We are all looking forward to spring, we want to start looking after our beds soon. And the first such opportunity gives us winter garlic. The snow will not have time to come down, and its feathers are already sticking out of the ground, and immediately cause alarm in us with their constantly striving to turn yellow peaks.
How and what to feed garlic in spring
In early spring, when garlic is still at the seedling stage, it really needs our help more than ever. The teeth are rooted in the fall and now begin to grow green mass, and for this they need nitrogen nutrition. At the slightest lack of it, the leaves begin to turn yellow.
In the spring, garlic is just starting to grow bushes, our task is to help him, give food
Nitrogen in the soil has the property of dissolving and going into deep layers or evaporating from the surface. Therefore, applying in the autumn for digging humus and fertilizers does not exempt you from top dressing in the spring.
Rules for making root dressings:
- Do the first dressing as soon as you see the shoots that appear, the second after 2 weeks.
- Fertilizers are applied in dissolved form so that they immediately reach the roots and begin to be absorbed.
- Before pouring with a nutrient solution, soak the soil from the watering can with clean water, and water again after application, so that the nitrogen goes to the roots and does not evaporate from the surface.
- Immediately after top dressing, mulch the earth with humus, old sawdust, and last year's foliage.
Mineral fertilizers for spring top dressing
The easiest way to replenish the garlic diet with nitrogen is to pour it with a solution of urea (urea) or ammonium nitrate. Dissolve 1 tbsp. l one of these fertilizers and pour, spending 5 liters per square meter of bed.
Videos and articles on ammonium nitrate and urea appeared on the Internet. Urea (urea) is called organic. My opinion is utter nonsense. Indeed, urea was first detected in urine. But now it is obtained chemically from ammonia and carbon dioxide, this is part of the ammonia production. Organics is a natural fertilizer of natural origin, and not synthesized at the factory.
Urea - the most common and easiest to use mineral fertilizer containing nitrogen
Organic spring garlic dressing
Drizzle the garlic with infusion of mullein, nettle or bird droppings. From any of the listed raw materials, the infusion is made according to one technology:
- Fill the bucket 2/3 with nettles, mullein or droppings.
- Pour water to the top and mix.
- Keep in a warm place for 5-7 days, stirring occasionally.
For feeding mullein infusion, dilute with water 1:10, litter - 1:20, nettle - 1: 5; consumption - 3-4 l / m².
Video: feeding garlic bird droppings
About foliar and summer top dressing
Foliar top dressing can be done with all of the listed solutions (mineral or organic), but their concentration needs to be halved so as not to burn the leaves. Such food does not replace the main (under the root), but is only additional when the garlic urgently needs help. For example, they applied fertilizer, but it was washed with the next rainstorm, you do not know how much is left in the soil. Or the earth has not yet thawed, the roots have not started to function, and the feathers are already rising above the ground (they managed to germinate in the fall or during the thaw in winter) and turn yellow.
Garlic is fed not only in spring, but also in summer, a month before the expected harvest date, that is, in the middle-end of June. This time pour a wood ash mash up:
- Pour 1 cup into a bucket of water;
- shake;
- pour on 1 m² of beds.
Or buy a complex fertilizer for vegetables with a predominance of potassium and phosphorus. These elements contribute to the growth of roots and bulbs. Ready mixes are sold under the brands: BioMaster, Fertika, BioGumus, Agricola, etc. Each has their own instructions for use.
In the spring, feed the garlic with nitrogen fertilizer, and in the summer - containing mainly potassium and phosphorus. And no matter what it will be: organic or mineral. The main thing is to fertilize on time and observing the dosage.
