Hydroponics for onions on a feather do it yourself

Green onions in hydroponics are a good way to grow crops in small areas: in a closed greenhouse, apartment, backyard. Due to the short growing season, fresh herbs can be harvested every month.

Growing green onions in hydroponics is easy and fast even for beginner gardeners.

What is hydroponics

Hydroponics refers to growing plants without the use of soil. With this method, seedlings receive nutrients not from the soil, but from the environment surrounding the root system – moist-air, well-aerated water or porous, moisture-absorbing and breathable solid (gravel, crushed stone, expanded clay, vermiculite).

All these substances provide roots with breath and require constant drip or just frequent watering with special nutrient mixtures prepared taking into account the needs of plants in mineral and organic elements.

Hydroponics makes it possible to regulate the process of growing plants:

• ensure proper nutrition of the root system and vegetative parts, which will fully satisfy the culture’s needs for nutrients;
• regulate the content of carbon dioxide in the environment in an amount acceptable for the process of photosynthesis;
• maintain the desired temperature, as well as air humidity;
• provide comfortable lighting and daylight hours.

All this allows you to create ideal conditions for growing crops and get a good harvest of organic vegetables in a short time.

In hydroponics, you can grow greens in several tiers

Advantages

Like any other method of growing vegetables indoors, hydroponics has its advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

• space saving;
• high yield;
• 100% absorption of nutrients by plants;
• no need to use pesticides and herbicides;
• high viability of the resulting planting material;
• saving water and nutrients;
• the ability to control the state of the root system;
• year-round cultivation of plants;
• low labor intensity compared to cultivation in the soil (no need to loosen the ground, remove weeds, fight pests).

Disadvantages

Despite all the advantages, this method of growing has its drawbacks:

• danger of losing the crop in case of violation of growing conditions;
• the need to constantly maintain a certain microclimate;
• the impossibility of growing some crops on hydroponic installations, in particular, root crops;
• need to buy expensive equipment.

The advantages of hydroponics far outweigh the disadvantages.

Methods for growing onions on a feather in hydroponics

There are three ways to grow onions hydroponically. They differ from one another in the type of growing medium and the rules of care.

Air

When forcing an onion onto a feather using this method (aeroponics), its root system is in an empty dark tank, that is, in the air. Such crops are fed by spraying the roots with an aqueous solution of a special mixture.

Aeroponics involves regular moistening of the roots

Water

The traditional method of cultivating onions in hydroponics is considered to be water, in which the roots are dipped in a specially prepared nutrient solution.

For normal growth and development of onions, the aquatic environment in which the culture resides is regularly enriched with oxygen. In commercial production, special compressor units are used for this purpose, and when cultivating at home, you can get by with a small aquarium compressor.

Oxygen supply ensures the respiration of the root system

substrate

This method of growing hydroponically involves immersing the roots in a moist substrate. As the latter, crushed stone, gravel, vermiculite, expanded clay, sawdust, peat, moss, hay are used. The main rule for caring for plants in this case is to maintain the necessary humidity of the environment in which the roots are located.

The substrate for hydroponics should be light and permeable.

Which onion varieties are suitable for forcing hydroponically?

For hydroponics, separate forcing varieties are used. The list includes:

• Spassky;
• Ural family;
• Union;
• Seryozha;
• Strigunovsky;
• Bessonovsky.

The yield largely depends on the number of primordia. Well, if there are at least three of them. To select high-quality planting material, it is recommended to cut a couple of bulbs from a batch of the same variety and see how many primordia are in it.

Not all varieties are grown in hydroponics, Strigunovsky is one of the suitable options

How to grow onions hydroponically

The process of growing onions in hydroponics is not particularly difficult. Nevertheless, certain rules of agricultural technology still have to be observed.

Bulb preparation

Planting material for forcing onions on a feather in hydroponics is best selected from the previous year’s crop. The diameter of the prepared bulbs should be at least 2 and not more than 4 cm. In addition, they should not show signs of disease and mechanical damage.

The selected bulbs are left for 3-5 days in a warm room, after which the top layer of dry husk is removed and bubbled, that is, saturated with air.

To do this:

1. 1 kg of planting onions is poured into 10 liters of warm water (+ 38-40 ° C).
2. On both sides of the container with onions, hot water heaters are attached with tape or rope.
3. They lower the aquarium compressor into the bowl with the soaked planting material and turn it on.

The bubbling process should continue for at least 15 hours without interruption.

Soak onions before planting

Preparing the container

The choice of container depends on the amount of material prepared for laying. On an industrial scale, gardeners use a professional hydroponics system to grow onions. When distilling for home use, you can get by with a ready-made plastic container, which consists of a water tray and a lid with cells, or you can make a container yourself.

For its manufacture you will need:

• plastic container with a tight-fitting lid, approximate dimensions – 80x40x20 cm;
• small compressor for aquarium;
• two lamps;
• two pieces of PVC pipe with small holes made in them, a knife.

Work algorithm:

1. Cut out holes on the lid with a sharp knife so that they get about 50 (10×5 cm).
2. Make additional holes for the tubes that will connect the container to the aquarium compressor.
3. Close the container tightly with a lid.
4. With the help of tubes and a compressor, air is supplied to the pan.
5. Fill the pan with water through the upper holes (about 3/4) and insert the prepared onions.
6. Place hydroponics near the outlet, install lamps above it.

In hydroponics, you can plant green onion seeds for seedlings. To do this, they are laid out in special cassettes with a wet substance and left until germination. When the height of the shoots reaches 7 cm, the seedlings dive to a stationary place.

For forcing onions, a regular seedling container is suitable.

Landing scheme

The scheme for planting onions on a feather is simple:

1. Pour water or nutrient solution into the tray.
2. Cut off the top of the bulbs (this will speed up their germination).
3. Bulbs are placed in special cells bottom down.

The filled container is placed in a dry and warm place.

Bulbs are laid out at a small distance from each other

Features of growing green onions in hydroponics

The quantity and quality of green feather directly depend on the conditions of its agricultural technology. Therefore, it is very important to provide plants with the right microclimate, nutrition and comfortable lighting.

Temperature

One of the important conditions for forcing onions on a feather in hydroponics is to maintain the right microclimate. The air temperature during the entire growing season should be + 25-28 ° С. Overheating or hypothermia of plants can cause a slowdown in their growth, and sometimes death.

World

Green onions do not require bright light. If the container is located in a well-lit place (on a balcony, veranda or window sill), it is not necessary to install additional lamps.

When growing onions on a feather in an insufficiently well-lit room, in order to avoid stretching, it will be necessary to illuminate the plants using special phytolamps or conventional fluorescent lamps. When the length of the shoots reaches 15-20 cm, additional lighting can be removed.

nutrient solution

Green onions on a feather can also be grown in plain water. However, excellent quality greens can only be obtained if special nutrient mixtures are used.

A hydroponic onion solution must have the correct pH and contain a strictly defined amount of mineral elements. Therefore, unlike professional gardeners who can cook it on their own, novice gardeners are advised to purchase a finished product in specialized stores.

Hydroponic plants need the right temperature

Care instructions

Caring for green onions in hydroponics is not particularly difficult and includes:

1. Regular moistening of the root system. A hydroponic plant for growing onions on a feather provides two methods of irrigation – regular flooding, in which the root system is immersed in a nutrient mixture for a certain time, and drip irrigation, which provides for uniform moistening of the substrate.
2. Aeration. During the entire growing season, onion roots are saturated with oxygen every day. When using industrial hydroponic installations, this procedure is performed automatically. At home, you can use an aquarium compressor to aerate the roots.

In the stage of full maturity, the length of the feather is 25-30 cm.

Harvesting

With proper agricultural practices, green onions reach full maturity 20 days after planting. The degree of readiness is determined by the state of the vegetable – it becomes soft.

During the harvesting process, the used bulbs are removed from the cells, the old peel is removed and the roots are removed with a sharp knife.

Conclusion

If you grow green onions in hydroponics in compliance with the rules of agricultural technology, you can get a good harvest throughout the year. The yield of finished products is approximately 80% by weight of planting material.