Midsummer is the most crucial time for gardeners who want to get good winter garlic with a large head. There is very little time left and it will be possible to harvest. In early fall, it's time to dig up the garlic, dry it, and store it. If now he is lagging behind in growth, then you can still fix the situation. The quality of garlic depends not only on the planting material, but also on the care. In the middle of the season, the most favorable moment for the restructuring of the vegetable organism from increasing the feather to increasing the mass of the root crop.
Growing garlic is not easy. Some novice summer residents believe that you can simply shove garlic into the ground and forget about it until autumn. It's actually a little more complicated. When growing garlic, it is important not to neglect the basic rules and then the harvest will delight. Let's list the main ones:
- Garlic needs attention. Gardeners often neglect such a simple agricultural technique as loosening. It is needed not only for other crops, but also for this vegetable. Do not forget the soil between the rows. This should be done regularly, while removing the weeds.
- Separately, it should be said about watering. Watering infrequently is just as bad as pouring garlic regularly. A small amount of water threatens crops with small heads. And the overflow, although it allows the garlic to pour, will not allow it to be stored for a long time. The slices will start to rot. Sometimes such an attack can be right at the root. Therefore, it is worthwhile to properly treat watering. It is recommended to reduce the number of irrigations and their intensity about a month before the mass harvest. The heads have already filled up enough by that time, and minimizing the moisture supplied to the roots will help preserve the grown until the next harvest. In addition, some gardeners completely stop watering 10 days before digging up the roots. During the growing period, garlic is watered every five days, or less often if it rains.
- Agree that when someone talks about a large and large harvest of anything, the first question that comes to mind is feeding. This is something without which it is impossible to grow successfully a large number of vegetables that would please you with their size. In order to use fertilizers correctly and not harm the plants and ourselves (after all, we will eat them), you need to know exactly what, when, what and in what quantity you need to feed.
In the middle of summer, the green part of the garlic has already grown. Nitrogen is absolutely not needed. Instead, it would be nice to feed the growing heads with phosphorus-potassium preparations. They will come in handy and the garlic in gratitude will begin to grow underground. If there is no desire to apply artificially created chemistry, then there is an alternative way. You can make an ash tincture. It proved to be excellent in front of our great-great-grandmothers, who always used it if it was necessary to fertilize garlic in the middle of summer. This mixture is great for enlarging the head size. The recipe is as follows: ash is mixed in a bucket with water in an arbitrary proportion (usually 1-2 handfuls of the active substance are taken). Then the beds are spilled with the resulting mixture.
If you want more specifics, pay attention to the ready-made preparations that can be bought at gardening stores. You need to take 10 liters of water and superphosphate in the amount of 25 g. Add 15 g of potassium sulfate, stir and pour over the garlic. Fertilizer is applied once.
- You need to remove the arrows. Otherwise, the growth energy is directed not to the head of the garlic, but to the cap with seeds. Break them off when they reach a size of 10 cm. It is not worth delaying the process, late removal will not be beneficial.
It is necessary to monitor the health of the plant:
- prevent diseases;
- watch out for insect attacks;
- protect from animals.
If the need arises, take immediate action and eliminate the cause of concern.
