How to Increase the Weight of Garlic Heads by Drying: Useful Tips from Experienced Gardeners

In the middle zone, winter garlic ripens in mid-summer.

Spring varieties of vegetables ripen in August-September.

Experienced gardeners and summer residents always dry the bulbs thoroughly before storing them for a long time to increase the shelf life of the harvest, says Anastasia Kovrizhnykh .

How to properly prepare garlic for storage and what storage methods exist?

Just leave the bushes untrimmed after digging.

With proper drying of spring and winter garlic, the weight of each bulb can be increased by approximately 10% (the weight of the root crops increases, but the size remains unchanged).

This happens due to the flow of plastic substances accumulated during the season from the leaf blades and stems into the flesh of the bulbs. This means that garlic seedlings should be dug up together with the roots (it is most convenient to do this with a pitchfork), and dried without cutting off the tops.

Three weeks before the expected harvest, stop watering the garlic. The dug bushes with uncut roots and stems are left in the garden bed for a whole day.

It is advisable to collect the bulbs in sunny weather.

Even if it rained before harvesting and the garlic removed from the soil is completely covered with clods of soil, all the moisture accumulated in the underground part will evaporate during subsequent drying.

After the garlic has dried out in the garden, it is tied into small bunches (5-8 heads, depending on size), which are hung under the ceiling and along the walls of the barn or attic.

With good ventilation, all the soil stuck to the roots falls off.

In three weeks, the stems and leaves of the plants dry out completely, releasing the accumulated nutrients into the bulbs every day.
If it is not possible to dry garlic indoors, it is distributed in bunches under a canopy, preferably in a suspended state.

And only after 3-4 weeks the garlic is trimmed. First the roots are trimmed with pruning shears (they can be cauterized with a gas burner to disinfect the root bed), and then the stems, leaving stumps of 2-3 cm.

Each bulb is cleaned with fingers from sand and stuck soil, trying not to damage the top layer of covering scales. Heads with cracked shells and falling out cloves are set aside for use in cooking in the near future.

Keep garlic fresh until next spring

Well-dried garlic is stored in a cellar, basement, or basement, placing clean commercial heads in boxes or nets.

Garlic is stored in a well-ventilated vegetable storehouse in a cold way at a temperature of 0 to +2°C. These are the optimal indicators for preserving the harvest until the next season. Planting material is stored separately from the bulbs intended for use in food.

It is acceptable to store garlic in a warm place, for example, in a pantry, an apartment vestibule, a barn, a hallway or in the kitchen, however, at elevated temperatures, losses in the harvest due to drying out and sprouting of the bulbs increase significantly.

This is the method used by fans of storing garlic in braids and bunches. The optimal temperature for storing garlic is from +18 to +20°C. Air humidity is from 65% to 75%.

Without thoroughly drying the garlic, it is almost impossible to keep the pungent bulbs fresh at least until the New Year. Good luck to you in growing an environmentally friendly crop in your summer cottage!

Earlier we talked about why pumpkins grow grassy and watery.