How to store garlic? Three simple and practical methods to teach you

Garlic belongs to the Amaryllidaceae family (allium genus) and is a bulb vegetable of the onion-garlic category. By color, it is divided into white-skin garlic and purple-skin garlic. Garlic is cold-tolerant; it can be sown from February to April in early spring and harvested from June to July; when sown in autumn and overwintered in the open field, it is harvested from May to June the following year. After storage, it can be supplied to the market year-round.

Storage characteristics: When the garlic scapes have been harvested for about 20 days, and about 1/2 or 2/3 of the leaves have turned yellow and the bulbs are fully swollen, this is the suitable harvest period for garlic bulbs. Irrigation should be stopped 3 to 5 days before harvest to reduce soil moisture and improve bulb quality and storability. Garlic has an obvious physiological dormancy period, which lasts as long as 2 to 3 months. After garlic emerges from dormancy, it tends to sprout when the ambient temperature is above 5°C, and tends to rot when above 10°C. After the dormancy period, controlling storage conditions with sub-zero low temperatures and dryness can also inhibit sprouting and rooting. Generally, the suitable storage temperature is around 0°C, and the relative humidity is around 70%. The freezing point of garlic is -0.83°C.

Storage methods: After harvest, garlic enters a dormant state after being fully dried in the sun, and can be stored and transported using woven bags. There are 3 storage methods as follows.

1. Hanging storage method: After the garlic is dried in the sun, select and remove mechanically damaged, rotten or shriveled bulbs, and braid them into strings. Between summer and autumn, place them in a temporary drying shed, a cool house or a ventilated storage warehouse; in winter, to avoid moisture and freezing, it is best to place them in a ventilated storage warehouse; the pseudostems of the garlic bulbs can also be strung together with wire and hung in a ventilated and warm place, allowing the bulbs to air-dry naturally. With this method, the bulbs are not prone to rotting, the quality is good, and it is simple and easy to do.

2. Cellar storage method: Choose a plot with higher terrain, dryness, solid and thick soil, and a low groundwater level to dig a cellar. Spread a layer of garlic at the bottom of the cellar, then a layer of straw, but the stacking thickness should not be too high, so as to allow ventilation. Install ventilation channels inside the cellar, and during cellar storage, check regularly and remove rotten or deteriorated garlic bulbs at any time. This method makes use of the cellar's low temperature and low humidity conditions to give garlic a stable storage environment. In cold regions such as Northeast China, the effect of using cellar storage is relatively good.

3. Cold storage method: Before putting the garlic into storage, first place it in a pre-cooling room to lower its temperature. When the product temperature of the garlic approaches 0°C, it can be put into storage. During storage, place it on shelves to allow ventilation. Keep the temperature inside the warehouse uniform and consistent. After putting it into storage, control the temperature in time. Depending on the packaging and stacking method, the warehouse temperature can be controlled between -1°C and -3°C.