Garlic is a very useful and popular crop that every gardener grows. The process of obtaining a rich harvest and planting in the spring open ground It’s quite simple, and even a beginner can handle it, the main thing is to follow all the rules.
By using step by step instructions planting and growing heads of garlic in a dacha will not be difficult in the Moscow region, in Belarus and even in Transbaikalia.
Garlic can be planted in both autumn and spring. The specific time frame will depend from the selected variety.
Experienced gardeners know that such a crop can be represented by winter or spring varieties. These two species differ from each other not only in terms of planting, but also in many other characteristics. They can be planted and replanted in different times, the same applies to sowing seeds for seedlings.
To distinguish them from each other you need to know the main external characteristics of each type:
- winter garlic is planted in autumn, it is larger, the lobules are covered with a hard shell. In the middle there is a thick and hard rod, around which the teeth are located;
- spring crops are placed in open ground early spring. Such heads are smaller in size, their skin is soft and resembles parchment. The teeth are small, their arrangement is chaotic.
Winter garlic is suitable for use in fresh and preservation, such varieties are stored for only 3-4 months. Spring has a less intense taste, but it can be used until the next harvest.
Specific planting dates will depend on the climatic conditions of the region:
- When carrying out autumn planting, it is worth remembering that by the time the first frosts appear at the beginning of winter, the tines should have time to form a powerful root system, this process takes on average 3-4 weeks. Based on this, all work should be carried out a month before the onset of frost, that is late September-early October;
- Spring planting is carried out immediately after the winter snow cover has melted and the garden soil has warmed up to +6 degrees. Depending on the specific region, this may be April or early May.
Advantages of autumn and spring planting of heads
When making a choice at what time to plant garlic, you need to think about the fact that not only the process of work, but also characteristics of the resulting crop how it will sprout and whether it will have to be replanted in the summer.
Winter garlic | Spring garlic |
The taste of spring garlic is less intense, and the heads and cloves are small in size compared to winter varieties | Winter garlic boasts large cloves that are easy to peel before cooking and a bold, spicy flavor. |
Spring garlic ripens for quite a long time; the yield of varieties of this type remains unchanged. high level | Winter garlic ripens a month earlier than spring garlic, so you can use fresh cloves already in the summer, and the yield of this type is much higher |
Spring garlic can retain its freshness for up to 12 months | Winter garlic is stored for only 3-4 months |
Spring planting guarantees the friendly emergence of seedlings and safe growth of plants | When carrying out autumn planting, it is worth considering that there is always a risk of earlier frosts or too much fall. large quantity precipitation that can destroy plantings |
When caring for spring garlic, you should take care of sufficient watering during the formation of teeth | Winter varieties are formed using ground moisture |
Spring varieties of garlic are not afraid of common diseases and pests | Autumn varieties are the most defenseless against various ailments |
The choice of planting time and type of vegetable grown will depend on the purpose of cultivation. Experienced gardeners recommend planting in beds both winter and spring plants.
Cultivation technology and features of sowing seeds in the country
Each planting period has its own individual characteristics regarding the work. But there are also general rules that should be followed regardless of the time factor:
- Before planting a vegetable, it is necessary to calibrate, that is, remove heads that are too small and somewhat affected by diseases;
- The most common mistake that many gardeners make is planting winter crops in the spring. In this case, you can get a harvest, but it will not be as tasty and large as with autumn planting;
- In order to get a guaranteed harvest you should purchase zoned varieties. It is also worth studying in advance all the characteristics, technology, how to sow and needs;
- Once every 3 years it is necessary to carry out variety rejuvenation, that is, instead of teeth, bulblets will be used as planting material, from which one-tooth ripen in the first season. The resulting harvest is used for planting next year. As a result of such work, garlic is renewed;
- In order to harvest a high-quality harvest, you must not miss the established deadlines. You can identify them by the arrow that should burst. Bulbs should also form;
- To obtain a richer harvest, you should pick off the garlic feathers in a timely manner.
The most important rule to follow when planting garlic is to adhere to the deadlines.
In the fall, you should not plant the cloves too early so that they do not germinate ahead of time, and in the spring you should not delay planting, because then the heads may not have time to ripen before the onset of cold weather.
Rules for planting garlic in open ground
In order for the cultivation to end in success, it is necessary to carry out the planting work correctly. It is also very important to properly care for plantings and carry out the necessary work in a timely manner.
Preparing seedling cloves
In order to get friendly shoots, which will subsequently bring a good harvest, you need to work hard and properly process planting material:
- Well-dried garlic heads are separated into cloves without damaging the dry scales;
- Then carry out calibration, selecting large and healthy slices;
- Before spring planting, the teeth can be stimulated to produce roots more quickly; for this purpose, planting material wrapped in damp cloth and put it in the refrigerator for several days;
- Before planting the cloves in the ground, they need to be prepared.
There are three processing methods:
- The slices are soaked in warm water for 10-12 hours;
- Also suitable for these purposes table salt, which is diluted in water (3 tablespoons per 5 liters). This procedure is carried out for several minutes;
- Another way would be chemicals having a stimulating effect.
- The last important procedure will be disinfection. To do this, immerse the cloves in a solution of copper sulfate for 1-2 minutes (1 tablespoon per 10 liters of water).
A solution of potassium permanganate, the drug “Fitosporin-M” and an infusion of ash are also well suited for antimicrobial treatment. In this case, the processing will last 30 minutes.
Site selection and soil preparation
Garlic is quite capricious when it comes to choosing soil and planting sites. When preparing the site, you should remember all the preferences of this crop:
- the vegetable takes root best on loamy and chernozem soils with neutral acidity;
- there must be a place sunny and open;
- It is not recommended to plant garlic where onions, potatoes and tomatoes grew before it. Desirable predecessors are cabbage, legumes, zucchini and cucumbers.
For spring planting, soil preparation is carried out in the fall, and for autumn planting a month before work. This procedure includes deep digging, loosening, removal weed and stones.
In order to balance the composition of the soil, clay and sandy soil is diluted with peat, and peat soil with loam.
In order to get a rich harvest, before planting the soil needs to be enrich. For one square meter The following fertilizers are applied to the soil:
- 1 bucket of humus or rotted manure;
- 1 bucket of compost;
- 1 cup dolomite flour;
- 1 tablespoon of superphosphate;
- 1 tablespoon of nitrophoska.
The final part will be disinfection of the plantings, during which the beds are watered copper sulfate or a solution of potassium permanganate. Experienced gardeners recommend covering the ridges with film until work is carried out.
Step-by-step instructions and what depth to plant
Vegetables are planted in rows, the distance between which should be equal to 20-25 centimeters. The distance between individual teeth will depend on their size, on average this figure is 10 centimeters.
The teeth are deepening strictly vertical. In spring, the planting depth will be 5-6 centimeters. In autumn, this figure should be increased to 10 centimeters. This is necessary in order to protect the planting material from freezing.
Care
Caring for garlic after planting will consist of: timely loosening and cleaning of the soil from weeds. Also, we must not forget about watering. During the growing season, the application of moisture should be plentiful.
Watering is reduced to a moderate amount when fruit formation begins, because with excess moisture, garlic can be susceptible to various diseases. In rainy weather, watering should be reduced. The application of moisture is stopped 2 weeks before harvest.
In addition to watering, garlic needs regular feeding:
- 1 time every 10 days the soil is watered with a solution of phosphorus and potassium fertilizers;
- At the beginning of the growing season and after the head has formed, the plants are fertilized with mullein infusion or chicken manure. 1 kilogram of fertilizer is diluted in 10 liters of water and infused for several days. After fermentation is complete, 1 liter of fertilizing is diluted with 10 liters of water.
For additional protection against diseases and pests, preventive treatments with fungicides and insecticides are carried out in the spring.
How to replant garlic planted before winter in spring
It often happens that after planting garlic in the fall, the gardener’s plans change dramatically and the beds have to be transplanted to a new location. Many sources do not recommend this procedure, because it can damage the root system of plants and destroy them.
But if work is necessary, then the plantings are postponed along with a large earthen lump. In this case, losses will be minimal, but in any case a smaller harvest should be expected.
Garlic can be planted in both spring and autumn. The specific timing of the work will depend on the desired result. The key to successful work will be compliance with all the rules described above.
To stock up on them for the winter, you need to know important factors: place, time and planting conditions. Follow the following tips and you will be able to feed on the harvest for a whole year.
When is garlic planted?
Besides, there should be no stagnation of water. The best soil for winter garlic is sandy loam. It contains a lot of sand. This soil is easy to cultivate as it is loose. Sandy loam soil thaws earlier in early spring, and this is an important condition for those plants that are located in frozen soil. It should be noted that this type of soil will be needed much more often.
Correct fit
For planting, use well-dried garlic, since if it contains moisture, it will immediately begin to grow, and this is undesirable for spring varieties. This rule does not apply to winter garlic.
Check the quality of the cloves before planting: to do this, peel the husk a little; if you find spots or darkening, it is better not to plant such garlic.
Yarovoy
When planting a spring species, do not hide the roots too far underground. Choose the largest cloves.
Important!The optimal distance between the teeth is 6-7 cm.
10 by 20 cm is the approximate area on which one planted segment should be located. If you still plant smaller cloves, then it is better to reduce the distance by about half.
The plant loves light, but if the teeth are small, then you can plant it in partial shade: under thickets, for example. You will get tender greens for salads. Planting depth will depend on the soil you choose. If you used our recommendations for selecting a substrate, then plant garlic 2-3 cm deep.
It is important that the soil adjacent to the roots is loosened. This is necessary in order to provide room for growth. The presented species will ripen about three weeks later than the winter variety, but will be stored for a long time.
Ozimogo
The best place for growth is beds 15-20 cm high. Start preparing for planting in advance, about a week in advance: till the soil and prepare. If the soil does not have time to mature, the teeth will fail. Because of this, garlic can grow very small.
Winter garlic should be planted 3-5 cm deep. at a distance approximately equal to two of your palms. Make sure there is no other excess grass in the area. Add 5 kg per square meter. It is important that it is not fresh, it is only used for growing some, but it is not suitable for garlic.
In order for garlic planted in winter to develop correctly, loose soil is needed. This effect can be achieved by adding substances such as sand or. They will make it easier for water and air to penetrate deep into the area.
If you want to add, then add from, from -
If you plan to grow garlic on your plot, it is best to worry about this in the fall. Planting this bulbous plant before winter will ensure excellent quality and large size of garlic heads and cloves.
It is no secret that the main conditions for obtaining a rich harvest of winter garlic are the correct determination of the planting site and compliance with the bed preparation technology. We tell you how to plant garlic in the fall.
Planting dates for winter garlic
When to plant garlic before winter depends primarily on the planned planting depth.
1. Planting garlic before winter to a depth of 3-5 cm
Most often, garlic is buried 3-5 cm. In this case, planting is carried out 2-3 weeks before the first frost.
IN middle lane this period usually falls on 20th of September – 10th of October. In warmer regions with mild climates this november.
2. Planting winter garlic to a depth of 10-15 cm
Many gardeners prefer to plant garlic at greater depths; with this method, it takes root better and tolerates winter frosts more easily. When to plant winter garlic during deep planting? Already in the middle zone from the last ten days of August to the second ten days of October.
How to distinguish winter garlic from spring garlic
Naturally, the main difference is that winter garlic planted before winter, and spring- in the spring.
In addition, they can be distinguished by external signs.
After which you can plant garlic before winter
It’s better if they grew in the garden before the garlic tomatoes, cucumbers, legumes. Also good predecessors of garlic can be early cabbage, zucchini, pumpkin. In this case, the soil for garlic will be maximally saturated with organic fertilizers.
It is not recommended to plant garlic in areas that were occupied by potatoes or onions. This is due to the fact that there is a high risk of “exchange” of diseases between these crops (nematode, fusarium, etc.).
You should also not plant winter garlic in areas where manure was applied this year: garlic will produce abundant tops, loose heads and will be less resistant to fungal diseases.
Choosing a place for a bed for winter garlic
Find the most fertile soil on your site with normal or low acidity. It is in this place that you should plant garlic. Make a bed on the sunny side, positioning it from north to south.
How to prepare a bed for winter garlic?
Preparations for planting winter garlic begin early.
1. Preparing the soil for garlic
IN late August – early September it is necessary to fertilize the soil: for each square meter of area add 10 kg of humus, 1 cup of chalk and 2 cups of ash, add 2 tbsp. potassium sulfate and 1 tbsp. superphosphate. Having distributed all the components evenly on the soil, you need to dig it up. The digging depth should be at least 20 cm.
2. Forming a bed
An ideal bed for winter garlic will be up to 1 m wide and up to 25 cm high.
3. Give time for the soil to shrink
Some gardeners are in a hurry and plant garlic immediately after digging. This affects the growth and development of the plant: garlic cloves end up deep in the ground when the soil settles, and in the spring the time for shoot germination increases and the crop yield decreases.
4. We cultivate the soil
To prevent garlic diseases, treat the soil with a 1% solution. copper sulfate(dilute 1 tablespoon of the substance in 10 liters of water). Using a watering can, pour the resulting solution over the entire area of the bed. Then cover it with film.
On average, 2 square meters will require 1 bucket of this solution.
On the eve of planting garlic, scatter it on the surface of the bed. urea at the rate of 10-20 g per square meter and water the soil with water.
How to prepare garlic for planting
We have already figured out how to prepare a bed for planting and when to plant winter garlic; now it’s time to decide how to prepare the planting material itself.
1. Disassemble the head into pieces
Firstly, it is important to carefully examine the garlic and disassemble the heads into individual cloves, from which you need to select the largest, healthiest ones for planting.
If you take planting material from non-shooting varieties of garlic, use only the outer tier cloves.
2. Disinfect garlic
The selected cloves must be soaked for a day in a 0.1% solution of potassium permanganate or a 1% solution of copper sulfate.
Proper planting of single clove winter garlic
Now we proceed directly to the technology of planting garlic in the fall.
1. Making holes
On a bed prepared in advance, we outline a place for planting winter garlic. To do this, use a stick to make holes in the ground at a distance 10 cm from each other. Hole depth – from 3 to 15 cm depending on the method and time of planting. We already discussed this at the beginning of the article.
Distance between rows – 20-25 cm.
2. Bury the garlic cloves
Place the garlic cloves into the holes.
You should not press them into the ground, as this delays root formation.
3. We cultivate the land
If the soil is dry, you can spill it with a pink solution of potassium permanganate.
4. Fill in the holes
The holes must be covered with rotted compost.
5. Mulch the bed
The optimal layer of mulch is about 10 cm. For mulching, it is best to use peat, pine needles or spruce branches, and fallen leaves.
In warm regions there is no need to mulch winter garlic.
An alternative way to plant winter garlic
There is another, less usual approach to preparing a bed for winter garlic.
1. Apply fertilizers for planting garlic
At the end of August, it is necessary to apply fertilizer to the garden bed:
- potassium sulfate (2 tbsp per sq.m.);
- superphosphate (1 tbsp per sq.m.);
- wood ash (2 cups per sq.m.);
- chalk (1 cup per square meter);
- humus (10 kg per sq.m.).
All fertilizers are applied dry and scattered over the soil surface.
2. Cultivate the soil
After this, the ground must be thoroughly dug up. Again, to speed up shrinkage, water the soil generously. If the weather is rainy, watering is not necessary.
3. Filling the bed
First of all, along the prepared bed, 35-45 cm from it, it is necessary to sow rows of peas, oats and white mustard.
4. Till the soil before planting
1-2 days before planting garlic, it is necessary to apply fertilizing. To do this, urea is added to the beds (10-20 g per sq.m.). Then the ground is generously watered.
5. Plant winter garlic
In early October, when the sprouts of peas and oats reach 20 cm or more, it is time to plant garlic between their green rows.
This method of winter planting garlic is quite effective. The greens will retain snow in the beds, so that in winter the garlic will be covered with a snow coat, and in the spring it will receive sufficient moisture.
Those who claim that the gardening season begins in February-March are greatly mistaken. To ensure a high harvest, you need to take care of it in the fall. So, in the fall they prepare the beds for the next year, apply fertilizers, regulate the acidity of the soil, and also engage in pre-winter sowing and planting of winter crops.
In this article we will talk about how to plant winter crops in the fall.
Preparing garlic for planting in the fall
The first step is to sort out the planting material. All damaged, dried out, moldy or rotten teeth are removed.
Select teeth with a reserve - in the future you will still reject unsuitable ones. After the largest and healthiest cloves have been selected, place them in a bowl or pan with a lid and place them on the veranda or balcony for a week and a half. During this time, the teeth will sprout small roots. After this period, the planting material is sorted again, discarding teeth with previously undetected defects.
It is also advisable to disinfect the teeth by soaking them before planting for 30-50 minutes in a solution of any systemic fungicide or potassium permanganate (light pink solution). The teeth left floating on the surface of the solution are most likely damaged or overdried, which means they are not suitable for planting.
After disinfection, the teeth are dried a little, but it is not necessary to wait until completely dry.
The bed for garlic should be selected and prepared in the summer. Ideally, it should be released in June-July. Then they add manure or compost and dig up the future garlic bed. Applying manure or any other organic fertilizer directly at the time of planting garlic increases the risk of disease and pest infestation.
Remember that garlic does not like acidic and heavy soils. The garden bed should not be flooded in the spring, otherwise the garlic will simply “get wet” and rot.
A week before planting garlic, it is advisable to add potassium-phosphorus fertilizers to the soil, and a couple of days - a little wood ash (to prevent acidification of the soil from mineral fertilizers).
How to plant garlic correctly in the fall
Garlic is planted in the fall before winter when the soil temperature drops to +10-12 °C at a depth of 5 cm. However, these terms are quite arbitrary, since later planting is often no less successful. But you shouldn’t rush and plant garlic early - the appearance of green garlic shoots is a sure sign that without additional shelter the bed will not withstand winter frosts and will die. So it’s better not to rush and wait to plant at least until stable cold weather sets in. However, you shouldn’t delay planting either - the garlic cloves should have time to take root before severe frosts, otherwise good harvest There's no point in waiting next year.
The distance between plants in a row should be 10-13cm, row spacing should be at least 15-20cm wide. If we summarize all the requirements, optimal time Planting garlic in the middle zone is mid-October. In the northern regions one or two weeks earlier, and in the southern regions a couple of weeks later.
The right choice is no less important than pre-sowing preparation and suitable planting dates.
To avoid the development of diseases and the proliferation of pests, you should not grow garlic in the same place for several years in a row. The best predecessors for it are beets and carrots, cabbage, parsnips, celery, pumpkin, and legumes. It is not advisable to plant garlic after potatoes, onions, tomatoes or peppers.
Planting garlic bulbs in the fall is not fundamentally different from planting cloves. The only difference is that due to the small size of the bulbs, you should not bury them very deeply. But do not forget that it is not full-fledged heads that grow from bulbs, but one-toothed garlic (sets) - improved seed material, which is small bulbs. However, there is no need to plant bulbs in the fall - they grow well when planted in spring. The main advantage of sowing bulbs in winter is saving time in the spring.
Now you can not only independently determine when to plant garlic in the fall, but also choose the right place for it and prepare the bed in such a way as to ensure a good wintering and a high harvest.
As you can see, the secrets of planting garlic in the fall are not so complicated. It is enough to follow the basic rules to get an excellent harvest of aromatic winter garlic next year.