Garlic Information
Garlic Germination & Storage

Garlic has an internal germination. Garlic with long internal germination has no commercial value. The harvest time of Henan and Shandong garlic is in June. At the time of harvest, garlic germination is only 10% of the total garlic clove length. This situation can be kept for 3 months without significant change, so it is safe to put garlic outside from June to the end of August.After the end of August, we have to keep our garlic in the cold storage warehouse to avoid the germination growth.

Using reefer containers should be able to avoid humidity damage and sprouting, because normally reefer containers set the temperature at -3 C or 27 F. This is the safe temperature to keep the garlic internal germination from growing. We also put an independent temperature recorder inside the container to keep a record of the temperature change during the voyage.


Garlic internal germination will not grow or sprout at a temperature range either above 25 C or below 0 C. If the temperature is between 0 C and 25 C, its germination will easily grow. So if the local temperature in your country is above 25 C, it should be safe for at least one month to 45 days after unloading the container. In other words, you have a 30-45 day shelf life if only your local temperature is above 25 C. Otherwise the shelf life is much shorter.
Normally shipping companies like Maersk sets the humidity at 65%. Ventilation can be set at closed at the middle or late stage of the season because the skin of the garlic has already become dry. But once you unload the garlic from reefer containers, you must stack them under a good ventilation. Stack them rather loosely instead of tightly. If
possible, get an electric fan to blow wind on them.

Sometimes garlic may get burnt. People call it burnt garlic or waxed garlic. This is because the garlic may have got too strong sunlight or being stored at too low temperature in the cold storage. If the reefer container is always plugged in with electricity at the set temperature and humidity, it will not go bad during the transit to the destination. 

We have many years of experience to ship good quality garlic, and help you to store garlic in your country, to avoid any germination or burnt garlic.

Some problems about burnt garlic:

A: burnt garlic in summer

The garlic which may change to be burnt garlic in summer is very small in quantity. The main reason of burnt garlic happen in summer is very high temperature, when the temperature is more than 36 degree, the fresh garlic is very easy change to be burnt. If it change to be burnt, we can find their skin is green. Another reason is when we purchase a large quantity of garlic and put them together, if no good ventilation, part of garlic in the middle is very easy to change burnt, or when we cover the plastic film on the garlic
in sunlight, the top of garlic is easy to change burnt, because in this time, the temperature is very high, so we should avoid garlic to change burnt in sunlight.

B: Burnt garlic in cold storage

1.   One reason is that the garlic have already changed into burnt garlic before putting them into cold storage.

2.   We always start to put garlic into cold storage from the end of June to 20th August, because the temperature is very high outside, when we put a large quantity of garlic into cold storage one time, in order to speed the refrigeration, the owner of cold storage always set at a very low temperature, part of garlic near the refrigeration fan is easy to change burnt. Another factor is some new cold storage owner have poor experience on temperature control. They always set the coldhouse at a very low temperature, if garlic is kept at a very low temperature for a long time, many of them is easy to change burnt.

3.   In order to keep the humidity in cold storage, some cold storage owners always pour water on the floor, when the garlic at the bottom touches the water, it is easy to change burnt.

C:we can see color is different of burnt garlic:

Garlic have changed burnt before putting into cold storage, its color is dark. Garlic have changed burnt after putting into cold storage, its color is light.


It is very difficult to find out burnt garlic because sometime only 1 clove or some cloves of a bulb change to burnt garlic.

The ways to distinguish the burnt garlic:


1.   We must check the garlic material before producing. When we go into the cold storage, if we can smell a very strong odor, we are sure that this garlic must have burnt garlic in it, so we mainly check the garlic near the fan and the bottom of cold storage.


2.  If we find the garlic change to be soft, or one or more cloves change to be soft in one bulb, it maybe burnt garlic, we must take care of it carefully.


3.  We can keep the garlic in hand and smell it. If we can smell a strong odor, we are sure it is burnt garlic. This way is the best way to check the burnt garlic.


Note: we must check more, touch more, smell more so that we can find it.

Reefer garlic always start to be shipped from the middle of Sep. to the end of next May, it almost lasts 8 months, but reefer garlic is very easy to have many quality problems. So the inspection of reefer garlic is very important, the most difficult is to distinguish the burnt garlic and germinated garlic.

Reason of germination garlic:


1.  If reefer garlic put them on out side of cold storage for long time, its germination start to sprout.


2. The owner of cold storage can not control the temperature in good condition. Consequently, the garlic will sprout in cold storage.


3.  If we put garlic into cold storage too late, just like after 20th August, the temperature will change to be low, the garlic will sprout. Before packing the reefer garlic, we must check the material carefully in cold storage.


We must pay attention to the following points after the good quality material being taken out from cold storage:

1.  from Oct. to Dec.: the temperature is still high during this time, when reefer garlic being taken out from cold storage, there are many water attached on skin of garlic, so the garlic is easy to get cracking, so we can not put them outside for a long time. We must select and transit it immediately, especially prepacked garlic will take a very long time to pack, so we must put them into cold storage again after finishing packing some part of them.

In this time, because garlic has just been put into cold storage, it is not easy to sprout.

2.  From Jan. to Mar.: the temperature is very low, reefer garlic can stay 5-8 days without germination, but we must take care that the garlic will be frostbited at low temperature.

3. From April to end of May: This time is very dangerous to pack reefer garlic, because the garlic have stored for so long time, most of problem will occur, so reefer garlic only can stay 24 hours outside the cold storage. It is better to finish packing and transit in one day, if we produce small packing garlic, we must put them into cold storage again, but we must be careful that all the cartons can not be put together, the temperature must be set lower than garlic in bags, if we have put all carton together, the garlic in the middle and at the bottom will easy to sprout, so we must check the garlic carefully before loading container.

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