What Is the Price of Garlic Seed? A Detailed Guide to Planting Methods
Garlic is also known as suan, garlic bulb, hu suan, and so on, and is the collective name for plants of the garlic group in the genus Allium of the family Liliaceae. By custom, what people usually call "garlic" refers to the garlic bulb, which is flat-spherical or short-conical in shape, with a grayish-white or light brown membranous skin outside. It was introduced to China from the Western Regions during the Qin and Han dynasties, and is now widely cultivated throughout China. Let us take a look together at garlic seed prices and planting methods below!
How much does garlic seed cost?
The price of garlic seed is about 6 to 10 yuan per jin, though prices vary somewhat by region and variety. There are quite a lot of cultivated varieties of garlic in China, classified by color into red-skin, white-skin, purple-skin, and so on. The main cultivated varieties include the Shandong Cangshan garlic variety group, Jilin Baimaya, Shandong Chengwu garlic, Shandong Jinxiang white garlic, Jiangsu Taicang white garlic, Shaanxi Caijiapo purple-skin garlic, Heilongjiang Acheng garlic, Sichuan Ershuizao, Yunnan red (white) Qixing, Tianjin Baodi six-clove red, and so on.
How many jin of garlic are produced per mu?
The yield of new garlic land is about 2,500 jin per mu, and about 2,000 jin per mu for land that is frequently cropped continuously. In Jinxiang, the main garlic-producing area, apart from Huayu, Maji and Gaohe, where yields are a little higher and some plots reach 2,000 jin, the other townships generally average between 1,600 and 1,700, and in Miaomiao and Yushan many villages are around 1,500 jin.
Excellent Varieties of Garlic
1. Cangshan Puke garlic: the main variety grown in the Cangshan garlic production area, with a growing period of about 240 days. It is a mid-to-late maturing variety with strong adaptability, fairly good cold tolerance, strong growth vigor and good quality, producing about 1,500 kg of garlic bulbs and about 400 kg of garlic scapes per mu.
2. Cangshan Cao garlic: Cangshan Cao garlic is one variety within Cangshan garlic, an early-maturing variety with a growing period of 230 to 235 days. Its cold resistance is poorer than that of Puke garlic, its growth is vigorous, and the yields of garlic bulbs and garlic scapes are comparable to those of Puke garlic.
3. Cangshan Gaojiao garlic: this variety is also one of the Cangshan garlic varieties and belongs to the late-maturing type, with a growing period of more than 240 days. It has strong growth vigor and fairly good cold tolerance, and its garlic bulb yield is higher than that of Cangshan Puke garlic and Cangshan Cao garlic.
4. Jiaxiang garlic: a local variety of Jiaxiang County, with strong plant growth vigor and weak tillering ability. Its growing period is about 260 days, and it generally produces about 250 kg of garlic scapes and about 1,500 kg of garlic bulbs per mu.
5. Soviet garlic: Soviet garlic was introduced from the former Soviet Union in the 1950s and is now widely cultivated in various places. The plants have strong growth vigor and moderate tillering, with a growing period of about 230 days. It has strong disease resistance and high yield, producing 1,500 to 2,000 kg of garlic bulbs per mu, but its quality is average, so it is suitable for growing green garlic sprouts.
Planting Methods for Garlic
1. Choosing and preparing the land: garlic is best planted in fertile, loose, well-drained sandy soil, and continuous cropping should be avoided as far as possible. Generally, deep plowing is done to 15 to 20 cm, and together with deep plowing, 1,000 to 1,500 kg of barnyard manure is applied per mu. Beds about 2 m wide are built and drainage ditches are dug well.
2. Sowing time: the sowing time for garlic differs according to its use. For growing garlic bulbs, sowing from early September to early October is suitable, and no later than mid-October at the latest; for growing green garlic, sowing in mid-to-late August is best.
3. Sowing method: garlic is sown by hole planting, with 2 to 3 cloves per hole, a spacing of 17×20 cm, and a depth kept at 0.02 to 0.3 m. After sowing, cover with a layer of plant ash or pour on a layer of mud slurry. The sowing rate is 120 to 140 kg per mu.
4. Fertilization management
① Base fertilizer: apply 20 to 25 kg of ammonium bicarbonate, 8 to 10 kg of superphosphate, 4 to 5 kg of potassium chloride, or 15 to 20 kg of compound fertilizer per mu.
② Seedling fertilizer: after full emergence, when the third leaf first appears, apply 1,500 to 2,000 kg of livestock manure and urine per mu, with 5 kg of urea added.
③ Winter fertilizer: winter fertilizer is a supplementary application made from this winter solstice to the following spring, applying 10 kg of ammonium bicarbonate and 1,000 to 1,200 kg of human and livestock manure per mu.
④ Bolting fertilizer: during the garlic bolting period, apply 15 kg of urea per mu.
⑤ Foliar spraying: during the period of rapid garlic bulb swelling, spray a 0.2 to 0.3% potassium dihydrogen phosphate solution per mu, preferably around Grain Rain.
5. Field management: after the garlic seedlings emerge uniformly, use bamboo strips to move and thin the seedlings. After thinning, fertilization should be accompanied by timely loosening of the soil and weeding. Loosen the soil once around Great Cold, and promptly clear the drainage ditches in late February of the following spring. If drought occurs, irrigate the furrows in time to combat the drought.
6. Pest and disease control: the main pests and diseases of garlic include blight and coffee bean weevil. For blight, use 100 g of 25% carbendazim mixed with 50 kg of water per mu for spray control; for coffee bean weevil, fumigation with aluminum phosphide at 3 to 5 g per cubic meter can be used for control.