Content
Onions are considered an undemanding crop. Most novice gardeners mistakenly think that they can harvest a good harvest of vegetables without making much effort. This leads to a common problem - bolting, which does not allow you to get strong heads at the end of the season. Experienced gardeners recommend paying special attention to pre-sowing preparation. To get a good harvest, you can soak onions in potassium permanganate before planting. However, this procedure must be carried out correctly for it to be beneficial.
Potassium permanganate is an affordable antibacterial and antifungal agent
Why process onions before planting?
Soaking onions in potassium permanganate before planting is necessary to prevent them from being damaged by bacteria and fungi. When purchasing seed, there is usually no certainty that it was stored correctly in compliance with all necessary requirements. And any violation of the regime for maintaining the seedlings leads to further loss of yield.
The lack of soaking at the stage of preparing onions for planting leads to a low percentage of marketable fruit yield, since the bulk of the seedlings die during the growth process. At the same time, the size of the heads is no larger than average, and the likelihood of the crop rotting during storage increases significantly.
Potassium permanganate, or potassium permanganate, is a strong antibacterial and antifungal agent. And pre-sowing soaking of onions in a solution of this substance allows you to destroy most types of pathogens living on its surface. This increases the immunity of seedlings at the initial stage and allows them to fully develop.
The benefits and harms of potassium permanganate for onions
The use of potassium permanganate for processing seedlings has its advantages. But this component also has certain disadvantages that must be taken into account so as not to harm the onion.
Potassium permanganate is a chemical that should be handled with gloves
Useful properties of potassium permanganate:
- protects against the development of fungal and bactericidal diseases;
- increases the resistance of seedlings to adverse factors;
- maintains immunity at a high level;
- prevents the development of wintering pest larvae.
Flaws:
- inhibits the development of not only pathogenic, but also beneficial microflora;
- increases soil acidity.
Although soaking the seeds in potassium permanganate gives positive results, the procedure should be carried out correctly. Exceeding the recommended dosage of this component will cause burns to the planting material.This leads to the fact that seedlings cannot grow a powerful root system, which means their development slows down.
Preparing seedlings for planting
The volume of the future harvest and the quality of the fruit directly depend on pre-sowing preparation. The procedure consists of several main steps that cannot be ignored.
Initially, the planting material should be sorted out, and all specimens that show signs of deterioration and mechanical damage should be rejected.
To speed up the germination of sets, you can cut off the dry top by 0.2-0.5 cm
Then sort the onions by size. Specimens from 2-3 cm, from 1-2 cm and up to 1 cm should be placed separately. Seeds of different sizes are recommended to be planted separately and at a certain time. First the large one, then the medium one and only then the smallest onion. The best harvest can be obtained by planting the last two species. And large bulbs in most cases shoot arrows. Therefore, it is better to use them to obtain greens and seeds.
At the next stage of preparing the onion for planting, it is necessary to warm it up for 3-4 days. To do this, spread the paper near the heating device and lay out the sowing in one layer. If this is not possible, you need to soak it in warm water at a temperature of 50 ° C for five minutes, and then put it in cold water for ten seconds. This will increase the resistance of onion seedlings to adverse weather conditions.
Then the seeds should be soaked in Zircon. To do this, you need to place it in a mesh bag and immerse it completely in a nutrient solution for 8-10 hours. At the last stage of preparing onions for planting, you should disinfect them. This will reduce the likelihood of seedlings being damaged by fungal and bacterial diseases.To do this, you need to soak the seeds in potassium permanganate. Afterwards, rinse the planting material with plain water and can be planted in the garden bed.
How to soak and how long to keep onion sets in potassium permanganate
When soaking onions in potassium permanganate, it is important to observe the required dosage, otherwise this procedure can destroy not only pathogens living on its surface, but also the planting material itself.
There are several methods for disinfecting seedlings with potassium permanganate. And each of them provides a certain dosage of the component and the duration of soaking.
Onions can be treated with potassium permanganate before planting before winter and spring. But in the case of the first option, after soaking, the sets must be dried at room temperature for 24 hours.
After soaking in potassium permanganate, the sets must be washed with plain water.
Weak solution
When using this method, you need to dissolve potassium permanganate in water at the rate of 3 g per 1 liter. Then mix the resulting mixture thoroughly until smooth. Only after this can the onions be soaked. Processing time is two hours.
Concentrated solution
Soaking onion sets before planting in potassium permanganate can also be done in a more concentrated liquid. In this case, you need to add 10 g of potassium permanganate to 1 liter of warm water and mix thoroughly. Soaking duration is 45 minutes.A longer stay of planting material in the working fluid can negatively affect its growth.
Strong solution
It is also possible to process onions in a strong solution of potassium permanganate. To do this, add 25 g of potassium permanganate per 1 liter of water. Soaking duration is 15-20 minutes. Experienced gardeners recommend carrying out this treatment if there is a suspicion of infection of planting onions with powdery mildew.
Watering onions with potassium permanganate
To disinfect the sets, you can not only soak them in potassium permanganate, but also water the soil before planting the onions. Indeed, in the first case, only bacteria and fungi that live on the surface disappear, but they are also present in the soil, and they need to be gotten rid of.
To destroy pathogens in the soil, it is necessary to apply a solution of potassium permanganate immediately before planting onions. In this case, potassium permanganate will not only cleanse the soil of fungi and bacteria, but also saturate it with nutritional components. After all, manganese is also necessary for the full development of seedlings, like other mineral compounds.
You can water the beds with a disinfecting solution only two weeks before planting the seed. During this time, it will be completely absorbed into the ground and stop the development of pathogenic microflora. If treatment is carried out earlier or later than this period, effectiveness is lost.
To water the beds, you can only use a low concentration solution of potassium permanganate at the rate of 10 g per 10 liters of water. It is important that it has a uniform consistency and that the crystals completely disappear and do not sink to the bottom.
You need to water the soil with the solution from a watering can, and not in one stream. In this case, the liquid will be evenly distributed on the soil surface. The recommended consumption rate is 6-8 liters per 1 sq. m beds.
You can also spray onion seedlings leaf by leaf with potassium permanganate throughout the growing season. To do this, you need to dissolve 3 g of the component in 10 liters of water. At the same time, it is important to process the onion plantings carefully in order to apply the working liquid evenly.
You need to spray onion plantings with potassium permanganate in the evening.
Useful tips
When using potassium permanganate for soaking seedlings and disinfecting the soil in the garden bed, it is necessary to take into account some features of this procedure.
Useful tips from experienced gardeners:
- If onion feathers are damaged, the sets should not be soaked. In this case, you can only spray it with a weak solution of potassium permanganate.
- When using the component for watering beds and treating seedlings during the growing season, it cannot be combined with nitrogen fertilizers, otherwise this will make the soil unsuitable for growing this crop.
- Soaking onions with potassium permanganate should be done immediately before planting, since they cannot be stored for long periods of time.
- Potassium permanganate increases soil acidity. And when adding it to the soil, you need to neutralize this effect with wood ash at the rate of 200 g per 1 sq. m.
Conclusion
You need to soak onions in potassium permanganate before planting correctly, strictly maintaining the dosage of the component and the duration of the procedure. Careful preparation of sowing significantly increases the chances of obtaining a generous vegetable harvest at the end of the season.
