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Garlic is a healthy vegetable that never stays on store shelves. But many Russians who have their own plots prefer to grow garlic with their own hands. After all, finished products do not contain harmful substances, since gardeners most often do not use chemicals and agents.
Beginners are also engaged in growing a healthy vegetable. It is they who are most often interested in when to remove spring garlic from the garden for winter storage. This is perhaps the most important and difficult question, since it depends on it whether the time and energy spent on growing a healthy vegetable will be beneficial. We will try to tell about this in an accessible way.
Landing time is important
The answer to the question of when to harvest spring varieties planted in spring will depend on many parameters:
- The climatic conditions of the region, and, accordingly, the time of planting the cloves in the ground. As a rule, garlic is planted while the ground is not too warm, before the massive summer of the onion fly. The denticles have time to take root, then the harm from the larvae is minimal.
- In central Russia, in Siberia, cloves are planted in late April, early May. The onset of spring must also be taken into account. Morning frosts can be harmful.
- Summer weather is also an important factor. Beginners should remember that in dry hot weather, ripening occurs faster, which means that harvesting will begin earlier. And in a cool, rainy summer - it stretches, so the harvesting dates for spring varieties are postponed.
Why are we talking about the timing of planting a vegetable in the spring? The fact is that you can calculate a mathematically approximate time for harvesting spring garlic. As a rule, this plant needs 100-102 days to fully mature, a little more than three months.
It turns out that the cloves of spring garlic varieties planted at the end of April need to be harvested in the first decade of August. If the planting was carried out a week later, then we remove the vegetable after August 15. Sometimes the harvesting period is extended until the beginning of September.
Is the garlic ripe
You can understand when the garlic of spring varieties is ready visually, by special signs indicating its maturity and readiness for harvesting.
We recommend that beginners carefully read the advice of experienced gardeners:
- the vegetative process slows down, the plant stops producing new feathers;
- the lower, upper leaves and stem of the vegetable lose their greens, turn yellow;
- the neck becomes thinner, soft to the touch, the stem turns from a vertical position to a horizontal one.
- most of the plants turn yellow and lie down.
Yellowing of leaves and stems can occur for various reasons, so it should not be considered the only and main indicator. There are other points to look out for during visual inspection.
One of the most important indicators by which you can determine when to dig up spring garlic is the formation of the head. To do this, you can pull out 1-2 plants. If these conditions are met, then we can assume that the garlic is ripe, and it's time to harvest it:
- The bulb is dense, with a clear division into cloves.
- The bottom is dry with dark roots.
- The shirt is intact, it has three protective layers. The top layer is rustling, easily removed without damaging the integrity of the head.
- The teeth can be detached without much effort.
- The scales have acquired the color characteristic of the variety.
If the garlic has not reached the marketable condition, then it has a loose and soft head.Overripe bulbs are divided into cloves; new white roots are available.
Is it possible to accelerate ripening
As a rule, the ripening of spring garlic is uneven, not only because of the variety. Even a lack or excess of moisture during watering can affect the timing of ripening. When you are harvesting spring garlic, do not pull out the entire bed, but do it selectively.
First, the question about timing of harvesting garlic spring planting is also important because in 2-3 weeks it is necessary to suspend the growing process and direct all the forces of the plant to ripening. Stop watering.
Secondly, you need to know when to dig spring garlic also because in August, as a rule, prolonged rains begin. They can reduce the keeping quality of the vegetable. If you know from the weather report when the bad weather will start, then you can slightly speed up the ripening process of the garlic in order to remove it earlier:
- choose the ground to bare the heads;
- tie the garlic stalks into a knot.
When to harvest garlic:
How to dig it right
Garlic is harvested in dry sunny weather to leave the selected crop in the garden for several hours to dry. It is not recommended to simply pull out the plants: the root is very long, it is firmly held in the ground. Most often, the stem breaks off along the neck, and the head itself remains in the ground. It is recommended to dig out garlic from the garden with a pitchfork, so it is less injured.
Experienced gardeners advise not to cut the stem right away. The fact is that during the drying process, the outflow of nutrients into the bulb continues. You can remove the stem before sorting the garlic and storing it.
When digging garlic, immediately discard plants with obvious damage so that the disease does not spread to healthy heads. Slightly dried in the sun, the crop is transferred to a well-ventilated room. There it will be ripened for 2-3 weeks. Only after that pruning in progress roots and stems, sorting and storage.
Let's summarize
So, we told you when to start harvesting spring garlic, taking into account the visual inspection of the plants, the time of planting the cloves and the approximate growing season. Of course, no one would argue that it is impossible to name the exact number of harvesting from the garlic beds. It all depends, first of all, on the climatic characteristics of the region, weather conditions, varieties.
Of course, for the first time, beginners will have to take into account all the options for checking the readiness of garlic for harvesting, but over time, the "identification" procedure will become easier. We wish you a rich harvest and its preservation until spring.
