Removing arrows from garlic
The arrows in garlic are green shoots, in the inflorescences of which seed bulbs ripen. When there is no goal to grow a vegetable crop to obtain seeds, it is only important to achieve high yields, gardeners remove the shoots to get large heads of garlic. They do it at a certain time and according to certain rules.
Garlic arrows
Why remove arrows
In the winter garlic planted in autumn, at the very beginning of summer, feathers are fully formed and green arrows with inflorescences at the top begin to grow. The beginning of the arrow is taken in the middle of the foliage, from the neck of the bulbs. As a result, all useful biological elements begin to be redistributed from the bulb towards the shoot, supporting its active development, therefore, among the main reasons why it is necessary to cut off the arrows from garlic, they note:
- a decrease in the yield of vegetable crops by about a third,
- mincing of heads of garlic,
- a delay in the ripening of the crop for 2 weeks or longer.
Arrows of garlic require a large amount of nutrients, therefore, for the full ripening of seeds, there is an outflow of biologically active substances, a delay in the development of garlic heads.
Many gardeners note that if you remove the main amount of garlic shoots, the bulbs begin to develop and grow again, but some prefer to leave several green shoots that serve as an indicator of the ripening of garlic and determine its degree of ripeness, getting sowing material from the left seed bolls in the future.
Removal timeline
It is imperative to remove arrows on time
If you need to cut off the arrows from the garlic, choose one of two approaches:
- In the first case, it is recommended to start the procedure for cutting off the green shoots as early as possible, as soon as they become noticeable. As a result, plant growth and head formation occurs without interrupting developmental stages. This method of cutting off the arrows has a drawback: even early plucking of a barely appeared shoot does not prevent its further growth and development without the apex. The procedure for cutting off the arrows has to be repeated, sometimes more than once.
- In the second case, it is advised to pluck the arrows when they begin to twist. This method of removal excludes their secondary appearance, because they do not have time to grow again until the time of harvest. Here, too, there is a drawback: during the time of full development until the moment of twisting, the green shoots have time to take a lot of useful biological elements from the plant, which will certainly affect the size of the future crop and the period of its ripening.
The most optimal time for removing the arrows is the time when they reach a length of about 10-15 cm. In this case, the likelihood remains that they will not have time to grow again. At the same time, the green shoots have not yet managed to take many mineral components from the plant.
Removal rules
There are several methods of how to correctly cut off arrows, which are not fundamentally different from each other.The main rule is accuracy during the procedure in order to preserve the integrity of the plant:
- the arrow is not pulled out in order to avoid tearing the stem of the plant, which leads to its subsequent drying out and affects the yield,
- the shoot is not pulled out of the stem, so as not to damage the root system and not to pull out the plant along with the root.
In the first version, they are not torn off, but removed by breaking off with hands or pinching off at the very base, where the arrow is more fragile.
Better to work with a pruner
This removal method has its drawbacks:
- when pinching off, an uneven cut is formed, which takes a long time,
- there is a danger of damaging the plant along with the root system.
The second option for removing garlic shoots is carried out by cutting off with pruning shears or garden shears, especially when the grown arrows are already stiff. Young ones are easily trimmed with simple office scissors.
Regardless of the method chosen, the best time to harvest garlic arrows is in the morning. It is more expedient to do this in sunny weather: this will allow the cut of the plant to dry out. The shoot is not cut off at the very base, but at a distance of about 1 cm from it. This prevents damage to the stem.
When you don't need to delete
Under some circumstances, the garlic shoots are not removed.
It is not necessary to cut off the arrows from the garlic if it is necessary to rejuvenate the culture. The rejuvenation procedure is carried out every 3-5 years in order to get good yields.
Shoots of winter garlic are capable of producing several hundred bulbs with seed.
To obtain seed material, several shoots are left in the summer for their further ripening. They need to grow until mid-August, it is by this time that the seeds ripen. Plants are collected in bunches and hung to dry for 3-4 weeks. Dried bolls are cut from the stems, placed in paper packaging and stored until planting.
Application of shoots
Gardeners actively use cut garlic shoots in their personal plot as a remedy against some pests, including aphids and spider mites. To this end, they are insisted in water for a week at the rate of 0.5 kg of arrows per 3-liter volume of liquid, then filtered and poured with water to a 10-liter volume. The resulting liquid is sprayed with garden crops at four-day intervals.