Detailed Explanation of New Techniques for High-Quality and High-Yield Garlic Cultivation

With the improvement of people's living standards and the continuous increase in agricultural product exports, the garlic planting area has been continuously expanding, and the requirements for product quality have also been continuously rising. Through years of practice, we have summarized a set of high-quality and high-yield garlic cultivation techniques. The main technical points are:

1 Select excellent varieties

For garlic bulb production, varieties with large heads, few cloves, weak bolting ability, white and bright skin color, long dormancy period, and strong spicy aroma should be selected, such as Soviet Red Skin Garlic and Lunong Garlic; for garlic scape production, varieties with early scape emergence, long and thick scapes, and easy extraction can be selected, such as Ershuizao and others.

2 Land selection, land preparation and fertilization

For garlic planting, plots with loose soil texture, fertility, rich organic matter, pH value of 7-8, and good drainage should be selected. For autumn-sown garlic, the previous crops are mainly rice, corn, beans, melons, sorghum, potatoes, and cotton; garlic is not suitable for continuous cropping, nor should it be continuously cropped with onions, chives, and other crops. Deep plowing and fine harrowing are required, the seedbed surface should be leveled, and drainage should be good. For autumn-sown garlic plots, apply about 5000 kg of decomposed human manure or barnyard manure per mu, 100-150 kg of cake fertilizer, 10-15 kg of urea, 15-30 kg of phosphate fertilizer, about 30 kg of potassium fertilizer, or 20-30 kg of special garlic fertilizer, and ternary compound fertilizer can also be used. Spread evenly, then immediately plow the soil 20-30 cm deep, and harrow finely 2-3 times so that the fertilizer and the plow layer soil are fully mixed. Make beds: generally make beds 100 cm wide (intercropping) to 300 cm wide (pure cropping), with 5-15 rows of garlic in the bed, and row spacing of 20 cm. At the same time, dig the horizontal ditches, longitudinal ditches, and surrounding ditches in the field well to achieve free drainage and irrigation.

3 Timely sowing

The sowing period in Shandong is from late September to early October. Select excellent varieties and well-developed garlic bulbs. Before sowing, break open the garlic bulbs and select good garlic cloves without damage or disease as seeds. Based on an average weight of 4 g per seed garlic clove, sowing 30,000 plants per mu requires 120 kg of seed cloves and about 150 kg of garlic bulbs. Garlic cloves that cannot be sown in time should be spread out in a cool place. 1) Generally, furrow sowing is adopted, with a furrow depth of 5-6 cm. Insert the seed cloves upright into the loose soil at the bottom of the furrow according to the required plant spacing. After sowing, rake the furrows level so that the top of the seed cloves is buried 3-4 cm below the soil. 2) For sowing density, when the main goal is to cultivate large garlic bulbs, it is advisable to sow 30,000-35,000 plants per mu, generally with a row spacing of 20 cm and a plant spacing of 10 cm. After sowing, compact the covering soil so that the top is firm and the bottom is loose, then water.

4 Mulching with plastic film

Immediately after sowing, watering, and spraying herbicide, cover with plastic film. The film surface should be stretched tight, and the edges of the film should be pressed into the soil. Because the plastic film is stretched tightly over the bed surface, the tips of the garlic sprouts can pierce the film and extend out of the film surface. For the few that cannot pierce through, artificial perforation can be used to guide the seedlings out of the film.

5 Growth period management

During the germination period, sufficient soil moisture, looseness, and air permeability are required. During the seedling stage, in late autumn, irrigate 1-2 times according to soil quality and moisture conditions. If the base fertilizer is insufficient, 10 kg of compound fertilizer per mu can also be washed in with water or applied in combination with inter-row cultivation. Before freezing in December, irrigate once with freezing water, then cover the bed surface with a layer of grass manure, wheat straw, or corn stalks to preserve moisture and increase temperature. When garlic grows to 6-8 leaves, flower buds and bulbils begin to differentiate. At this time, the temperature has begun to warm up, and garlic enters the greening period. The covering should be removed in time, and a two-toothed hoe should be used for intertillage loosening and seedling hardening. Water the greening water early and apply 10-15 kg of urea per mu with the water, then shallow intertillage to preserve moisture and increase soil temperature. During the garlic scape elongation period and garlic bulb expansion period, ensure that the bed surface does not dry out, and apply a quick-acting fertilizer once appropriately according to seedling condition, applying 10-15 kg of ammonium bicarbonate per mu or 5-10 kg of urea and about 5 kg of potassium fertilizer.

6 Timely harvest

6.1 Garlic scapes. Garlic scapes can be harvested when they extend out of the leaf sheath and the tip bends slightly into a semicircular droop. In autumn-sown mild regions such as Shandong, the scape harvesting time is: early-maturing varieties around mid-April, and mid-to-late-maturing varieties in early May. Stop watering 5-7 days before scape extraction. On a sunny day after 10 a.m. and before 3 p.m., when the garlic scape has just begun to extend out of the leaf sheath and bends slightly, pull it up forcefully. If it still cannot be pulled out, the scape can be removed by making a cut with a needle from the middle of the pseudostem, that is, at the 3rd to 4th leaf from the top. When harvesting scapes, try to protect the functional leaves as much as possible, especially the top 1-2 leaves.

6.2 Garlic bulb harvest period. Early-maturing varieties are in mid-to-early May, and mid-to-late-maturing varieties are in early June. The maturity sign is that the bottom leaves turn yellow and dry, and the middle leaves begin to turn yellow. When harvesting, first use an iron shovel to gently dig at one side of the garlic plants, then pull them out by hand. After lifting the garlic, spread them out in rows with roots and leaves attached, with the garlic leaves covering the garlic bulbs, and dry them in the sun, then braid them into strings and hang them for storage or stack them for storage. In case of rain, cover with rain film to prevent rain damage.