A common but little-known mistake in planting Garlic before winter. Reduces germination and yield in unknowing summer residents

Do you want to get a harvest of garlic for envy? Then a fiery salute, comrade diligent vegetable grower! Today on the agenda is a fatal mistake in the autumn (in principle, and spring!) Planting garlic for envy, due to which inexperienced gardeners do not count a good share of the sprung cloves.

Good garlic is easy

I recommend planting garlic in the first half of October. Personally, in my Moscow region, I take up work just before the Pokrov (on the 14th).

• I prepare the bed in advance so that the earth settles. Mine is already ready, seasoned with dolomite flour, compost and mineral fertilizers.

• I choose the best heads for planting garlic. For some reason, many vegetable growers are faint-hearted, taking the best for food, and leaving garlic of average quality for planting. Naively thinking that from a clove to three will grow garlic to five. Ha ha!

And very soon I will start preparing the planting material. And here there may be a big mistake unknown to beginners.

An error in preparing for planting winter garlic, which reduces the% germination and yield

You should not look for yourself an extra job and jerk the garlic ahead of time. For some reason, some summer residents, guided by good intentions, begin to prepare planting material in advance. Strongly in advance. For a week or two.

And what happens? The grower chooses the best garlic heads and begins to carefully disassemble them into cloves. A very pleasant job! But dangerous for the future harvest.

Because disassembling garlic into cloves means damaging the shell of each of them. Involuntary cracks pose a hidden danger:

• If the "opened" clove of garlic lies in a dry room, it will dry out. After all, moisture is locked inside the shell, which is a nutritious, life-giving juice for a future plant.
• If the "opened" clove of garlic lies in a humid room, fungi will begin to develop inside the shell: mold, the culprits of rot... Mmm! Planting material may become unusable before it is buried in the ground.

Truly they say: the best is the enemy of the good! Comrade: never split the garlic ahead of time. And never break the integrity of the clove shell before planting.

I read absolutely wild advice to rip the husks before planting. Say, it will be better for the roots to come out. Believe me: garlic itself can cope with this task once or twice. And such help will become a disservice, because of which some% of the planting material will rot.

How to do it right

Comrade! You only need to cook the garden bed in advance.

• Selection garlic starts only the day before the appointed date.
• When separating the cloves, act as carefully as possible. Try not to damage the shell. She is a natural, protective and nourishing "capsule" of garlic. It is naive to think that nature invented it just like that.

Carefully inspect the planting material and discard anything that is in doubt: rotten, moldy, soft. You have no way of planting winter garlic twice.

• If you feel calmer, disinfect. Use a weak solution of potassium permanganate. But I must admit that I never do it.

Healthy planting material without unnecessary body movements and correct planting are the key to good harvests. And this is not only about garlic, by the way.
Are you planting winter garlic and the article was helpful? Click, comrade, "Thumbs up"! Sincerely yours, 4th generation garlic grower, Fedor Tyapkin-Sklyankin.