Contents
Proper planting is the key to the brisk development of any horticultural crop. Of course, the quality and speed of growth is affected by the quality of seeds, soil, weather conditions, and fertilizers. But ceteris paribus, it is the planting technology that has a significant impact on the future harvest of any plant. In this article we will talk about how to properly plant garlic in the garden and what kind of care it needs.
The planting process is divided into three stages of equal importance: preparing the soil, planting material and directly planting garlic.
Soil preparation
Soil preparation in the garden is one of the important elements, because a set of mineral and organic elements affects the development of the plant’s root system, the size and quality of its bulb. When choosing a place in the garden, give preference to an open, dry, well-lit place. It is very good if water does not accumulate there, as this will ruin the bulbs.
The soil composition should be rich in organic macro- and microelements. It is best to plant garlic in a bed with loamy soil and neutral acidity (pH 6,5-7,0). If the acidity of the soil is increased, carry out liming with slaked lime or dolomite flour.
Preparatory work in the garden should be carried out in the fall, one and a half to two months before planting. If you are planting winter garlic, you can carefully fertilize the soil when you plant the predecessor crop. However, if you chose spring spring garlic, then you will have to additionally fertilize the site in the fall, after the garden bed has been cleaned of plant residues and disinfected.
For top dressing per 1 square meter you will need: 1 bucket of organic fertilizer (mullein, horse manure), 1 tablespoon of superphosphate and potash fertilizer. For acidic soil, add 1 cup of dolomite flour or slaked lime to this mixture. They dig up the site on the bayonet of a shovel, that is, 18-20 centimeters deep, in order to saturate the soil well. Then you need to level the bed so that there are no lumps and the ground is even. Based on the same proportion, mix a solution of copper sulfate (40 grams per 10 liters of water) and pour it over the area. Cover the bed with plastic wrap or roofing felt.
An important nuance in preparing the soil is that it grew in this place before. So, you should not send garlic for planting after garlic, onions, late-ripening potatoes, turnips, carrots. The fact is that they contribute to the accumulation of toxins and trace elements harmful to garlic, and also lure pests that will spoil the growing bulbs.
Try to plant garlic in the garden after cucumbers, cauliflower, early-ripening white cabbage, legumes and melons, and tomatoes. They extremely saturate the soil with useful fertilizers, so you just have to consolidate the result.
Preparing garlic
In order for the spring season to start favorably and the garlic to grow out of the ground, the seed should be properly selected. However, not everything is so simple, long before planting, careful care and proper storage should be carried out for the teeth. These two points are necessary for garlic to grow large and healthy.
Store cloves or unassembled heads in a dry, cool place. The room temperature must not exceed +7 °C and the relative humidity must be zero. You can store the seed at a temperature of about 15-17 ° C, but in this case, one and a half months before planting, it must be placed in a cool environment with a temperature of -3 ° C to +2 ° C. This will help awaken the vegetative processes, bring the garlic cloves to a state of turgor and help them form a developed root system.
The day before planting garlic in the garden, it is necessary to bring the cloves into a room with room temperature and disinfect. For this, a light pink solution of potassium permanganate, a solution of copper sulfate or ash lye is used. In the case of the first two solutions, the cloves need to be soaked for a day, but in ash lye you can only keep 2 hours. You can wash the seed in a solution of the drug (optional) “Fundazol”, “Epin”. Such care also stimulates the growth of garlic.
To get a bountiful harvest, you need to plant only healthy, large cloves. With spring garlic, it is better to choose cloves from the outer circle, since they are larger than the central ones and are better protected by the husk. Carefully inspect each clove for mold, rot, dents, wormholes. Planting garlic is carried out only with healthy, intact seeds. Care for future bulbs at the stage of preparation for planting also consists in peeling and separating the “bottom” of each clove so as not to interfere with the appearance and development of roots.
How to plant
Planting garlic should be carried out when the ground in the garden has warmed up to at least +7 ° C (in the case of planting spring garlic). On a pre-fertilized and dug-up bed, furrows are marked in which cloves will be planted. However, depending on the type and variety of the crop, you can plant garlic in different ways, based on your wishes, capabilities and the effort that you are willing to spend on caring for the plant.
Ways of planting
If you plan to plant garlic separately from other crops in the garden, you can outline several rows, between which there will be 20-25 centimeters of free space, while there should be at least 10 centimeters between the cloves. This arrangement will prevent the garlic leaves from shading each other. The cloves are planted to a depth of 5 to 15 centimeters, depending on the variety and type of seed (cloves or air bulbs).
If you do not have a lot of space in the garden, you can plant garlic in two tiers: the first at a depth of 9-10 centimeters, the second at a depth of 5-6 centimeters. In this case, the bed must be well watered and mulched.
When planting together, for example, with strawberries or carrots, two arrangements can be used. In the first case, garlic is located in the gap between the beds with another plant. Thus, cultures do not interfere with each other’s development, but at the same time protect against various pests. In the second case, the plants are arranged in a checkerboard pattern, that is, they alternate on the same bed.
In any case, it is possible to plant in this way, only observing the prescribed distance between seedlings – at least 10 centimeters, so that the plants do not interfere with each other’s development.
Care
Depending on the variety and variety of garlic that is planted in the garden, care for it varies. Winter garlic should not be watered for the winter and the first months of spring warmth, since the ground is sufficiently moistened by melting snow. Before the emergence of seedlings, it is worth watering the spring garlic abundantly, it does not have enough of the water that you used when planting in the garden.
When the warm weather sets in, that is, from the end of April – the beginning of May, planting care includes regular watering. However, keep in mind that the earth should be moist, but should not turn into an artificial pond, as this will only harm the growing garlic.
Care includes picking out weeds from the garden, as well as gently loosening the soil. Weeds can become a haven for harmful insects and bacteria, besides, they take away all useful trace elements from the soil. You can plant around the beds or even in the aisle nasturtium or chicory, which serve as a natural “scarecrow” for the onion fly.
After the appearance of the first shoots of garlic in the garden, comprehensive planting care includes top dressing. It is recommended to use ammonium sulfate for pest control. In early June, another top dressing is carried out with a yeast solution, phosphorus and potassium to support the formation of a large bulb.
Many gardeners include trimming arrows in the varieties that produce it. Thus, the plant does not spend its reserves of nutrients on maintaining the “extra” parts, but gives them to the emerging cloves.
Video “Planting winter garlic”
This video is about how to grow winter garlic from bulbs.
