Contents
Every gardener dreams of growing a rich crop of various vegetables, including onions and garlic. When applying agrotechnical principles, even a beginner can handle it. But getting a large number of useful heads is half the battle. After all, the products still need to be stored until the next harvest.
Novice gardeners are often interested in digging up garlic and onions so that they do not lose their presentation during storage, do not dry out and rot. We will try to answer these questions in the article. Since only ripe vegetables are perfectly stored, you need to choose the optimal time for harvesting from the beds.
Determining the timing of harvesting garlic
Overview
Two types of garlic are grown in home gardens and summer cottages – winter and spring. One is planted before winter, the other – in the spring. Since the planting dates are different, the vegetables are not harvested at the same time.
In addition, maturation will depend on the following factors:
- region of residence of the gardener;
- prevailing weather conditions;
- varietal differences;
- implementation of agricultural technology.
Although there are a number of general nuances, thanks to which you can determine the readiness of garlic for harvesting:
- the husk is easily removed;
- yellowing of the stem and tops begins from the bottom up;
- the heads are dense, without cracking, the cloves are well separated.
Winter garlic
With spring garlic, it is more difficult to decide. But the bulbs on the arrows allow you to recognize the ripeness of winter varieties. As soon as they appear from under the cover, the garlic is ready for harvesting. It is undesirable to leave arrows on all plants, since the teeth are too small. But on several garlics, they are necessary as guidelines for harvesting.
Spring garlic
Spring planting garlic is called spring. The cloves are planted in the ground in late April, early May, while the activity of the onion fly is minimal.
It is easier to determine the timing of harvesting for those gardeners who plant winter varieties of garlic. As a rule, the turn of spring plantings comes in two or three weeks.
You can visually understand that a vegetable planted in spring has ripened by the following signs:
- leaves located at the base of the stem turn yellow;
- the stem and upper leaves lose their brightness, but still remain green.
Spring garlic is harvested in the last decade of August, early September. It all depends on the climatic conditions of the region.
Regardless of whether spring or winter varieties are planted, they must be dug up before the shirt on the head cracks. If the cloves are separated from each other, such garlic is not suitable for storage. You can check when to dig the bulbs out of the garden by pulling one or two plants out of the ground. If the head has formed, then it’s time to clean it up.
Secrets of gardeners
Weather is an unpredictable phenomenon. If the rains are charged, then the ripening of garlic slows down due to the abundance of moisture before harvesting. Plants remain green for a long time, can produce new roots, which will adversely affect the quality of the crop and its keeping quality.
What can be done in this case:
- to choose the ground from under the plants, exposing the heads;
- tie the greens into knots so that the outflow of nutrients into the bulb goes.
If at this time the heads have formed, and the tops remain green, it is best to dig out the garlic without cutting the stem. The harvested crop is removed in a ventilated room and left to ripen. Over time, the leaf will give away useful substances, it will turn yellow.
Onion harvesting
Onions, as well as garlic, need to be removed in a timely manner. Overripe bulbs do not store well. How to decide that this vegetable is ready for digging?
Firstly, you need to take care of harvesting the onion already during the planting of the sevka – remember the number. As a rule, the bulbs ripen 70-75 days after planting.
Secondly, the external condition of the plant will tell you when you can dig onions. The pen begins to turn yellow, the neck becomes soft. After a while, the stem will fall. This is a signal for the ripening of the bulbs.
Of course, it is impossible to name the exact number of onion harvesting, since climatic and weather conditions also affect the ripening process. In rainy summers, the vegetative period is extended, while in drought, on the contrary, it is reduced.
They start harvesting onions from the garden in the last decade of July. It should not take more than 10 days to harvest the entire onion plantation, otherwise the bulbs will overgrow.
important points
The question “onions and garlic, when to harvest” is often typed by users in search engines. This is really important to know. We will continue our conversation on this topic.
- The fact is that both vegetables stop watering 2-3 weeks before harvesting. This is a necessary procedure. It is necessary to slow down the development of the plant and accelerate maturation. When watering or during a rainy summer, almost ripe bulbs of onions and garlic may begin a new vegetative period, roots appear. This not only slows down the ripening of vegetables, but further reduces the quality and keeping quality.
- You also need to know the timing of harvesting onions and garlic because vegetables are dug up in dry, sunny weather. Therefore, if prolonged rains are planned, then you need to remove vegetables from the garden before wet weather. They will ripen in a ventilated area.
Useful tips instead of results
- Dug out onions and garlic in sunny weather are laid out on the beds so that they dry out and the earth flies off them. Onions can be kept all day, but garlic no more than 3 hours.
- When garlic and onions are ready to be harvested, the top scales on them rustle.
- Bulbs and garlic heads should be dried in breeze-blown rooms.
- Timely harvested vegetables are cut after the stems and leaves are completely dry.
- It is easy to speed up the ripening process under adverse conditions: lightly dig with a pitchfork to shorten the root system.
How to determine the readiness of onions and garlic for harvesting:
