How to save garlic seed? Mastering these tips is key

Garlic loses vigor because it is propagated vegetatively by replanting cloves year after year, resulting in weak, stunted plants, poor disease resistance, smaller bulbs and lower yields. In concentrated garlic-producing areas, seed selection, seed saving and purification and rejuvenation should be carried out properly.

Selecting bulbs and cloves Before harvest, select plants in the field, mark those that match the variety's characteristics, grow vigorously and are free of pests and diseases, and pick them out as seed at harvest. At harvest, also choose bulbs that are large and round, free of deformed cloves, undamaged, uniform in size, and with skin color, flesh color and clove division matching the variety's characteristics; dry, braid and store them separately; select again when planting, remove rotten, damaged, soft and yellowed cloves caused by heat, freeze injury or bruising, and plant large cloves; bulb and clove selection must be done every year, which can improve the seed stock's quality.

Seed exchange between locations Choose places with large differences in region and cultivation conditions to exchange garlic seed, such as mountain areas and plains at the same latitude, and grain-growing areas and vegetable-growing areas.

Propagation by aerial bulbils Aerial bulbils should be harvested when the garlic bulbs are fully mature and the plants have dried up, cutting off the garlic bracts with scissors and storing them separately. Sowing the next year produces single-clove garlic; after harvesting and storing it separately, sowing in the third year produces rejuvenated multi-clove garlic. Using this multi-clove garlic as seed gives a higher yield. In production, a certain area can be set aside in the garlic field, and aerial bulbils can be harvested every year, planted and kept separately, and cultivated for two years, which can solve the problem of self-sufficiency in garlic seed.