Growing Winter Garlic, Interesting Varieties, Useful Properties

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

For many years in a row my brother and I have been growing winter garlic, getting, in my opinion, a pretty good harvest: up to 3.5-4.5 kg per 1 m². We set aside beds for this culture only in the place where legumes, cabbage, pumpkin seeds grew before. Once they planted garlic in the beds after potatoes, so there was nothing to harvest in the fall. It turns out that onion's "younger brother" simply cannot stand such a neighborhood.

Growing winter garlic

Winter garlic must be planted in such a way that it has time to take root before the onset of frost. In early spring, seedlings appear as soon as the snow melts. And spring should be planted in spring, as early as possible, while there is a lot of moisture in the soil. There is no need to be afraid of frost - this plant is cold-resistant. For planting, it is advisable to select the largest cloves of garlic from the outside of the head. I try never to use the cloves in the center of the bulb for such purposes. We usually plant under a walk-behind tractor, to a depth of 10 cm, place the clove from the clove at a distance of 20-25 cm, make the aisles wide - up to 50 cm. Thus, garlic feels more at ease and does not interfere with each other, and it is convenient to take care of it. First, we add compost with "Baikal-1" to the garden bed, as well as superphosphate and oven ash.

In the spring, as soon as shoots appear and the soil dries up slightly, the garlic can be fed with any complex fertilizer, scattering it over the garden at the rate of 20 g per 1 m². After the fertilizer is scattered, you can water the garden bed. Usually for watering we put "turntables" and fill abundantly. Next is the usual care: regular loosening, weeding, watering. After the arrows are formed, we stop feeding and watering.

If we grow garlic not for the purpose of reproduction, then we immediately remove the arrows when they appear. Gardeners have a conviction: the harvest will be better if the arrows are broken. That's right, the yield rises to 30-35%. But I never throw out the arrows, I pick them up. In garden beds, garlic usually ripens faster than onions. Some housewives, to speed up ripening, slightly free the bulbs from greens. We do not break out all the arrows, we leave a few pieces to get a small amount of bulbs, which we plant in the fall for growing one-toothed - this is how the planting material is updated.

We remove the garlic at a time when the shells covering the bulbs begin to burst. It is very important not to be late here and not to rush to clean, otherwise the teeth are sluggish and poorly stored. We dig it out carefully so as not to damage either the cloves or the neck of the onion. We immediately take the garlic from the garden, since the heads cannot be left in the sun, they will get burns and rot. We dry the garlic under a canopy or in the attic for 30-35 days. During this time, the stem gives off plastic substances to the teeth. We shorten it with a pruner to two centimeters, a smaller stump cannot be made - the head shell may burst prematurely, then the storage mode will worsen. At the same time, we select the most productive and healthy heads for the autumn planting. Winter garlic is well stored until March in a box in a cool and dry place with a temperature of 4 … 6 ° C.

Winter garlic is only shipped well over long distances from August to October, when the weather is dry and warm. It is not suitable for shipment either in winter, or even more so in spring.

Interesting varieties of garlic

Over the years of growing winter garlic, I have opted for seven varieties - five arrows and two non-arrows, which I want to talk a little about.

The favorite in terms of early maturity is the Bessonovsky variety, its heads are yellow-violet, the teeth are elongated, weighing 8-15 g, the head, with good care, grows up to 100 g, each with up to 10 teeth. The taste of this garlic is fragrant with a pronounced pungency, ripens two weeks earlier than all other varieties.

In second place we have the Alekseevsky variety. It is the largest and most powerful, its teeth grow up to 25 g with a purple color, they are rounded-elongated, there are 4 to 6 of them in the head, they have good keeping quality and a delicate garlic-sweet aroma. This variety is not very spicy. The beds of this garlic are pleasing to the eye when the arrows appear.

The third grade Titan is an excellent variety for household needs with a good yield. The heads are rather large, weighing from 50 to 150 g, six-toothed with brown scales, the teeth are round-elongated-flat, dense, with a pleasant aroma and pungency. Bushes are low but powerful. …

The Moskal variety is slightly smaller, with four large teeth, but has powerful bushes. In good weather conditions, it also gives a good harvest.

And the fifth grade is Tyanshansky - with a rather large head up to 150 g and a large number of elongated teeth, with a purple color. It is the longest-lasting variety of winter garlic.

Varieties Tonus and Shirokolistny are good to weave into braids, their leaves and stem are elastic, do not form arrows, the heads are rather large - up to 120 g with white scales. Their teeth are not so large - up to 10-12 g of a mildly spicy taste, up to 15 pieces per head, heads are stored until April.

For safety net, we also lay small beds of spring garlic of two varieties - Orlovsky - the largest-toothed and Yelenovsky large-headed, which lie perfectly until the next harvest. For the experiment, their teeth were planted before winter. The heads were larger, but the keeping quality was not the same; it is better to plant them for storage in early spring.

Useful properties of garlic

The culture of garlic is one of the oldest, its age exceeds 2000 years. It has long been valued as a strengthening and stimulating agent, as a healing culture. The wild form of cultivated garlic is the long-pointed onion, or wild garlic, which is still found on meadow slopes and in the gorges of the mountain slopes of Central Asia. There he was introduced to the culture, as well as in South-West Asia. Was widely divorced in ancient Egypt. By order of the emperor Nero, Roman legionnaires regularly received garlic to "keep fighting spirit."

In ancient times, garlic was widely used: it was treated with snake and scorpion bites, mixed with honey was applied to the site of a dog bite, its antihelminthic, anti-inflammatory and disinfecting properties were highly valued. Used garlic as a medicine for coughs, shortness of breath. For jaundice, they used garlic mixed with wine and coriander. This vegetable was used to disinfect poor quality water and treat gastrointestinal diseases.

Garlic oil is very medicinal, which relieves cerebral vasospasms, heart cramps, shortness of breath, is prescribed for sclerosis, and is also an excellent vasodilator. It is prepared like this: peel a head of medium-sized garlic, crush it into gruel. Place in a glass jar and pour in a glass of unrefined sunflower oil. Place in the refrigerator on the lower shelf. The next day, take a lemon, mash it, cut off the top (in the place where it attaches to the branch), squeeze out 1 teaspoon of juice and drain it into a tablespoon, add 1 teaspoon of garlic oil there, stir. Take three times a day 30 minutes before meals. The course is from 1 to 3 months. Then one month break, and repeat the course.

Here is such our vegetable and doctor - garlic.