Without pesticides, use the mites to treat the insects? It's not something new, it's a new dynamic of garlic growing in 2025 -- a combination of garlic's natural deworming properties and green control techniques that are quietly changing the whole industry。
In the garlic field of the town of garsenshan, penzhou, the old farmer who planted garlic for 20 years, had two contrasting fields on his face with a smile: “on the left is a garlic field with no earth-born mites and on the right is a piece of land.” he crouched down and pulled a leafy, yellow-haired garlic seed, and with his hands he pulled the root soil, and a few tiny insects moved at the root, and he said, "look, the roots are all chewed up."
The larvae is commonly known as the “blackhead”, known as the "blackhead." these underground pests, which are less than 2 mm long, together with root mites, jumpers and nematodes, constitute the “triple head” that harms the garlic root。
The great wisdom of the mites: how the mites protect the garlic field
What the hell is that? Agricultural technology promoter jia just pulled a can out of a box containing barely visible micro-organisms, “this is not a pesticide, it is a living natural enemy. It's called the sword mau pa tzu. It's called the common name. It specializes in the feeding of the larvae (blackhead maggots), root mites, jumpers and nematodes in soil - mites and mites.”
The core logic of this technology is to rebuild a healthy micro-ecosystem between garlic roots. The native saber mites have the ability to actively search for the chemical odour of the pests, as accurate as “cats and mice”. It does not harm earthworms, eats the ground pests, throws an acre of 30,000 such “enemy guards” to keep the pests from growing up throughout the season。
Second-level researcher at the fujian academy of agricultural sciences, a long-term researcher on natural enemy control, zhang yan, explained: “the hazards of underground pests are twofold. They eat garlic, causing tissue damage, and more importantly, creating wounds and opening the way for invasion of pathogens. Many farmers did not discover anomalies until the top of the land was yellow, aging and downside, but the underground part was often severely damaged.”
By contrast, traditional chemical control is much more problematic. The announcement was made: “the original acre was to be given between five and six times a year, at a cost of $500 for pesticides alone.” the key is that the effects are still unstable — the medicine is sprayed on the side of the leaf and it can't reach the root. The pesticides are mostly deposited into the soil, soil sheeting, disassembly, earthworms are killed, micro-organisms are destroyed and pests are more prevalent because of the killing of natural enemies。
Green defense revolution from the ground to the ground
It's only the beginning of the mites, and modern agriculture plays a whole set of green defensive combinations. In the demonstration fields of the village of cao tun village in pei village, shui county, a long, strong, well-established and full of garlic stock using integrated techniques of soil fumigation + immuno-inducing is in stark contrast to conventional plantations。
The executive director of the hainan jung industries, mr. Ying li, introduced the technology package, which was applied to soil fumigation products during sowing by mixing seeds and coverings in order to eliminate pathogens from the soil from the source; re-creaming and expansion periods were combined with the application of plant immunosuppressants to the leaf to improve garlic's own disease resistance and resilience。
What is soil fumigation technology? The reduction of long-term pesticide use of crops from the source is a key means of combating endemic diseases and achieving ecological rehabilitation of soils through the application of fumigants to the soil and the efficient eradication of pathogens, nematodes and weed seeds under closed conditions。
A workshop is being held on the ground for the green cultivation of garlic, a professional cooperative of farmers in the town of peng, in the village of shibuya, rongfeng street. The team leader, a super-researcher at the horticultural institute of the sichuan academy of agricultural sciences, announced the results of an on-site survey: “acre production of 406. 3 kg/acre, 33. 7% more than conventional production!” at the same time, fertilizer and chemical pesticides were reduced by 20-60 per cent and 30-50 per cent, respectively, at demonstration sites。
The grower zheng li pointed to his field and said, “my field is almost half an acre, and it's only 20 pounds of garlic. For whatever reason, the garlic is growing, it doesn't grow, it disappears in the field.” she pulled a couple of garlic seedlings out of the field, some of which were covered in black, "this is also black head disease."
Zheng li's field problems have been encountered by many growers. The expert in the key technical research and demonstration position of the sichuan vegetation innovation team “reducing harm” and a researcher at the municipal academy of agroforestry told the journalist: “cheng li says that the phenomenon of growing seedlings disappears, and the garlic farmer calls it `returning seedlings'. After years of research mapping and pilot demonstration, we have found the reasons for these two problems, and the research has brought together a combination of the two-declining green efficiency farming techniques.”
The innovative programme “immuno-inducing technology + soil fumigation technology” to assist in increasing the production of chili peppers has been effective at the qingzhou city's demonstration site in western chuma village. The programme uses soil fumigants to eliminate bacteria from the soil from the source, and works with plant immunosuppressants to increase the self-resistence of peppers and to form a stereo-control system。
New thinking on modern agriculture behind green control
In its activities, the president of china's association for the development and application of pesticides in china, zhou pu, stressed the need to maintain technological innovation, speed up the promotion of environmentally friendly soil fumigation products, construct a green control system for the whole cycle of garlic, strengthen regulatory and regulatory services, deepen training and outreach, and comprehensively upgrade farmers'scientific safety medicines and green production capacity。
In the jiangdu district, the entire 100-acre wheat field “unmanned” agricultural work, such as pest control and environmental monitoring, was carried out efficiently by smart technology equipment in the field. The smart (ai) worm detector is capturing field pest dynamics in real time, automatically identifying pest species, statistical quantities, data uploading cloud platforms in real time through the ai image recognition technology, and the telekinetic one-way backstretch trap is operating silently, with precision in the capture of wheat rheumatism spores in the air。
Solar panels provide clean electricity for all equipment, guarantee 24-hour uninterrupted operation and truly achieve green, low-carbon, efficient stewardship. The field meteorological (facilitation) monitoring station collects real-time data on field temperature, humidity, wind speed, soil condition, etc., the pems monitors field micro-environment changes around the clock, and the data are synchronized in real time to the management terminal to achieve “early knowledge of drought, early warning of floods, early disposal of disasters”。
From treatment to prevention
The promotion of green control technologies also faces challenges. Liu yi, deputy director, plant protection quarantine station, henan province, pointed out that garlic cultivation was currently facing increasing difficulties in pest and grass prevention, awareness and skills of scientific precision medicines to be upgraded, and inadequate coverage of green prevention and control technologies. Initial costs may be higher, and some farmers still have doubts about the new technology。
But look at penzhou's figures: the total investment in growing an acre of garlic is about $6,000, while the amount of garlic and garlic acre production is about 1,200 pounds, with a finely managed gross revenue of 10,000 yuan per acre. For each planting and harvesting season, the local grower base employs 200 local villagers per day at a cost of $180 per person per day, which lasts approximately 20 days, allowing villagers to achieve a steady increase in revenues at the door。
Soils are healthy, pests are scarce, yields are up, quality is improved and prices are naturally better sold. The local grower's book tells reporters: “i used this program for the fourth year in a row, and there's almost no more corruption. In the last four years, the production of garlic per acre has stabilized between 3,400 and 3,500 pounds, an increase of 780 pounds over conventional processing, and a better quality of garlic, which can sell one or two cents more than others.”
When tradition meets intelligence, the future of garlic is ready
Garlic cultivation is going through a profound green revolution, from the “methodics” to soil fumigation, from biological control to intelligent monitoring. This is not just technological innovation, but a radical shift in the concept of cultivation — from “passive treatment” based on pesticides to “active prevention” based on ecological balance。
The future of garlic fields may be like this: the mites patrol underground, soil fumigation techniques protect the health of the roots, and intelligent monitoring equipment transmits field data in real time so that farmers can learn about the growth of the garlic field as a whole by mobile phone. Fertilizers are used less and less, soil is healthier and garlic is better。
This green revolution has brought about not just productivity and quality improvements, but the reconstruction of the entire agro-ecosystem. Earthworms returned, micro-organisms recovered, soil structures improved and agricultural production was significantly more sustainable。
Do you think biocontrol is the future direction of agriculture? Do you have any similar green technologies? Welcome to the discussion
