed.
