Detailed Explanation of Key Points in Selenium-Enriched Garlic Cultivation Techniques

Selenium is an essential nutrient element for humans and animals and an important element of life. Selenium deficiency in the human body can lead to more than 40 diseases, such as Keshan disease, Kashin-Beck disease, hypertension, coronary heart disease and various cancers.

The Horticultural Experiment Station of Northeast Agricultural University used Acheng purple-skin garlic as the garlic, and the liquid selenium-containing fertilizer was Xin Fu Xi Kang. Xin Fu Xi Kang is a high-efficiency organic foliar fertilizer composed of the rare element selenium and natural humic acid, zinc, boron, aluminum, germanium, etc.

The treatments used foliar spraying, root irrigation, foliar spraying combined with root irrigation, seed soaking, and seed treatment at concentrations of 250-fold solution, 1000-fold solution, and 4000-fold solution. The seed soaking treatment involved soaking in solutions of different concentration ratios for 24 hours before sowing, while foliar spraying, root irrigation, and foliar spraying combined with root irrigation were carried out at the garlic turning-mother stage and the bolting stage respectively.

Application of Xin Fu Xi Kang to garlic showed that garlic treated by seed soaking with 100-fold solution had the highest selenium content within the safe edible range, making it the best selenium supplementation method.

While the yield per mu of selenium-enriched garlic increases, its selling price is also higher than that of ordinary garlic. When prepared at a 1000-fold concentration, the amount used per mu is 66 ml, with a cost of 8.00 yuan, while the price of selenium-enriched garlic is 10-15 yuan/kg higher than that of ordinary garlic, and one mu yields 350-525 yuan more than ordinary garlic. It can thus be seen that the economic benefits of selenium-enriched garlic are very significant.