How Do Yellow Tips on Garlic Sprouts Form? Causes and Control Measures

Garlic sprouts are the green shoots that develop when garlic seedlings reach a certain stage. They grow in farm fields, have the pungent, spicy flavor of garlic, and are eaten for their tender garlic leaves and leaf sheaths. Garlic sprouts are rich in vitamin C as well as nutrients such as protein, carotene, thiamine and riboflavin. Their spicy taste comes mainly from the allicin they contain, and this allicin helps digest food. In addition, eating garlic sprouts can effectively prevent diseases caused by environmental pollution, such as influenza and enteritis. Garlic sprouts have a certain protective effect on the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular systems, can prevent the formation of blood clots, and can also protect the liver. They can grow in all regions, and they give high yields and good quality. For example, in places such as Linyi, Shandong and elsewhere, they are grown on a large scale with considerable economic returns.

Variety categories of garlic sprouts

There are many varieties used for scapes or for both scapes and cloves. Common local varieties include Linying garlic, Chaohua garlic, Kaifeng garlic, Luoyang purple-skin garlic, Cixian lihuang garlic, Shanghai Jiading garlic, Hebei Anguo garlic, Shandong Cangshan garlic, Jiangxi Duchang red garlic, Chengdu Jintang red garlic, and Antai garlic from Lai'an County, Anhui, among others. The scapes of these garlics are relatively well developed, but the bulbs are small. Scape-type garlic has strict light requirements, so when introducing it, trials must be carried out first and then it can be promoted; it should be introduced from regions with similar conditions, so that the chance of success is greater. Four-season garlic sprouts like fertilizer, and are especially suited to farmyard manure as the main source, along with chemical fertilizer.

With sufficient fertilizer and water, the yield is even more considerable. Four-season garlic sprouts have strong disease resistance, and generally have no pests or diseases; if diseases or pests appear, the control methods for garlic pests and diseases can be used as a reference. In places where winter is too cold, it is best to sow in spring or summer, and after winter begins, protective measures can be taken according to the situation. The method is: before frost, cut off the aboveground part, water thoroughly for overwintering, then cover with manure soil or wheat straw, so they can overwinter safely; another way is to dig out the root crowns of four-season garlic sprouts, store them in sand indoors, and transplant them after the ground thaws the following spring.

Dietary value of garlic sprouts

Garlic sprouts contain allicin, and their bactericidal ability can reach 1/10 that of penicillin. They have a good killing effect on pathogenic bacteria and parasites, and can help prevent influenza, prevent wound infection, treat infectious diseases and expel worms. Garlic sprouts are the green seedlings of garlic, and are eaten for their tender garlic leaves and leaf sheaths. Garlic yellow is the yellow garlic leaf cultivated without sunlight and under suitable temperature and humidity conditions. Garlic scapes are the flower stems of garlic. Garlic sprouts have a clear effect of lowering blood lipids and preventing coronary heart disease and arteriosclerosis, and can prevent the formation of blood clots. They can protect the liver, induce the activity of detoxifying enzymes in liver cells, and can block the synthesis of the carcinogen nitrosamine, thereby preventing the occurrence of cancer. According to the Compendium of Materia Medica, garlic sprouts have the functions of dispelling cold, reducing swelling and pain, killing toxic qi, and strengthening the spleen and stomach. Garlic sprouts have a certain protective effect on the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular systems, can prevent the formation of blood clots, and can also protect the liver, induce the activity of detoxifying enzymes in liver cells, and block the synthesis of the carcinogen nitrosamine, so they have a certain effect on preventing cancer. 

Causes of yellow tips on garlic sprouts and control measures

Causes of yellow tips on garlic sprouts:

During the seedling stage of garlic, the tips of the leaves wither, turn yellow and die, commonly known as yellow tips. As long as corresponding measures are taken in production, the occurrence of yellow tips can be avoided. The main causes of yellow tips: continuous cropping; root maggots damaging the roots; "weaning" (also called "mother withdrawal" or "mother rot") causing withered yellow, which is a physiological phenomenon.

Control measures for yellow tips on garlic sprouts:

First, crop rotation. Garlic cannot be continuously cropped, and field soil that has just grown garlic cannot be used to grow it again right away. Continuous cropping not only causes yellow tips on garlic sprouts, but also produces other diseases, and the growth is poor, affecting yield and quality.

Second, promptly control root maggots. General insecticides can control them.

Third, promptly apply "weaning" fertilizer. "Weaning" withered yellow is a common normal physiological phenomenon in crops; it marks that the tuber or seed of the sown crop, that is, the "mother body," has exhausted its nutrients, and the plant enters a vigorous growth period of absorbing nutrients from the soil, with increased demand for fertilizer and water.

Therefore, before "weaning," fertilizer and water must be applied so that the soil has enough nutrients to supply. "Weaning" fertilizer is generally best applied 20-30 days after sowing, with 1000 kg of decomposed human and livestock manure water and 15-20 kg of urea per mu. Apply 0.1% potassium dihydrogen phosphate solution as a foliar fertilizer, so that the occurrence of yellow tips on garlic sprouts can be reduced or avoided, and the later differentiation of flower scapes and garlic cloves can be promoted.