Planting winter garlic. Mulching with hay and leaves

Mulching is a farming technique that involves covering with a layer of organic and inorganic materials cultivated crops. This is done in order to increase the yield and volume of fruit. It protects seeds and plants planted in the ground from frost, weeds and summer heat. Among gardeners and summer residents, this type of mulching as covering garlic is becoming better known. various materials. From the article you will learn why you need to mulch garlic: advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages and disadvantages of mulching garlic

Advantages

• Weeds grow more slowly

U weeds It’s just not possible to grow through a fairly dense layer of mulching material. You need to weed the beds less often, but the garlic continues to grow as before.

• Moisture stays on the surface longer

Garlic is a plant that loves fairly moist soil and needs to be watered about 4-5 times a week. If you cover it, a layer of mulch will create an additional obstacle to the evaporation of moisture. This is very good for summer residents who do not live permanently in their country house.

• Mulch will protect against frost

By mulching garlic, you can be sure that this will protect it from early spring frosts, since the mulch will act as insulation. The harvest can be harvested earlier.

• No need to loosen the soil often

• The soil becomes more fertile

The earth becomes wet, mulch protects it from the scorching rays of the sun, and microorganisms actively multiply. The soil becomes more fertile and saturated with valuable nutritional compounds.

Flaws

• Don't mulch when it rains

• Choose carefully

Mulch must be selected carefully, as different types may or may not be suitable for certain crops.

Organic Garlic Mulching

Compost

By improving the soil structure, compost gives it substances for growth and development. The fertilizer contains living microorganisms and they fight harmful bacteria, thereby protecting the plant from various diseases. This fertilizer can protect garlic from any microorganism better than chemical additives. Good for tomatoes and roses. It prevents weeds like leaf straw mulch from growing. If weeds grow through such compost, they reach enormous sizes. To prevent the weed from germinating, it is recommended to lay a layer of about 3-5 cm of mowed grass on top or lay out newspaper to limit the access of light.

Leaves

Recently, gardeners have learned to use tree leaves as mulch for plants with bulbs that remain in the ground for the winter, less often for garlic. This mulch is available to everyone.

Straw

Mulching with straw for any crop is quite common. The main disadvantage of straw is the presence of a large number of weed seeds in it. Straw takes a long time to decompose and thanks to this it is excellent material good for garlic, due to the fact that it is planted early in the spring. The straw should be poured to a depth of about 11-12 centimeters and, when caked, it will settle to 5-6 centimeters. As the mulch settles, more mulch must be added.

Green manure

For garlic, the best green manures are mustard and phacelia. In the spring, before planting garlic, a green manure plant is sown. After the soil has warmed up, you can plant the garlic itself. Mustard will protect the plant by darkening the seedlings at an early stage and creating conditions for growth. As the garlic grows, the green manure plant is removed and mulching can be done. Straw is most often used. It will prevent weeds from germinating and retain water in the soil.

The main thing is that the green manure plant should not be used immediately after it has been removed from the ground. Dry for 24 hours and the straw will not rot and odors will not appear due to fungi.

Cut grass

Freshly cut grass contains many essential nutrients, most of all nitrogen. It is not recommended to mulch with grass that has been treated with herbicides or inseminated with weeds. Using this mulch you can improve the soil organic substances, predominantly consisting of sand. Most best option the use of such mulch is for heat-loving plants- peppers, tomatoes, eggplants. Thanks to the above qualities, mown grass helps to increase the amount of harvest.

Needles

It must be used with caution, as it can cause a change in the acid-base balance of the soil. It should be used primarily for crops that prefer acidic soil. The following recommendations can be given: use the needles of pine or larch trees due to the fact that they rot more slowly than others. Only rotted pine needles are used. When choosing such a mulching material, you need to know that it provides additional warmth during spring frosts and inhibits the growth of weeds.

Peat

Peat mulch is used very often for tomatoes or raspberries. The soil underneath becomes loose and allows plants to develop well with large roots. Dry crushed peat is used for garlic.

Sawdust

Sawdust, like pine needles, is used for plants that prefer an acidic pH. Plus, you don't need to buy it. They contain organisms that use nitrogen for their growth and development. Therefore, there is an opinion that if you mulch with sawdust, the plant will not have enough nitrogen. In fact, if the sawdust is sprinkled with a little soil, these microorganisms will not be able to use nitrogen. Mulch will help to build up black soil, since when it decomposes, micro- and macroelements appear.

Sawdust is also one of the best options mulch specifically for garlic. The mulch layer should be approximately 5-7 cm deep.

Don't use too much fresh sawdust since they give large number resins, wait a little and it will air out.

In general, we can say that for mulching garlic you can use dry humus, dry crushed peat, semi-decomposed straw manure, chopped partially decomposed straw, partially composted leaves (excluding oak leaves), sawdust (it is recommended to mix with pine needles). Good stuff also cut and dried grass. Any mulch does not affect the growth of garlic.

You cannot use fresh manure, fresh peat and straw, fresh residues after harvesting vegetables, fallen leaves, stems with leaves, or fresh straw for mulch.

Inorganic mulching of garlic

Increasingly, specialists and amateurs began to use a special mulching film. It comes in white, black and transparent. All types have their purpose.

Black film is most often used for beds with strawberries and wild strawberries, cutting holes for the bushes themselves. The soil becomes warmer faster, weeds practically do not grow due to the lack of light, and the soil is always moist. Berries in more short terms become mature. When a summer drought occurs, the film should be removed due to the fact that the soil dries too quickly. Most often used by enterprises and farms. Gardeners and summer residents are limited organic species mulch.

Transparent film is often used for garlic due to the fact that weeds do not grow and the soil becomes warmer faster. Warming up the earth is especially important for garlic, as it is planted early spring.

White films are used for mulching heat-loving crops because they protect the soil from overheating, reflect bright light and prevent moisture from evaporating too quickly. Air passes through it with ease, but weeds still do not grow.

Covering material for garlic

• Spunbond is a polymer covering material. Serves for about four years.
• Agrospan for garlic is a material made from a molten polymer substance and a stabilizer based on UV rays.
• Lutrasil is lightweight and durable. Invented by German specialists. You can see white and black on sale.

These materials are very similar in appearance. It is difficult for young gardeners to choose any specific option.

How to mulch, how to water, mistakes when using mulch

Most best period for mulching garlic - this is the end of May - beginning of June, then the soil is warm and fungi will not germinate, especially when rainy weather sets in for a long time. It does not allow heat to pass through, which is bad for heat-loving plants. Mulching will prevent the soil from overheating and drying out and will help maintain a favorable level. temperature regime at the root system of the plant.

In order for air to circulate, you need to leave space between the mulch and the plant. It is important to observe this condition when mulching the tree trunk space.

Apply a layer of mulch after the rain has stopped. Loosen the bed before starting the process. It is usually recommended to mulch in a layer of 4 to 8 centimeters.

Organic mulch can be left over the winter. It creates a favorable microflora and reproduces well in it earthworms. They create humus in the soil.

Mulching as an option for a lawn mower

Lawn mowers that have a mulching function collect the grass, chop it up internally and throw it onto the lawn. This technology using a lawn mower makes it possible not to buy expensive fertilizers, but to use available materials, using mulch as humus, which in itself is good compost.

There are two main types of units: electric and gasoline-powered. Gasoline ones are divided into wired and wireless, and gasoline ones into two-pin and four-pin.

Model Zubr ZKKE – 43 – 1600

Lawnmower with a body made of plastic materials and works in 2 modes. The modes are as follows: it crushes the grass and throws it out, and also collects it in a special tank. The car is quite expensive and not everyone can afford it. Costs approximately 14 thousand rubles.

Model Enkor – GKBS 5.0/515603

What fertilizers can be used when mulching

Sawdust can be used not only as mulch, but also as fertilizer. To do this, they need to be subjected to certain processing. They enrich the soil with organic matter. Sawdust should be added earlier in the spring, and not too late, as some publications recommend. During the winter they will freeze and be wet, but will not rot or turn into humus.

But remember, you cannot use clean sawdust as fertilizer at all. This is a very common mistake made by gardeners.

Mulching in spring, summer, autumn, winter (features for different seasons)

The most common mulching option for garlic is in early spring, immediately after the soil has thawed well enough. If you mulch the plant earlier, the covering material will retain the cold at the roots.

If you mulch garlic in the fall, it will overwinter very well, especially in middle lane Russia. In conditions Far East And Eastern Siberia There is no need to mulch garlic for the winter. Pine sawdust is very suitable as autumn mulch; it will also protect against diseases and pests.

Types of garlic: spring - planted in spring, winter - in autumn. Spring garlic does not shoot, it has a soft neck, and there are many flat cloves in the head. It is less productive than the winter one, but it is more durable. U winter garlic- large teeth arranged radially, like tangerine slices. It shoots and the arrows must be broken out to get more large heads.

Basic rules for growing large garlic

First rule: Plant only varietal garlic. Do not buy small ones at the market, since garlic has an unpleasant tendency to reduce the size of the cloves (degenerates).

Second rule: If you want to have large heads, plant large cloves and single cloves.

Third rule: Observe planting deadlines. When to plant winter crops? It all depends on the weather - on average in the middle or end of September, in order to have time to form powerful roots. And if the tooth meets the winter “beardless”, without roots, then no shelter will save it. Spring garlic should be planted in late April - early May, depending on the weather. Of course, if there is snow, then you should not plant it in very cold soil.

Fourth rule: Water the beds with biological products “Shine”. In the spring, winter garlic sprouts and may turn yellow; it lacks moisture when it is cold nutrients are not absorbed, you can water it with “Shine 1″, it will speed up the decomposition of nutrients and be sure to mulch it. When watered with “Radiance 1,” rooting is better, the garlic heads are larger, and the number of cloves is greater.

Rule 5: Remove on time, otherwise the garlic heads fall apart and are poorly stored; break off the arrows of winter crops and leave only 3-4 pieces in the garden to determine readiness.

Preparing for planting spring garlic

In March or early April, take the garlic heads apart, sprinkle them with water, wrap them in a damp cloth, then wrap them in cellophane and put them in the refrigerator door to keep them from freezing. Make sure that the cloth does not dry out, but is damp. There is no need for water to flow from it. By planting in May, it will have formed a whole beard of roots. Do not cut the roots, plant them carefully, without damaging them or bending them. Water well when planting. At what depth should I plant spring garlic? The depth is at least 10 cm, depending on what type of soil, if very hard, then less, softer deeper. Garlic needs fertile, cool, moist soil. When you plant it shallow, it gets hot, lacks moisture and the garlic grows small.
Winter garlic can be planted to a depth of more than 10 cm and mulched in the fall with a layer of grass and weeds more than 10 cm deep. In the spring, remove the mulch for rapid germination of garlic.

Soil preparation

The soil is prepared loose, with humus, deep furrows are made and sprinkled with wood ash, which provides potassium and other elements, sprinkle well with “Shine 2”, the bacteria in its composition will process nutritional elements in a form convenient for plants.
Planting garlic The distance between rows is 20-25 cm, between cloves the best is 10-15 cm.
Then the teeth are pressed into the grooves in a zigzag pattern, at a distance of at least 8 cm from each other. The furrows are sprinkled with compost or soil if it is light.

Mulching

Winter garlic is immediately mulched against frost, and spring garlic can be allowed to sprout, then carefully loosened not deeply once and mulched.
As a mulch for winter garlic, you can use not only ordinary materials(hay, straw, tree leaves, etc.), but also stems of sunflowers, corn, even tree branches. Coarse mulch will promote snow retention and will play a dual role - it will retain more moisture and better cover the bed in winter. In spring, coarse mulch must be removed from the garden bed before the garlic sprouts, so as not to damage the young, brittle peaks. For any garlic, do not remove the fine mulch, but watch the shoots. And only if it seems that the arrows are difficult to penetrate the mulch, remove it and return it after germination. In any case, the garlic should be covered with mulch and the bed should not be disturbed until harvesting. Garlic roots may lie close to the surface of the soil, so it is easy to damage them with a hoe.

Summer care

Do not overfill the garlic. Watering once every 7-10 days with “Shine” preparations.
You can pour Biococktail: 20 Ecoberin granules per bucket, 20 Healthy Garden granules, 1-2 tablespoons of Radiance 1 solution. Be sure to add mulch to prevent the soil from drying out.
Infusions of herbs from barrels according to the recipe “Radiance 3″ (for 30 liters of infusion, fill the container 2/3 without compacting with chopped weeds, add 1.5 cups of old jam or sugar, 1 liter of bird droppings or mullein, 1/3 cup of chalk, 1 .5 glasses wood ash and “Shine 3” packaging. Fill up to 30 liters warm water and mix thoroughly. Cover with film and leave for 7-10 days, stirring occasionally. Use the resulting infusion within 3-4 weeks. Use the remainder of the infusion in the barrel as a starter for compost.

Harvesting garlic

You should not be late in harvesting garlic. If you miss optimal time, then the heads may “fall apart”, their outer shells will burst and the keeping quality of the garlic will sharply deteriorate.
Garlic ripeness test - cut a head of garlic horizontally. If the cloves begin to separate from each other, and the distance between them has reached about 1.5 mm, the garlic is ready. For winter crops, leave several plants with unbroken shoots to collect bulblets. The arrows will first curl into a ring, then straighten out, balls with bulbs will form at their tips, and as soon as the wrappers of these balls begin to burst, it’s time for cleaning. In any case, it is better to remove the garlic a day earlier than two later.
Be sure to break off the arrows of winter garlic. In this case, the garlic forms a denser shell and improves keeping quality; it grows larger.

Storage

After digging up the garlic, dry it (but not in the sun) and, without cutting the stems (including those with bulbs), hang them in the shade for several weeks so that the heads dry well and the nutrients from the stems partially flow into the bulbs . Then the stems can be trimmed, the bulbs removed and the garlic can be stored in a dry and cool place. The worst place to store it is the refrigerator. Even with room temperature Garlic is stored better in a stocking than in the refrigerator.

Please note this:

	All about garden plants

I'm not going to bend my back!

That’s why I’ll describe my method in detail. growing and planting winter garlic, which can be called so - for the lazy. And all because I don’t loosen the plantings, weed them or even water them, and I always get excellent harvests. And I don’t dig up the soil before planting garlic—I mean, I don’t touch it at all.

As a last resort, if weeds have appeared in the bed chosen for planting, I loosen it a little with a flat cutter. And then I simply separate the heads into cloves, take each one by the top and press it vertically into the ground to a depth corresponding to the length of the index finger. If the earth is too compacted, then first do the same index finger I make indentations in it (naturally, it’s better not to perform such a trick without a good rubberized glove).

I carry out the planting itself according to a 12x12 cm pattern, and first I plant the cloves from the most selected heads, and on the plants that will then rise from them, I then leave a few arrows to mark - proven and high-quality seed material grows here. Many will immediately tell me that I plant too often. I agree, but you forgot that it was no coincidence that I called my growing method for the lazy.

And the whole secret is this: after planting, I cover the entire bed with a thick (10-12 cm) layer of fallen leaves.

I have two quite large birch trees growing on my site. It is they who give me truly precious material, which is a guarantee good harvest and my peace of mind. I would like to separately advise everyone who follows my example to be patient in the spring and not to remove the coat of leaves from the garlic. Yes, it will not be easy to break old ideas. Yes, the garlic will sprout a little later than usual. But you will receive more than a reward!

When I used this method for the first time, every morning, as soon as I woke up, I immediately ran to the garden to check my plantings. I was terribly worried: my neighbors already had 15 cm seedlings, but mine was empty! But the garlic still broke through and then began to grow so much that it was impossible to keep track of it. Further - even better. The same neighbors are endlessly loosening the soil, running around with watering cans, fighting with the weeds, fertilizing, loosening again, watering the beds again, and I just throw the cut grass on top of the leaf litter...

Another tip: if the weather is dry, the border should also be covered with mulch. As for the weeds, they are not able to break through the leaf litter. And the land underneath is wet, loose, the worms are going crazy, the garlic too, and well, I’m in the company. I only go to the garden bed three or four times during the summer.

Harvesting is also a pleasure. Garlic can be pulled out of the ground easily, without the help of a shovel or other equipment (while before, when my grandmother grew it traditional way, cleaning turned into real hard labor, especially in the dry summer). But I dry and store garlic the same way as everyone else. In three years of growing garlic under a thick layer of mulch, not a single head rotted, although two summers were quite rainy.

Two harvests + green manure

I hope my experience will be useful to those who have little time or whose health does not allow them to spend a lot of time in the “G” position and carry heavy watering cans with water. The only thing I urge those who decide to try this method of growing garlic is not to try it on the entire bed at once. Take one linear meter to experiment - what if your variety of garlic is more capricious, or the soil fails, or the weather plays some kind of trick.

After all, what works excellently in one area can turn into a complete failure in another. By the way, I recently read that you can’t press the cloves into the ground. It’s strange, because my grandmother always planted it this way, and I do it too, and nothing bad happens to the garlic. Maybe readers can clarify this issue?

I also want to tell you about one interesting experiment. I carried it out for only one season, but quite successfully. So, in the same bed with garlic, about three weeks before harvesting, I sowed daikon of the Minowashi variety.

I made holes 2 cm deep, with an interval of 40 cm, with my finger directly between the heads and threw a couple of seeds into each. I didn’t cover it with anything or water it (the weather was damp).

When the shoots appeared, I removed the extra shoots and forgot about the daikon until September. After harvesting the garlic (and since I harvested it without a shovel, I did not disturb or injure the daikon, which by that time was still small), I scattered some white mustard seeds over the mulch and stirred the mulch with a stick so that they would hide under it from the voracious birds.

As a result, the daikon, sown earlier than the mustard, also did not suffer from its proximity and grew happily large and clean (in a dry summer, it probably would have suffered from cruciferous flea beetle, but I was lucky).

This is how I harvested garlic and daikon from one garden bed in one season, with a minimum of effort. Moreover, the green manure managed to grow! And by next spring, the mulch and mustard (I didn’t remove it in the fall) will rot and greatly improve the soil.

Mulching winter garlic gives the gardener more freedom when choosing timing, materials, and options than mulching winter and spring onions or carrots.

I would like to add some fresh photos to Alexey’s observations. Without delving into the theory of plant nutrition, into concerns and worries about the microflora and fauna of our beds, for the most sensible and critical gardeners in relation to mulch.

Just one reason - TRY IT! This can be convenient!

Garlic. Growing and care.

The garlic was planted before winter and it turned out so well that the unmulched and mulched garlic beds ended up side by side this year. Everything will be very clear. Photo from May 5th.

The soil in the non-mulched bed had already been weeded and loosened a couple of weeks ago.

And this is what she looks like -

And very close -

Mulching friendly shoots of garlic, onions, and carrots can forever turn a gardener away from this useful operation. Unless the crop is sown in one, or at most two, rows, frequent, dense, young shoots turn mulching into hard labor.

In these crops, from USEFUL and easy, “lazy” technology - “plant and forget” to USEFUL and difficult operation, there may be only one step.

Garlic mulching options

Mulching winter garlic, due to its biological features— interesting for its versatility, in contrast to mulching winter and spring onions and carrots.

Both random observations of many gardeners, and special experiments and checks indicate that in many regions winter garlic can be planted from August to November, or even grow with even greater “tricks” - not picking out the heads that ripened this year from the ground, but harvesting the crop another year.

TO own benefit and convenience, for the benefit of the earth and the pet garlic, we can greatly control not only the timing of planting the crop, but also the timing of mulching, the composition, and the power of the mulch layer.

Just two examples.

Garlic can be mulched by filling the bed relatively a small amount hay

Example two:

Without sparing the foliage, we create the first layer of mulch.

And there is no need to be afraid for the garlic - whether it has enough strength to break free from under such mulch.

But, of course, also to the selection planting material needs to be taken seriously.

I showed this pair of mulching options because they can be used in different times. If you sprinkle the bed only with hay - grass - this can be done even with quite early boarding garlic But oak leaf litter can only be collected after a couple of good autumn frosts.

And other mulching options will have their own nuances in terms of timing, composition, and density of bed cover.

Belgorod.

©Victor Getman (2016)

Victor's page address in My World: https://my.mail.ru/mail/mnbv6956/ mail - [email protected]

Photo to the commentary by Alexander Sosnovsky:

Photo by Alexander Sosnovsky. Discussion in the comments.

I’ve never grown garlic under a layer of leaves, but I grew potatoes under hay this year and was pleased with the result, and it was very easy to care for: no hilling, no weeding, just pulling out large weeds. Alas, I have already planted garlic, but perhaps you will find this article interesting and useful. Why not try it? At least on the edge of the garden bed?..

In the fall of 2011, having a dozen heads of winter garlic and a couple of dozen bulbs collected from ripened arrows, I decided to plant this seed material under a blanket of foliage that I had manured in advance.
Of course, I planted it in undug soil, after the potatoes under the straw. The potatoes on it turned out quite well. For seeds there are varieties new to me - Rosamunda, Krinitsa and Kyiv Svitanok. I went through the ridge to a depth of 5 cm with a Fokina flat cutter. Using the same tool, I made grooves across the bed at intervals of 20-25 cm. The seed material was soaked in Baikal EM-1 solution. I planted it, deepening the bottom 4-5 cm from the surface, with a distance in the row of 8-9 cm. I laid it with a layer of foliage of 10-15 cm and on top with cabbage leaves so that the dry foliage would not be blown away too much.
All. I forgot until mid-May, when it became a little scary that the garlic was not sprouting, but in the “clean” beds it was already rushing with might and main. Moreover, “clean” beds in our climate are still covered with polyethylene for the winter and are also insulated with sawdust. Rake leaves in one row. Here he is, handsome! Not in a hurry. Everything has its time. At first, my garlic was stunted in growth. Then came summer, where the heat alternates with cold nights. Classic landings the owners of the ridges were tirelessly watered and loosened. My garlic experienced watering once in the form of a portion of a diluted infusion of herbs with Baikal EM-1.
The garlic grew, became fat and plump. Turned yellow a week and a half later. When "digging" medium size garlic was clearly higher than “usual”, which could not but rejoice.

Results.
Minimum care: not a single weeding (one-time pulling out of the quinoa along the edges), one watering, one added mulch, not a single loosening, not a single fertilizing in the usual sense.
Good harvest.
Soil fertility is increasing again.

Garlic has high vitality, growing through a thick layer of leaf mulch.
To increase the yield, it is advisable to add sand directly to the planting area of ​​the cloves and bulbs.
The same technique will prevent frost from squeezing the bulbs to the surface (they are very small).
On poor soils, to stimulate the development of microflora, I recommend spreading half-rotted manure or chicken droppings under the foliage. Yes, and not for the poor. Do not bury it under any circumstances.
Garlic is comfortable under a thick blanket in winter, spring and hot summer.
Good luck everyone.