Seeds are products of sexual reproduction of plants, formed during the process of pollen falling from the stamens onto the pistils of flowers. Only decorative and perennial varieties of garlic that do not form underground bulbs can reproduce with such seeds (similar to those that ripen in onions) (only the greens of perennial garlic are eaten). If you look closely at the opened arrows of ordinary garlic, you will notice tiny flowers on them. But almost all of these flowers are sterile. Seeds are formed from them extremely rarely. In addition to the flowers, there are small bulbs on the arrows. These bulbs have nothing to do with sexual reproduction. These are the organs of vegetative reproduction. They are not seeds in the strict sense of the word. But they are what are commonly called garlic seeds.

Spring and winter varieties

All varieties of ordinary table garlic are divided into spring and winter varieties.

The heads of spring garlic are small, with a large number of cloves. The teeth in them are arranged in several rows, as if in a spiral from the center. There is no solid rod-stem in the center of such heads. All spring varieties are propagated exclusively by cloves, planted in beds in the spring. This kind of garlic never bolts. Any spring varieties are perfectly stored all winter.

The heads of winter garlic are large, with a small number of cloves arranged in a single row around a hard stem located in the center. Cloves of this garlic are planted in garden beds in the fall. They overwinter in the ground under the snow, begin to grow in the spring, and by mid-summer they usually shoot out the shoot, on which the so-called seeds develop - aerial bulbs (bulbs). Although there are also non-shooting winter varieties, which, like spring garlic, can only be propagated using cloves. Winter garlic does not store well, no more than three to four months. But there are exceptions, for example, the Lyubasha variety, the heads of which can be stored for up to ten months.

Obtaining seeds

The arrows that appear on garlic usually break off, since they absorb a fairly large amount of nutrients, thereby inhibiting the development of the underground part of the plant. But you shouldn’t break off absolutely all of them. A few of the strongest arrows can be left in order to obtain garlic seeds.

Aerial bulbs (or just aerial bulbs) ripen when the shell covering them breaks and the arrow itself fully straightens. Do not delay cleaning, otherwise the bulbs may fall to the ground. The seed plants are dug up along with their underground parts (which are quite edible, despite their small size) and hung to dry in the attic.

Inflorescences with bulbs intended for storage are separated from the stems only when they are completely dry (after three to four weeks), since during drying some of the nutrients from the leaves and stems will pass into the aerial bulbs, allowing them to finally ripen.

Bulbs remain viable for two years.

Advantages of seed propagation

It is not only possible, but also necessary to propagate bolting varieties of garlic with seeds for the following reasons:

• The causative agents of various diseases found in the soil usually spread along with the cloves of dug up heads used as planting material. The air does not come into contact with the soil, so it is not a carrier of these infections.
• The heads of bolting varieties are formed by an average of six cloves. An average of six plants can be grown from one head. Moreover, one yields about 50 aerial bulbs, which means that propagating garlic with cloves is simply irrational.

Agricultural technology

You can plant aerial bulbs both before winter and in spring, at the following times:

1. 1. After collecting the air, it is dried a little (for about a week) and planted at the beginning of the second ten days of August. Before the onset of cold weather, a large one-toothed bulb has time to form from the planted aerial bulbs. It overwinters in the beds, begins to grow in the spring and produces large garlic heads by the end of summer. Growing garlic in this way has one drawback: if the autumn is warm, instead of one clove, the bulbs will have time to form heads with small cloves, which, after overwintering, will not produce a large harvest.
2. 2. Planting of air plants is carried out a month before the onset of persistent cold weather, so that the bulbs have time to take root, but do not sprout. Depending on the region, the approximate date will be as follows: in the Krasnodar Territory - October 15; in the Moscow region - September 25; in the Arkhangelsk region - September 5. In this case, a large one-toothed fish forms somewhere in mid-July. It is dug up and then planted before winter in the same way as cloves. The disadvantage of this method is that during a winter with little snow and frost, some bulbs may be pushed out of the soil (they should be returned to their place in the spring), and some will simply freeze out. This can be at least partially prevented by covering the crops with a layer of mulch of at least 2-5 cm.
3. 3. Inflorescences with bulbs, separated from completely dried stems, are stored until spring at room temperature. A month before sowing, they are placed in the refrigerator and kept there at a temperature of 4-5 °C. Single-toothed bulbs obtained from such bulbs kept in the cold will not shoot and will stop growing in August, when their diameter is approximately 3 cm. While planting material that has not been exposed to cold will grow until late autumn and into the future a year will not produce large heads. Before sowing, the bulbs are placed in an infusion of ash (one tablespoon per glass of water) and only those that have sunk to the bottom are selected. Sowing is done as early as possible, immediately after the ground is free of snow. In the southern regions of Russia it will occur in mid-April. In the northern regions, sowing will be in May. In August, when the leaves of the plants begin to turn yellow, the formed cloves can be dug up and then planted before winter at the same time as the cloves. You can leave the single cloves in the soil for the winter, and dig up full heads of garlic at the end of next summer. The disadvantage of sowing bulbs in spring is that during the winter storage period a considerable part of the seed dries out.

The area for autumn sowing of aerial bulbs is prepared at least two weeks in advance so that the soil has time to settle a little, otherwise the bulbs may go too deep. The site is prepared for spring sowing in the fall, since it will be difficult to cultivate soil that is not yet sufficiently dry in the spring. Per 1 m² of plot, depending on its fertility, add 4-7 kg of humus and 0.5 liters of ash. Application of fresh manure is unacceptable. If necessary, deoxidize the area; garlic feels good only on neutral soils.

When it is necessary to grow only one clove from an aerial plant, the distance between plants in a row should be 1-2 cm, and between rows - 10 cm. If you plan to get full-sized heads of garlic from bulbs without replanting, the distance between plants in a row should be increased to 6-7 cm , and between the rows up to 15 cm. When planting in autumn, aerial bulbs are deepened into the soil by 3-4 cm; in spring, 1 cm will be enough. Plant the bulbs carefully, bottom down, without pressing too much, so as not to damage the outer shell.

On sufficiently fertile soil, it is not necessary to feed the aerial plant. If the soil is poor, then you can make up to three fertilizings: the first one a month after germination, the second one another two weeks later, the third one no later than the end of June. The first feeding is done with organic matter, the second - with either organic matter or mineral fertilizers, the third - exclusively with mineral fertilizers. When the soil dries out, water the plants. Garlic is responsive to loosening after each watering or heavy rain. In addition, loosening the soil helps in the fight against weeds. Watering is stopped three weeks before harvesting the one-toothed plant.

One hundred aerial bulbs yield about 1 kg of one-claw, which is quite edible and can be wonderfully used for canning.

Timely weeding is extremely important, especially at a time when the seedlings are still small. Garlic is very demanding of light, and late weeding can ruin all the work.

Garlic, which has a pungent aroma and unique taste, is known to everyone. This vegetable is used both for cooking and as a remedy. The crop can be grown from seeds and cloves.

Features of growing garlic

There are two forms of garlic: spring and winter. The formation of shoots does not occur on the first crop. This process is typical only for the second type. Winter garlic is propagated by seeds and cloves, spring garlic - only by cloves. The latter are formed in the first month of summer in the arrow part.

This vegetable belongs to those crops that can be planted before winter and spring. The name of the garlic planted in the first way is winter, the second is spring. To sow winter garlic, you need to use slightly germinated seed.

Planting activities in spring should be carried out when the soil has not yet dried out after the snow has melted. Compliance with this requirement will allow you to obtain large heads.

Garlic can be propagated using cloves. This method is known to everyone and is widely used.

A very important point with this planting method is the choice of site. This crop grows best on lands where legumes, cucumbers and cabbage used to grow, worse - after potatoes, tomatoes, where they can become infected with fusarium, and onions. This soil becomes suitable for vegetables after 3–4 years.

The plot of land where it is planned to plant the crop must first be fed with manure or compost. It is advisable to carry out this work in the fall. Before planting, the cloves need to be sorted, sick and damaged ones should be put aside.

Many people are interested in when to plant this plant. The optimal planting time is a month before the onset of severe cold. During this period, the vegetable will have time to take root, but green sprouts will not have time to appear.

In about a week, you need to complete the preparatory work: you need to prepare the beds. This is necessary so that the teeth do not lie too deep.

The distance between adjacent seeds should be about 0.08 - 0.1 m, and between stripes - 0.4 - 0.5 m. If winters in the region are cold, sawdust or peat should be poured over the bed.

This crop does not require abundant watering; it is enough to perform this procedure once a week.

The end of April or the beginning of May is the time when it is necessary to apply fertilizer; you can use nitrophoska in the amount of 15 g per 1 sq. m. m.

The next feeding should be done in June (ammophoska in the same quantities). There is no need to fertilize the soil for the last 2-3 weeks.

You need to dig up the vegetable when the main area of ​​the lower leaves turns yellow. The root shoots of garlic that is intended to be used for food must be cut off.

It is advisable that when harvest time arrives, the plant does not need to be left in the ground longer than the allotted time. Those bulbs that were pulled out earlier and did not have time to ripen will be able to do this even after uprooting. Over-cured garlic does not store as well.

How to obtain, store and sort bulbs

To get large garlic with the same cloves, you should choose a winter vegetable. But in this case, a significant part of last year's harvest will be used as seeds.

In order not to transfer the edible part into the category of planting material, it is advisable to grow garlic from seeds. Their formation occurs in the arrow part of garlic during its growth.

The arrow is covered with a thin shell, and in its inner part there are these seeds that look similar to garlic. On average there are about 70-80 of them, but the numbers can be higher.

In addition, using this sowing method, the resulting harvest will be preserved and the plant grown in the future will be healthy.

The aerial bulbs do not touch the ground, so the seeds are not infected by anything, unlike the cloves located in the ground.

For those who prefer to use a single large clove of garlic, sowing bulbs is a method in which from one seed grows not a head with a number of lobes, but a single large clove.

Given the benefits of growing garlic in bulbs, no one would use any other planting method. But some people don’t know how to grow garlic from seeds correctly and plant it with cloves.

This is also facilitated by the disadvantages that exist when sowing with bulbs:

• this process allows you to get a full harvest only after 2 years;
• making mistakes when sowing aerial bulbs, and also if they are frozen or dry, the harvest will be poor.

In the middle of the first month of summer, shoots begin to form on the winter crop. Having assessed them by appearance, you need to select the strongest ones, and the rest must be removed, otherwise the garlic heads will not reach normal sizes.

To calculate the required number of stems with arrows, you need to take into account that about 70-80 seeds come out of one top.

At the moment when cracks appear on the protective shell, the top must be cut off. Next, they should be placed in the shade until completely dry; the case should not be touched.

Well-dried seeds can be stored for two years without losing their quality.

The grown bulbs can be stored at room temperature; the seeds should be wrapped in paper and placed in a box.

The film must be removed from garlic bulbs stored in a warm place 30-40 days before sowing and placed in the refrigerator.

By skipping this step, the vegetable will turn green until late autumn, and the seeds may undergo vitrification.

It will not be possible to grow large garlic whose seeds have not been cooled; on the contrary, the heads will not ripen and the cloves will be small.

They will not be able to be eaten or used for planting. From those that have been in the cold, round heads are formed in early August, representing a single clove.

Before planting garlic seeds, you need to sort the bulbs by eye. After selecting healthy-looking bulbs, you need to carry out the following activity: the bulbs must be placed in an infusion of wood ash.

Those that remain on the surface are rejected. Using healthy seeds, garlic will grow beautifully. Taking into account the peculiarities of preparing planting material, it is necessary to follow all stages of preparing bulbs.

Methods for planting bulbs

Many people are interested in how to grow garlic from bulbs. Planting garlic using bulbs differs depending on the time of year.

The vegetable can be planted in autumn, spring and without transplantation. Regardless of which option you decide to use, special attention should be paid to the preparation of seed material. The quality of the seeds will determine what kind of harvest will be born.

Autumn planting

Garlic should be planted in the fall in the first half of October. Planting garlic seeds is carried out according to a multi-line ribbon pattern, the distance between recesses is 10 cm, between adjacent ones - 10-20 cm, the optimal depth of planting is approximately 4 cm.

Sometimes some of the planted seeds freeze, and the other ends up on the surface of the soil due to its freezing. With the arrival of spring, they should be returned to their original position. For this reason, where there is a cold climate, it is advisable to plant garlic seeds in the spring.

Garlic is harvested when most of the inner leaves have withered. After being removed from the ground, it should dry out.

In the fall, when the time for planting winter garlic comes, it is necessary to plant it. This method helps to obtain good yields, and the cloves are large.

Spring planting

When choosing spring planting, the area for sowing must be prepared before the onset of winter. With the onset of spring, it will be very difficult to till the soil due to its condition.

The following composition can be used as a fertilizer, the norms are indicated for 1 m2:

• wood ash – 0.3 kg;
• humus – 0.7 kg;
• superphosphate and potassium sulfate - 0.05 kg each.

Harvesting occurs when the stems begin to fall. The extracted vegetable should lie in the shade and dry. Afterwards you need to separate the dry tops.

When choosing the non-transplant method, a full-fledged harvest from the bulbs is obtained without transplanting the resulting single cloves.

Dried bulbs, cut at the beginning of summer, should be immediately planted in the ground. In autumn, single clove garlic that grows does not need to be removed from the ground. It should lie in the soil throughout the winter, but care must be taken to ensure good snow retention so that the plant does not freeze or rot.

With the onset of spring, the vegetable will begin to grow, resulting in the development of a regular crop. The harvest is carried out at traditional times. The head of garlic, for the cultivation of which this method was used, turns out to be large. The internal lobules also reach large sizes.

A vegetable bed can be made right on the windowsill. But in order for the plant to grow and develop, the following conditions must be created:

• the room temperature should be kept at 18-20 degrees;
• the window on the windowsill of which the plant is located should be on the sunny side;
• timely watering is necessary.

By autumn the single-clove garlic will be ready, from which multi-clove garlic will grow next year.

Many people are interested in how to plant vegetables to make caring for them easier. In order for the planted seeds to grow in the garden bed rather than weeds, garlic can be planted as follows.

After the area for planting the vegetable has been prepared, wetted paper sheets need to be spread over its entire area; it is better to make several layers.

You need to make holes in them in which you need to plant the bulbs. Then this canvas should be covered with a small amount of sand, and sawdust should be used as mulch.

To ensure that the resulting harvest is only pleasing, it is worth taking the necessary measures. Having planted a plant in all ways, every gardener will definitely choose the one that he likes best.

Garlic, known for its healing properties, adds a piquant taste to dishes. Growing it is not at all difficult if you use cloves. But there is another way. We will tell you how to plant garlic using arrow seeds.

How to grow garlic from arrow seeds - choosing planting material

As you know, winter garlic grows an arrow in the summer, on which an inflorescence with so-called bulbs - seeds - is formed over time. Usually the arrow is removed so that the garlic grows large. Therefore, if you plan to grow garlic from seeds, leave such seed on four to five plants. Collect inflorescences as soon as the arrow straightens. It is better to remove the plants completely along with the bulbs and seeds and leave them to dry, after which you can carefully separate the inflorescence. The bulbs are separated and stored in paper until spring.

How to plant garlic seeds correctly?

Bulbs are planted in early spring. Before propagating garlic by seeds, you need to carry out stratification. For this procedure, a month before the intended planting, the seed is placed in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. Then, a day before planting, the bulbs are soaked in an ash solution. The latter is prepared on the basis that you need to take one teaspoon of ash per glass of water.

Sow garlic seeds at a depth of 3 cm at a distance of four to five centimeters from each other. The beds are formed in such a way that the distance between them is 20 cm. After planting, the bulbs are watered. At the end of July, when the tops of the plants turn yellow, the “harvest” is harvested. In the soil of each plant you will find small one-claws. They are used in late autumn for planting for the winter.

As you can see, growing garlic from bulb seeds is not difficult. But next year you will have a harvest with.

Garlic can be found in almost any garden. It has an interesting specific taste and aroma. Garlic is most often used to prepare various dishes. Garlic is also used in medicine, because this plant is an excellent antiseptic.

Garlic is very popular among gardeners; many grow it in their own plots. Planting garlic is possible with cloves and seeds.

Growing garlic using seeds

With the help of bulbs it helps to significantly increase the amount of seed. After all, on average, one garlic head produces ten cloves per plant, and one bulb produces about one hundred seeds, which can be planted in open ground.

In addition, the seeds are always healthy, so they produce high-quality seed material, while the heads can be affected by various fungal diseases. The bulbs grow at the very top of the arrow, they are protected by a shell, so the seeds in them are always healthy and are not affected by diseases and harmful insects.

Garlic planting time

Garlic can be spring or winter. The winter variety can shoot shoots, but the spring variety does not produce them. In spring garlic, reproduction will take place by cloves, but those varieties that have arrows are able to reproduce by seeds (bulbs).

You can plant not only in spring, but also in autumn.

Pros and cons of planting seeds

This planting method has both its positive and negative aspects. The advantages of planting seeds include the following:

• bulbs will always be healthy planting material;
• this method allows you to propagate the crop well and avoid its degeneration;
• seeds have high germination;
• seeds are easier to plant in the ground.

The convenience of planting lies in the fact that the seeds can be immediately planted in prepared soil. With cloves, the planting process becomes more difficult due to the sorting of sprouted cloves.

The disadvantages of this type of planting include two points:

• You can get a full harvest in the second year;
• When frost occurs, the seeds may die.

In the first year of planting, only one bulb grows from the seeds, but in the second year it will become a real head of garlic.

Growing and collecting garlic seeds

There are no difficulties in growing, because bulbs form independently on garlic shoots. So all that remains is to collect the seeds correctly. In this matter, the most important thing will be to choose the right time to collect the seeds, namely the moment when the protective shell bursts and all the seeds are visible. This usually occurs in mid or late July. The seeds must be cut and stored until future planting.

Sometimes it happens that time passes, but the bulb does not burst. Gardeners continue to wait, assuming that the seeds are not yet ripe, but this is not always the case. In such a situation, you need to pay attention to the leaves of the plant. If the foliage begins to turn yellow, then the seeds can be collected, but if the color has not yet changed, then you can wait a little longer.

Planting garlic seeds

In the first year, a single clove (onion) grows from the bulbs, but in the second year a normal garlic head appears. One-toothed fish can also be eaten, but it is better to leave them for further reproduction.

Seeds can be planted in winter or spring.

Sowing seeds for the winter

First, you should cultivate a plot of land, fertilizing it with phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium. After this, make grooves five to six centimeters deep. Pour river sand onto their bottom and place garlic seeds into it at a depth of three centimeters.

The distance between the seeds should not be more than 6 cm. Between the rows it is necessary to maintain 10 cm. After planting, the soil should be watered and the grooves should be covered with soil, and the top should be mulched with peat or wood chips to form a cushion a couple of centimeters high.

Planting garlic seeds in spring

A safer way for garlic would be to plant in the spring. The bulbs should spend the winter in a dry and dark place where the temperature will not exceed 20°C. In February, the seeds will need to be moved to a cooler place, where the temperature will not exceed 4 ° C, so that vegetative processes in them are activated.

Plant garlic It’s not difficult to do it yourself, and the result will definitely please you. And not only dense, weighty heads, but also early greens, rich in vitamins A and C, which is so important after winter. Garlic is a champion in selenium content, a trace element of longevity and health. The daily requirement of this essential nutrient is contained in 2-3 cloves. By frequently using garlic in food, you can save a lot on multivitamin complexes and mineral supplements, as well as improve your health.

Selection of planting material

Profitable grow winter garlic- it produces very large heads. In order to get a good harvest in the future, you need to go to the market in September and select several beautiful, even specimens. An excellent, well-proven winter variety is Gribovsky. If the choice is on this variety, then you need to choose heads of saturated color.

It is advisable to give preference to heads consisting of 4 cloves of approximately the same size. If there are none, then you can buy even, symmetrical heads with 5-6 teeth.

Planting cloves for seeds in the fall

Produced planting garlic 2 weeks before a steady decrease in temperature. For central Russia, this approximately corresponds to the end of September. Selected garlic should be used to obtain healthy seed material - bulbs.

To get healthy garlic for planting, the heads are separated into cloves, which are planted one at a time. The best companion for garlic is garden strawberries. At the end of September, the cloves are embedded to a depth of about 3 cm.

The teeth should be planted away from each other, preferably in a sunny, slightly elevated place. After planting, you can sprinkle the clove with earth, you can add rotted manure, humus, and peat. The thickness of the covering layer is 2 cm. Before frost, you can add a layer of straw or stems of cut autumn flowers on top. Such mulch will delay soil freezing, which will allow the cloves to take root, but will not allow them to germinate.

Growing garlic bulbs (seeds)

In the spring, the cloves will produce a feather; you cannot pick it for greenery, since the purpose of planting is seeds (bulbs), which form at the end of the peduncle during the summer. At first the garlic produces florid arrows and then blooms.

Large, smooth, bright purple seeds ripen if the plant receives enough:

• water;
• sunlight;
• oxygen with careful loosening of the soil.

By autumn, the bulbs should ripen well, but it is not advisable to miss the moment when they break through the thin shell. The arrows need to be picked at the stage of yellowing of the leaves and ripening of the seeds. To prevent the bulblets from spilling out of the shell onto the ground, experienced summer residents tie them with gauze.

Planting bulbs before winter

Grown bulbs are used to produce one-tooth bulbs - small round bulbs. And from them later large heads of garlic are obtained. For planting, the bulbs are sorted, choosing large ones. Planting bulbs, like cloves, are carried out at the end of September - beginning of October, before winter. Planting work must be completed before October 15th so that the bulblets have time to take root before frost.

Before planting, the bulbs can be pickled (disinfected) for 2 hours in a warm solution of pink potassium permanganate and slightly dried. You can soak for 3 minutes in a solution of table salt (1 tablespoon per 2 liters of water), then for 3 minutes in a solution of copper sulfate (1 teaspoon per 2 liters of water).

In the beds, holes or grooves 2-3 cm deep are made with a copper rod.

The depth of embedding bulbs in the ground is approximately 2 cm, since they are very small. The distance between individual seeds can be from 2 to 10 cm, between rows - up to 15 cm. Do not spill the soil after planting. The seeds are sprinkled with earth on top, and before the onset of cold weather they are covered with straw or the stems of flowers cut in the fall.

Annual garlic bulbs (single cloves) are dug up in July, when the greens are dry, preventing them from lodging. Then, in September, the single-toothed ones are already used for landing on the head.

Planting a single tooth to obtain a head

A single tooth already produces a full-fledged head containing an average of 6-8 teeth. Among the heads there will also be those that contain 4 large cloves. They can subsequently be used to reproduce healthy planting material.

Single teeth are sorted, large, even, bright ones are selected. They are often much larger in size than the teeth of even the largest heads. This type of garlic does not suffer from diseases; it produces large, beautiful specimens.

Single-toothed plants are planted in rows every 20 cm, retreating 10-12 cm from each other. In order for the head to be large, the place must be sunny, without stagnant water. Large bulbs are buried 3-4 cm into the ground, covered with a layer of mulch for the winter.

Single-toothed ones, like bulbs and cloves, are planted before winter: in late September-early October.

Features of care

Winter garlic loves water, sun, good food and oxygen. The soil around the plant should be slightly moist and loose, and weeds should be destroyed as soon as they appear. And when growing on the head, the shoots break off at the base as soon as the garlic begins to shoot.

These arrows are not suitable for producing bulblets; the quality of the seed material will be significantly worse. They can be used for cooking, pickling, infusion against plant pests, but not as planting material.

The process may seem too long. But this method is very simple, and the result is simply wonderful - with periodic, at least once every 5 years, renewal of the seed material, garlic does not get sick at all, gives a consistently excellent harvest with excellent taste.