Planting winter garlic: when and how?

Growing features

Winter garlic shoots out, so both bulb cloves and seeds can be used for propagation. At the same time, the plant is resistant to low temperatures, developing much faster in the cool. Each clove forms a bulb with a developed root system, which contains from 7 to 12 cloves, depending on the variety.

Since winter garlic is planted before winter, it is important to properly prepare both the plant itself and the area on which it will grow. This is quite easy to do, since, as already noted, winter varieties are adapted to cold weather.

Landing dates

As soon as you have removed the plants from the future planting site for winter garlic, preparation should begin. You should be guided by the weather conditions and forecasts for your region, so that you plant the cloves 45-55 days before the first frost.

When to plant winter garlic? Depending on the variety, you can start planting from the end of August. According to the lunar calendar for 2021, favorable dates for landing are September 26, 27, 30, as well as October 1, 4, 5, 11, 12. This time is quite enough for the garlic to develop a good root system, fully adapt to the conditions in the garden and be ready for the cold.

It is not recommended to plant garlic: September 1, 16; October 16; November 14 and 29.

Preparing the soil and garlic

The place where the plant will be planted plays an important role. For garlic, such a place will be a dry, well-lit area, without moisture stagnation. The soil should be loamy with low acidity, rich in organic residues. You need to start preparing the site one and a half months before planting.

Garlic will survive the winter well if you choose the preceding plants wisely.

It is imperative to observe the crop rotation. So that you understand - when a plant has been growing in one place for several years in a row, toxins, harmful fungal microflora accumulate in the soil, and insect pests equip their nests.

Therefore, you should not plant a crop after garlic. But it grows well after cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, pumpkins, zucchini, tomatoes, potatoes and early ripening cabbage. These plants saturate the soil with nitrogen and phosphorus, which contributes to the good development of garlic. It is not recommended to plant this crop after late-ripening potatoes, Jerusalem artichoke, radish, turnip, carrot. They take all the nutrients from the soil, and it does not have time to recover by the time the garlic is planted.

It is imperative to fertilize the selected place during the digging of the site. You can use either ready-made fertilizer mixtures, which are sold in garden stores, or mix them yourself. For example, you can take 1 bucket of mullein or horse manure, 1 tablespoon of double superphosphate, 10-12 grams of nitrophosphate, 1 cup of slaked lime and add this mixture to 1 square meter of the plot. You can also replace nitrophosphate with 15 grams of potassium salt, and double superphosphate with 20 grams of simple superphosphate. A more saturated "cocktail" of fertilizers will be obtained if you take 5 kilograms of humus, 30 grams of double superphosphate in granules, 25 grams of potassium salt.

The soil must be dug to a depth of at least 25 centimeters, since the root system of garlic develops well and grows. After you dig up and level the ground, pour the area with a strong solution of copper sulfate to disinfect and better fertilize the soil.

It is also important to prepare the material for planting. Pick out the largest teeth you have. Remove the scales from them, carefully inspect for damage, flaws, mold and rot. Even slightly spoiled teeth should be discarded. Remove the “mother bottom” from each clove selected for planting so that it does not interfere with root germination.

It is good if the seed was collected from plants that grew in your area, as this means that the culture will not only take root well, but also give a rich harvest.

Make sure that the parent plant is not sore and that the cloves are stored in a cool, dry place.

The planting material must be soaked in potassium permanganate for a day (add potassium permanganate crystals to warm water until it turns pink) or in a solution of copper sulfate (stir 1 tablespoon of copper sulfate in 10 liters of water). You can disinfect and harden the cloves in a shorter period of time by placing them in ash liquor for 2 hours (2 liters of ash are boiled for 15 minutes in 5 liters of water, the solution is cooled and filtered before use).

Landing

The correct planting depth is the key to the successful wintering of winter garlic, as well as the guarantee that in the spring it will quickly break through the ground and grow. Make furrows in a pre-fertilized area 10-15 centimeters deep, pour 3 centimeters of clean river sand on its bottom (you can heat it in the oven or rinse it with a solution of copper sulfate). Place the cloves with the sharp ends up and cover with earth. Water the beds and mulch with straw, peat, spruce needles, leaves. The distance between the teeth should be 10-12 centimeters, and between the beds - 20-23 centimeters.

Before the onset of cold weather, the beds can be additionally covered with plastic wrap or roofing felt. However, as soon as the snow falls, you need to remove it so as not to spoil the wintering of the garlic cloves.

You can also plant the cloves in two tiers. To do this, the first layer of cloves is placed in the previously prepared grooves with sand, they are covered with earth, and then a second layer of cloves is laid out at a depth of 5-6 centimeters and again covered with earth. After the garden bed, water and mulch thoroughly.

Video "Sowing winter garlic"

This film is about planting winter garlic. You will learn when and how to plant, what are the requirements for planting material.