What about garlic? From a piece of garlic to a pile of green
Last fall, i found a few sprouts of garlic in the corner of the kitchen. Let's try to plant it in the flowerpot. I had no idea that a few weeks later, a clean green seedling had appeared and the fried eggs had been cut off. It makes me happy to start studying how garlic is grown. Turns out, this house's usual sauce is full of life cycles, from garlic to garlic seed, to harvesting new garlic, which is simple and full of surprises。
Pick the right garlic and the right timing
A lot of people have failed to grow garlic, and the first step is wrong — with cooking garlic from supermarkets. Those garlic have been refrigerated or irradiated, with low growth rates. It would be better to go to a seed shop or a farm market to buy specialized garlic, full of rice and garlic. I've tried, with more than 90% seedling of garlic。
Time is also crucial. There is a popular term for “never-nine” meaning that it is best to plant in september (about october). At this point, the weather cools, and the garlic petals take root in the earth, and they have firm roots before winter. If you grow in the spring, you can grow garlic, but it's hard to get full new garlic。
Three-step operation: bubble, bury, pipe
It's actually a three-step operation, especially for the balcony or small garden. The first step is “blowing”: stripting the garlic petals without skin and immersing them in clean water for half a day (about 4-6 hours) can awaken the hibernation and stimulate their growth。
The second step is “burials”: finding basins or kitchen boxes at depths above 15 centimetres, so that the soil is loose. And we used to make it three-and-a-half of the leaves and a little sand. The garlic petals head up, the flat side down, press 2-3 cm deep into the earth, leaving a distance of 8-10 cm, giving it room to grow up. When buried, water is poured out and placed in a well-soiled place。
The third step is “pipes”: just keep the soil moist before seeding, and don't water it every day. When it is full, water can be “dry and wet”. If you want garlic and fat garlic, the effect is clear every two to three weeks after spring, with thin organic fat, such as fermented rice。
The joy of harvest: one after another
The pleasure of growing garlic is that it reaps at different stages. Up to 20 centimetres, you can cut garlic leaves for onion flowers and cut them longer. At the beginning of summer, we'll have garlic out of the middle, and it's time to choke down. It's time to dig new garlic when the part of the ground starts to get yellow. It's easy to mention it, and the garlic with the fragrance of dirt comes out, and it'll last long after drying. I planted two square metres last year, collected garlic till winter and distributed it to the neighbors。
The whole process has made me feel that it's essentially about cooperation with land and seasons. You just need to provide the right starting point and basic care, and the rest of the life force will do it itself. Look at the garlic in the kitchen, the sense of realism and achievement, the supermarkets can't match. If you want to experience the full cycle of planting to harvest on the balcony, garlic is a good starting point。
