Onion preparation before planting

As you know, onion contains a lot of vitamins and phytoncides useful for immunity, it is a natural spice and can enhance the taste and aroma of many products. Today it is difficult to imagine ordinary cuisine without onions, they are added to almost all dishes. It is not surprising that all summer residents strive to harvest this vegetable from their own beds, especially since this culture is unpretentious and does not require complex care.

And yet, there are a few tricks to help increase onion yields and improve the quality of the heads. How to properly plant a turnip onion, and how to prepare an onion harvested last season for planting – this is an article about this.

When is the best time to plant onions?

To date, there are many varieties of onion crops: these are shallot, leek, batun, Yalta, chives, Mongolian and Indian ornamental. But Onion is considered the most famous and widespread in Our Country; it is this crop that is grown on their plots by domestic summer residents and gardeners. And the rules for planting onion varieties will be discussed below.

The fact is that during the winter the bulb planted in the ground loses all its strength, therefore it cannot grow into a larger young turnip. The strength of such a head is only enough for the production of early greenery, and summer residents cut it off in the middle of spring.

As a rule, the smallest onions are planted before winter, which are not able to lie down until the next season. These are heads up to 1 cm in diameter. In the southern regions, gardeners still sow chernushka – onion seeds. The next year, small turnips grow out of it, which can be used again for planting and get a crop of large heads suitable for eating.

Self-germination of onion seeds is too painstaking process. It is much easier and more cost-effective to buy ready-made planting material.

Most often, onions are planted in the ground in the form of small heads, with a diameter of 1 to 2 cm. This is done in the spring, when the soil warms up to at least 12-15 degrees at a depth of 6-7 cm.

You can learn how to prepare onions for planting in the spring in the following sections.

Sorting bulbs for planting

First of all, onion heads bought or grown independently in the spring need to be inspected and sorted. At this stage, all dry, empty and rotten onions are removed, leaving only healthy and strong material.

Now turnips need to be sorted by size (if their diameter is very different):

1. The smallest onions with a diameter of up to 1 cm it is necessary to plant in the ground later than the others – they germinate the longest. Not only good greens can grow from such onions, it will also be possible to grow medium-sized turnips suitable for eating. To do this, the onions are planted in well-warmed soil, not earlier than mid-May, and a sufficient distance is left between them – 7-10 cm.
2. Medium heads are the best planting material for growing onions on a turnip. Their sizes range from 1 to 2 cm. Such onions can be stimulated: with sharp scissors, cut off the dry top and peel off the too abundant husk. So the onion will quickly start a green sprout and give a good harvest.
3. Large bulbs with a diameter of more than 2 cm can also be planted in the ground, but they are not grown on a turnip, since such heads often give arrows. Therefore, it is better to plant large turnips to obtain greens or seeds – nigella. But green sprouts from large onions appear earlier than from the rest, so they can be planted in the ground first. In most of the country, this is done in early May.

Sorted bulbs are placed in separate boxes and proceed to the stage of planting material processing.

How to treat bulbs before planting in the ground

First of all, the gardener must decide for what purpose he grows onions: for greens, for harvesting turnips, or for the purpose of collecting onion seeds from arrows.

It is on the answer to this question that the method of processing planting material – small onions – depends.

For growing greens

To get good onion greens, as mentioned above, it is better to select the smallest onions with a diameter of up to 1 cm. Such onions must be protected, first of all, from onion flies and other pests that affect the green mass.

To do this, you can use the following remedy: dissolve a tablespoon of table salt in a liter of water. Bulbs are placed in this solution and left for 10-12 hours. After processing, the onion must be weathered and dried a little.

Preparing the bow for landing on the feather does not end there. You can stimulate the growth of green mass with a complex mineral fertilizer – any composition bought in a store and intended for all vegetable crops will do.

A tablespoon of mineral fertilizers must be dissolved in a bucket of water and the bulbs soaked there for 10 hours. After this processing step, the bulbs are dried in a warm place.

Immediately before planting in the ground, onions must be disinfected to prevent fungal infections and other diseases characteristic of this crop. For this purpose, weak solutions (about 1%) of potassium permanganate or copper sulphate can be used. As part of the onion, soak for about 15-20 minutes.

Preparation for planting is over, you can plant turnips on the beds.

For growing onion heads

Not only onion greens are of interest to gardeners, the lower part of the plant, the turnip, is no less important. To grow good bulbs, you need to select high-quality planting material, namely, elastic, dense heads, the diameter of which is not more than 2 cm, but not less than 1 cm.

The main task of a gardener who wants to get a high yield of turnips is to prevent the formation of arrows. Onion seeds are formed in the arrows, but they greatly weaken the bulb itself, which becomes unsuitable for storage and consumption.

To reduce the formation of arrows, planting material must be provided with good heating. This is the preparation of the onion for planting on the turnip.

Warm up the onions in the spring in several stages:

1. Sorted bulbs must be left at a temperature of 20 to 25 degrees for about 15-20 days. The room must be dry and well ventilated. Attics are great for such purposes, but it can still be too cold there. It is still better to place the bulbs higher, for this they can be evenly distributed on shelves, on cabinets or on other furniture in the house.
2. After the specified time, the temperature must be sharply increased. To do this, the onion is placed in an environment with a temperature of 35 to 40 degrees. These can be batteries, heaters, but it is very important to ensure that the heads do not overheat – time and temperature must be strictly controlled. Under such conditions, the heads must be kept for 12 hours.
3. To stimulate the root system, it is necessary to use store-bought stimulants for vegetable crops. Following the manufacturer’s instructions, prepare the solution and soak the onions in it.
4. The heads are dried and the prepared onion is planted in the ground.

Hardening onions before planting

On the network you can find many videos and photo instructions detailing how to grow onions for greens and for a head. Everyone chooses their own way of preparing seed, taking into account the climate in their region, diseases common among vegetables in a particular area, and other factors.

A common procedure in the preparation of onions can be considered the hardening of the heads before planting. Pre-hardening of planting material will increase the immunity of the culture, better acclimatization of the seed after planting in the ground, the onion will be prepared for a possible change in weather.

You need to harden the onion like this:

• First of all, the bulbs must be soaked in water, the temperature of which is 50 degrees. Here the onion is kept for 15 minutes, no more.
• After intense heating, the onion is placed in cold water and kept there for the same amount of time – 15 minutes.
• Now the heads are soaked in a liquid solution of complex fertilizers for 12 hours.
• The procedure is completed by disinfecting the bulbs in a solution of manganese or copper sulfate.

Preparing the land for planting onions

Soil for planting onions must be prepared in the fall. This is primarily due to the fact that it is impossible to apply fertilizers during planting heads – this will only increase the growth of green mass and the shooting of onions.

The culture loves loose and nutritious soil; for normal development, onions need a sufficient amount of sunlight. Therefore, bulbs should be planted in a well-lit area with loamy or chernozem soils.

In the fall, the soil on the site is dug up. It is recommended to apply 5-6 kg of humus per square meter of land. Fresh cow dung should not be used, as it may contain fungal spores and weed seeds that can severely damage the bulbs.

Tomatoes, potatoes, zucchini, cucumbers or pumpkins are most suitable as precursors for onions. After such plants, exactly those microelements that the onion needs remain in the ground.

And in the spring, after planting the heads, the beds are covered with a centimeter layer of humus. The whole complex of fertilizers ends here. You can slightly feed the planted onion with mineral components a few weeks after planting.

It must be remembered that the culture needs neutral soils, so a lime composition should be added to too acidic soil. Two weeks before planting onions on the beds, the earth is abundantly watered with a solution of copper sulfate and covered with plastic wrap – this is necessary to disinfect the soil.

How to plant onions in spring

When both the bulbs and the soil are properly prepared, you can start planting onions in the area. Here you need to follow a few rules:

1. You need to deepen the bulbs by their size.
2. The distance between the bulbs depends on their diameter. For medium-sized turnips, this is 7-10 cm.
3. The gap between the beds should be about 25-30 cm.
4. You need to water the culture regularly, every two weeks. Stop watering only during the growth of turnips and before harvesting.
5. As a measure to control insect pests, it is recommended to alternate rows of onions with carrots, chamomile or calendula.
6. As the turnips grow, it is necessary to ensure that they protrude above the ground.

In order to get a high yield of onions per feather or per head, you must first of all be able to properly prepare the planting material. The recommendations from this article, as well as this video instruction, will help to do this: