Growing garlic chives in winter and early spring is highly profitable; how can you grow them for a high yield?

    Garlic chives (blanched garlic sprouts) are golden-yellow, tender and fine, and rich in nutrients, and they sell well on the market in winter and early spring. As long as the techniques are right, you can achieve a high yield when cultivating garlic chives.

Garlic chives

    1. Choose a good site. You can use a light-proof cellar or a greenhouse. You can also build a semi-cellar yourself: generally dig a pit 2 m wide, with the length depending on the area to be used for garlic chive cultivation, and 1-1.3 m deep; pile the excavated soil around the pit to raise it by 20-30 cm. Then build a frame with corn stalks (or hard firewood stalks) and cover it with horse manure or soil so that it blocks light and keeps in heat, leaving an opening on the south side for access.

    2. Use good seed garlic. Garlic chives grow mainly on the nutrients stored in the garlic cloves, so choose large garlic bulbs with large cloves as seed garlic. It is best to choose 6-clove purple-skin garlic as seed garlic; the garlic chives it produces are thick, uniform, fast-growing and high-yielding.

    3. Sow at the right time. If sown at the end of December, they come to market around the Spring Festival. When sowing, spread a 7-10 cm thick layer of fertile fine soil on the bottom of the cellar and level it. Soak the garlic in clean water for 12-16 hours, take it out and drain it, and then it can be planted. Arrange them tightly one by one, and fill the gaps between the garlic bulbs with garlic cloves. After arranging them tightly, cover with 3-5 cm of fertile soil, then seal the cellar opening tightly.

    4. Management after sowing. The key to garlic chive growth is water and temperature. After sowing, spray water about every 3 days to keep it moist. If after spraying you find that the surface soil has sunk and the garlic tips are exposed, cover them tightly again with fine soil. The suitable temperature for garlic chive growth is 20-25°C. When the temperature is below 15°C, garlic chives grow slowly. If low temperatures occur, you can raise the temperature with an electric light or a coal stove.

    5. Harvest at the right time. After 28-30 days of cultivation, the plants can reach about 35 cm in height, and then they can be cut. Two days before harvest, spray water once. Harvest carefully, and do not bruise or cut the garlic bulbs. Spread the cut garlic chives out in the sun for a while at noon so that they change from “white-yellow” to “golden-yellow”, and then they can be sold. When the second crop of garlic chives in the cellar has grown to 5-10 cm, management work such as spraying water should still be done. After about 30 days, the second crop of garlic chives can be harvested.