Planting garlic in the fall: planting correctly

Cooking the garden

Before planting garlic, the area for its cultivation must be properly prepared. For successful growth and good yields, a crop needs fertile, well-drained soil. Garlic grows well in loamy, acid-neutral soil, which needs to be fertilized when digging.

Digging the beds for winter garlic is carried out about a month before planting, at the end of August, so that the fertilizers have time to completely dissolve and soak into the soil.

You should be aware that different types of fertilizers are used for each soil composition:

• We introduce organic matter and mineral mixtures into loamy soil. For 1 m² you need 1 bucket of humus (compost is possible), as well as 1 glass of lime, 1 tbsp each. spoon of superphosphate plus the same amount of nitrophosphate.
• If the teeth are planted in heavy clay soil, then in addition to all the above fertilizers, we add 1 more bucket of peat for each 1 m² to improve the structure.
• When we plant garlic in fertile soil (black soil), the consumption of fertilizers is reduced - it is enough to add 1 bucket of humus for every 1 m² plus 30 g of superphosphate and 20 g of any potash mixture, but additionally it is necessary to add sand or peat to improve drainage properties.

All fertilizers must be distributed over the soil surface, after which the site must be dug to a depth of 25–30 cm. Next, we level the bed, compact it a little, and then treat it with a disinfectant solution of vitriol. A product is prepared in a proportion of 40 g of powder per 10 liters of water. The plot is processed at the rate of 1 liter of mortar / 1 m². After all the events, we cover the bed with foil. You can plant the tines in such prepared soil in about a month.

Choosing the right place

For planting winter varieties of garlic, you need to choose open, unshaded areas, where the sun shines intensely for at least half a day. Placing the beds in a sunny location will accelerate seedling in the spring and ripening of the heads in the summer. It is also important that the site is dry, not flooded by groundwater and, if possible, be at an elevation. If the garden bed is placed in a low or slope location, rainwater can stagnate, causing the bulbs to rot.

For garlic, it is important who was its predecessor in the garden. The culture grows well in the area where legumes, pumpkin crops, greens, and cabbage used to grow. An important condition for high yields is compliance with crop rotation.

You should not plant garlic in one place for two years. In addition, you can return the garlic to the previous garden bed only after 3-4 years.

Preparing the garlic for planting

Preparing winter garlic for sowing does not take much time and effort, since the freshly harvested crop is used for sowing. In this case, the main task is only to disinfect the seed (teeth).

First you need to select the highest quality, well-dried bulbs, very carefully divide them into prongs, trying not to damage the seed. For planting, select large or medium teeth. It is not worth planting small specimens, as they may simply not germinate, or they will noticeably lag behind in growth.

To disinfect the teeth, two solutions are used sequentially:

• first saline (3 tablespoons of salt / 5 liters of water) - the teeth are kept in it for 2 minutes;
• then the teeth are placed in a solution of copper sulfate (1 tablespoon of powder / 10 l of water) and incubated for 1 minute.

After these simple procedures, the garlic is planted in prepared soil.

Landing

It is necessary to plant winter garlic 1–1.5 months before the onset of the first frost. This time is enough for the roots to sprout at the teeth and penetrate 10–12 cm deep into the soil, but the sprouts did not have time to appear. For regions with a temperate climate, the planting period occurs in late September - early October. In northern regions, winter garlic can be planted after September 20, and in southern regions after October 10. It is advisable not to miscalculate with the planting date, since early sown garlic can germinate before the cold weather, and planted late will freeze.

The planting process itself is as follows:

• On a bed dug up and filled with fertilizers, we make longitudinal furrows up to 8 cm deep at a distance of 20 cm from each other.
• Pour some sand or ash at the bottom of the furrow. This procedure is necessary in order to protect the tines from direct contact with the soil and thereby prevent them from rotting.
• Then we plant the garlic cloves with the bottom down at a distance of 10-12 cm for large specimens, and 8-10 for smaller ones.
• We plant the teeth so that the distance to the soil surface is 4–5 cm.
• Then we cover the planted teeth with earth and lightly tamp them.

If we plant garlic in wet soil, no need to water. If it so happens that the land is very dry in autumn, then the garden can be watered.

Care

There is nothing difficult in caring for winter garlic. All the main activities are postponed until spring, and in the fall, you just need to fill the garden with humus or peat, which will serve for the plants not only as fertilizer, but also as a reliable shelter from the cold. The beds are covered with a 2-centimeter layer of organic matter when 2-3 weeks have passed after planting the teeth.

Since the sprouts of garlic planted in autumn appear very early - as soon as the snow melts and the soil warms up to 5–6 ° C, the care of the beds begins in early spring. When the first shoots of garlic appear, the bed must be loosened to a depth of 2-3 cm and re-mulched with peat or humus.

Garlic beds are watered throughout May and June, and in July, 2–4 weeks before harvest, watering is stopped. You need to water as the soil dries. Watering rates depend on the weather:

• if the air temperature is moderate, watering is carried out 1 time in 8-10 days at the rate of 10-12 l / m²;
• when the weather is very hot and there is no rain, the beds are watered more often - once every 3-5 days;
• in rainy weather, garlic does not need watering.

Throughout the spring period and until July, garlic needs additional feeding, which can be combined with watering. There should be at least three main dressings:

• the first is carried out when the plants reach 3-4 leaves - a liquid mullein is used, or special soluble fertilizers are poured from a watering can at the rate of 2-3 liters of solution / 1 m²;
• the second time, feeding is carried out somewhere 2 weeks after the first - the plants are watered with a solution of nitrophoska, which is diluted in a proportion of 2 tbsp. spoons / 10 liters of water, liquid consumption is 3 liters / 1 m²;
• the last time winter garlic is fed at the beginning of July, about 2 weeks before digging out the bulbs - superphosphate is used at the rate of 2 tbsp. spoons / 10 l species, 3-4 liters of solution are consumed for each 1 m².

Winter garlic is quite resistant to diseases, but sometimes it is affected by microbial diseases such as powdery mildew, rust, or attacked by harmful insects: ticks, caterpillars, bears, moths. To prevent this scourge, plants can be sprayed with a solution of ash, milk whey.

It is not recommended to use insecticides for garlic, as it quickly absorbs not only useful substances from the soil, but also poisonous ones.

Video "Autumn planting of garlic"

This video is about how to plant winter garlic in autumn, how to choose the optimal planting time, prepare the soil for planting, etc.