Most gardeners prefer to plant winter garlic before winter, spring - in early spring, but when to remove garlic from the bed, you need to understand more detail. After all, this useful and savory vegetable can be found in almost every garden.
- Signs of ripening garlic: when to clean?
- How to dry garlic after harvesting so that it is well kept
- What can I plant after garlic?
It is highly undesirable to hold the garlic in the ground: it can re-grow, overripe heads will disintegrate into separate cloves, long-term storage of such a crop will be a big question. If you remove the garlic from the soil before the prescribed time, it will be soft, immature and loose. The stability of this vegetable depends on the degree of its ripening and proper drying, so you should remember a few simple rules, which I will tell you in this article.
Dry Garlic( Photo by Anna Nepetrovskaya from Novokubansk) Signs of garlic ripening: when to clean?
Garlic ready for cleaning - the lower leaves turned yellow How to determine the ripeness of garlic? The surest signal is the drying and yellowing of the lower leaves of the plant. This process, of course, is influenced by the air temperature( sunny summer or rainy), garlic variety, as well as the territorial location of your site( region).In addition, gardeners have their own "signs" indicating the ripening of the crop. Someone in the process of growing garlic does not break off all the arrows, but leaves a couple of pieces on individual plants. When initially curly arrow becomes smooth - this is a sure sign that you can dig up garlic.
Arrows straightened up - you can pick up garlic Another summer resident looks at the flower heads: if they start to burst and show the bullets, then it is time to harvest.
Bulb burst - a sign of ripening garlic - when you cut off the arrows on garlic, stick a burnt match in their place( take the rest off the gas stove).A match of burnt juice stops suspending - the teeth become juicier and larger.
- greens from garlic( feathers) after the arrows are torn off, tie into a bundle - the head of garlic will quickly form and become larger.
“Knotted” garlic - the teeth become more juicy and increase in size You should know that only winter varieties give an arrow, spring does not shoot, a rare exception is Gulliver variety only.
Winter and spring varieties, photo:
Winter garlic on the garden( photo by Anna Nepetrovskaya from Novokubansk) 
Winter garlic after harvesting 
Spring garlic Plant winter garlic in September or early October( it is better to do this in Kuban later, for exampleNovember), spring - at the end of March or in April.
And the timing of garlic harvesting depends on how hot the summer is. Most often they vary between the 20th of July / first week of August - this applies to winter varieties.
Spring varieties of garlic always ripen later than winter crops, because they need more time to grow. Around the 20th of August / in the first half of September, you can start harvesting summer( spring) varieties.
In any case, when the above-described external signs of ripening appear, you can always carefully dig up a couple of heads and visually see the degree of their ripening.
How do I know that garlic is ready for harvest? The ripe head is always dense to the touch, the film covering the teeth is easily removed, the teeth themselves are easily separated.
There is another effective method: to speed up the ripening of garlic, gardeners use one effective method: approximately 5-7 days before the intended digging, they slightly scoop the soil from the bulbs( top layer).
The harvesting period for winter garlic in the Kuban is approximately the end of July. Again, look at the external signs of maturity and be sure to consider the type of garlic. The fact is that different winter varieties will have different ripening terms. Often gardeners confuse different varieties and plant them all together on the same bed. To avoid confusion, always pay attention to the shade of the outer shell of the head, as well as the shape and number of teeth in it. Thus, representatives of individual varieties can be planted on separate beds.
I would also like to focus on the question that beginning gardeners often ask - do I need to roll garlic before harvesting? This method is sometimes used when growing onions to speed up its ripening and stop the growth of the feather. As for garlic, then this is not necessary! In order for the heads to finally mature, you should stop watering the beds about 10 days before harvesting - let the soil dry out.
Harvest, photo:
How to dry garlic after harvesting so that it is well kept
Garlic should be harvested on a dry and sunny day. Plants should be previously undermined, it is best to use a fork-like tool, gently remove the heads and shake them off the ground. Of course, it is better to spend more time and remove the earth with your hands, so you will be sure that there are no damages on the heads and they are suitable for further storage. If in the process of harvesting you accidentally damage the head, then set it aside or immediately use it as food. Next, put the garlic on a clean paper or wooden table, located under a canopy - if you are going to dry the heads on the street. A well ventilated room is also suitable.
Drying garlic after harvesting lasts about 7-10 days. Some gardeners prefer to dry the garlic right on the garden, in the same place where the crop was dug. You can do this too, but at night it is better to clean the garlic in a dry room, it can be an attic or a summer veranda. The complete and final drying of the heads is also carried out indoors( an additional 10 days), after which the remnants of the roots are necessarily removed. The roots should be cut carefully so as not to injure the bottom! An interesting point is the pruning of garlic after harvesting, at which seasoned gardeners strongly recommend leaving the stem and leaves intact.
The fact is that in the above-ground part of the plant there are a lot of nutrients, which during drying "go" to the head. From this it follows that uncircumcised tops have a positive effect on the preservation of the healing qualities of garlic. By the way, one of the most useful ways to store this vegetable is to weave braids, for which you will need the ground part of the plant, which you didn’t cut during the garlic harvest. This ancient, but not lost its relevance method is successfully used today. In one such bundle can be up to 15 heads. From the stems weave a tight braid into which twine is woven for reliability, and a loop is made from it for further convenient hanging of the bundle. Leaves can be removed before weaving.
Pigtail Garlic, photo:
In this form, the garlic will be perfectly preserved even until the next harvest. Braids are hung in a dry, dark and cool room, they can also be used as a decorative ornament in the kitchen. If you prefer a different method of storage, then after complete drying, leave about 6-8 cm of the stem( trim the rest), and then sort the heads by size and transfer to the storage.
содерж to content ↑What can I plant after garlic?
So that the earth does not "walk" in vain, after harvesting garlic, you can always sow greens. Parsley, cilantro, arugula, lettuce, dill, spinach grow pretty quickly and are especially good if garlic was their predecessor. Many gardeners successfully grow radishes, beets, radishes, carrots - after garlic they grow much faster, and their taste properties only get better. Even early ripe cucumbers can be planted in the Kuban, and Peking cabbage, as well as kohlrabi, generally grow excellently( they have a short growing season).Also, after the garlic will grow asparagus beans and early ripening varieties of sugar peas.
After harvesting garlic, what can be planted for the next season? It is important to remember that you can not plant garlic in the same place for two years in a row. This also applies to onions, which also should not be sown after garlic. Not only do representatives of the same family have common diseases, they also have the same pest parasites. Potatoes or strawberries will feel great in the former place of residence of garlic. The same can be said about tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, cabbage, pepper, corn and melons.
Follow the rules of agrotechnology, monitor the appearance of the stems - no matter what region you live in, the signs of ripening of this vegetable crop will always be the same. Now you know when to remove garlic from the garden, how to do it best and what to plant after harvesting.
