Features of decorative garlic
Have you decided to create a new beautiful flower bed in your summer cottage and do not know which seedlings to choose for it? Plant decorative garlic - this plant will not only delight you with its beautiful and delicate flowers, which will perfectly decorate your site, but will also surprise you with its taste.
Features of decorative garlic
Characteristics of garlic
Few people know that garlic can be called decorative. By the way, it is practically no different from the usual one. The appearance and taste of vegetables are almost identical. The main difference lies in the color of the inflorescence of the plant. Depending on the selected species, the seedlings will amaze you with the variety of colors.
Popular varieties
Breeders have bred a huge number of species of decorative flowering garlic. The most popular among gardeners and truck farmers are Neapolitan, Moli and Narcisoflower. Let's consider them in more detail.
- The Neapolitan species is distinguished by its delicate color and shape of the inflorescences. Bell-shaped white flowers look great both as an addition to any landscape, and as an attribute of home decor.
- Moli variety or golden onion. The main distinguishing feature is that this plant does not need sunlight and can grow anywhere in your garden.
- Daffodil. Despite its name, this species is distinguished by a rich cherry-burgundy color. The plant reaches a height of 20-25 cm and ripens in late June and early July.
Plant application
Ornamental garlic is widely used in cooking, design and vegetable growing. In all countries of the world, this vegetable is used as an irreplaceable and very tasty spice, an original and beautiful attribute of landscape composition and as an excellent means for fighting insect pests.
Can decorative garlic be eaten? This question worries many gardeners, who decided to plant this amazing plant on their site for the first time. Fear not, despite its name, this vegetable tastes like regular garlic. Its arrows will perfectly complement any summer salad, giving the dish an original taste. They are also often used to prepare gourmet dishes.
Due to the amazing and unusual colors, designers are increasingly using the plant when creating landscaping, for example, a Chinese slide. Allium is in great demand today - flower beds made of decorative onions and garlic. Most often, designers use several varieties at once, which successfully complement each other in color and are the center of the landscape composition.
But gardeners very often use vegetable crops to prepare a solution that very effectively fights insects and protects plants from pests.
Since the seedlings fade quickly enough, the flower bed must be supplemented with other plants.As a rule, flowers such as peonies, hydrangeas, irises and chamomile are planted with decorative garlic. Florists also actively use these inflorescences in their work to create various flower arrangements. Moreover, both a green seedling and a dried one look beautiful.
Landing rules
Seat selection
Before choosing a place on your site for planting, keep in mind that this ornamental plant loves a well-lit and dry place. Most often, seedlings do not grow well in the shade. You cannot plant this vegetable crop after potatoes, tomatoes and cucumbers, since they not only very much deplete the soil, but also leave behind various pathogenic microbes that can easily infect other plants.
Garlic is planted on time
Landing dates
If you decide to grow a vegetable using seeds, it is very important to observe the timing of their planting. Dried buds of inflorescences are used as planting material. As a rule, they are planted in late autumn 1.5 months before the onset of frost. The seeds must be properly prepared for this procedure. Somewhere in a day, they should be soaked in water or a tincture of wood ash, selecting only healthy and whole ones for planting. To sow seeds, you need to make not very large grooves in the soil with your hands (no deeper than 5 cm), and pour sand there.
Soil preparation
If you decide to grow seedlings with the help of cloves, remember that the land for planting must be prepared in advance, at the end of summer. Dig over and overfeed. As a fertilizer, it is best to use 400 g of wood ash, 300 g of superphosphate and magnesium sulfate, as well as 10 kg of humus per 1 sq. m of land.
Disembarkation
The slices must be placed vertically in the groove. In order for the seedlings to winter well, the beds must be sprinkled with peat. In the process of planting, you can use wet newspapers - teeth are placed in specially made holes and covered first with humus, and then with soil. This is done so that in the spring the seedlings can calmly gain strength, and they do not interfere with the weeds.
Vegetable care
Care is an important component, although this plant is very unpretentious. There are a few things to follow if you want to grow beautiful decorative garlic.
- When sprouts sprout, they must be carefully and regularly weeded and watered. Allow enough time for these procedures. The plant should not be watered more often than 4 times per season, but the soil should be loosened as often as possible, especially after rain and intensive watering.
- If you want the plant to delight you with its fruits, then be sure to cut off the arrows on it, because if you do not carry out this procedure, then the garlic heads will be very small.
- The harvest is harvested in August, like the varieties of winter garlic. For 1 sq. m of the garden can be grown up to two kg of fruit.
- It is interesting that this vegetable crop can be grown simply as an ornamental plant that will perfectly complement your flower garden.
Common diseases
This vegetable, just like any other garden plant, is susceptible to diseases and attacks of various insect pests. Most often, ornamental garlic affects neck rot - a disease that manifests itself during storage of the crop. At first, the teeth become soft and then gradually dry out. In order for your harvest to winter well and safely, you need to thoroughly dry the vegetables in the sun before lowering them into the cellar.
The plant also suffers from downy mildew, a fungal disease that develops in the soil due to excessive moisture. The disease affects the entire plant, as a result of which it does not gain strength, shrinks and withers. Light green spots appear on the stem and leaves, and the plant gradually dries up.To prevent this from happening, periodically change the place where you plant the seedlings, and be sure to process the seeds before planting them.
If the plant has been attacked by insects (tick, moth, onion fly), preparations that can be easily found in any specialized store will help you save the crop. Growing this vegetable is not difficult at all. It will be a wonderful decoration for your plot of land, and will also bring an excellent harvest, which you can use for food with pleasure.