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Onions are an important vegetable, without which first and second courses are practically impossible to prepare. Of course, you can buy it in a store, but onions grown with your own hands do not contain any harmful substances, since land owners rarely use chemicals to fertilize the land.
Planting onions before winter in the Moscow region is one of the options for getting an early turnip harvest. But in order to achieve positive results, you need to know some subtleties regarding timing, variety selection and soil preparation. This will be discussed in the article.
The benefits of autumn planting
Onions are usually planted in spring and autumn. Although planting onions before winter in the Moscow region has many more positive aspects. Let's figure it out:
- When buying seedlings in the spring, you have to pay a lot of money, because the price includes storage costs.
- Having planted onions in winter, the harvest in the Moscow region can be obtained almost a month earlier than with traditional spring planting.
- Since onions are harvested in late June - early July, other fast-growing crops can be planted in the area where the bulbs were collected. And this is an increase in yield.
- Onions planted in the fall are not damaged by such a pest as the onion fly, since by the time of work its years are over.And in the spring, when the bulbs get stronger, the pest is no longer so terrible.
- Green feathers shoot out of the ground after the snow melts and the spring sun warms the ground. Weeds cannot keep up with the growth of onions and are not capable of harm.
- Fresh onion feathers, rich in vitamins, can be cut in early May, which is very important in the Moscow region.
Of course, an excellent harvest of onions in the Moscow region or another region of Russia is possible if the work is completed on time and the right varieties of sets are selected. It should be noted that more and more owners of their own plots prefer planting onions in winter.
Deciding on deadlines
Planting onions in winter in the Moscow region is practically no different from work in other regions of Russia. But the timing, of course, will differ from the southern territories. The thing is that in winter frosts often drop below -20 degrees, and snow cover does not always satisfy gardeners. Therefore winter planting seedlings in the Moscow region they need additional shelter.
If you live in the Moscow region, then when choosing the timing of planting the seedlings, you need to start in the second ten days of September and complete before October 25th. We need to focus on such a period of time in 2023. By lunar calendar It is advised to start planting on October 16-21, 24-26. Residents of the Moscow region in 2023 can still use November 2 and 14, but these are deadlines.
Even the most experienced gardener will not be able to name the exact planting dates in the Moscow region, since he does not know how to regulate the weather. After all, in different years at the same date the climate is not the same. One year the snow falls, the next the temperature is high.
The best onion varieties for winter planting
Once you determine when to plant onions before winter, you need to think about the variety of sets. You need to focus on onions zoned in the Moscow region, in this case a good harvest is guaranteed:
- sets can withstand frost;
- grows faster in spring;
- gets sick less.
The best varieties
Plant onions in the fall in the Moscow region with the following planting material:
- Ellan has a round-flattened shape, the upper scales are yellow. The variety is early ripening, shelf life for 12 months.
- Strigunovsky also refers to early ripening varieties, the bulbs are dense, with a pungent taste.
- Arzamas is the oldest variety; there are up to three bulbs in a nest.
- Myachkovsky-300 It is distinguished by excellent transportability and keeping quality.
- Bessonovsky began to be grown back in 1943. The bulbs are flattened, lightweight, and transportable.
- Odintsovets – a variety of medium ripening, universal use. 2-3 onions are formed in the nest.
- Stuttgarten Riesen grows up to 250 grams, the bulbs contain a large amount of vitamin C.
- Bulbs Chalcedony They have a sharp taste and excellent keeping quality. The scales are brown with bronze.
If this is your first time planting onions before winter in the Moscow region, take several varieties so that you can then decide which onion works best.
Where to plant
Before planting onions for the winter in the Moscow region, as in any other region, you need to think about the location of the beds. In addition, you need to know after which crops this plant grows best.
It is not recommended to plant after:
- parsley and celery;
- potatoes and red clover;
- alfalfa.
The fact is that the root system of these plants attracts nematode larvae.
But such predecessors will help to grow a rich harvest of onions. So you can plant the seedlings after:
- beans and peas;
- corn and tomatoes;
- lettuce and mustard;
- rapeseed and cucumbers;
- all types of cabbage.
In addition, legumes and mustard will enrich the soil with easily digestible nitrogen.
Preparing the beds
Before sowing onions in the winter in the Moscow region, the beds are dug up, and mineral fertilizers are added if necessary, especially if the soil is depleted. Most often, ecofoska is added, for each square from 15 to 20 grams. Immediately before planting, add wood ash.
The bed is leveled and grooves are made. Despite the fact that the onion fly does not bother the bulbs, it is still advisable to dust the furrows with shag. Then pour in thick potassium permanganate.
After the sorting, wild oat bulbs (up to 1 cm in diameter) and sets (1-3 cm in diameter) are left.Planting material is carefully inspected, rejecting suspicious specimens. Be sure to disinfect the seed material in a solution of salt and copper sulfate. You need to hold it for no more than 5 minutes so that the roots do not have time to wake up.
Before winter, you need to plant onions dry; soaking is excluded, as well as pruning, so as not to introduce infection inside. In addition, water may get into the cut top, and such planting material may simply dry out.
The scheme for planting onions before winter in the Moscow region is somewhat different. The furrows are made in increments of up to 20 cm, and the bulb itself must be deepened by 5 centimeters. In this case, the plant will be better protected from winter cold. The sets are planted at a distance of 5-7 cm, otherwise the bulbs will interfere with each other during growth.
Having laid the bulbs in the grooves, they are sprinkled with earth, but there is no need to water them. If it doesn’t rain after 10 days, then you need to slightly moisten the soil.
Before the onset of frost, beds with onions grown in the regions of central Russia must be mulched with straw, hay, pine needles, sawdust or dry leaves. Thanks to this shelter, heat is retained, which means that the first frosts will not damage the bulbs.
And, of course, to grow a rich harvest of onions in the Moscow region, you need to listen to the weather forecast. If weather forecasters do not promise snow in the near future, then you will have to make additional shelter using film. When heavy snowfalls begin, this covering material will have to be removed.
Interesting video about planting onions before winter:
Let's sum it up
Many gardeners living in the Moscow region and other regions of central Russia do not risk planting onions before winter, they are afraid that frosts will destroy them. We hope that the material in our article will dissuade the skeptics, and the ranks of those who plant onions in the fall will increase.
The main thing is to believe in yourself, follow the recommendations and everything will work out. Good luck everyone!
