How do you grow garlic at home? What are the method and timing?

Garlic is one of the essential auxiliary ingredients in cooking, and eating garlic regularly has a bactericidal and antibacterial effect, so many gardening enthusiasts wonder, how do you grow garlic at home? What is the method? What time is suitable?

1. The effects and contraindications of garlic

Garlic can be eaten as food and can also be used as medicine. The image below shows the nutritional composition table of garlic, take a look.

1. Garlic has a strong bactericidal effect: the sulfur compounds contained in garlic have an extremely strong antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effect, and have an inhibitory and killing effect on many kinds of cocci, bacilli, fungi and viruses, and it is currently the strongest antibacterial type found among natural plants.

2. Preventing and treating tumors and cancer. Elements such as germanium and selenium in garlic can inhibit the growth of tumor cells and cancer cells. Research shows that the population with the lowest cancer incidence is the population with the highest selenium content in their blood. According to the US National Cancer Institute, among the plants with the greatest anti-cancer potential in the world, garlic ranks first.

3. Detoxifying and cleansing the intestines, preventing gastrointestinal diseases.

4. Lowering blood sugar, which can prevent diabetes. Garlic can promote the secretion of insulin, increase the absorption of glucose by tissue cells, improve the human body's glucose tolerance, rapidly lower the blood sugar level in the body, and can kill various bacteria that induce diabetes due to infection, thereby effectively preventing and treating diabetes.

5. Preventing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Garlic can also prevent fat deposition in the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular systems, induce fat metabolism inside tissues, significantly increase fibrinolytic activity, can lower cholesterol, inhibit platelet aggregation, lower plasma concentration, increase the dilation of arterioles, allow blood vessels to relax, regulate people's blood pressure, and increase vascular permeability, thereby inhibiting the formation of blood clots and preventing arteriosclerosis.

6. Preventing colds: garlic contains a pungent substance called “allyl sulfide”, which has a good killing effect on pathogenic bacteria and parasites, can prevent colds, and relieve cold symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat and nasal congestion.

7. Anti-fatigue effect: it can effectively play a role in eliminating fatigue and restoring physical strength.

8. Anti-aging effect: certain components in garlic have antioxidant and anti-aging properties similar to vitamin E and vitamin C.

9. Protecting liver function: the trace element selenium in garlic participates in the aerobic metabolism of blood, thereby achieving the purpose of protecting the liver.

10. Boosting energy and treating impotence: research shows that garlic does indeed have an effect on treating impotence. Garlic can help blood circulation, which is very important for erectile function. It is probably because garlic can stimulate the body to produce nitric oxide synthase, and this enzyme is an enzyme required for male erection.

11. Anti-allergic effect: eating raw garlic every day can reduce the degree of allergic reactions, especially allergies caused by temperature changes. In fact, you can start eating raw garlic a few weeks before the allergy season arrives.

12. Preventing fungal vaginitis in women: fungal vaginitis is caused by fungal infection. Garlic contains a large amount of substances such as allicin and garlicin, which are good bactericidal substances with great bactericidal effects, and can inhibit the excessive growth and reproduction of Candida albicans in the vagina, so women eating more garlic foods in daily life can effectively prevent the occurrence of fungal vaginitis.

13. Improving sugar metabolism: research confirms that eating raw garlic can improve glucose tolerance in normal people, and can also promote insulin secretion and increase the degree of glucose utilization by tissue cells, so as to lower blood sugar levels.

14. Garlic is a pungent and stimulating food, so people with poor digestion, such as those with gastrointestinal inflammation, stomach problems, or diarrhea, should eat it with caution to avoid worsening the condition.

15. People with acne, body odor, or bad breath should also not eat it. People with insufficient qi and blood, or with a dry and hot constitution, should also not eat it.

2. Planting garlic

In fact, growing garlic at home is still very convenient and simple. As long as you have soil and a container for garlic to grow in, it is fine. Let's take a look below.

1. What time is suitable for planting?

Our country has a vast territory, so the sowing and planting time is different in different regions, but if you are planting at home, basically you can plant all year round. For large-scale outdoor planting: the most suitable period for sowing garlic is to let the plants grow to 5 to 6 leaves before overwintering. At this time, the plants have the strongest cold resistance, will not be frozen to death in the severe winter, and lay a good foundation for the plants to smoothly pass vernalization. South of the Yangtze River and its basin generally sow in mid-to-late September.

(1) In southern regions such as Anhui, Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Guangdong, autumn sowing is from September to October, and they can basically be harvested around May of the following year

(2) In northern regions such as Harbin, Urumqi, Taiyuan, Beijing, and Jinan, spring sowing is from February to March, and they can be harvested from June to July of the following year. Some hilly areas can sow around September and harvest in June of the following year.

2. What are the methods for growing garlic at home?

1. First, fill a flower pot or an unwanted bucket (other containers are also fine) with soil. It does not need to be filled too full, because garlic will still be planted later, so leave about the height of a garlic clove + 1 cm.

2. At this time, break the garlic apart and arrange the cloves with the sprout points facing up, not too sparse and not too dense.

3. Then cover the garlic with soil about 1 cm thick. You can use soil from the vegetable garden, soil from the riverbank, or nutrient soil bought online. Of course, fertile soil can make the garlic sprouts grow better.

4. After planting, water well, then place the planted garlic pot in a cool place and wait for it to sprout. Note that during the stem and leaf growth period, generally water again after the surface of the potting soil is slightly dry, to avoid waterlogging causing rot. If you want to harvest garlic scapes and garlic bulbs, then from the beginning of bolting you should appropriately increase the amount of watering to keep the soil moist, and then control watering before harvest.

e. After the garlic sprouts, it can be placed in a place with good light for care. Daily management is also very simple: water when dry. Generally, after each harvest of leaves, apply 1 application of decomposed organic fertilizer. Once the stems and leaves of the garlic are old and no longer suitable to eat, they can be pulled out. If you want to harvest garlic scapes and garlic bulbs, then continue normal management, applying decomposed organic fertilizer once every 1 to 2 weeks, and you can add phosphorus and potassium fertilizer.

After reading this, do you also feel like giving it a try? Those who like eating garlic should get moving right away!