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Onions rightfully occupy one of the first places among garden crops. Perhaps there is not a single gardener who would do without them on the site. Excellent taste, a wide range of applications for cooking various dishes, the healing properties of onions and garlic have led to their extraordinary popularity. Despite the seeming simplicity, the cultivation of these vegetables has its own characteristics. Without knowing the features of agricultural technology, one can hardly count on a rich harvest. So, how is onion and garlic planted, how to care for the crop?
Varieties of onions and garlic
Onion and garlic are on sale in a huge assortment of varieties. However, this diversity can be divided into 2 groups:
- with the formation of bulbs (garlic, onions, leeks);
- without the formation of bulbs (chives, wild garlic). For cooking, only the feathers of the plant are used.
The popularity of onions is understandable. Recently, housewives have been able to appreciate varieties such as leeks, chives and others. A leek, in addition to excellent taste, has a remarkable keeping quality. This type of onion, like the usual “turnip”, can be stored for the winter.
Now more about when to plant onions and garlic.
Landing order
It is advisable to start planting onions after planting cucumbers and root crops.
Onion is a heat-loving crop, prefers growing on well-moistened soil. Onions are unpretentious to the composition of soils. It perfectly tolerates loam and sandy loam. And areas with swampy peaty soil are not suitable for growing onions. The best option for onion beds is a sunlit area. It is undesirable to break onion beds even near trees, as the shadow from them will interfere with the normal development of the onion.
Growing onions involves the use of mineral fertilizers (per 1 m2):
- nitrogen – 20 g;
- potassium, phosphorus – 30 g each.
If the soil is well-drained, nitrogen fertilizers will not be needed. It does not interfere with the use of humus for onions (about 2 kg per “square”). The introduction of fresh manure or bird droppings is unacceptable. Plants get sick, and weeds can get into the soil with fresh organic matter. For acidic soils, liming with chalk, ground limestone or wood ash is useful.
The specificity of the onion is that during the first two months it does not absorb nutrients from the soil. He begins to intensively “eat” only in August. Therefore, the bulk of onion feeding falls on August.
Planting onions (sevka)
Seed preparation is as follows:
- withstand planting material for 15-20 days at a temperature of 20 degrees;
- after that, stand the sevok for 8 hours at a temperature of about 35 degrees.
An important point is the disinfection of planting material. The best option is to soak it for 2 hours in a weak solution of potassium permanganate.
Before planting, the seedlings are thoroughly washed. It should not be planted too deep, preferably 3-4 cm. It is enough to crush the bulbs with a layer of rotted manure and level the soil with a rake. The interval between bulbs depends on their size:
- up to 10 mm – the distance is approximately 50 mm;
- 10-15 mm – the interval is 80 mm;
- 15-20 mm – 100 mm.
After planting is completed, you need to mulch the bed (the thickness of the mulch is from 2 to 3 cm). Sawdust, peat, straw and even paper are suitable as mulch.
Growing onions does not take much trouble. In the first week, the bed should be watered abundantly, loosen the ground between the grooves and weed the weeds. The frequency of watering and aeration is 1 time in 7 days. Weeding is required because weeds hold water in the ground, and excessive moisture can make the plant sick.
How to grow onions from seeds
The first stage is the preparation of the beds. A bed for sowing onion seeds, as in the case of sevka, is placed in a well-lit place. The height of the beds for onions is no more than 150 mm, the width is no more than 800 mm. When preliminary digging the soil, about 3 kg of peat or compost per square meter should be applied. From mineral fertilizers – 1 tbsp. l. superphosphate with nitrophoska.
2-3 days before planting, it is necessary to shed the earth with copper sulphate dissolved in hot water (1 tablespoon of vitriol per 10-liter bucket of water). Now the bed for sowing onions is ready.
To avoid fungal infection, the seed is prepared as follows:
- 15 minutes – in water heated to 50 degrees;
- day – in water 25-25 degrees;
- two days – at room temperature (the seed is wrapped in moistened gauze or cloth).
On average, onions are sown from April 20 to 25.
Planting depth is small, no more than 20 mm. The distance between the furrows is approximately 50 mm. Seeds are planted at a distance of a centimeter and a half. At the end of sowing, the onion bed is carefully watered. After the appearance of mass seedlings, it is necessary to thin out the plantings so as to bring the interval between plants to 2 cm. Care for the emerging seedlings is to water them in a timely manner and weed the weeds. It is most convenient to weed onions with moist soil. You can not wait until the weeds grow strongly, as weeding can damage the root system of the crop. In June, ammonium nitrate should be added as a top dressing.
The harvest is from late July to mid-August. Onions are dried by the stove or heater. With this approach, it will not rot. A small “turnip” is used for winter planting. Larger onions are suitable for eating. The optimum storage temperature for onions is in bags of 10-12 kg, at a temperature of 17-18 degrees. At higher temperatures, onion germination occurs. During storage, the product is periodically sorted out, removing dried onion heads.
The specifics of planting garlic
Garlic is planted in autumn and spring. In the first case, the plant is called winter, in the second – spring. Winter plants develop well on sandy loam. Soil preparation for the cultivation of “winter” is carried out about a week before planting the crop. The soil needs to be dug up, the roots of weeds removed. The next step is the use of fertilizers (per 1 m2):
- humus – 5 kg;
- superphosphate – 30 g;
- potassium salt – 20 g.
The day before planting the cloves, ammonium nitrate is added (10 g per 1 m2).
For planting spring garlic, medium or light loam is suitable. If the soil is sandy or peaty, it is mixed with loam. So, more chances for a rich harvest. The term for planting the culture is April 20-25. Before planting, garlic cloves are soaked in a weak solution of potassium permanganate at room temperature. Even more effective disinfection is successive holding for 3 minutes. in solutions:
- table salt (2,5%);
- copper sulfate (1%).
Large, disease-free teeth are selected as material for planting. At the same time, the mother bottom must be removed so that it does not interfere with the development of the plant.
The distance between the rows of garlic is about 25 cm, between plants – 10-11 cm. Planted cloves should not be sunk too much: the roots will develop worse. The planting depth is about 4 cm. After the garlic planting is completed, the soil must be mulched with a layer of sawdust or rotted manure. The thickness of the mulch is from 2 to 5 cm.
Care
Garlic does not need frequent watering. Water it only when the soil is clearly dry. Watering plants is carried out exclusively under the root. A month before harvesting, garlic is no longer watered. But you need to weed the bed regularly. Garlic also needs feeding (one in spring and one in summer). As an additional top dressing, manure diluted in water in a ratio of 1:15 is suitable. If the leaves turn out to be light, the plants are fed with nitrophoska (for 10 liters – 2 tablespoons of fertilizer).
Garlic harvest time is late July-early August. Too long to keep the garlic in the garden is not worth it. The onion breaks up into separate teeth, the product is worse stored in winter. Before collecting garlic for storage for the winter, it is dried in the sun for 12 days, putting it indoors during the rain. You can dry the heads of garlic in the oven or a special electric dryer. You can store garlic at an air temperature of 17-18 degrees or at 1-3 degrees (the so-called cold method).
The keeping quality of garlic in winter depends on how ripe the onions are. Unripe garlic has too loose pulp, and overripe peels into separate slices. In both cases, the product will be stored for a short time. The best option for storing the product are wooden, well-ventilated boxes. Plastic bags for storing garlic are not suitable: the product will rot.