Growing Large Garlic Cloves (About Garlic Without Secrets. Part 3)

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

What problems arise when growing this beloved culture in Russia

And here are some more judgments:

16. “If you leave some of the garlic un-dug before winter, then next year many large one-toothed bulbs will grow from the bulbs. They can be planted as planting material.”I experimented in this way for four years in a row. The effect is always the same - one-toothed crop in the harvest is no more than 10%. The rest are medium and small, more often deformed heads.

Why do I need large one-toothed teeth? So after all, the largest heads grow from them. It is they who, in turn, being planted, already give several large heads. It is clear that I could not get one-toothed teeth in this way. But he was in no hurry to abandon the method. In this way, you can get a larger number of medium-sized heads from the same area. It's also good. But the deformed heads look somehow not aesthetically pleasing. I decided to experiment. I planted garlic on parts of the garden with whole heads according to a 20x20 cm scheme.

On the second part I planted with nests of three cloves according to the same scheme. I placed the teeth in the "nest" at a distance of 2 centimeters. I planted the third part with the same number of cloves as in the second version, but not with nests, but three times thicker.

The result is as follows: the largest of all the heads in the third version. In the second version, the heads are 10% less than in the third. But in the first version, the heads turned out to be two times smaller than in the third. Conclusion: it is better to plant not with whole heads and nests, but simply more often. And the heads are flat.

17. The experiment was carried out on the previous judgment. But the heads accidentally left on the garden bed gave a bunch of good heads the next year. Much larger than in the first version of the experiment (see paragraph 16). Why? The care was the same, the planting material was the same. The planting method is the same (heads).

The weather conditions are identical. There is only one difference: in the experiment, the garlic was harvested, dried, then planted again. And forgotten heads were not dug up. Maybe this is the case? But really, why do we interrupt the natural ripening processes of seed bulbs (in the soil)? What is the reason for this? In order to select larger heads for planting, they do not need to be dug out, you can simply rake the mulch and evaluate them. I look through my old records, and I see that the dependence persists: that garlic that was not dug up: bulbs, one-toothed heads, heads, sprout earlier, vegetate longer and give a greater harvest. And so under any growing conditions. The root system of garlic leaves left in the ground (if it is not winter) dies off by the time of the natural end of the growing season. It cannot be the cause of the above described plant behavior.

There remains one factor - the continuity of natural processes - as in nature. I propose to experiment: wait until the roots naturally die off, and the covering scales collapse. And then immediately transplant the teeth (one-toothed) to a new bed. No drying. Perhaps this will allow you to get an increased yield. Or maybe not.

18. "Practice has established: the cooler the weather at the beginning of the growing season in spring, the more favorable it is for the future harvest." 2010 proved this very well. All plants are depressed, lagging behind in development for 2-3 weeks, and the garlic is "happy". “I don’t remove mulch from shavings in spring. Long-term experience has confirmed that the soil warms up more slowly under the mulch, and garlic shoots in early spring are protected from sudden daily temperature fluctuations, sometimes reaching 20 ° C or more."

“In the fall, I planted garlic according to the“traditional scheme,”but in the row the garlic was also at a solid distance of 8-10 cm. There were four rows. Covered with mulch from needles before winter. In the spring, the outer ranks rose together, and in the central two they "lingered," but then everything turned the other way around: the outer ranks stood oppressed, and the central ranks grew above the knee. The harvest is ripe, respectively: in the center, the garlic is large, and on the sides - small and painful. It seems to me that the reason lies in the mulch. In early spring, at first, the edges of the beds warmed up well, and the center under the mulch remained chilled longer, the garlic on the edges earlier rose and fell under the frost, and in the center the garlic “sat out” until warm days. " Garlic is not afraid of frost, perhaps it is the long-standing cold soil under the mulch that gives an increase in yield. And spring moisture, the most valuable, remains there longer. Hence,we will not remove mulch in the spring. Not out of laziness, but for the sake of creating a favorable environment for garlic.

19. “Garlic should be kept as a three-year culture: bulb, one-tooth, clove. With annual planting with chives, the arrowed garlic degenerates and, in the end, from a normal head of 100 grams or more, only its model at a scale of 1:10 remains. And you need to start all over again - by sowing the bulbs. My many years of experience show: careful selection with constant planting with chives does the trick - the garlic becomes the largest. But I have never observed a miraculous increase in yield after recovery through planting bulb-one-tooth-cloves.

“Periodic propagation with air bulbs increases the productivity of plants in comparison with the annual planting of chives, since the planting material - chives grown from bulbs, even those affected by nematodes, root mites, various diseases (gray rot, rust, fusarium) of plants - is healthy. Garlic practically does not get sick even in 4-5 reproductions (i.e. 4-5 years). And it gives a yield of 30-40% more than when using cloves from an ordinary bulb. " Considering this quote, then the "degeneration" of garlic is a banal accumulation of diseases. With my growing technology, I have never observed any serious damage to garlic by pests and diseases. Or maybe our climate contributes to the health of garlic? And maybe it is not necessary to "heal" garlic with the help of bulbs? Honestly, I don't know the answer here.

20. Every self-respecting gardener dealing with garlic grows it through bulbs, one-tooth. In addition to recovery, an "economic" argument is given:

“What does this technology give? First, a solid saving of planting material. To obtain 200 heads instead of 40-50 bulbs consisting of 4-5 cloves, you will need arrows of only 2-4 plants. That is, 2-4 teeth instead of 200.

“The use of bulbs is economically profitable: the multiplication factor is increased by 10-15 times. For example, when multiplying with cloves, the ratio of the yield to the planted mass is 1: 4-5, and when multiplying by bulbs, it is already 1: 50-85. In addition, the entire harvest of bulbs is used for commercial purposes."

But there are still other quotes: “If you decide to grow garlic with a seed transplant, then by 1 m? it will take up to 500 pieces of air bulbs. The sevka that will grow on this area is enough to sow 2-3 m? beds intended for commercial garlic ". From a meter of the ridge, planting material for 2-3 meters - this is the same multiplication factor 1x2, which is less than from the heads, where it is 1x4-5! Maybe there is a mistake in the quote? This is what science says: "The germination rate of air bulbs at the time of sowing is low: for large ones, 33-44%, for small ones, 22-35%."

And in my practice everything looks like this: on average, there are 80 bulbs in one inflorescence. From the total number of bulbs, the largest are selected - this is no more than 50% of the total mass. 40 pieces remain. Hydrosorting will eliminate another 15%. 35 pieces left. Of this amount, 60% will rise. This leaves 21 bulbs. The crop contains 10% of very small heads. There remains 19. Of this amount, 50% will have to be rejected - small and medium. There will remain 10. But out of this number of large heads of one-toothed heads, which are valuable for selection selection, 2-3 will grow next year. So, we spent two years to get 2-3 large heads from one inflorescence. We get the same 2-3 large heads in one season from a large head. This is such a "bulb economy". So which is more profitable economically?

I would be glad if someone teaches you how to get more large one-toothed teeth. Write to [email protected].