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Planting garlic before winter is a common occurrence that helps ensure constant soil activity. It’s nice to get fresh garlic sprouts in early spring and immediately use them in a salad or soup. And the early (in comparison with other varieties) ripening of the crop cannot but attract gardeners. In this article, we will discuss when to plant garlic before winter, how to choose the right cloves, how soil is prepared in the fall, and which garlic is best to plant.
Terms of planting
The question “when to plant garlic for the winter” is quite popular among gardeners. However, a single answer has not yet been found, since the landing time depends on many factors. For example, for regions with short summers and early frosts, garlic should be planted as early as September, otherwise the plant will not have time to take root. Whereas for regions with a mild or hot climate, it is wiser to wait until mid-October, otherwise the garlic will grow violently and may not tolerate the first snow.
Experiments show that in regions with a temperate cold climate, winter varieties planted at the end of August give an excellent harvest. Plants have time to develop an extensive root system, develop immunity and easily survive the winter. Whereas the cloves planted in October did not have time to take root, which is why the roots developed poorly, and in the spring the plant grew much more slowly.
However, this is a situational success, which largely depends on the condition of the soil, weather conditions, and the quality of the seed. If you are not ready to risk your garlic harvest, then plant it in the fall from mid-September to mid-October.
Site selection and preparation of soil
It is important to choose the right place for landing. An ideal place for garlic is a dry, well-lit area. The soil should be loamy with low acidity. At the same time, the preparation of the beds should be done one and a half months before planting, that is, almost immediately after harvesting, which falls in mid-July.
Garlic will survive the winter well if you choose the predecessors wisely. It is also important to observe crop rotation, that is, do not plant a plant in the same place for two years in a row.
This crop shows the best results when growing after cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, pumpkins, zucchini. Annual crops with a short vegetation period saturate the soil with nitrogen to the maximum, which contributes to the good development of garlic.
The gardeners’ society recognized potatoes, Jerusalem artichoke, radishes, turnips, carrots as the worst predecessors of garlic. These plants deplete the earth during the growing season, and in a short period between plantings, it does not have time to recover, even with proper fertilizer.
A month and a half before planting, soil preparation begins with fertilizers. Make a supply of horse manure humus, nitrophoska, superphosphate, dolomite flour or, alternatively, lime.
For 1 square meter of land, you will need 1 bucket of organic fertilizer, 1 tablespoon of nitrophoska and superphosphate, 1 glass of lime or dolomite flour.
Having introduced this composition into the ground, carefully dig it so that the depth of digging is at least 20 centimeters. Then level the ground with a garden rake and water with a solution of copper sulfate. It is easy to prepare: dissolve 40 grams of vitriol in 10 liters of water. For 1 square meter of the site you will need 1 liter of solution.
After the end of the fertilization, the beds should be covered with a film or roofing material to protect them before planting. Alternatively, you can mulch the ground, for example using leaves.
Between future rows of garlic, wood ash should be poured to keep the area from insects and other pests.
Preparing garlic for planting
As you know, garlic breeds selectively. Winter garlic is planted with cloves or bulb bulbs.
The choice of seed depends on whether you want to get a quick harvest, or whether your goal is to develop a good variety with large bulbs. For the first you will need cloves, but for the second – bulbs.
The fact is that garlic from bulbs as a whole grows for 2 years: at the end of the first growing season, an onion set with 1 clove is obtained, from which a full-fledged bulb with many cloves grows the next year.
To get a healthy harvest, it is important to carefully select planting material. First, make a selection by size – choose the largest cloves, as they grow better. Secondly, do not take sick, spoiled, insect-eaten cloves – the plants will be sick and stale. Thirdly, disinfect and harden them – soak for a day in a pink solution of potassium permanganate or a solution of copper sulphate. Alternatively, prepare fly ash. To do this, mix 400 grams of wood ash, boil in 2 liters of water for 30 minutes. Cool the solution and soak the teeth in it for 2 hours.
Bulbs of winter garlic should be dried, then take the largest ones. Before planting, they can be sprayed with ash lye tincture or a strong solution of potassium permanganate.
Landing technology
Preparation for planting in the fall is that the leaves with which you mulched the beds are removed. The soil should be slightly damp when you plan future beds.
Between the rows there should be a free space of 25 centimeters, while the distance between the teeth in the row should not exceed 15 centimeters. It is best to make a furrow depth of about 16-17 centimeters, cover the bottom with 3 centimeters of clean river sand. Bulbs are planted at a shallower depth (it is better that it does not exceed 3-4 centimeters), the distance between them should be about 10 centimeters.
There are several ways to plant garlic in the fall:
- The prepared area is slightly moistened with warm water or a warm yeast solution. Furrows are laid so that there is a distance of 20-25 centimeters between them. The teeth are planted with the sharp part up every 10 centimeters. After the soil returns to its place, it is watered again. Be sure to mulch the beds, for example, using leaves.
- If your site does not have a lot of space, and you plant several more crops for the winter, then you can resort to a double planting in the fall. In the furrow at a depth of 10 centimeters, teeth are laid, which are covered with a layer of earth of 5-6 centimeters. And then the second tier of cloves is planted so that the depth of their planting does not exceed 6 centimeters, and again covered with earth. This method of planting involves mulching the soil. Use leaves, which should be plentiful by now.
- The third way is popularly called “lazy”. In this case, you do not think about the depth of the furrow, the distance between the teeth. The main thing is to keep the gap between the beds at 20-25 centimeters. The cloves themselves are scattered around the garden, and then sprinkled with earth and mulched using leaves.
When planting winter garlic, it is important to understand that in spring the cloves will actively grow, which means you need to make sure that there is enough fertilizer in the soil, and the leaves with which you mulched the beds are well rotted (you may have to renew the layer before frost). If frosts came before the plant took root, renew the leaves on the beds and additionally cover them with polyethylene or roofing material, carefully securing it.
Video “Planting winter garlic”
This video is about the technology of planting winter garlic, as well as useful tips for preparing for this process.
