No one can say for sure when the first time a person appreciated all the useful properties of garlic. But since that time, garlic has served a person by faith and truth, supporting its strength during epidemics and making its food more delicious. That is why in almost every household several beds are reserved for this useful vegetable in all respects. To plant garlic for winter safely to survive the winter and give a good harvest in the future, it is necessary to select and properly harvest the planting material. On the rules of preparation of garlic before planting for the winter and will be discussed in our article.
How to treat garlic before planting for the winter?
To garlic cloves could survive the cold without losses and in the spring have the strength for further growth and development, it is not enough just to throw them into the ground. No, some percentage of planting material will survive in such conditions, but most of it, unfortunately, will be irretrievably lost. To prevent this from happening, and in the spring there was no need to transplant the garlic urgently, do not neglect the preplant treatment of the teeth. Its main rules are as follows:
- For planting under the winter, only healthy and strong chives are suitable, without any external damage. It should be remembered that it is necessary to plant only teeth of medium and large size. The number of denticles in the head in this case is also the determining factor of the suitability of the seed - the heads, which contain 3-4, even very large teeth, are not suitable for planting. A small number of teeth is formed only in degenerate heads, which obviously can not give a good harvest. Unsuitable for planting and the head, in which the teeth differ sharply in size, have fused tops or signs of spoilage. Similarly, it is worth paying attention to the bottom of the head - it should be strong and not have any visible damage. Do not be greedy and put a little spoiled teeth - they not only can not form strong heads, but also infect garlic growing in the neighborhood.
- Long-term cultivation of garlic from the teeth leads to the accumulation of pathogens of various diseases and larvae of pests. Therefore, even if the heads are outwardly healthy, once in three or four years the planting stock needs to be updated. For this, every year one third of the seed material must be replaced with monocoenes grown from air bulbs (bulbs).
- Soaking garlic before planting for winter is mandatory if at least one of the teeth shows even minimal signs of spoilage or disease. In this case, before planting for the winter, the garlic cloves are processed in a solution of phytosporin or another antifungal preparation. You can also soak garlic for 12 hours in a weak solution of potassium permanganate or for half an hour lower it
it into a solution of copper sulfate (1%). It also helps to protect garlic from diseases and calcining it at a temperature of 40-42 degrees for 8-12 hours. If none of the above drugs are at hand, you can use to treat garlic before planting in the winter for ordinary table salt, or rather its strong solution. A short (2-3 minutes) immersion of garlic cloves into it will significantly increase their resistance to fungal diseases and protect them from pest attacks. And even if all the teeth from the planting lot look healthy, such treatment will not hurt them at all, as it is an excellent prevention of various diseases.