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Onions are one of the most popular vegetables in the kitchen of every housewife. In order to always have it at hand, gardeners grow vegetables on their plots of land. The crop is unpretentious and, with proper care, allows you to get a rich harvest for harvesting throughout the winter. Traditionally, onions are sown in the spring, but lately you can increasingly see winter crops. To sow for the winter, it is necessary to use special varieties and hybrids of onions that tolerate wintering well. It is not difficult to grow a vegetable in this way, but to do this you need to know what to do. fertilizing winter onions in the spring to get a good harvest.
Benefits of winter onions
winter onion, sown in the fall, has a number of advantages compared to spring sowing:
- sowing onions before winter allows you to harvest vegetables much earlier than with spring sowing;
- a winter vegetable immediately after the snow melts in early spring produces a feather that can be used for food;
- onions sown in autumn gain enough strength by spring to resist the onion fly;
- winter crops are well adapted to unfavorable weather conditions;
- Among the winter varieties, you can choose high-yielding ones that bear fruit at a rate of 4-5 kg/m2.
Thanks to the described advantages, an increasing number of gardeners are growing onions by sowing for the winter. For this purpose, such well-known varieties as “Shakespeare”, “Radar”, “Ella” are chosen. These varieties of winter crops are cold-resistant and can withstand frosts down to -150C even in the absence of snow cover. Under thick snow, the freezing threshold is very high, which makes the vegetable invulnerable to low temperatures.
Preparing the soil in autumn
Winter onions are sown in the soil in the second half of October. This sowing regime will allow the bulbs to take root before frost, but will not allow the green feathers to germinate.
Before sowing crops, it is necessary to disinfect and fertilize the soil:
- Copper sulfate is used to disinfect soil. 15 mg of this substance is diluted in a bucket of water and used to water 5 m2 soil.
- A day after disinfecting the soil, you can begin applying fertilizers. More often, organic matter is used for these purposes, for example, rotted cow manure. Fertilizer consumption should be 5 kg/m2 soil. In combination with manure, you can use fertilizers containing phosphorus (superphosphate), which will help the bulbs take root quickly.
If you plan to grow vegetables on heavy clay soils, then in the fall, before sowing winter onions, you need to add sand and peat to the soil in addition to organic and phosphate fertilizers.
Thus, the first fertilizing of winter onions should be carried out in the fall, before sowing the crop.Next year, during the active growth of the bulbs, it is necessary to carry out another 3-4 feedings.
Some gardeners in the fall, after sowing onions in prepared soil, mulch the beds with peat. With the arrival of spring warmth, it will quickly melt and will not retard the growth of onions.
Spring feeding with minerals
As soon as winter onions begin to produce feathers in the spring, you should think about fertilizing. At this time, the crop needs nitrogen supplements most of all. Special mineral complexes can be used as fertilizer. You can also prepare the necessary fertilizer yourself by mixing 3 parts of superphosphate, 2 parts of urea (urea) and 1 part of potassium chloride. To fertilize onions in spring, apply 1 part of fertilizer per 1 m2 soil should be equal to 5 mg of the substance. After mixing all the components together, they should be dissolved in water and used to water vegetables.
2-3 weeks after the first feeding of the onions, it is necessary to add useful microelements to the soil again. The second spring feeding can be done using nitrophoska. Two tablespoons of this substance should be added to a bucket of water and after thorough mixing, use the solution for watering 2 m2 soil.
The plants need to be fed the third time when the diameter of the bulb is approximately 3-3.5 cm. During this period, the vegetable requires phosphorus for accelerated growth. It can be obtained by using superphosphate. Two tablespoons of this substance are enough to feed onions per 1 m2 soil. This amount of substance must be dissolved in 10 liters of water.
Ready-made complex mineral fertilizers for feeding winter onions can be purchased in specialized stores.For example, for the first feeding in spring you can use Vegeta fertilizer. It is recommended to carry out the second feeding of onions after 2-3 weeks using Agricola-2 fertilizer. "Effecton-O" can be used during the third feeding of onions.
All of the minerals listed are chemicals, so some gardeners are very skeptical about their use. The advantages of such substances are their availability and ease of use.
Organic for onions
When you have manure and grass in your yard, you don't necessarily have to resort to using chemicals. In this case, you can use an option based on environmentally friendly fertilizers:
- For the first spring feeding, you can use slurry (1 glass per bucket of water).
- It is recommended to use an infusion of herbs for the second feeding. To do this, you need to chop the grass in advance and fill it with water (5 kg per 10 liters). After steeping for several days, the liquid is filtered and diluted with clean water in a ratio of 1:10.
- The third feeding of the vegetable can be done using wood ash. It is diluted in an amount of 250 grams in a bucket of hot water and the resulting solution is infused for several days. After a certain time, the ash solution is diluted with clean water and used to water winter onions.
Thus, in spring and summer, organic matter can become a worthy replacement for mineral chemical fertilizers. Another option for using organic matter to feed onions can be seen in the video:
Non-traditional feeding
In addition to the usual mineral fertilizers and organic matter, you can feed winter onions with ammonia or yeast. Such fertilizers are unconventional, but due to their effectiveness they are in increasing demand among gardeners.
Yeast feeding
Baker's yeast is a unique product that has a beneficial effect on the growth and development of plants. It is used to feed indoor flowers, various vegetable crops, including onions.
When dissolved in warm water, the yeast begins to ferment. As a result of this process, vitamin B1, mesoinositol, and biotin are released. In addition, the yeast itself contains large amounts of proteins, carbohydrates and minerals. All these substances stimulate the formation of roots and plant growth. When yeast enters the soil, it activates the life processes of beneficial bacteria, resulting in the release of gases and heat. This also allows the bulbs to breathe and grow faster.
The fermentation process of yeast occurs only in the presence of elevated temperatures, which is why the first fertilizing in early spring is not recommended in this way. It is better to use yeast in the summer, resorting to one of the recipes:
- Granulated yeast (dry) should be added to warm water in a ratio of 10 g per 10 liters of liquid. To accelerate fermentation, add 2 tablespoons of sugar or jam to the solution, after which it is infused for several hours. The finished mixture is diluted in 50 liters of clean water and used to feed onions.
- Fresh baker's yeast is added to warm water in a ratio of 1 kg per 10 liters. At the stage of active fermentation, another 50 liters of clean warm water are added to the solution.
Brown bread, once prepared with yeast, can be an excellent fertilizer for onions.Many gardeners specially collect leftovers and crusts of bread in winter. To prepare the fertilizer, you need to soak it in warm water. The volume of liquid should completely cover the bread. The fertilizer needs to be fermented, leaving it under pressure in a warm place for a week. After fermentation, the fertilizer must be mixed into porridge, diluted with water and applied to the soil.
The process of preparing yeast fertilizer for fertilizing plants is shown in the video:
Ammonia
Ammonia is an ammonia tincture that contains a large amount of nitrogen. It is used to feed indoor and outdoor plants.
Depending on the purpose of feeding, ammonia is used in the following proportions:
- to accelerate the growth of green feathers, water the onion with a solution prepared in the proportion of 1 teaspoon per 1 liter of water;
- For uniform growth of feathers and turnips, you should water the onions with a weak solution of ammonia - 1 large spoonful per 10 liters of water.
It is recommended to water the onions with ammonia solution once a week. At the same time, the substance will fertilize the onion and protect it from pests, in particular from the onion fly. An example of how ammonia can save onions is shown in the video:
Ammonia can be used to feed onions when symptoms of nitrogen deficiency appear: lethargy and yellowing of the feathers. In this case, the amount of ammonia can be increased by diluting 3 tablespoons of the substance in a bucket of water.You need to water the plants with ammonia in the evening hours, after sunset.
Non-traditional fertilizers can be used in combination with the application of mineral or organic fertilizers. In this case, the amount of nitrogen should not be higher than permissible.
Conclusion
By growing winter onions, you can get an early harvest of vegetables, in quantity exceeding the harvest of spring sowing. To do this, you need to prepare nutritious soil in the fall and sow onions no earlier than mid-October. With the arrival of spring, winter onions need intensive feeding, which can be done using mineral, organic or non-traditional fertilizers. Above are the most accessible recipes for their preparation, which even a novice farmer can use.
