Key points of two-season garlic cultivation techniques, master the method of growing two seasons in one year

Two-season garlic means growing one season of early green garlic and one season of plastic-film garlic within the year.

Cultivating garlic can effectively improve land utilization and achieve "three plantings and three harvests" or "four plantings and four harvests" in one year, while also significantly increasing income. According to surveys, the per-mu output value of second-crop garlic increased by 52%-46.6% and 111.1% compared with single-season green garlic and single-season harvested garlic respectively; the per-mu net income increased by 53.3%-45% and 76.9% compared with single-season green garlic and single-season harvested garlic respectively.

Key points of two-season garlic cultivation techniques:

1. Select varieties with good quality, high yield and strong spring growth habit. Generally, "Ershuizao" is chosen as the main green garlic variety.

2. Do a good job of seed treatment and strive for early sowing. Garlic growers generally adopt the method of cold storage to treat garlic seed. That is, break the garlic bulbs into cloves, put them into a constant-temperature fresh-keeping warehouse 10-15 days before sowing, and store them at about 0°C for 10-15 days to break the dormancy period of the seed garlic. The cold treatment time differs for different garlic seeds, and this must be carefully controlled in production.

3. Increase sowing amount and raise density. Early green garlic has a short growth period and small individual growth, so the seed amount should be appropriately increased to raise density. Generally, row spacing is 12-15 cm, plant spacing is 1.5-3 cm, and 12,000-15,000 garlic cloves are sown per mu.

4. Harvest in time and clear the stubble to sow harvested garlic. The growth period of early green garlic is generally 70-80 days, and harvesting should be completed by October 25 at the latest.

Harvested garlic (plastic-film garlic) is mainly grown for garlic bolts and garlic bulbs. Because its sowing time is delayed by 15-30 days compared with conventional cultivation, the bolting time of garlic is correspondingly 7-10 days later, so late-maturing varieties should be selected. The main cultivation technical measures for harvested garlic are: first, apply sufficient base fertilizer to promote growth with fertilizer. The "three fertilizers" should be applied together, that is, apply 1000-1500 kg of organic fertilizer (sheep, pig, poultry, human manure) per mu, about 50 kg of special compound fertilizer for garlic, and about 1500 kg of the surface fertilizer covering the previous crop (corn stalks, wheat straw) as base fertilizer; second, seize the time to sow and sow early at the right time. As soon as a plot of early green garlic from the previous crop leaves the field, land preparation and sowing should be done on that plot, minimizing the sowing period gap with conventional garlic, with special emphasis that the latest sowing period is the end of October; third, cover with film to increase temperature and strive for early seedlings. Generally, ultra-thin plastic film is laid after sowing and before emergence, with a dosage of 2-2.5 kg per mu, which can be directly pierced by garlic sprouts without manual film breaking. In warm winter years, the film may not be covered, and fertilizer and water methods can be used to regulate garlic growth; fourth, pay attention to applying more fertilizer for regreening and heavily apply fertilizer for bolting. Each time, 12-15 kg of urea can be applied per mu.