How to save garlic seed? These seed-saving tips and methods you need to master
Garlic is a common seasoning in our daily life. It reproduces asexually, and the garlic clove is a modified lateral bud. Long-term asexual reproduction inevitably causes viruses to accumulate continuously in the plant, leading to seed degeneration. So how can this garlic seed-saving problem be overcome? Let's learn about it together.
1. Establish off-site seed-saving fields
Establish garlic seed fields with certain regional and cultivation differences. This can prevent garlic degeneration, improve the seed quality of garlic, and provide a certain off-site growth advantage. For example, exchange between mountainous areas and plains, exchange between dry areas and rice fields, exchange between vegetable gardens and grain fields, and off-site exchange in different directions within a certain range, such as between the south and the north. This can improve garlic yield and seed quality to varying degrees.
2. Select garlic bulbs free of pests and diseases as seed
When harvesting garlic for seed fields, plants with the morphological characteristics of the variety should be selected as the standard. Seed garlic is required to have leaves free of disease spots, plump bulbs, uniform color, a moderate number of cloves, and no pests or diseases. After selecting good seed garlic, tie it into small bundles and harvest and store it separately. Note here that the garlic bulbs must be thoroughly dried and stored in a cool, ventilated environment; otherwise, a high-temperature, high-humidity environment will reduce the vitality of the garlic buds and may even cause seed rot.
3. Use aerial bulbils as seed
To improve the seed quality and vitality of garlic, aerial bulbils can be used as seed. The method is: after garlic bolts, do not harvest the scapes, and delay the bulb harvest period by 15-20 days. When the scapes turn yellow and the aerial bulbils are mature, harvest them, and select those with a diameter greater than 0.4 cm to store through the summer. In autumn, open furrows on the beds for drilling or broadcast sowing, generally controlling about 120,000-150,000 plants per mu, then cover with about 2 cm of soil, firm the soil, and water. Subsequent management is the same as sowing cloves. Aerial bulbils generally produce single-clove garlic in the first year. Although this method can improve seed quality and prevent garlic seed degeneration, it is not suitable for some varieties. For example, garlic without scapes, or with thin and small scapes, or that does not form bulbils, cannot be propagated by this method.
4. Garlic with secondary growth cannot be kept for seed
Fields where garlic secondary growth occurs due to cultivation, climate, and other conditions cannot be used for seed saving. Garlic secondary growth is itself a phenomenon of seed degeneration, seriously affecting garlic yield and quality. If such garlic is again selected and kept for seed for one season, it will cause even more secondary growth and severe yield reduction, so it cannot be kept for seed.
The above is an introduction to garlic seed-saving tips. I hope it can help you. To learn more related knowledge, please follow us.