Common Problems in Garlic Cultivation and Their Solutions

Problems in Garlic Production and Countermeasures

Yongnian County is the only high-quality garlic production and export base in our province, with a planting area of 180,000 mu and an annual output of more than 100 million kg each of garlic scapes and garlic bulbs. In recent years, due to many years of continuous cropping, long-term asexual reproduction, and improper planting and management measures, the varieties have become severely degraded, pests and diseases have become serious, and yields have stagnated. To this end, we conducted a systematic investigation. At present, the main problems in garlic production in Yongnian County are as follows:

Severe Variety Degradation

The main reasons for variety degradation are as follows: 1. Long-term asexual reproduction. Garlic cultivation is all carried out by planting garlic cloves for propagation. Due to improper seed selection, small cloves, diseased cloves, and damaged cloves are often used as seed, so that while the offspring retain the excellent traits of the parent generation, they also retain the degraded traits of the parent generation.

2. Improper cultivation and management. During the seedling stage, due to too late sowing, or damage to the cotyledons, the plants grow thin and weak, resulting in small growth, low yield, and poor quality during the formation period of garlic scapes and garlic bulbs.

3. Influence of climatic conditions. Due to cold winters or warm winters and cold springs, combined with the widespread use of plastic film mulching, the soil humidity is high, which often leads to root rot, causing missing plants and broken rows or severe secondary growth. Garlic plants are short or clustered, and the garlic bulbs form single-clove garlic, few-clove garlic, small-clove garlic, or multi-clove garlic.

The main preventive measures are:

1. Use virus-free garlic seed. Use stem tips or root tip growth points for tissue culture, and carry out seedling cultivation under sterile conditions. The plants obtained are generally virus-free plants, which can then be planted in the field and retained for seed propagation. Generally, virus-free garlic seed can be used for 3-5 years.

2. Introduction from other places or timely seed replacement. When degradation is found, excellent varieties should be selected and replaced in time for renewal. Introducing garlic from other places can also effectively promote the recovery of seed characteristics.

3. Strict seed selection, purification, and rejuvenation. Before harvest, select plants that have already had their garlic scapes harvested and are robust and disease-free for seed retention. At harvest, select plants with round and regular garlic bulbs, free of disease, pests, and damage, and dry them together with the aboveground parts for 1-3 days, then bundle and tie them into bundles and place them in a cool place for pile storage or hanging storage. When sowing, again select garlic bulbs that are round and regular, large and undamaged, and free of pests and diseases, and remove the garlic skin and curved or too-small garlic cloves.

4. Use aerial bulbils for propagation. Aerial bulbils are the small bulbs growing on garlic scapes. Using aerial bulbils for propagation is sexual reproduction, which can effectively change the problem of garlic variety degradation. Aerial bulbils are small in size. After sowing in the first year, the result is single-clove garlic, which should not be discarded. In the second year, continue sowing with the single-clove garlic to produce normal, high-quality garlic scapes and garlic bulbs.

No Control Measures Taken Against Diseases

There are many garlic diseases, but they generally do not cause death, and because the population is large, disease in individual plants has little effect on yield. Most vegetable growers do not pay attention to the control of garlic diseases, resulting in a trend of worsening diseases year by year. Traditional ideas should be changed, and garlic diseases should be actively controlled to improve yield and quality. The main diseases occurring in garlic fields are: viral disease, rust, leaf blight, leaf spot, gray mold, and so on.

1. Garlic viral disease: Garlic viral disease can cause garlic bulbs to become smaller, and it is currently the most important disease causing hidden yield reduction in production. If virus-carrying garlic cloves are sown, disease can occur after emergence. It generally occurs more severely in plots with high temperature and drought, large aphid populations, or dry soil, lack of fertilizer, and overgrown weeds. Fields continuously cropped or adjacent to other crops of the genus Allium or the lily family are also prone to the disease.

2. Garlic rust: This disease mainly damages leaves, and secondly damages the false stem; the garlic bulbs of diseased plants become obviously smaller and are prone to splitting, and their commercial value is obviously reduced. The pathogen of garlic rust prefers warm and cool conditions with high humidity. If the temperature rises quickly in spring, with more cloudy and rainy days and a slight breeze, it is conducive to the spread and invasion of the pathogen. The disease is severe in plots with a high groundwater table, heavy clay soil, and low-lying land.

3. Garlic leaf blight: Garlic leaf blight is one of the most serious diseases on garlic. This disease mainly damages leaves and garlic scapes. In severe cases, diseased leaves dry up, and garlic scapes cannot be extracted, or when extracted, they break from the diseased part, with a yellow-white color.

4. Garlic leaf spot: Garlic leaf spot occurs severely in years with heavy rainfall. This disease mainly damages leaves, causing leaves to wither and die, and in severe cases causes the whole plant to wither and die.

Disease control techniques: