Why garlic can grow small, not divide into cloves and grow in one head
There are many reasons why garlic can grow small. A spicy vegetable is quite capricious to the composition of the soil and the characteristics of care, therefore, you need to follow the rules throughout its growing season. This will allow for a rich harvest of large heads of garlic.
Why garlic doesn't grow: causes of poor growth
Garlic gets smaller most often as a result of improperly prepared soil, insufficient care or due to bad weather conditions. Having identified the cause in time, you can correct the situation and collect a rich, useful crop.
Insufficient watering
Garlic loves moisture. For the entire season, the vegetable garden should never dry out. At the beginning of summer, there is usually little rainfall, and the root system of the vegetable is poorly developed and goes shallow into the ground. Therefore, watering must be regular. If the bed dries up, then the cloves will form small.
With a lack of moisture, the feathers of garlic become bluish-gray, and the tips bend downward. Not only a lack of moisture can cause a small harvest. Excess moisture is also harmful to the vegetable. At the same time, the leaves acquire a pale green color.
Poor quality seed
The future harvest depends on the quality of the planting material. A large head of garlic is formed only from large, dense cloves, without rot and mold. Even if one clove in a solid head is defective, others cannot be selected for planting. All slices selected for planting should have a preserved film, without damage. You can plant only a dry, not sprouted tooth.
The teeth should be separated only before planting. Before planting, it is useful to soak the garlic cloves in a solution with Fitosporin for 5-6 minutes. This will strengthen the immune system and disinfect the surface.
As a disinfectant, you can use a weak solution of potassium permanganate, in which the planting material is placed for 5-6 hours. After that, they are washed and placed in a bag for 2-3 days. During this time, small roots will sprout.
Barren land
Loose, light and nutritious soil is favorable for garlic. A good harvest can be obtained with neutral to moderately alkaline soil. If the acidity of the soil is high, wood ash will help to reduce it, which is simply sprinkled on the beds.
Since autumn, fertilizers have been applied to the proposed planting site for garlic.The next application of mineral and organic fertilizers should be a month before planting. As soon as the first shoots appear, it is useful to add ammonium nitrate. It activates the growth of greenery. At the moment when 4 feathers appear, the laying of the bulb begins. At this time, feed with superphosphate and potassium salt.
Experienced growers give advice on growing garlic in the garden, according to which you should not press the cloves too deep into the ground, especially if it is too loose. In rainy weather, the slices will go deeper even more. Germination will be slow and late, and sometimes you may not even wait for the shoots at all.
It is better to plant the slices in pre-prepared furrows, about 6 cm deep. The furrows are made at intervals of 20 cm. Such a long distance will allow light to penetrate to all parts of the plant. It is recommended to add a little superphosphate and wood ash to the furrows. The distance between the cloves is 8-10 cm. After the garlic is planted, it is covered with earth and mulched with humus or peat.
Other reasons
It is recommended to plant garlic in the garden where cabbage, legumes, pumpkin, and herbs grew last year. A vegetable feels bad if planted after tomatoes, potatoes, onions. It is noticed that the heads turn out to be larger if the peppers and tomatoes are planted side by side.
You cannot plant garlic in the same place all the time. Change the landing site, preferably at least once every two years.
If you plan to plant a vegetable for the winter, then it is best to plant in the place where more than one crop was harvested (only not onion crops).
Garlic loves light. Even the shadow of the fence can affect the size of the teeth. Therefore, the vegetable must be planted on a dry land, where daylight enters without obstacles.
The following tips will help speed up ripening and increase the size of the bulb. When the arrow with the seed box appears on the garlic, it is best to remove it. Some gardeners tie the feathers in a knot. These activities will allow all nutrients to accumulate in the underground section.
Another reason that the bulb of garlic in the garden cracks, rots and does not grow, is infection or insect pests.
Growth retardation diseases
A common cause of poor growth in garlic is infection. You can recognize the problem by the appearance of the plant. It usually looks lethargic, the feathers change color, the heads rot and small teeth form. With the timely identification of the problem, you can take action and stop the spread of the infection.
Garlic rust: how to treat it?
The disease begins with the appearance of yellow-orange dots on the feathers of garlic. Gradually, they grow larger and turn black. If you do not start control measures immediately, all leaves will rust and die off. The supply of nutrients is disrupted, the growth of the heads slows down.
Before planting, the cloves are placed in a weak formalin solution. It is necessary to plant garlic in beds treated with Fitosporin (15 g of the drug is taken for 10 liters of water) or Bordeaux liquid. When rust appears in the garden, the plants are sprayed with fungicides Hom, Kuproksat, Gamair or copper sulfate. Processing is carried out every two weeks. Spraying is stopped a month before harvest.
Bacteriosis or bacterial rot
Bacteria equally often infect both vegetables in the garden and already harvested crops. The cloves begin to rot, brown-yellow spots appear. Rot quickly covers the entire garlic head, it cracks and becomes covered with a yellowish bloom. It develops most often as a result of storage of an unripe or poorly dried crop.
Before planting, the cloves must be etched with copper sulfate.If you find affected heads, you must immediately get rid of them. Collect only ripe bulbs from the beds and dry them well.
Downy mildew or downy mildew
Fungal infection of garlic is common in regions where the weather is rainy and cool. First, the tops of the plant begin to turn yellow and dry. Gradually, the whole leaf turns yellow, dries and withers. The growth and development of not only tops, but also bulbs slows down. The cloves of garlic are small, friable and tasteless.
If the garlic is sick, stop watering and nitrogen application. It is useful to spray the leaves with any copper-based solution, for example, Hom, copper sulfate. The fight against peronosporosis is carried out with the help of drugs such as Tiram, Fentiuram, Arcerida. Young plants can be treated with a solution of Bordeaux liquid.
Fusarium garlic, control measures
In regions with hot climates, there is a high risk of spreading fusarium. The disease affects the bulbs. Few chives are formed in garlic and they are all small in size. The first sign is yellowing and drying of the tips of the feathers. The entire leaf is gradually affected. Small stripes of brown can be seen on the stem. The bulbs soften, a yellow, white or pinkish bloom appears between the cloves. The roots rot and the whole plant dies.
When a disease appears, the beds can be treated with a fungicide, for example, Fitosporin, Alirin, Champion. Preventive measures are considered to be high-quality selection of planting material, timely fertilization and maintenance of the required acidity level.
Black and green mold rot
The most common disease that affects garlic harvested for storage is green or black rot. First of all, heads are affected, which, after digging up, are poorly dried and not ripe. The bulbs soften, black or green dust appears between the slices.
It is recommended to disinfect the soil and cloves before planting. The best fight is prevention. The garlic must be dug up on time and dried well for two weeks.
If you do not follow the technique of planting and collecting a vegetable, then in addition to the development of rot, another problem appears - the garlic may not be divided into cloves. One of the indicators that the bulb is not ripe is the absence of separate lobules or they have to be separated from each other by force.
Necessary measures to enhance growth
In the arsenal of vegetable growers there are several methods that are used if the garlic does not grow well, and the leaves turn yellow and dry. This problem often arises from a lack of nutrients, especially nitrogen and potassium.
You can feed the vegetable beds with urea. It is more effective to carry out foliar spraying with a liquid solution. To prepare the solution, you will need to dilute 25 g of urea in 10 liters of water.
Top dressing with potassium sulfate is useful. For foliar feeding, you will need 5 g of the drug, which are diluted in one liter of water. You can water the beds with a liquid solution, in this case, you need to dilute 20 g in 10 liters of water.
If a spicy vegetable does not grow well due to an increased acid reaction, it is useful to treat the area with dolomite flour in autumn or spring. You can sprinkle some ash or make a liquid solution. It is useful to apply organic fertilizers.
