Want Hydroponic Garlic Cultivation? Here's the Way

Are you planning to grow garlic hydroponically? Don't worry, Pak Tani Digital has summarized the steps for cultivation.

Garlic ( Allium sativum) is one of the most important cooking spices and is present in every dish. Therefore, every household, restaurant, restaurant or hotel really needs garlic.

Garlic apart from being a kitchen spice is also known as a medicine. The Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans used garlic to treat various ailments and provide healing for patients.

Garlic is an introduced crop in our country. This kitchen spice plant comes from Central Asia, including China and Japan, which have a subtropical climate. From Central Asia, garlic spread throughout Asia, Europe, and finally the rest of the world.

Also read: Becoming a Favorite Vegetable, Here's How to Grow Watercress Hydroponically

How to Cultivate Hydroponic Garlic

Garlic can be cultivated by various methods. One of them is the hydroponic method. Is it difficult? Very easy. Let's try it.

Growing media

Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil. However, it is still possible to use organic matter (not soil) as a hydroponic garlic cultivation medium.

Planting media that can be used such as husk charcoal, cocopeat (coconut powder), or sawdust. The planting medium was chosen because it can absorb water well and has good aeration and drainage so that the planting media becomes better.

Preparing the Planting Installation

You can do hydroponic garlic cultivation by choosing a wick wick system. This is a simple and easy hydroponic system for doing garlic cultivation.

The principle is only to use the axis that connects the nutrient solution with the growing media where plants grow.

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Materials for making garlic hydroponic installations, you only need to prepare used drinking water bottles or plastic cups of used drinking water. Also prepare flannel as a wick. Prepare scissors or cutter to cut plastic bottles.

The method:

• Cut the plastic bottle into two parts, the top of the bottle with the lid (1/3 of the bottle) and the bottom of the bottle (2/3 of the bottle).
• Make a hole in the bottle cap with a cutter or scissors as a place to insert the wick from the flannel.
• The length of the wick is adjusted to reach the water at the bottom of the bottle. Due to its capillary power, flannel will raise water from below and wet the growing media so that nutrients are available for the growth of garlic plants.

Preparing Garlic Seeds

Garlic forms a bulb consisting of 8–20 cloves (scallions). The cloves are separated from one another by a thin and tough skin, and form a strong and tight unit. Inside the clove there is an institution that can grow through the top of the clove into new shoots.

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The seeds provided must meet the following requirements:

• Free of pests and diseases
• The base of the stem is full and hard
• Spicy cloves
• Large cloves for seeds 1.5 to 3 grams

Garlic to be planted is separated in cloves, or the tubers are separated one by one. Bulbs should be dried in the sun for several hours.

How to Plant

1. The installation that has been prepared from the plastic bottle, the bottle pieces that have a flannel wick are filled with planting media in the form of husk charcoal or coco peat. Planting media is needed as a place for the establishment of plants and a place for the development of garlic bulbs.
2. Prepare a nutrient solution of AB mix which is a hydroponic fertilizer. Take 5 ml of nutrient A and 5 ml of nutrient B and mix it with 1 liter. The amount of AB mix fertilizer solution that is made can be adjusted according to needs.
3. The bottom of the bottle is filled with a solution of AB mix (which has been diluted).
4. Then the top bottle with the wick is inserted into the bottom bottle piece which contains the nutrient solution. The wick of the flannel should touch the nutrient solution.
5. Make a planting hole in the planting medium that is on the part of the bottle that has an axis.
6. Chop the garlic cloves. The top 1/3 of the clove is removed and the bottom 2/3 of the clove is buried in the planting hole in the planting medium that has been made in an upright position.
7. Garlic leaves will appear and rise within 2 weeks. Garlic leaves are ribbon-shaped, 30–60 cm long.
8. Garlic needs sunlight. Try to get at least 6 hours of light a day.
9. Pay attention to the nutrient solution at the bottom of the bottle. If it is reduced, it is added again so that the plants can thrive and be healthy.

Harvest

Hydroponic garlic plant care is very easy. You don't need to weed and clean weeds. Things to watch out for are pests and diseases.

Several types of garlic plant pests are trips, leek caterpillars, and armyworms. Diseases that can attack are purple spot disease caused by fungi, soft rot disease caused by Erwinia spp bacteria and viral diseases.

With good observation and care so that it thrives, it will be able to prevent plants from being disturbed by pests and diseases.

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Hydroponic garlic can be harvested when it reaches the age of 90-120 days. The characteristics of ready-to-harvest garlic are 50% of the leaves have turned yellow or dry and the stems are hard.

That's 5 hydroponic garlic cultivation methods that you can do, good luck.