Content
It is difficult to imagine any Russian dacha without several beds of onions. This vegetable has long been a part of most national dishes, and today onions are one of the most important ingredients in the menu of the common man. Growing onions is not at all difficult: after all, you don’t have to worry about seedlings, hardening, picking and other manipulations with plants. All the gardener needs to do is plant the seeds and monitor the soil moisture.
What is the difference growing onions on the head, how to plant onions correctly to get a good harvest - there will be an article about this.
When to plant onions on the head
Planting onions on the head in the spring. To better understand the agricultural technology of this process, you need to know at least a little about the culture itself and its characteristics.
So, onions are biennial plants. The seed material for this crop is small black seeds - nigella. They ripen in onion inflorescences - in arrows.
In the first year it is necessary to sow nigella. This can be done both in spring and autumn - much depends on the climate in the region and winter frosts.It is impossible to grow a full-fledged bulb from nigella in one season; small turnip sets with a diameter of about 1-2 cm grow from the seeds.
It is these sets that need to be planted next spring - they will already grow into large heads suitable for consumption and winter storage.
The main rule in determining the date of planting seedlings is a consistently warm air temperature. Until the land in the region warms up to at least 12 degrees, planting onions is not performed on the head.
Such a strict restriction is not due to the fact that the heads are too afraid of cold and frost - the crop is quite capable of surviving a cold snap. But at low temperatures and lack of heat, the green mass develops abundantly, while the lower part - the turnip, on the contrary, grows poorly. As a result, long hollow feathers grow from the greenery - arrows, in which onion seeds ripen and which weaken its head, making the onion unsuitable for food.
Selection of planting material
You can either buy heads for planting onions in agricultural stores or grow them yourself from seeds - nigella. Growing it yourself is, of course, more profitable, but in cold areas the seeds can easily freeze in the ground. The owner of the dacha will have to cover them with film, monitor the temperature and humidity - the result is not worth such work, the price of onion sets is not that high.
The yield of onions largely depends on which variety was chosen for cultivation. The fact is that the onion culture is divided into many varieties; they can be zoned, intended for open ground or protected plantings, and differ in purpose: for growing as a feather or as a head.
Therefore, in order to collect a good harvest of large heads, it is necessary to choose the right variety of onions. It is better to buy planting material from trusted manufacturers.
In addition, they do not tolerate long-term storage - the seed may be shriveled and empty.
To grow per head, you need to choose a medium-sized set, the diameter of the bulbs should be from 1 to 2 cm. From this material the largest and strongest bulbs will grow, suitable for long-term storage.
Planting onions on a head in spring
When the onion variety has been selected and the planting material has been found, you can proceed directly to planting the bulbs in the ground. For convenience, it is better to split this process into several stages.
They begin to remove onion sets from storage in early April, when the sun is already warming the ground well.
Advice! Heads for planting should be stored at an air temperature of about 18-20 degrees and a normal level of humidity.
Sorting sets for planting on the head
Planting material must first be sorted. For this The bulbs are distributed by size:
- heads up to 1 cm in diameter are suitable only for growing greens;
- bulbs larger than two centimeters are also unsuitable for obtaining good heads - their feathers will certainly become arrows. It is good to grow seeds from such bulbs for the next harvest;
- But onions measuring from 1 to 2 cm are most suitable for growing per head, so they need to be selected in a separate container.
Now these heads, suitable in size, must be carefully examined and damaged, empty, rotten turnips must be discarded - they are unsuitable for growing.
Treatment of heads before planting
Before planting onions in the soil, they must be properly prepared. Processing of planting material consists mainly of heating the bulbs. This must be done in order to protect the plants from the appearance of arrows - if the bulbs are not warmed up, arrows will appear with one hundred percent probability.
Heat onions in one of the following ways:
- The heads are brought into the house two to three weeks before the expected date of planting in the beds. Lay out the sets in one layer in a dry and warm place, where the temperature is constantly maintained at 20-25 degrees. The best place for this would be the top of cabinets or high shelves.
- You can reduce the heating by increasing the air temperature. Two or three are enough if the onion is placed in a place where the temperature will not fall below 35 degrees. This could be a heating boiler, radiators or heaters. The main thing is not to overheat the bulbs, otherwise they will freeze and will not be able to sprout.
- The express method consists of even more intense heating. To carry it out, the onion is placed in water whose temperature is 50 degrees. The bulbs are kept here for a quarter of an hour. Then they must be cooled by placing them in cold water for 15 minutes. This procedure will further harden the onion and make it stronger.
They choose a heating method depending on how much time the summer resident has.If you bought onion sets right before the upcoming planting, you can only use the express method.
Further preparation of the onion consists of its disinfection. You can also choose one of the common methods:
- soak the heads in a solution of table salt - a spoonful of salt per liter of water;
- dip the bulbs in a strong solution of potassium permanganate (the composition should be dark cherry color);
- use copper sulfate instead of manganese.
The bulbs are soaked in any of the listed solutions for no longer than half an hour. And after treating with potassium permanganate and vitriol, the onion should be washed with running water so as not to burn the sprouts.
The next stage of preparation is feeding the onions. To do this, the heads can be placed for 10-15 minutes in a solution of complex fertilizer purchased at a specialty store. Don’t get too carried away with fertilizers – onions don’t need a lot of nutrition.
After all the procedures, the onion heads are dried - the material is ready for planting!
At what distance to plant onions, and how to do it correctly
It is necessary to prepare the area for planting onions in the fall. For these purposes, choose a place on the sunny side of the garden; it is better if it is a hill or a flat area - you should not plant onions in lowlands.
In the fall, the soil in the selected area needs to be dug up to the depth of a spade bayonet. It is ideal if you can add humus or compost to the soil.You should not use fresh organic matter - excess nitrogen will only turn onions into greens, which in this case is bad, because the gardener needs large turnips.
The soil dug up along with the fertilizer is left until spring. In the spring, a couple of weeks before planting, the soil is dug up again and left to clump and compact.
Plant onions following simple rules:
- It is better to make the beds high.
- The grooves for the bulbs should not be very deep - 4-5 cm is enough.
- The distance between the rows of onions is maintained within 25-35 cm.
- The interval between the heads should correspond to the size of the set itself - generally 5-8 cm is enough. With thicker plantings, you will have to thin out the onions, otherwise the heads will grow small.
- The onions are slightly pressed into the groove with your fingers so that they go only 1 cm underground. Deep planting will make it difficult for the feathers to sprout and slow down the onion’s growing season.
- There is no need to water the beds after planting - the heads only need moisture from the spring soil.
Onion planting is complete.
13
How to care for growing onions
Caring for onion beds is very simple:
- water as the soil dries out, no more than once a week;
- stop watering when the heads are growing, otherwise they will become watery and rot;
- before harvesting, watering is stopped three weeks;
- there is no need to fertilize the onions, especially if compost or humus has been added to the soil in the fall;
- It is better to treat feathers against pests and fungi with folk remedies, such as nettle infusion or wood ash;
- Planting alternating with rows of carrots will protect the beds from onion midges;
- dangerous for culture weeds, they stop the growth of the heads - it is recommended to mulch the beds with humus;
- The harvest should be done when the onion feathers fall;
- Before storing, the bulbs must be thoroughly dried in the sun.
The harvest that I grew with my own hands turns out surprisingly tasty! It's worth putting in a little effort and growing onions at your dacha, rather than buying the vegetable in the supermarket.
