When to plant winter garlic: tips from experienced gardeners

Garlic is one of those vegetables that can be planted for the winter. The plant overwinters well in the ground, and in the spring it sprouts on its own and even matures earlier, and you have less work to do for this hot season.

However, sow winter garlic correctly, so that it survived the cold well. How to do it without mistakes, tells the publication "Floristix info".

When to plant winter garlic

The plant needs a lot of time to take root well - about 35-45 days until the moment when the frost begins. Garlic should form a root system with a length of 10-12 cm. But at the same time it should not have time to germinate. Therefore, do not delay with sowing. The optimal time for planting winter garlic is the period until mid-October. Then it may already be late.

How to prepare the site for planting winter garlic

In order for the vegetable to take root well, it is necessary to thoroughly clean the bed from the remains of plants that grew here in the summer and weeds. By the way, it is important that on the place of what culture you will plant garlic. Good predecessors for him will be annual vegetables with a short growing season: cucumbers, peppers, eggplants, pumpkins, zucchini. It will also take root well in place of cereal crops or berry bushes.

But in place of root crops should not make a bed for winter garlic. Also do not sow the same plant there, in the last season grew garlic or onions.

Be sure to pay attention that the site was well illuminated by the sun. Soil for the plant is better suited to non-acidic loamy sandy loam, but fertilized with over-fermented manure. If you want to fertilize the soil after the previous crop, then apply fertilizer no later than one and a half to two weeks before planting garlic. For example, you can treat the bed according to the following scheme: dig the soil with a shovel, adding 5-6 kg of humus for each square meter, as well as 30 g of superphosphate and 20 g of potassium salt. Finally, pour the land with a solution of copper sulfate in the ratio of 1 teaspoon per 10 liters of water. To make the fertilizers work better, cover the bed with a film.

How to plant winter garlic

Unlike spring garlic, which reproduces only by cloves, winter garlic reproduces by both cloves and tubers. However, from a tuber you will get a harvest in two years, but from a clove the vegetable will develop in the next season.

Before sowing the vegetable, go through the seed, selecting only quality, and then disinfect it for 2 hours in a decoction of ash. To prepare it, pour 400 grams of ash with 2 liters of ash, boil, keep on low heat for 30 minutes, cool and use.

If there is no time to prepare ash lye, you can dilute 3 tablespoons of salt in 5 liters of water and immerse garlic in the solution for 2 minutes. And after that, soak it for a minute in copper sulfate - 1 teaspoon per 10 liters of water

The prepared seed is laid in furrows 15-20 cm deep, having previously poured at the bottom 1,5-3 cm of coarse sand. The distance between crops should be 12-15 cm (or 8-10 for smaller teeth), and between furrows - 20-25 cm.

How to care for winter garlic

Since garlic is a stable crop, it does not need special care after planting. But you should water the plot well and cover it with mulch to warm the crops and retain moisture.

In winter, you will need to take care that the plant does not freeze. If the weather is snowy, the snow will cope with this task by itself. Otherwise, the area with crops will be better to cover. For this purpose will be suitable polyethylene film or roofing felt.

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