To grow onions, summer residents most often buy young onions on the market and store them in appropriate conditions in order to sow them in open ground in spring. To get a good harvest, you should know how to plant onion sets correctly and take care of them in the garden.
What is onion set?
On the market you can see small one-year onions obtained by seed method. This is the sevc.
There are several varieties of the beam, based on its size:
- oatmeal - the smallest onions (up to 1 cm);
- first grade (up to 1.5 cm);
- second grade (up to 3 cm);
- samples - the largest bulbs (from 3 cm).
The best varieties of onion sets
Breeders bred many varieties of onions. It is advisable to choose sevoc zoned varieties - it is better to take root in specific climatic conditions of cultivation. The following are the most popular varieties of onions for growing from sevka.
Orion
An early ripe hybrid bred by English breeders. Bulbs are round, weigh about 180 g. The variety is good in that it can be stored for a long time without loss of quality.
Sturon
An early ripe variety, characterized by good germination, high productivity, immunity to various infectious pathologies, and the ability to long-term storage. A bulb of the Sturon variety weighs 100-160 g. The taste is pleasant, moderately pungent.
Shallot
Elite variety. Onion flesh is juicy, soft in taste, does not cause lacrimation when sliced, suitable for various culinary purposes, saturated with vitamins, mineral elements, bioactive substances.
Stardust
Mid-season onion with white husk. It differs in the friendly appearance of seedlings, good preservation of the crop.
Stuttgart Riesen
Early ripe onions. Productivity is consistently high. Shelf life without loss of quality is long. Bulbs are heterogeneous in mass: the smallest weigh 50 g, the largest - 300 g. The only negative is the susceptibility of the plant to peronosporosis and rot.
Centurion
Variety variety Stuttgart Riesen, characterized by slightly oblong bulbs, bred to obtain a bulbous, but not green mass. When creating optimal conditions, the germination rate is 100%. Arrows are almost not formed. Disease susceptibility is low. Long-term storage (up to 9 months). The taste is quite sharp, spicy.
Red baron
Onion rich red color with high nutritional qualities. The taste is pleasant, medium pungency, pronounced aroma. The plant is moody: it quickly withers away without weeding and regular watering.
Excisible
A variety with large sweet bulbs weighing up to 800 g. The bulb reaches its maximum size by 4 months. Shelf life is average (up to 4 months).
Kaba
Late onion. Onion-shaped bulb with greenish-white pulp, yellow or beige husk. The plant is susceptible to fungal infection and onion fly damage.
Benefits of growing onions from sevka
Gardeners prefer to use seed for growing onions, because:
- the growing season lasts six months;
- when cultivated by the two-stage method, it is possible to obtain a good crop in any climatic region;
- the resulting plants have a strong root system that is immune to the proximity of weeds.
Outdoor planting dates
The optimal planting time for sevka is the first week of May. During this period, the earth has already been warmed up enough by the spring sun, but is still saturated with moisture remaining after the snow cover has melted, so the onion roots take root well.
In different regions of the country, landing dates can be shifted forward or backward, taking into account climatic characteristics.
Planting onion sets
Onions - a non-capricious culture, productivity reaches almost 100%. But this does not mean that compliance with agricultural requirements is not necessary. If planting material is not processed, and the soil is not prepared according to the rules, then young plants will become ill, the size and quality of the crop will significantly decrease.
The landing procedure is carried out in stages and includes:
- purchase of planting material;
- Bulb treatment to improve growth and protect against disease;
- preparation of planting soil;
- the landing process itself.
Onion selection
The quality of planting material is extremely important for a plentiful harvest. When buying sevc, you should carefully examine each onion. Its surface should not be wrinkled, squeezed, it should not be scratched, cracked, traces of rot and infection. The bulb should not be sprouted.
It is advisable to select bulbs of the same diameter. Experienced gardeners try to buy oats or first grade, since the largest crop is obtained from the smallest sevka. Also, a small beam less often produces arrows.
If the selling planting material is sealed in a package, it must always have an expiration date, a batch number, and the name of the variety.
Some bulbs may be darker than others. Perhaps they are damp. If the problem is not started, then just put them on paper and leave them near the heating system to dry. If the pulp is very damp, then the purchase will have to be disposed of.
Optimal soil for planting
For onions, alkaline loam or sandstone is preferred. Soil in the area selected for planting must be pre-treated.
Soil preparation is carried out in the fall. Before the advent of frost, the land on the site is dug up to a depth of 20 cm. Feeding is made. It is best to use mullein or compost with peat. Fertilizing should be preliminary, it can not be carried out just before planting the onion sets, as nutrients must be processed in the soil.
Onions do not feel well in acidic conditions, so the soil must be checked for acidity. To reduce acidity, chalk, lime, and ash are mixed into the soil. These substances cannot be used simultaneously with fertilizers, otherwise the fertility of the soil will decrease: in the humus-peat mass used for feeding, nitrogen will be destroyed, without which the full-fledged development of a vegetable crop is impossible.
Onions growing on quality prepared soil give large bulbs.
Choosing a place to land
For bulbous beds, a lit area is selected. It is important that the groundwater lies deep. This allows you to prevent waterlogging of the soil, decay and death of plants.
When planting onions, it is important to consider the nuances of crop rotation. The beds are best done where tomatoes, potatoes, pumpkin, and cereals grew last season.
You can not plant sowing after garlic and root crops. These crops intensively draw food from the soil, and onions will be deficient in nutrients. It is also unacceptable to plant onions on one site for two consecutive seasons.
Bulb Handling Before Planting
The sevocs purchased at the market must be warmed up. 2 or 3 days before planting, the bulbs are placed in a mesh bag, hanged over the heater. The air temperature near the grid should be 30-40 degrees.
Before planting, the bulbs are soaked in containers of warm water. For soaking, you can use not water, but a mineral solution to accelerate growth processes. It is best to take the drug Nitrofoska, a tablespoon of which is dissolved in a 10-liter bucket.
It also does not hurt to process planting material from infectious diseases and insect pests. Universal protective solution - a teaspoon of copper sulfate in a 10-liter bucket. It holds onions for 10 minutes. The solution can be prepared from any other fungicide.
The most common onion pest is an onion fly. To prevent her attack, they use birch tar, the smell of which is unbearable for her. Make a solution: a tablespoon of the substance in 1 liter of water. Bulbs are kept in this solution for 15 minutes. It is also used to spray vegetative plants on beds.
After the appearance of the first roots, you can plant in the ground.
Some summer residents are faced with the fact that sowing begins to abundantly produce peduncles. The reason is the storage of planting material under improper temperature conditions. Sevka is kept cool, but the minus temperature indicator at the storage location provokes the release of flower arrows. So the plant reacts to adverse conditions: it starts the process of accelerated offspring to save the population. In this regard, the onion set prepared for planting should not be subjected to cold stress.
Landing technology
2 weeks before planting, the soil is loosened, enriched with humic organic matter. You can use the drug "Gumi Kuznetsova." A week before planting onions, the soil is disinfected, watered with a solution made from a tablespoon of copper sulfate and 10 liters of water. Also, the Phytosporin preparation is used for disinfection both in powder form (a teaspoon per 10-liter bucket) and in pasty form (a tablespoon on 10 liters of water).
Next, you can land. Onions are grown from sevka both in the spring and in the winter. In the second case, the procedure is practically no different from the first. The only difference is that cultivated plants are covered with mulch before the onset of cold weather.
The size of the sown area can be any. The main thing is that it is convenient to look after the culture in the future.
Landing is carried out in stages as follows:
- Bucksuits are planted at a distance of 5 cm from each other. The distance between the bulbs of the first and second grade is 8 cm, between the samples - 10 cm.
- The distance between the beds is 20-25 cm. It is not worth forming closer rows, otherwise there will be insufficient soil space for the development of the onion root system. If the farmer uses a walk-behind tractor on the site, then the aisles should be 60-70 cm wide.
- The depth of the furrows should be 5 cm.
- Bulbs are inserted into the furrows “on the shoulders”: not only the roots, but also part of the bulb should be under the level of the soil surface. This is important to maintain the stability of the seedling, which does not yet have well-developed roots.
- Sprinkle over the furrows with ash, which serves as top dressing and a disinfectant.
- Furrows are covered with earth.
If planting is carried out in the winter, then straw and sawdust are used as mulch. The thickness of the protective layer should be 3-4 cm. If the procedure is performed in the spring, then the crop is harvested in August.
If a summer resident grows onions in order to obtain not bulbs, but greens, then he can save space by planting by the bridge method. In this case, the bulbs are placed very close to each other, deepening slightly. Using this method, onions are grown not only in open ground, but also in containers.
If you want to get both greens and bulbs, and there is not much free space on the site, then a mixed landing is performed. Standard furrows are made, but the sowing is placed on them in a checkerboard pattern close enough to each other. Part of the seedlings will remain until the bulbs are formed, part will be pulled out earlier for fresh green shooters.
Outdoor onion seed care
Onions can not be called a capricious culture, but it is also not unpretentious. The plant needs a sufficient amount of sunlight, regular watering, and feeding.
Thinning
After emergence of the beds, it is necessary to thin out the beds. Otherwise, part of the bulbs will be empty. Thinning is carried out after the appearance of the first real leaf. Tear out small and stunted seedlings.
Top dressing
To increase productivity without quality top dressing can not do. Onions need both organic and minerals. Organics are necessary to improve the quality of the soil and its nutrition. In a saturated organic substrate, the roots more actively absorb mineral fertilizing.
Fertilizing is advisable in the evening. Mineral complexes use both dry and liquid. When applying liquid top dressing, care should be taken to prevent spilling of the solution on the greens. A day after dressing the beds are watered with plain water.
The table shows the timing and rate of fertilizer application.
Fertilizer | The first application (4 weeks after the first shoots), g / sq. m | The second application (during the formation of the bulbs), g / sq. m |
ammonium nitrate | 12 | 6 |
superphosphate | 10 | 10 |
potassium salt | 5 | 5 |
organic matter (mullein, chicken droppings, ash) | — | 1.5 liters (the mixture is diluted with water in a ratio of 1 to 6) |
Watering
Onions should not be deficient in moisture. In the dry summer period, watering is carried out until mid-July. For 1 square. m of sown area take at least 20 liters of water. Water is poured in portions, the previous portion should be well absorbed before making the next. The soil layer should be moistened to a depth of 30 cm.
Waterlogging for onions is no less dangerous than a lack of moisture. In water-flooded plants, growth is delayed, the green mass begins to turn yellow.
If in July, after the cessation of irrigation and the formation of the underground part of the plants, rainy weather sets in, then to protect against waterlogging over the beds put an arched film coating.
Loosening
Onions grow well on loose, airy, drained soil. Loosening is carried out every 2 weeks. If the aboveground parts of the bulbs are filled up, then they need to be freed from the ground.
Harvesting and storage
Harvested when the leaves begin to turn yellow and go to bed. Dig the bulbs, clean them from the ground, put them to dry under the sun for 2 hours. Then move into the shade, leave to dry the leaf mass. From it, bioactive substances pass into the onion flesh. Harvested sorted.
Oatmeal for the most part does not persist until spring, dries. Therefore, they are usually planted in the winter. The first grade is selected for spring or autumn planting in bulbs and herbs. The second grade and samples are planted in the spring to obtain greenery.
Store sevoc in a cool room, but not at sub-zero temperatures. The optimum temperature is slightly above 0 degrees, relative humidity is 75%, in this case the bulb will remain at rest all winter. It could be a well-ventilated cellar. City dwellers keep small amounts of sevka in the refrigerator in the fruit and vegetable compartment.
Growing onions from sevka is not difficult. The culture is not capricious, so many gardeners do not even think about observing the rules of planting, do not devote much time to caring for seedlings. However, observing agrotechnical rules can significantly increase the yield of onions, and ignoring them can lead to the loss of a large part of the crop.