Home › Edible Gardening › Article

Proper preservation and storage of garlic scapes brings high value-added benefits

Edible Gardening 0 views
Garlic scapes should be harvested at the curved-scape stage, generally in mid-May in Shandong. The best harvesting method is pulling the scape, as this causes a small wounded area; if cut, the wounded area is large and prone to mold infection. After purchasing garlic scapes, transport them promptly to the storage site and avoid mechanical damage. When sorting the garlic scapes, remove the scape sheath, cut off the fibrous base portion, and discard damaged, rotten, overly swollen scape bulbs and excessively thin scapes. Then tie the garlic scapes into bundles, align the scape bulbs, and bind them straight and tight. Before loading into the warehouse, the warehouse must be disinfected by burning 5-10 grams of sulfur per cubic meter

Garlic scapes should be harvested at the curved-scape stage, generally in mid-May in Shandong. The best harvesting method is pulling the scape, as this causes a small wounded area; if cut, the wounded area is large and prone to mold infection. After purchasing garlic scapes, transport them promptly to the storage site and avoid mechanical damage. When sorting the garlic scapes, remove the scape sheath, cut off the fibrous base portion, and discard damaged, rotten, overly swollen scape bulbs and excessively thin scapes. Then tie the garlic scapes into bundles, align the scape bulbs, and bind them straight and tight. Before loading into the warehouse, the warehouse must be disinfected by burning 5-10 grams of sulfur per cubic meter, sealed for 24 hours, then ventilated. Before storage, the garlic scapes must be pre-cooled to bring the temperature of the garlic scapes to 0°C.

The storage methods are as follows:

1. Small-package controlled-atmosphere cold storage, i.e., the bag-sealing method. Place 15-20 kg of garlic scapes in a 100 cm * 75 cm polyethylene film bag (0.06-0.08 mm thick), generally with the scape bulbs at the outer end, and control the warehouse temperature at 0°C ± 0.5°C. Adopt a regular ventilation management method: based on gas measurement results from representative bags, when the oxygen inside the bag drops to 1%, or carbon dioxide reaches about 12%-15%, open the bag mouth for ventilation; when the oxygen inside the bag rises above 18% and carbon dioxide drops to about 2%, reseal it. In the early storage period, the ventilation cycle is about 10-15 days; in the middle and late storage periods, the ventilation cycle shortens to 7-10 days. If accumulated water is found inside the bag, wipe it dry with a dry towel during ventilation; this situation is caused by unstable warehouse temperature. Using this method, garlic scapes can be stored for 10-12 months.

2. Plastic tent controlled-atmosphere storage, i.e., the stack-sealing method. Use the rapid oxygen-reduction method to manually control the gas inside the tent in a 0°C warehouse. Place the processed garlic scapes in bamboo baskets or on bamboo racks, put slaked lime at the bottom of the tent, about 0.5 kg of slaked lime per 10 kg of garlic scapes to absorb carbon dioxide, place 2500-4000 kg of garlic scapes per tent, seal with 0.23 mm polyethylene tent, and immediately after sealing use industrial nitrogen to reduce the oxygen content inside the tent to 5%. Measure a gas sample every 1-2 days so that the oxygen inside the tent is not lower than 2% and the carbon dioxide content does not exceed 5%, and the tent can remain unopened. It can be stored for 8-9 months without opening the tent. During storage, be careful that the relative humidity does not fall below 90% to prevent dehydration of the garlic scapes.

Related Articles