How to Grow Garlic in Pots and a Detailed Guide to Garlic's Benefits

Garlic not only has excellent culinary value but also very good medicinal value, with multiple benefits such as antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effects, protecting the liver, and inhibiting platelet aggregation. So, what methods are there for growing garlic in pots? What are garlic's benefits?

1. Introduction to garlic

Garlic, also called suan tou, da suan tou, hu suan, hu, du suan, and du tou suan, is the collective name for plants of the garlic genus. Garlic is flattened-spherical or short-conical in shape, with a grayish-white or pale brown membranous scale skin on the outside. After peeling off the scale leaves, there are 6 to 10 garlic cloves inside, with a strong pungent garlic odor and a spicy taste. It has a pungent smell, can be eaten or used for seasoning, and can also be used as medicine. The underground bulb divides into cloves and is classified by skin color into purple-skin and white-skin varieties. Garlic was introduced to China from the Western Regions during the Qin and Han dynasties and, through artificial cultivation and breeding, has anticancer benefits and is deeply loved by the public as a food.

2. Methods for growing garlic in pots

1. Preparation:

Balcony vegetable-growing pot: any size will do; garlic has low requirements.

Soil: It prefers loose, well-drained sandy soil. If harvesting garlic sprouts, it can also be grown in clear water. Here we mainly introduce soil cultivation for growing garlic.

2. Sowing:

Growing garlic is very simple. Household pot cultivation is generally mainly for harvesting green garlic sprouts, propagated by garlic cloves. Break the purchased garlic seed apart into individual cloves and insert them one by one into the soil, with a plant and row spacing of about 5-6 cm. Sprinkle a thin layer of soil, just enough to cover the garlic seed; it does not need to be too deep. Then water thoroughly.

3. Sprouting:

Garlic sprouts very quickly, generally sprouting within a few days. Keep the soil moist.

4. Fertilizing:

If you only eat garlic leaves, you basically do not need to fertilize before harvest, because the garlic cloves can provide nutrients. If harvesting garlic bulbs, in addition to applying enough base fertilizer, you should also apply topdressing in stages to continuously meet the needs of garlic growth and development, applying topdressing once every 5-7 days. If harvesting green garlic, then during the growing period lightly apply nitrogen fertilizer twice along with watering.

5. Harvesting:

When the green garlic sprouts grow to 20-25 cm, you can cut them with a sharp knife 2-3 cm above the soil surface, then fertilize and water, and you can continue harvesting 2-3 more rounds.

3. Benefits of garlic

1. Sterilization

The allicin contained in garlic has stronger sterilization ability than penicillin. It can effectively kill Staphylococcus, meningitis, pneumonia, Streptococcus, and has inhibitory and killing effects on diphtheria, dysentery, typhoid, tubercle bacillus, and Vibrio cholerae, among others. Note that eating garlic raw has a stronger sterilization effect than eating it cooked.

2. Virility enhancement

Garlic is beneficial to blood circulation, which is very important for erectile function. In addition, garlic also has the effect of tonifying the kidneys and can improve men's sperm quality.

3. Anticancer

The sulfur-containing compounds in garlic can promote the intestines to produce an enzyme that, by enhancing the body's immune capacity, blocks lipid peroxidation formation and resists mutation, preventing normal cells from transforming into cancer cells. At the same time, the selenium content in garlic can also kill cancer cells, thereby reducing the incidence of cancer.