Onions: how to grow a good crop

Onions appeared in culture about 5 thousand years ago and have not lost their popularity since then. This is not surprising, because care for him is minimal. However, it is important to observe the growing conditions – only in this case, the onion will give the maximum return.

Growing onions

In order to get a good harvest of onions, he needs to provide two important conditions:

• an abundance of light – the onion should be planted in the sunniest area, it does not tolerate shading;
• heat – the optimum temperature for onions should be 18 – 20 ° C, at temperatures below 13 ° C, it slows down in growth and begins to hurt.

Onion is a drought-resistant crop, so it is often planted in distant non-irrigated areas. Actually, for him, the drier, the better – excessive moisture leads to the development of fungal diseases.

Landing onions

Onions are traditionally grown in a biennial crop. In the first year, black seeds are sown – over the summer, small onions grow from them, the so-called sevok. It is stored all winter, and planted in the garden in the spring – and only in the second year large bulbs grow.

Sowing blackberries. Onions are not afraid of spring frosts, seedlings easily tolerate cold snaps down to -6 ° C, so seeds can be sown early – at the end of April.

Before sowing, it is useful to soak the seeds for a day in warm water or a slightly pink solution of potassium permanganate – this way they will also be disinfected. Then they are wrapped in a damp cloth and sent to heat. When the seeds have hatched, they can be sown.

You can sow the seeds dry, but in this case they hatch for a very long time – up to 3 weeks, and this is a waste of time.

Chernushka close up to a depth of about 2 – 3 cm (1). The distance should be like this:

• between the grooves – 15 – 20 cm;
• in a row – 2 cm (you should not sow less often, the onion should grow densely so that the set turns out to be 1 – 2 cm in size).

Before sowing, the furrows must be shed with water and the seeds sown in the mud. But you need to fill them with dry soil – this will protect the beds from the formation of a soil crust, which can prevent the onion from rising.

The sevok usually ripens for about 90 – 100 days – they dig it out in mid-August.

Planting sevka. Sevok is planted in the second year (or you can buy it at the garden center and then you don’t have to bother with growing small onions). He is also not afraid of spring frosts, however, if frost catches him, he will quickly go into the arrow, and this will reduce the quality of the onion turnip. Therefore, there is no need to rush into planting the sevka: the optimal time is mid-May, when the soil temperature of the soil will be at least 12 ° C.

Before planting, the onions need to be warmed up on the battery for 8-10 hours – this will save it from shooting.

After warming up, the seedlings must be disinfected. There are 2 options here:

• soak in a strong, dark pink solution of potassium permanganate for 30 minutes;
• soak in an antifungal drug: Fitosporin-M, Gamair or Planriz (any choice) – this is a more reliable way, but more expensive and troublesome.

After soaking, the onion sets must be dried, and then they can be planted in the beds.

Onions are planted to a depth of 0,5 cm (2) – it is considered from the shoulders. The distance should be like this:

• between the grooves – 20 cm;
• in a row – 10 cm (or slightly less if the onions are very small).

They are planted according to the same principle as the black seeds – first they shed the furrows well, then they stick the onions there, and then they fall asleep with dry earth.

Onion care in the open field

Onion care is simple – it is a rather unpretentious plant. He can do without care at all, but if you water and feed him, he will be grateful.

Watering. It is needed only in the heat and only until mid-July. Onions should be watered rarely – once every 1 days or even 10 weeks is enough. The norm is about 2 liters per 3 sq. m.

In the second half of summer, onions cannot be watered, even if it is very hot outside, otherwise the bulbs will rot during storage.

Feeding. Fertilizers for onions are applied only before sowing seeds or planting nigella. The ideal option is 1/3 bucket of humus, in which you need to add 10 g of ammonium nitrate (about 3 teaspoons), 30 g of superphosphate (about 2 tablespoons) and 20 g of potassium salt (1 tablespoon). All this must be mixed well and evenly applied to the soil for digging.

Onion harvest

To understand when it’s time to harvest the onion, you need to be guided by its tops – it should begin to turn yellow, but still remain juicy. In this case, the bulbs will be slightly unripe – as it should be, the yellow covering scales should coarsen during the drying process, and not in the garden. This is the key to successful storage.

Usually the bow grows above the ground, so it can be pulled with your hands. If the bulb does not give in, the soil is too hard, you can dig with a pitchfork.

After harvesting, the onion needs to be dried in the sun for a couple of hours (3), and then removed to the shade – there it should be ripened and dried for another couple of weeks. Only after that it can be sent to storage.

Onion storage rules

There are many ways to store onions, but all of them do not give a very good result – the onion rots and sprouts in winter, it has to be constantly sorted out. The only way in which the bow lies until spring is to braid it. This is exactly what our ancestors did and this is not for the sake of beauty – they just noticed that this is the only way the onion does not deteriorate (4).

Onion braids are stored in a room: a temperature of 20 ° C is the best option for them. And it is desirable that it does not rise higher, otherwise the onion will dry out.

You can’t store onions in the basement – it’s too damp for them there, they will quickly rot.

Popular questions and answers

We talked about growing onions with agronomist-breeder Svetlana Mikhailova.

Sources of

1. Fisenko A.N., Serpukhovitina K.A., Stolyarov A.I. Garden. Handbook // Rostov-on-Don, Rostov University Press, 1994 – 416 p.
2. Yakubovskaya L.D., Yakubovsky V.N., Rozhkova L.N. ABC of a summer resident // Minsk, OOO “Orakul”, OOO Lazurak, IPKA “Publicity”, 1994 – 415 p.
3. Ilyin O.V. and a group of authors. Vegetable grower’s guide // M.: Rosselkhokhizdat, 1979 – 224 p.
4. Smirnov A.V. Plant world. Stories about cultivated plants // M .: Young guard, 1988 – 301 p.