Fertilizers for planting garlic in the fall: how to fertilize the soil

Garlic is a favorite among gardeners. It's hard to imagine savory dishes and a number of homemade winter preserves without it. There are different varieties of this plant. Summer garlic is an early crop and is sown in the spring. Winter (or spring) varieties are planted in the winter or "before winter." Spring garlic varieties ripen large, vigorous, healthy, and flavorful garlic. To ensure a good harvest, fertilizing when planting garlic in the fall is essential.

Do you need fertilizer?

Garlic is a plant with a poorly developed root system. It doesn't penetrate deep into the soil and is located in the surface layer. For this reason, it's essential to fertilize the vegetable when planting it in the fall. This is the only way to produce large, juicy heads. If you neglect fertilizing, the plant won't grow well, and its cloves will become small and dry.

Only through dedicated effort can you achieve strong, healthy garlic that is disease-free and produces good fruit year after year. The first step to achieving such a harvest is... preparing the soil for garlic bedsIt can be started 3-4 weeks before planting.

The soil for the garlic bed should be in an open, dry and illuminated place.

Preparing the soil for planting

Along with other vegetables, garlic is included in a crop rotation cycle that lasts 4 to 5 years. Its predecessors may include:

• all types of cauliflower;
• all types of salads and greens;
• cucumbers;
• zucchini.

First, disinfect the garden bed by treating it with copper sulfate. To do this, prepare a solution at a ratio of 1 tablespoon per 10 liters of water. After treatment, dig the soil to a depth of 20 cm. Remove all weeds, roots included, to prevent them from choking the young garlic.

The dug-up soil is fertilized with humus or well-rotted compost, with the addition of superphosphate (20 g) and wood ash (1 cup). The prepared soil is watered generously and covered with plastic. This will ensure the soil remains lush, loose, and oxygenated, and will be completely ready for planting.

The best fertilizers for spring and autumn

Fertilizers applied to garlic in the fall are:

• organic (wood ash, manure);
• green manure;
• mineral (complex).

Benefits of ash and manure

Manure is good as a fertilizer, but it's best not to use it in the fall. Garlic fruits will become loose, and the plant itself will be vulnerable to dangerous fungal spores. Manure will cause the vegetable's growth to be confined to the green tops, and the heads will grow small.

Wood ash is the best organic fertilizer for any vegetable. It's used as a fertilizer for garlic beds, mixed in with compost and tilled into the soil. You can plant the vegetable and then add wood ash to the furrows. Two weeks after planting, water the plant with an ash solution. To prepare the solution, take a tablespoon of ash and dissolve it in a liter of water. Two to three liters of solution is enough for 1 m².

Chemical (mineral) fertilizers

Mineral fertilizers can also be applied to garlic in the fall. Before planting, the soil is fertilized with superphosphates and potassium. Superphosphate nourishes the plants, while potassium helps develop the root system before the onset of winter frosts. When applying mineral fertilizers, ensure they contain less nitrogen. Nitrogen promotes the growth of green foliage. This can harm winter garlic, as the green foliage will soon freeze. Nitrogen-containing compounds are applied to the soil in the spring.

Superphosphates contain a minimal amount of nitrogen—only 8%. They are well-suited for fertilizing vegetable soil in the fall. Superphosphates optimally balance nitrogen with other nutrients. This ensures the proper balance between the root and above-ground parts of plants.

There are several complex mixtures designed specifically for garlic. Fertilizing garlic beds with them will prevent the plants from producing green shoots before frost. In addition to superphosphate, you can use the following mixtures:

• phosphorus flour;
• potassium salts;
• "winter" azophoska;
• nitroammophoska;
• two-component fertilizers.

All these substances help strengthen the root system of winter garlic and promote its proper growth. They are applied along with other fertilizers, such as ash and other organic matter.

Planting green manure

In the fall, the vegetable's soil can be fertilized with green manure. Garlic responds well to any organic compounds and "predecessor" crops. For this reason, gardeners often use green manure.

The following are used as green manure:

• all legumes (including beans and peas);
• cereals (barley and rye);
• phacelia;
• mustard.

White mustard is considered one of the best green manure crops. All these crops prevent snow from penetrating the soil. Thanks to them winter garlic It tolerates low temperatures well. Green manure also contains essential oils and phytoncides, which kill harmful insects and parasitic fungi.

Green manure should be removed from the garden bed a couple of weeks before planting garlic. The bed should be dug over and all greens should be incorporated into the soil. The depth of the cultivation should be 15 to 20 cm.

Foliar feeding

A good harvest can be achieved by using foliar feeding. Fertilizers are applied not under the garlic roots, but sprayed over them. garlic feathers begin turn yellow, the best time for foliar feeding is coming:

• urea;
• ammonium nitrate.

In this case, a weakly concentrated solution is used so as not to harm the plant.

Fertilizer application scheme in autumn

The autumn fertilization scheme looks like this:

• after the snow melts, the first feeding is carried out;
• two weeks after the first - the second;
• The third feeding is done after the winter garlic's first cloves appear. This usually occurs in the second ten days of June.

This scheme will help the plant develop properly and prevent foliage from growing during cold weather. It will also prevent stems from sprouting and increase the size of the cloves.

How to fertilize garlic to make it grow large

Wood ash is the main organic fertilizer that promotes the growth of large fruits. Manure can also be added to winter garlic, but rotted manure, not fresh manure. 5 to 6 kg of manure per square meter is sufficient. A mixture of manure and peat will require more, 8 to 10 kg. Compost made from other organic matter is applied to the beds at a rate of 8 to 10 kg per square meter.

How to determine what garlic is missing

If foliage grows slowly and turns pale green, the plants are lacking nitrogen. If foliage grows rapidly and has large shoots, it indicates an excess of nitrogen and a lack of phosphorus and potassium. The tips of garlic leaves curl downward and turn a bluish-white. They are lacking moisture.

Fertilizer application rates for different types of soil

If you have a plot with depleted soil, you can't do without fertilizer. When applying fertilizer, consider the soil's original structure and acidity. Improving the soil's composition will help grow a good harvest and improve air exchange between the garlic's root system and the outside environment. Heavy soils with a high clay content are fertilized with sand—up to 10 liters per square meter. Sandy or sandy loam soils require peat and fine clay in a ratio of 10:10 per square meter. Marshy soil is enriched with sand and loam (10:10 per square meter).

Reviews

Vasily (Ryazan region)

"I'm growing winter garlic in my garden. The harvest was usually small. The heads grew strong but small. A neighbor recommended fertilizing the soil with wood ash. The result was excellent: the garlic grew large and juicy, without becoming overgrown. I was very pleased with the result; now I fertilize the garlic with ash every year."

Rita (Perm)

“I decided to conduct an experiment with growing winter garlic "And I planted mustard in the garden bed. I read on a gardening forum that mustard is one of the best green manures. This was confirmed in practice. I planted the mustard, then dug up the bed. The garlic not only survived the winter but also delighted me with large fruits and excellent flavor."

When growing winter garlic, you need to not only remove weeds and water the plant, but also apply fertilizer. This effort will certainly pay off: you'll get a harvest of large, delicious garlic.