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Despite the fact that garlic is always on sale, it is often grown in home gardens and summer cottages. Garlic is a healthy vegetable widely used in cooking. Growing garlic at home, gardeners can be sure that it does not contain harmful substances. The vegetable is not capricious, so even novice gardeners get good results.
In culture, winter and spring garlic are distinguished. They have differences in planting and care. Today we will talk about spring varieties. Proper and regular feeding of spring garlic during the vegetative period is of great importance for obtaining large and healthy heads. Beginning gardeners are often interested in what fertilizers should be used, in what quantities it is applied under a spicy vegetable, at what time.
What fertilizers do garlic need
It is necessary to feed garlic in order to get a good harvest alternately with organic and mineral fertilizers.
Organic
Many gardeners do not want to use mineral fertilizers on their beds, they prefer to feed plants, including garlic, with organic fertilizers:
- wood ash for disinfection and nutrition of the soil with microelements.
- Mullein and chicken manure. This organic matter contains a sufficient amount of nitrogen, which is easily absorbed by plants.
- Compost. It contains a large amount of nutrients and trace elements.
- Regular table salt for disinfection of garlic cloves, destruction of pests in the soil and saturation with microelements.
- Potassium permanganate to saturate the soil and plants with manganese.
- ammonia. It not only destroys harmful bacteria, but also saturates plants with nitrogen, accelerates the growth of cloves and heads.
Mineral Fertilizers
Fertilizer of inorganic origin is used in the absence of organic matter or in its insufficient effect on the development of plants.
What mineral fertilizers does garlic need:
- in potash. They are necessary to increase productivity, enhance plant immunity.
- Phosphorus-containing. To accelerate growth.
- Nitrogen-containing. For enhanced growth of green mass at the first stage of growing spicy vegetables.
- In complex fertilizers. They contain all the trace elements necessary for the growth and development of plants.
Regardless of what type of fertilizer gardeners choose for spring sowing garlic or other cultivated plants, they must be applied carefully.
This means that a rich harvest of spicy vegetables cannot be harvested.
Preplant dressing
Top dressing of spring garlic begins with the preparation of the beds. This plant is a big fan of organics. It must be applied in the fall. At least one bucket of compost or humus per square meter.
Some gardeners use potash-phosphorus fertilizers when preparing the soil. The soil is well dug up. Fertilization in the fall is accompanied by abundant watering.
The vegetable receives the second dressing in preparation for sowing. After dividing into cloves and cleaning the dry scales, the planting material is soaked in salt water for two hours. Then in a one percent solution of potassium permanganate or copper sulfate for 2 hours. This treatment saturates with manganese or copper.
You can disinfect and feed a spicy plant with ash lye. To prepare it, 400 grams of ash should be poured with two liters of water and boiled for 30 minutes. In a chilled and filtered solution, the cloves are soaked for a couple of hours. Ash not only disinfects planting material, but also saturates it with potassium and other trace elements.
Immediately before planting, the soil is watered with a pink solution of potassium permanganate. The grooves can be treated with a solution of “Kornerost”: 2 tablets are dissolved in a ten-liter watering can. After that, cloves are planted at a distance of up to 8 cm and covered with soil. Pour clean water over the top. Before the appearance of leaves, no fertilizer is applied.
Features of spring and summer top dressing
Spring garlic is a big gourmet, it needs nutrition with various microelements. As a rule, carry out root and foliar top dressing.
Top dressing at the root
For the entire growing season, spring planting garlic is fed three times:
- The first time root feeding is carried out after 3 to 4 feathers appear on the plant. You need to feed to increase the green mass. A spicy vegetable can be poured with urea. 15 grams of the substance is needed per liter of water. Fertilizers are prepared on the basis that at least 2,5-3 liters of fertilizer are poured onto a square of plantings.
- The second dressing of garlic falls on the end of May, but not earlier than 2,5 weeks after the first feeding. Most often, nitroammophoska and nitrophoska are used. At this time, the spicy vegetable needs nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus. All of them are in these fertilizers in different quantities. When diluting nitroammophoska or nitrophoska for 10 liters of water, 2 tablespoons of the substance are needed. Up to 4 liters of fertilizer is poured onto a square. You can water the plants with nitrophoska if the tips of the feathers begin to turn yellow. Garlic is in dire need of trace elements available in this fertilizer. In addition, fertilizers containing phosphorus or potassium increase the vitality of the plant in adverse conditions.
- The third time a spicy vegetable is fed during the filling of heads. The best fertilizer is superphosphate. To prepare a liquid nutrient solution, add 10 large spoons of fertilizer to a 2-liter watering can. The watering rate per square meter is identical to the first dressings.
What else can you feed garlic
Gardeners understand that a rich harvest of garlic can only be obtained with proper care and timely plant nutrition. It is not necessary to use chemicals in the garden. There are many organic fertilizers that this vegetable loves very much. In addition, they have been tested by more than one generation of gardeners and are completely safe for plants and humans.
Organic Fertilizer Recipes
If you do not want to use mineral fertilizers, you can use organic.
- It can be an infusion of bird droppings or mullein, or an infusion of herbs such as nettle. In half a liter of water, 100 grams of organics are diluted. If slurry is used to feed spring garlic, then one part of it is diluted in 6 parts of water. Fertilize at the root. You can feed spring garlic with such species several times.
- During the formation of teeth, plants need potassium and phosphorus. If you feed it with an infusion of wood ash, then it will fill the vegetable’s need for these trace elements. You can fertilize with ashes several times. Garlic will only get better from this.
Foliar top dressing
Plants are able to obtain nutrients not only through the root system, but also through the leaves. The spicy vegetable is no exception. Not always root feeding is enough for him. Spring garlic also needs foliar top dressing. It is carried out from a sprayer.
Most often, a spicy vegetable is fed this way in case of emergency, when the plant feels oppressed due to a lack of nutrients and trace elements. And root dressings have already been carried out and correspond to the scheme. Moreover, you can feed the plants by the leaves in between root fertilizers.
Nutrient concentrations for foliar application are always lower than those for root application. Spraying spring garlic is best in the evening in dry weather. If after you fed the plant on the leaves it started to rain, then the procedure should be repeated after a few days.
Additional feeding
For foliar feeding, both mineral and organic fertilizers can be used. The vegetable responds well to the extraction of ash, pharmaceutical preparations: ammonia, potassium permanganate.
If the tips of the feathers begin to turn yellow, you need to urgently resuscitate with any of the above substances:
- Ammonia (ammonia) when spraying will help to cope with nitrogen starvation. Three tablespoons of ammonia are enough for a ten-liter watering can. Spraying is carried out immediately after the preparation of top dressing. If after 10 days the spring garlic has not recovered, spraying can be repeated. Such a procedure not only delivers nitrogen through the leaves, but also helps to get rid of pests, especially the secretive proboscis. But most importantly, when using ammonia, plants do not accumulate nitrates.
- Pink solution of potassium permanganate you can feed the garlic during the formation of the head.
- Concerning wood ash, then it can be used during the entire vegetative period several times for both root and foliar top dressing.
Features of growing spring garlic:
To summarize
Growing spring garlic with large cloves is not easy. It will be necessary not only to comply with agrotechnical measures, but also to carry out timely top dressing. Then you will always have plenty of delicious seasoning. Garlic is also a natural healer.
Mysticism is also associated with garlic, for example, in the old days it was believed that a spicy vegetable hung in the house repels evil spirits, evil spirits and vampires.