Garlic Characteristics

Garlic is not only a piquant spice, but also a natural storehouse of useful trace elements. This vegetable is successfully used for cooking, strengthening the body, preventing and treating diseases. Consider the properties of garlic in more detail: its composition, useful qualities, growing and methods of application.

Characteristics of garlic

Characteristic Vegetable

Garlic is a perennial herbaceous plant that belongs to the onion family. It is usually divided into white and pink (red). The number of garlic cloves can be different (depending on variety) – from 3 to 20. The plant usually reaches 60 in height. cm, but there are also undersized varieties with a height of about 30 cm. The main feature of the vegetable is its sharp piquant taste and a specific pungent odor.

Not only cloves of garlic, but also its leaves, arrows and flowers are suitable for eating. The calorie content of the product is 149 kcal per 100 g. It contains an abundance of carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals, essential oils, valuable acids and organic compounds.In addition, in the composition of garlic you can find more antioxidants.

Healing properties

1. It has long been known about the bactericidal properties of garlic. Garlic contains many biologically active substances: volatile, sulfides, allicin. They kill pathogenic bacteria, help cope with viral, fungal and infectious diseases. (Garlic is extremely useful for acute respiratory viral infections, various colds and coughs, asthma, diphtheria, intestinal infections). In addition, preparations with this vegetable perfectly disinfect wounds and contribute to the rapid healing of tissues.
2. Thanks to its antioxidant content, the vegetable has the ability to counteract tumors. In addition, antioxidants give garlic the properties to slow down aging and the ability to better resist the body.
3. Garlic is used to normalize heart function (for example, with angina pectoris) and improve vascular function. Allicin contained in the vegetable helps to cope with hypertension and cholesterol. This is another reason why the use of garlic is recommended in the management of zozh.
4. Traditional medicine recommends the consumption of garlic for men. This vegetable successfully raises testosterone levels and, as a result, male sexual function. In addition, its consumption is a good prevention of inflammation of the genitourinary organs (male and female).
5. In folk and official medicine, the plant is often used to get rid of helminths.A clove of garlic per day is considered a good prevention of worms.

To strengthen the body

Calcium, magnesium, silicon, phosphorus, sodium, copper, iron, zinc , selenium and other trace elements, as well as valuable vitamins contained in this vegetable, contribute to the strengthening and improvement of the body. Daily consumption of a clove of garlic leads to improved immunity, it helps the digestive tract and gall bladder. This product is also recommended as an effective and environmentally friendly means of disease prevention. In addition, it is a good stimulant of appetite and metabolism in the body.

Thanks to the content of thiamine, the vegetable strengthens the nervous system and helps get rid of insomnia. Scientifically proven that garlic has the ability to improve memory, especially the elderly. The vegetable is good for dental and oral health, especially when baked.

Contraindications

When the stomach of garlic is sick, it is better to avoid

Garlic is contraindicated in people suffering from ulcers or gastritis. This vegetable should not be used for pancreatitis, kidney and liver diseases, as well as at the stage of exacerbation of hemorrhoids. Garlic is contraindicated in case of anemia (anemia), it is undesirable to consume it with bleeding. The product can not be eaten with epilepsy, as it can provoke another seizure.

Caution should be exercised while dieting and obesity. Contraindications to this vegetable also concern the period of pregnancy and feeding.

Garlic should not be abused (it is enough to eat 2-4 cloves a day). Before resorting to medicines based on this vegetable, infusions or decoctions, you should discuss this decision with your doctor and in no case do self-medication.

Methods of use

It is more beneficial to consume fresh garlic than frozen, dried, soaked or heat-treated. When processing (and even just long-term storage in a cut form), the vegetable loses its healing properties: most of the vitamins and beneficial compounds are destroyed.

1. Adding the vegetable to pilaf, spaghetti, vegetable and meat dishes, it’s better not to cut the cloves, but to press. This approach will help preserve the healing properties, taste and aroma of seasoning.
2. To strengthen the immune system, you can prepare healthy and tasty garlic oil: add chopped cloves to olive oil and strain in a day or two. The resulting infusion is recommended for salad dressing.
3. You can eliminate the garlic smell from the mouth and wash your hands from it using a slice of lemon or lemon juice. A fairly effective remedy is mint, as well as parsley. Dishes after garlic dishes should be cleaned with mustard or washed with a soap-soda solution.
4. The use of this product for medicinal purposes includes inhalation, which helps to get rid of colds and coughs. Garlic vapors have healing properties provided that a fresh, freshly grated vegetable is used. You can breathe in pairs at bedtime, covered with a towel, or simply put a saucer with water next to it, adding 1-2 chopped cloves (after a couple of hours, the contents of the saucer are replaced with fresh ones).
5. For external use of garlic gruel, use caution (for the treatment of boils, seborrhea, mycoses, etc.) or the means of which it is included. You can not use garlic too bitter varieties, since increased severity will provoke burns.
6. It is better to freeze the vegetable for the winter in the form of peeled cloves or chopped (separately or in combination with herbs). Do not freeze whole heads: defrosting them will be difficult to clean.

Varieties

Choose the appropriate garlic

Type of cultivation

Three types of garlic are distinguished by the method of cultivation.

Winter shooting garlic

The first group includes winter garlic, capable of giving a shooter (Sail, Lyubasha, Leader, etc.). Most often it is a burning vegetable with excellent yield, but low keeping quality.

Winter non-shooting garlic

The second group includes winter vegetables that do not form a shooter (Ukrainian White, Lekar, Saksky, etc.). This is a less sharp plant, also with high yields.

Spring garlic

The third group includes spring varieties that do not give arrows (Victorio, Elenovsky, etc.). They are distinguished by a mild, sweet, spicy taste and excellent keeping quality, but the yield of this group is slightly lower than the first two.

Size and shape

Vegetables are also divided into three groups, depending on the weight and size of the bulbs:

1. Small garlic, the head of which weighs less than 20 g, medium – from 20 to 30 g.
2. Large – the head weighs over 30 g.
3. Giant varieties, whose bulbs reach a weight of 250 g, and some – 500 g (Yellow giant, Alekseevsky, Gulliver, etc.). On average, you can get 200-300 kg of crop per one hundred plantings of this variety.

Of particular interest is the so-called onion garlic, the taste and appearance of which combines the qualities of each of the vegetables: and onions, and garlic (Rocambole, Mountain garlic, etc.).

Agriculture

Plot

The plot in the garden where it will be planted garlic should be smooth and well lit. The vegetable is very picky about the condition of the soil – the earth should not be dry or excessively wet. Best of all, a vegetable grows on small elevations (this gives it a lot of light and avoids waterlogging).Culture loves fertile soil (sandy loam or loamy soil – it must be generously supplied with organic fertilizers).

Garlic needs to be able to store

The site must be cultivated 1.5 months before planting (getting rid of weeds and fertilizing). According to the requirements of crop rotation, this vegetable is planted after early cucumbers and cabbage, early tomatoes and potatoes, early greens. The crop is planted with individual teeth or small onions (if grown on a green feather) in rows. The distance between the rows is 40-45 cm, between the holes – 7 cm; planting depth – 6 cm.

Care

Care measures include weeding and loosening the soil between rows, watering and top dressing. The formation of the roots of the plant occurs quite quickly, so it needs a well-moistened soil (2-3 irrigation per week). After the bulb is formed, it can be watered less often, watering is stopped 3 weeks before harvesting.

Signs of ripening

1. The scales become thinner and dry out, redden or acquire different color inherent to this variety.
2. When the arrows are cut off, the lower leaves of the plant become dry and the upper ones turn yellow.
3. On the arrows the shells of air bulbs burst, showing the seeds.
4. The main bulb of the plant becomes fully formed, with visible cloves, with dense and smooth scales.

Harvest

When signs of ripening are evident, the crop can be harvested. Selected vegetables are laid out in rows for drying and airing. In hot weather, the heads are covered with leaves to avoid burns. For storage, clean, dry and healthy onions are selected, cutting tops up to 5 cm, shooters up to 1 cm.

Storage

Typically, the heads are stored in a basement at a temperature of 10 ° C to 15 ° C. To preserve the vegetable as long as possible, it is placed in a place with a temperature of 0-1 ° C, regularly inspected and cleaned up spoiled and sprouted specimens. For daily use, you can make beautiful braids from garlic heads with your own hands. Suspended in the kitchen, such a scythe effectively complements the interior and will always be in the access zone. In addition, the vegetable can be stored in the refrigerator in perforated bags made of polyethylene.

Growing tips

1. When cultivating the garden, you need to plan the planting of garlic in relation to other crops in order to get the most benefit from their compatibility . The vegetable will bring additional benefits if it is adjacent to potatoes, strawberries or carrots. He will protect potatoes from late blight, and strawberries and carrots from harmful insects. It will also be useful in the vicinity of cucumbers and tomatoes, currants and raspberries.
2. Being a moisture-loving vegetable, garlic is perfect for hydroponic cultivation in greenhouses, greenhouses and even at home. However, for full growth, he needs good lighting. Illumination is desirable (especially in winter, when the night becomes longer than the day).
3. Sometimes garlic plantings get sick, which is expressed in the gradual yellowing of green leaves. The reason may be improper care or pests. To avoid the first plantings, they provide regular watering, temperature conditions and loosening. In order not to collide with the second, spraying with a solution of copper sulfate (1%) is used at the stage when young shoots reach 2-3 cm.
4. Often this vegetable is affected by green, blue or black mold. To avoid this disease at the storage stage, the heads are regularly inspected and cleaned, even if they are slightly damaged. It is necessary to ensure that the temperature and humidity in the room do not rise above normal. People use cloth bags pre-soaked in saline to store garlic.
5. It is not recommended to pull out the bulbs that are not fully ripened, because the nitrate level rises shortly before their final maturity.