Garlic

The herbaceous perennial plant garlic (Allium sativum) is a member of the genus Onion of the subfamily Onions of the Amaryllis family. This plant is very popular among gardeners, it has a sharp taste and specific aroma, due to the fact that it contains thioesters. It comes from Central Asia, on its territory garlic was cultivated in Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Northern Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan. According to scientists, such a culture originated from long-pointed onions, garlic grows in the gorges of the mountains of Turkmenistan, in the Tien Shan and Pamir-Alai. For a long time, this plant was considered very valuable due to the fact that it helps to stimulate the appetite, strengthen the immune system and improve digestion. It was widely used as an antidote for poisoning, as well as a means of preventing dangerous diseases. An earthen bulb of garlic was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, mention of such a culture was found in inscriptions on the ancient Egyptian pyramids, and Pythagoras called such a vegetable "the king of spices". Mankind has known about garlic for more than three thousand years, and it is still quite popular today. For example, in India, Italy, China and Korea, garlic is consumed 8-12 cloves per day per capita.

Brief description of cultivation

1. Landing... It is necessary to plant garlic in open ground no later than the first half of April, while the site is prepared in the autumn. Also suitable for garlic and winter planting from mid-September to the second half of October.
2. Illumination... The plot should be sunny or shaded.
3. Priming... Moderately moist and nutritious loam, which should be neutral, is best suited for growing such a crop.
4. Watering... In a dry season, you need to water the garlic abundantly (10 to 12 liters of water are taken per 1 square meter of the garden). Watering of the garden is stopped in August.
5. Fertilizer... When the seedlings appear, they should be fed with urea or mullein, repeated feeding is carried out at intervals of 15 days. During one season, the bushes will need to be fed only 4 times.
6. Reproduction... Vegetative - with the help of cloves.
7. Harmful insects... Caterpillars of garden, winter, cabbage and gamma scoops, centipedes, onion moths and flies, bears, stem nematodes, lurkers, tobacco thrips.
8. Diseases... Gray, white and cervical rot, downy mildew, jaundice, fusarium, helminthosporium, smut, rust, viral mosaic, tracheomycosis.

Features of garlic

Garlic has a fibrous root system. The complex bulb of a rounded shape is slightly flattened, it forms in the axils of the scales of 2-50 children, which are called teeth or lobules, on their surface there are scales of a pale yellow, dark purple, white or violet-pink color. Lanceolate narrow leaf plates are erect or drooping grooved, keeled on the seamy side. The leaves reach a width of 10 mm, and their length varies from 0.3 to 1 meter. The leaf plates grow one from the other, thus forming a false stem, such as that of onions, but it is more durable. The height of the peduncle varies from 0.6 to 1.5 m, at its top there is an umbrella-shaped inflorescence, it is hidden by a film shell, which breaks at the moment of disclosure of sterile flowers with long pedicels, they consist of 6 stamens and white or light petals lilac color, while in length they reach 0.3 cm. The fruit is a box. There is winter and spring garlic.

Planting garlic outdoors

What time to plant

It is necessary to plant garlic in open soil no later than the first half of April, however, it is quite difficult to dig up the frozen soil, so you should start preparing a plot for spring garlic in autumn. It is necessary to plant garlic in autumn from mid-September to the second half of October, the planted teeth before the onset of frost should have time to form a powerful root system, which should penetrate 10 centimeters deep. However, the bushes should not start growing.

Suitable soil

Growing such a crop requires a neutral and nutritious soil, but loam is best for this. The soil should not be too dry, but for planting garlic, you cannot choose low-lying areas where there is an accumulation of rain or melt water. The preparation of the site is carried out in the autumn, for this, it is deeply digged, while 20 grams of potassium salt, 30 grams of superphosphate and 1 bucket of humus are added to the soil per 1 square meter of the site. In spring, the surface of the garden bed only needs to be leveled with a rake. Then you can start planting the garlic. Plants such as zucchini, beans, green manure, any cabbage, pumpkin and peas are considered good predecessors of such a culture. In those areas where cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, carrots and garlic grew, it is not recommended to grow this crop. If garlic is planted next to strawberries, potatoes, black currants, strawberries, raspberries or gooseberries, then it can protect such crops from many pests. It is also recommended to grow garlic next to gladioli, roses and tulips, as it is able to scare away caterpillars, slugs and borers, and moles never dig their holes near areas with this crop.

Open ground planting rules

Quite often you can hear the expression "garlic seeds" or "growing garlic from seeds", but this crop is not capable of forming seeds. Garlic is propagated in a vegetative way, namely, with cloves. And for the reproduction of winter varieties, air bulbs are also used.

To get a rich harvest, you will need high-quality planting material, in this regard, 15–20 days before planting garlic in the ground in spring, the cloves are removed to the refrigerator shelf, where they will be stratified, then they are sorted by size, while curved, soft ones must be discarded diseased, traumatized, too small and irregular in shape, and those without a shell.Then the selected teeth must be disinfected, they are immersed in an ash solution for a couple of hours, for its preparation it is necessary to combine 1 liter of water and 200 grams of wood ash, then the mixture must be boiled for 30 minutes and cooled. Instead of an ash solution, you can use a solution of copper sulfate (1%) or a weak solution of potassium permanganate, the teeth should stay in them for about 12 hours. The teeth must be germinated at room temperature, for this they are wrapped with a napkin, which must first be moistened with water, then they are placed in a plastic a package where they must stay for 2 to 3 days. However, it is not necessary to germinate the garlic before planting. After the ground warms up to 5-7 degrees, you should start preparing the site, for this grooves are made on it, the depth of which should be 70-90 mm, with a row spacing of 20-25 centimeters. Plant the garlic cloves upside down, placing them vertically in the soil, while the distance between the bushes should be from 60 to 80 mm. The slices should be buried in the soil to a depth that is 2 times their height (about 50-60 mm). In the groove, the slices are placed with their edge to the south, thanks to this, the garlic feathers will be able to receive a very large amount of sunlight in the spring, as a result, the bushes will become more productive, and it will be much easier to care for them. If the soil is moistened with melted snow, then after planting the garlic, you do not need to water the garden. However, if the soil is a dry bed, it must be watered very abundantly. Shoots of spring garlic appear already at a temperature of 3-4 degrees, while they are not afraid of frost, but the surface of the garden must be covered with a layer of mulch (peat).

Planting garlic before winter

The rules for planting garlic in autumn are described above, while it should be carried out in the same way as in spring, however, the preparation of the site must be done 15 days before planting the garlic. The bottom of the groove should be covered with a layer of wood ash or coarse sand, the thickness of which should be 15-30 mm, this will protect the slices from contact with the ground and decay.

Most often, spring garlic is smaller than winter garlic. During planting, a distance of 12 to 15 centimeters should be observed between the largest teeth, while a distance of 8 to 10 centimeters must be maintained between small slices. During planting before winter, garlic should be buried 15–20 centimeters into the soil. The sowing of the bulbs is carried out at the same time, while they are buried in the soil by 30 mm, adhering to the scheme of 2x10 centimeters. Next year, one-toothed bulbs will grow from the bulbs. If you plant them again, then next year you will grow full-fledged garlic bulbs.

For the winter, the surface of the garden must be covered with a layer of mulch (sawdust mixed with earth or dry peat). The mulching layer will protect the garlic from freezing, while its thickness should be at least 20 mm. In the event that the snow has not yet fallen, but severe frosts have already hit, the bed should be covered from above with roofing material or film. After the snow begins to fall, the shelter from the site must be removed. Under a layer of snow, garlic can withstand temperatures as low as minus 20 degrees.

Garlic care

To grow garlic on your site, you need to systematically water, feed, weed and loosen the soil surface. To get a good harvest, it is necessary to pull out the arrows immediately after they appear, and it also needs to be treated in a timely manner from diseases and pests.

How to water

Watering is carried out as needed, as soon as the top layer of the soil dries up, it should be abundant (for 1 square meter of the garden from 10 to 12 liters of water). However, if it rains systematically, then the garlic will not need to be watered at all. In August, when the bulbs begin to gain volume and weight, watering must be stopped.

Fertilizer

Immediately after the first seedlings appear in springtime, it is necessary to feed them with nitrogen-containing fertilizers (mullein, Fertaka or urea), after half a month, re-feeding is carried out. During the season, you need to feed the garlic only 4 times.

Garlic pests and diseases

Possible problems

Garlic and onion attack almost the same harmful insects and diseases. Of the diseases, bushes are most often affected by white, cervical and gray rot, helminthosporiosis, fusarium, smut, jaundice, downy mildew (or peronosporosis), mosaic, rust and tracheomycosis. And of the harmful insects, garlic is most troublesome with such pests as: onion lurker, tobacco thrips, stem nematode, winter caterpillars, cabbage, garden and gamma scoops, sprout and onion flies, common bear, onion moth and long-stalk.

Garlic processing

There are a large number of different chemicals that can destroy almost all pests and cure a variety of diseases, however, before starting treatment, you should think about the fact that the harmful substances contained in these products can accumulate in the garlic bulb. In this regard, one should not allow a situation when you have to choose between saving the harvest or risking your own health.

To get a rich harvest of garlic, it is imperative to adhere to the rules of crop rotation and agricultural technology of this crop:

• garlic can be grown in the same area where it grew only after 4 or 5 years;
• the storage will need mandatory processing, which is carried out 8 weeks before the laying of the crop, for this, a solution of bleach is used (for 1 bucket of water, 400 grams of substance);
• before sowing, the cloves and bulbs must be processed.

Before planting, the teeth can be processed in a different way, for this they are heated for 10 hours at a temperature of 40 to 42 degrees.

Harvesting and storing garlic

Harvesting of spring garlic is carried out from the second half of August to the second decade of September. And they start harvesting winter garlic in the last days of July or in the first days of August. You can understand that the time has come to harvest the garlic by several signs:

• the formation of new feathers has stopped;
• old feathers died and turned yellow;
• the heads are fully formed, they have the color and size that are characteristic of the variety.

If you do not harvest the crop in time, the plants will start to grow again, while the heads will fall apart into slices, and they can no longer be stored for a long time. The heads must be pulled out or dug out of the ground using forks, while they must be folded at the edge of the furrow to dry. Then they must be shaken off the ground and folded in the open air, where they will have to dry at a temperature of about 25 degrees for a week and a half, or the garlic is dried for 7 days in a well-ventilated room at a temperature of 30 to 35 degrees, then the foliage must be cut off and roots, and the remaining neck in length should reach about 50 mm for non-shooting varieties, and for shooting varieties - about 20 mm.

Winter garlic is best stored at an air temperature of 2 to 4 degrees, while spring garlic is stored at 16–20 degrees. Winter garlic is stored much worse than spring garlic, it most often rots and dries quickly. At the same time, the storage should not be excessively humid or too dry. Best of all, such a vegetable is stored at an air humidity of 60 to 80 percent. The longest stored are those heads that have three opaque scales and the bottoms are burned with fire.

A very popular way of storing garlic, in which it is woven into wreaths or braids.The false stem should not be removed at the head, while the foliage must be cut off, then it is braided into a braid and begins to do it from below, while new heads are added gradually so that the braid is stronger, twine must be woven into it. In order to store it in a suspended state, a loop should be made at the end. The easiest way is to tie the heads in a bundle for false shoots. For storage, both bundles and braids are hung under the ceiling or under the roof of an attic or dry shed.

Also, the method of storing garlic in nets or nylon stockings is very popular with gardeners, while they need to be hung. You can save the garlic by folding it in a wicker basket, which is stored for storage in a living room, but not heated in winter, for example, on a veranda or attic. Still such a vegetable is stored for storage in glass jars, which must be sterilized in advance, while, if desired, it can be sprinkled with salt. If the garlic heads are sprinkled with salt, then they should be stored in small wooden boxes. Garlic heads can be rinsed in brine, after they dry, they must be stored in small linen bags that are hung from the ceiling. The stored garlic heads must be systematically sorted out, which will allow timely removal of rotten and dried specimens.

Types and varieties of garlic

Varieties intended for cultivation in open soil are divided into 3 groups:

• non-shooting winter crops;
• winter shooters;
• spring non-shooting.

Winter garlic ripens very early, it has a high yield and relatively large heads and cloves, however, the keeping quality of such varieties is poor, therefore it is recommended to use it for cooking various dishes or as a seasoning for vegetable marinades and canned vegetables.

The best winter varieties of garlic

1. Boguslavsky... The shape of the heads of such a frost-resistant variety is spherical, they weigh about 45 grams, and they contain no more than 6 cloves, the shells are painted in gray-lilac color.
2. Komsomolets... The middle ripening variety is frost-resistant. A dense, large head is covered with a pale pink husk, it contains 6-13 slices with a pungent taste.
3. Jubilee Gribovsky... The medium-ripening high-yielding shooter variety is resistant to diseases, large heads are covered with a matte purple husk, it contains 10-12 slices of a very pungent taste.
4. Gribovsky 60... An early ripening variety characterized by its hardiness to weather conditions. The pungent head consists of 7–11 lobules.
5. Petrovsky... This high-yielding arrowhead variety has excellent keeping quality and is disease resistant. The pulp of the cloves is dense and its taste is pungent.
6. Losevsky... The mid-ripening frost-resistant, high-yield arrowhead variety has flat-round bulbs with a narrowing upward. The heads weigh about 80 grams, and they consist of 4-5 slices of spicy taste. The variety is stored for about six months.
7. Jubilee 07... The middle ripening variety is distinguished by its yield. Flat-rounded heads weigh about 80 grams, they have 5-8 lobules of semi-sharp taste. Such garlic can be stored for no longer than six months.
8. Gulliver... This medium late variety is arrowhead. The flat-round heads are covered with opaque scales of a dark gray color, the flesh of the teeth is white and has a pungent taste. The head weighs 90-120 grams, it contains 3-5 cloves, such garlic can be stored for about 8 months.
9. Flight... The composition of not very large cold-resistant bulbs includes no more than 8 lobules.

In addition, popular varieties are: Parus, Prometheus, Sofievsky, Spas, Kharkovsky violet, Lyubasha, Donetsk violet, Promin, Leader, Saki, etc.

Spring garlic is stored much better than winter garlic, but it must be stored under certain conditions, otherwise the heads can rot. The growing season for such varieties is about 12 weeks.

Popular varieties of spring garlic

1. Gafurian... Early ripening variety, spicy and multi-fruited. The large head has about 10 lobules.
2. Ukrainian white... The flattened large head consists of about 20 lobules.
3. Degtyarsky... Medium ripening, non-shooting variety has a semi-sharp taste. The heads consist of 16-18 lobules.
4. Yelenovsky... This variety does not shoot and has excellent keeping quality and medium-sharp taste. The inner scales are pale pink, while the upper ones are white.
5. Ershovsky... Medium ripening, non-shooting variety has a semi-sharp taste. The mass of flat-rounded heads is about 35 grams, they are stored for about 7 months. One head contains 16–25 lobules.

Popular varieties of foreign selection

1. French varieties of pink garlic Lautrec.
2. The Czech Red Duke variety is cold hardy. The heads include 8 large purple teeth, but the outer scales are white.
3. Elephant garlic with a delicate taste. A head of garlic is 15 centimeters across and weighs about 1 kg, but sometimes they can weigh about 2.5 kg. One head can contain about 20 lobules, which weigh up to 50 grams.
4. Silver. This non-shooting variety is fruitful and rust resistant. The outer scales are snow-white with a silvery tinge, the head contains 18–20 cloves.

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