It's autumn, when to dig out the garlic?

Many beginning vegetable growers are wondering when to dig out garlic. How can you know that the harvest is ripe? And there is a problem of preparation of heads for storage and transportation. There are several proven ways to find out all these nuances, the easiest thing is to ask experienced piloters for advice.

It is difficult to determine when to dig out winter garlic, as all truck farmers plant their seedlings at different times and in different climatic conditions. Choose for cleaning you need a dry sunny days, and spend the collection in the evening or late morning. In order not to lose part of the crop, all works are given a maximum of one week. The plant is recovered on 105-125 days after planting, usually these terms fall on the end of August - the beginning of September. In dry weather, the heads of garlic are digged with a shovel, and then placed directly on the beds for 3-5 days. Naturally, this method is suitable only for sunny days, otherwise the harvest can rot. Different kinds of garlic ripen differently, but they all need to be covered on beds with the help of lower leaves to reduce the appearance of bright light on the bulbs. The plant is not picked up from the plant immediately, it gives all the nutritious juices to move from the trunk to the young denticles. Remove the arrows and all the foliage after the final drying of garlic.

How to accelerate maturation

If the weather is already beginning to deteriorate, and the harvest has not yet ripened, it can be hastened artificially. Experienced gardener accurately rake the soil off young bulbs or even remove them from the soil. The main thing is not to damage the tender root system, otherwise the plant can rot. When you dig a garlic with a shovel, you just need to gently pull a lump of earth, and after a scald to scare it from bulbs.

If varieties of vegetables are planted, then 1 week before harvesting, all arrows must be removed. They are bound in loose sheaves, after which they are allowed to dry and ripen. Air bulbs have four characteristic sizes, according to which they are grouped into groups: 4, 5, 6 and 6-8 mm.

Additional drying of garlic

If the bulbs can not stand a couple of days in the sun, they can be affected by various putrefactive bacteria, molds, mites and nematodes. The question arises: "When to dig out garlic, if it rains?" Leaving bulbs in the ground "until better times" is impossible, just worth using for easy dehydration with special dryers. You need to be prepared that at a temperature of +25 ^o C you will have to withstand garlic for at least 8-9 days, in recent days you need more heat, around +40 ^o C.

After complete drying, the bulbs are carefully cleaned of stems, leaves, remaining soil and roots. You should try not to damage the covering scales on garlic, but the false stem is cut at a height of 1-2 cm from the top of the head. The distance depends on the purpose of the plant. The seeds are left 2 cm, and for commercial species, 1 cm will suffice. Dry roots are cut very short, leaving 3 mm maximum. Further bulbs must be sorted by size and quality.

There is a trick to understand when digging out garlic in a given area, planted in a certain locality and conditions. It is necessary to leave 1-2 arrows. After the bulbs are ripe, the normally twisted stems are aligned, and it is this harvesting moment that is considered the most correct. If you overdo the garlic in the ground, the heads will be loose or even broken when digging out of the ground.