Varieties and types of perennial onions: photo with names

Perennial onion is a useful plant, represented by many varieties. The culture is used in cooking and medicine, it is bred for greens and turnips in almost any garden.

Characteristics of perennial onions

External features and dimensions of perennial onions depend on the specific variety. However, plants also have common features.

The main feature of perennials is that they develop in one place for 4-5 years and do not require an annual transplant. Plants of this type are characterized by increased resistance to diseases and pests, tolerate frost well and feel comfortable even on poor soils. They bear fruit from spring to autumn and regrow juicy feathers after each cut.

Some varieties of perennial onions bloom very beautifully, which allows them to be used for decorative purposes.

Advantages and disadvantages

Perennial onions have important advantages over annual varieties. These include:

• development in one place for several years;
• significant content of vitamins and minerals in feathers;
• high frost resistance down to -40 °С;
• good yield;
• unpretentiousness and resistance to fungi and pests;
• early ripening.

However, the culture has its drawbacks:

• sensitive to weeds and requires constant weeding;
• has small and low-value underground heads.

Despite the fact that the culture brings the crop only in the aerial part, gardeners love perennial onions for their ease of cultivation and juicy, sharp-tasting feathers.

Varieties of perennial onions with photos and names

There are many names for perennial onions. Some species are more often used for decorative purposes and for treatment, while others are grown to add to culinary dishes.

Onion-Batun

Batun, or piped onion (Allium fistulosum), grows up to 70 cm. In appearance it is very similar to onions – it has the same juicy long dark green feathers, hollow from the inside. But the false bulb of the perennial is small, not suitable for food consumption. Batun produces strong and powerful roots, bears fruit well up to six years in one place.

Batun sprouts one of the first in the spring garden and quickly produces a crop of feathers.

Slime

Slizun, or drooping onion (Allium nutans), is distinguished by an unusual shape of feathers – wide and rounded, they gradually taper at the bottom. The plant loves moist soils, can take roots up to 25 cm underground, and is highly frost-resistant. It gives a juicy and tender harvest, the leaves have a pleasant taste and valuable medicinal properties.

Slizun can grow both in the sun and in the shade

Tiered

A multi-tiered or horned onion (Allium proliferum) brings unusual arrows with airy oblong turnips instead of inflorescences collected in several pieces. They grow green feathers suitable for eating. Air bulbs can also be eaten fresh and added to a variety of dishes. The species does not have a dormant period and, under comfortable conditions, can bear fruit continuously throughout the year.

A multi-tiered bow lives in one place for up to seven years

Sweet onion

Fragrant onion (Allium odorum) produces wide large leaves that stretch up to 50 cm. It grows quickly after cutting and can produce crops until frost. From the second year of life, beautiful flowering begins – in spring, white umbrellas with a pleasant almond aroma bloom on the arrows.

Fragrant onion has the properties of a honey plant

Schnitt

Chives, or chives (Allium schoenoprasum), produce feathers up to 45 cm tall. Possesses good nutritional qualities at a young age. After flowering, it becomes harsh and less tasty, so it is better to cut it in the spring. It blooms with beautiful spherical purple or pale pink buds. Chives are often planted in borders and flower beds, and also grown in covered pots.

Chives can bloom until late autumn

Shalot

Shallot (Allium ascalonicum) is one of the perennial varieties in which you can eat not only green feathers, but also underground parts. Often found in French cuisine recipes, it has a mild taste. Quickly grows new leaves to replace cut ones and produces large yields of greenery throughout the season.

Shallot has almost no characteristic pungent odor

Altai onion

Altai, Siberian or mountain onion (Allium altaicum) has frost resistance down to -45 ° C and tolerates drought well. In the wild, it is found in Altai and Central Asia, as well as in China. It produces tubular leaves with a bluish wax coating, has a spicy spicy taste and good juiciness. In cultural cultivation, it produces a crop up to four times per season, but the last harvest must be carried out no later than mid-August.

Altai onion has uncharacteristically large bulbs for a perennial species up to 5 cm in diameter.

Aflatunsky

Aflatun onion (Allium aflatunense) has a very short vegetative period of only 2-3 months. The plant begins to develop immediately after the snow melts, and before the onset of the summer heat it already fades and gives seeds. In culture, it is valued primarily for decorative large inflorescences of a purple or pink hue. You can eat the early greens of the Aflatun onion, underground turnips are also edible, although they require long soaking and boiling.

Aflatun onion blooms from May to the end of June

Features of growing perennial onions

Growing perennial onions on a feather is quite simple. It is necessary to observe the planting dates and choose the right place for garden crops.

When to plant perennial onions on greens

The earliest greens can be obtained by planting perennial onions before winter. Seeds in this case are sown just before the frost. In the spring, with the onset of a thaw, sprouts will sprout almost immediately after the snow melts.

You can also plant perennial onions on greens at the beginning of the growing season. In this case, the seeds are sown after the soil thaws and the snow melts. The plant will give juicy feathers about two weeks later than during winter planting.

Where to plant perennial onions

For planting perennial onions, light, neutral or slightly acidic soil away from groundwater is best suited. The place should be well lit.

It is necessary to prepare beds for culture in advance – in the summer with winter sowing or in the fall if the procedure is carried out in the spring. The site is dug up and weeds are removed, and phosphorus-potassium top dressing is also applied. When spring planting, immediately before the procedure, nitrogen fertilizers must be added to the soil.

Planting scheme for perennial onions

Planting perennial onions on the site is allowed in several ways. The peculiarity of the culture is that it can be propagated not only by seeds, but vegetatively.

Seedling method

In the spring, to quickly obtain fresh greens, they practice a seedling method of growing:

1. In March, the seeds of perennial onions are soaked in a weak solution of potassium permanganate and dried.
2. The material is laid in nutrient soil with the addition of sand, watered and covered with a film.
3. Until the emergence of shoots, the container is kept at a temperature of 20-22 ° C, and when green sprouts appear, it is reduced to 18-20 ° C.

Seedlings are transferred to the garden in mid-May.

Despite the cold resistance of perennial onions, it is better to plant them in the ground after frosts.

Winter sowing

Sowing perennial onions in the fall is popular with gardeners. The schema looks like this:

1. The site is dug up in advance and fertilized with phosphorus-potassium minerals.
2. When the soil temperature drops to 3-4 ° C, seeds are laid in shallow grooves located 20-25 cm apart.
3. Sprinkle the material with moist earth, and mulch on top with a warming layer.

During the winter, some of the seeds will inevitably die. Therefore, the sowing rate is increased by 20-25% compared to the usual one.

Winter onions germinate about two weeks earlier than spring onions.

Fragment of the rhizome

Perennial onions can be propagated by division. The algorithm is the following:

1. In the period from mid-spring to the end of summer, healthy plants aged 3-4 years are dug out of the ground.
2. Underground bulbs are cut so that at least one developed root remains on each part.
3. The delenki are immediately transferred to the prepared beds and deepened by 8-10 cm into the soil.

When vegetative planting, 15 cm are left between plants, and 50 cm of free space between rows.

With a stunted root system, you need to deepen perennial onions by only 4-5 cm

air bulbs

Some types, for example, a multi-tiered bow, allow planting with air bulbs. Small oblong or rounded turnips form directly on the above-ground arrows and release their own feathers, on which unusual inflorescences also form.

Air bulbs germinate well in the ground. Landing is usually carried out as follows:

1. Prepare the site in advance according to the standard scheme.
2. After harvesting in the fall, the beds are dug up again.
3. Air bulbs are planted in the ground to a depth of 5-6 cm.

Sowing material can be carried out in the spring. But during the winter, bulbs should be stored in a dry place at a negative temperature. Bulbs can be sown not only in the ground, but also at home for seedlings for accelerated forcing of green feathers.

It is recommended to use the largest air bulbs for propagation.

Caring for perennial onions

Varieties of perennial onions generally have the same care requirements. The gardener needs to keep a few things in mind:

1. Watering. Perennial requires regular moisture throughout the growing season. In a drought, it can be watered daily, in the presence of rain, the procedure is carried out as needed. Unlike varieties grown on turnips, feather onions are moistened until harvest. Excess water negatively affects the size and taste of underground heads, but it does not harm the juiciness of green stems.
2. Top dressing. In the spring, the perennial is fertilized with complex minerals – 50 g of superphosphate and 45 g of potassium salt, as well as 50 g of urea are added to the soil to stimulate growth. At the end of autumn, practically the same mixture is again applied to the beds to increase the winter hardiness of the crop. But it is recommended to exclude urea – it contains nitrogen, which the onion does not need before the cold weather.
3. Weeding and loosening. The perennial is particularly sensitive to the air permeability of the soil. It is necessary to regularly loosen along the plantings up to 15 cm deep, and also to remove weeds in a timely manner. It is necessary to carry out the procedures after each cut after the next watering, when the plant especially needs good oxygen access to the roots.

Preparing perennial onions for winter consists in warming the beds with humus or compost. 1 m² it is enough to add 6-7 kg of organic matter and distribute it in an even dense layer.

Do I need to prune perennial onions for the winter?

It is necessary to cut perennial onions for the winter, but not entirely. At the final harvest, green feathers are removed so that the plant has time to release leaves again before the cold weather. The last young shoots are not removed, but wait for them to lodging on the ground and mulch the beds for the winter. During the cold period, the feathers, one way or another, will die, but after the spring snowmelt, new greenery will appear a little earlier.

Conclusion

Perennial onions are represented by many types and have significant advantages over annuals. The disadvantages include only the inedibility of the underground part in most varieties. It is easy to grow a crop, it is characterized by rapid development and high frost resistance.