If you plant onions in the spring, in the autumn you can get a good crop of vegetables, but for this you need to correctly determine the timing of sowing work and arrange proper care for the planting. This process is not laborious, but requires compliance with certain agricultural techniques and the rules for growing vegetables. Read about all this below.
When to plant?
To determine the optimal timing of planting in the spring, you need to take into account both specific weather conditions and suitable dates according to the lunar calendar.
Climatic conditions
Planting onions can only be done after the frost has receded, and stable warm weather is established. In this case, the soil should warm up to a depth of 5-8 cm to + 12 ... 14 ° C, otherwise the onion will grow into the arrow, and the greens will grow more than the turnip itself.
As a rule, suitable weather sets in late April - early May. Exact dates vary by region:
- southern regions - the second decade of April;
- regions of central Russia and the Moscow Region — the third decade of April;
- Siberia and the Urals - the first decade of May;
- Altai Territory - from the beginning to the middle of May.
Residents of central Russia begin to grow vegetables with cherry blossoms.
If the onions are grown in a greenhouse, planting can be done 2-3 weeks earlier than the specified time.
Regardless of the region of residence, the onion should not be delayed, otherwise, due to high temperatures and lack of natural moisture, the onion will slowly develop, which is fraught with a decrease in the intended yield.
According to the lunar calendar
To determine the exact dates of planting, many gardeners are guided by the Lunar calendar, according to which in the spring for planting onions, the favorable periods are:
- April 25 and 26;
- from May 10 to May 20;
- May, 23rd.
Onions planted these days give large bulbs and juicy greens.
What varieties can I plant?
For spring planting, a medium-sized bow is preferable, in diameter reaching 14-21 mm, since this form does not give shooters and is easier to take root. For specific varieties, the following are suitable:
- Centurion F1. An early ripe hybrid that bears fruit with aligned and slightly elongated in shape fruits weighing up to 175-180 g. Their taste can be sharp or semi-sharp. The variety is highly resistant to disease and good keeping quality.
- Stuttgart Riesen. Mid-season variety, which is characterized by high productivity - from 1 square. m gives up to 5 kg of large bulbs of round and slightly flattened shape. Their average weight is about 150 g, but there are specimens of 200-250 g. The taste of the fruits is bright and distinctly sharp.
- Red baron. An early variety with a yield of up to 3 kg per 1 sq. Km. m. It bears round-shaped red-violet color and weighs up to 150 g. Their taste is pleasant and semi-sharp.
- Sturon. An early ripe Sturon variety with a stable and high yield, which brings medium and large bulbs. They have a soft peninsular taste.
- Hercules. Mid-early hybrid with high productivity, bearing fruit bulbs weighing 155-160 g. They have a wide elliptical shape and a piquant island flavor.
- Stardust. Mid-early variety, which is characterized by good germination and high yields. The fruits are large in size, even and rounded in shape, with a pleasant and slightly semi-sharp taste.
Bow Centurion F1
Onion Stuttgart Riesen
Bow Red Baron
Bow sturon
Onion Hercules
Bow Stardust
Experienced growers choose these varieties for their quality characteristics and unpretentiousness in cultivation.
Planting Material Processing
What kind of preparation to carry out depends on what is used as planting material - seeds or seeds. We consider each option separately.
Seeds
To grow onions on a feather, it needs to be planted with seeds. You can start processing them 25-28 days before sowing. It is produced in this order:
- To check onion seeds (chernushka) for germination, they need to be transferred to a gauze bag and immersed in hot (+ 45 ... + 55 ° C) water for 12-16 minutes. Discard unsuitable specimens.
- In order to harden after the first stage, immediately dip the seeds into cold water for 1.5-2 minutes.
- In order for the seeds to swell and release from inhibiting the germination of substances, wrap them in moist natural tissue and hold in this form for 22-26 hours, while regularly moisturizing the parcel. After this procedure, soak the seeds in water at room temperature and hold for 2-3 days in the lower compartment of the refrigerator or in another cool place. Change the water every day.
- After soaking, drain the water, dry the chernushka on a paper towel and mix with sand or sawdust.
After this treatment, you can get strong small seeds of onion, which will be suitable for uniform sowing.
Onion set
When growing onions on the head, planting should be done with seed crops. They can be purchased at a garden store or grown independently from chernushka, giving preference to zoned varieties. In any case, bulbs with the following characteristics are suitable for spring planting:
- have dimensions of 14-21 mm;
- are dry and resilient;
- have a good density and a pleasant onion smell.
Not suitable for planting bulbs, which are characterized by the following features:
- wet
- covered with mechanical damage and rot;
- smell of mold;
- have white roots or hatching green shoots.
To make a self-grown sevka suitable for planting in spring, it must be properly stored in winter - at a temperature of 15 ° C and humidity 70%.
Directly to the processing of seedlings you need to start a month before their planting. It consists in the following manipulations:
- Discard dry and rotten bulbs, and sort the remaining ones by size - large, medium and small. Planting should begin with small and medium bulbs, so that by autumn they give a head crop. Large seeds must be planted with a break of at least 2 weeks, so that they do not go into the arrow early. At their discretion, they can be consumed in green or left on a chernushka.
- If sowing was stored in a cellar or other cold place, 2-3 weeks before planting it must be warmed up and dried, otherwise it will rot in the soil or go to the arrow. The sorted sevos must be spread out in a thin layer and kept in the sun, for example, on the windowsill on the south side. An alternative is to keep sevc for 3-4 days near a heating source at a temperature of +35 .. + 42 ° C.
- After drying and warming, lower the sevc for 4-5 minutes in hot (70 ° C) water, and then for the same time in cold.
- For rapid germination of seeds, soak for 8-10 hours in a weak solution of complex fertilizers or nitroammophos (15-20 g per 10 l of water).
- After a mineral bath, in order to disinfect and protect the planting from fungal diseases, soak the seeds for 10-15 minutes in a solution of potassium permanganate (1 tsp per 10 l of water) or copper sulfate (10-15 g per 10 l of water). If during the cultivation of sowing, diseases were observed in the garden or pests were produced, the planting material must also be kept in an ash solution (1 tbsp. Per 1 liter of water).
- Rinse sevs under running cold water, dry and plant in the ground.
If you plan to grow a feather, then before planting at the bulbs you need to cut off the tops.
Site selection and preparation of beds
A place for planting onions should be chosen from the fall. This should be a well-lit area, since bulbous plants grow heavily in the shade and need a lot of direct sunlight. If the onion grows without them, then the heads will be very small.
It is equally important when choosing a site to consider crop rotation rules:
- The best predecessors of onions are those crops that roots loosen the soil and enrich it with nutrients. These are:
- rye;
- pumpkin;
- peas;
- beans;
- peppers
- eggplant;
- zucchini;
- cabbage;
- Tomatoes
- potatoes.
- The worst predecessors are cucumbers, garlic, beets and carrots. After them, the onion heads will grow very slowly, and the yield will decrease. Onions can only be returned to their original place after 3 years.
- Next to the onion bed is better to plant carrots. It will scare away the onion fly, while the onion will be an excellent prevention from the carrot fly.
As for the soil, it should be loose and with low acidity. Excellent onion grows on chernozems or loams, well permeable to air and moisture.
The selected site with suitable parameters must be properly prepared. This procedure can be divided into two stages:
- Fall. Dig a bed on the bayonet of a shovel without breaking a clod. This is a good treatment for pests and diseases - the ground will freeze deeper, so fewer larvae will survive until spring.
In addition, when snow melts, moisture will linger longer in the soil. When digging, the earth needs to be fertilized - to make 1 square. 5 kg of rotted manure or compost. From mineral fertilizers per 1 sq. Km. m worth 30 g of superphosphate and 15 g of potassium chloride.By spring, all fertilizers introduced will dissolve, and soil fertility will be restored.
- In the spring. A week before planting, evenly distribute ammonium nitrate on the surface of the bed at a rate of 20 g per 1 sq. Km. m and carry out its shallow loosening, followed by harrowing. Immediately before planting, for the purpose of disinfection, pour the dug up beds with a dark pink solution of potassium permanganate.
Planting onions in the ground
The planting pattern depends on what kind of planting material the vegetable crop is cultivated.
Sowing seeds
It is made according to this scheme:
- the width between the holes is 1.5-2 cm;
If you keep less than 1 cm between the holes, you can get a good feather - the greens will grow more than the turnip.
- the distance between the rows is 12-18 cm;
- embedment depth - up to 1.8-2 cm.
After sowing, the soil must be watered and mulched using wood sawdust or straw. The landing itself needs to be covered with a dark film to prevent it from drying out.
Planting Sevka
Before planting, you need to prepare the beds at a distance of 25-30 cm. The distance between the grooves depends on the size of the heads:
- large - 10-12 cm;
- medium - 8-10 cm;
- small - 6-8 cm.
Sevc should not be immersed too deep in the ground. With the advent of roots, it will drag even deeper into the soil, so the seedlings will have to wait even longer, and the yield will be small and weakened. The optimal depth of onion planting is 4.5-5 cm, so that a soil layer of 2.5-3.5 cm remains above the shoulders of the onion.
After planting, the garden bed must be watered and mulched with straw or sawdust so that the moisture lingers longer in the soil until the bulbs germinate.
The intricacies of sowing onion sets throughout May are described in the video below:
Spring planting care
To get a good crop, you must follow the rules for planting care. They consist in the timely conduct of a number of agricultural activities.
Watering
A lack of moisture in the spring will cause the feather to become bluish or white, and the tips will dry out and become bent. At the same time, excess moisture should not be allowed, otherwise the feather will turn pale and thin, and the quality of the grown onions will deteriorate. So, it is extremely important to organize moderate watering of the crop, adhering to the following scheme:
- In May-June, water the beds no more than 1-2 times a week at the rate of 7-11 liters of water per 1 sq. Km. m
- During the ripening period of the bulb head, reduce watering to 1 time in 1.5-2.5 weeks. However, in dry weather, onions should be watered more often, while reducing water consumption.
- By the beginning of turnip maturation, minimize watering to only keep the soil moist. Excess moisture will stimulate leaf growth and delay the maturation of large onion heads.
- At the stage of cutting the bulbs, refuse watering. However, with severe drought, the planting can be slightly moistened, otherwise the onion feathers will lose color, bend and turn white at the tips.
Loosening
At least once every 2-2.5 weeks after watering or rains, you need to loosen the soil. This is an important procedure that should not be neglected for the following reasons:
- gives onion turnips a lot of air and light, and therefore forces, to "get out" to the surface;
- improves the air-wet mode, not allowing the soil to be overly compacted;
If you allow the formation of an impenetrable crust on the soil surface, the onion will begin to choke and will lag behind in development, and the feather will turn pale and even turn yellow.
- Helps keep the planting clean - fights weeds that grow rapidly as the roots and leaves of the bulb grow slowly.
Top dressing
If the presowing top dressing of the soil was carried out correctly, then only poor soil must be fertilized. However, even with proper preparation, onion vegetation can occur sluggishly. In this case, summer top dressing will help to stimulate feather growth. It is produced using a solution that is prepared from such substances (in a bucket of water):
- 15-20 g of urea;
- 250-280 g of organic matter (mullein or bird droppings).
This composition must be applied under the root of plants at the rate of 3-3.5 liters per 1 sq. After 12-16 days, top dressing can be repeated.
If after feeding, the greens begin to grow actively and go to the arrows, they will need to be removed immediately.
Protection against diseases and pests
In order to prevent the development of fungal diseases, when the onion feather reaches a height of 12-16 cm, it is necessary to carry out preventive treatment - spray the beds with a solution of 5-8 g of liquid laundry soap and 15-20 g of copper sulphate in 10 l of water.
If you do not process the vegetable crop, then the following pathogenic fungi can affect it:
- Peronosporosis. It is carried by wind, insects and even by humans. It appears bright spots on feathers. If such signs are found, the plant should be sprayed with a suspension of Polycarbacin or a 1% Bordeaux mixture. To carry out such processing 3 times with an interval of 10 days. The last of them to spend 20 days before harvesting.
- Rust disease. Leaves bloated orange spots of rounded shape on the stems. To prevent the development of this pathological process, you need to regularly weed the garden. With mass growth, the onion should be sprayed with a solution of copper chloride at the rate of 30 g per 10 liters of water. You can add a little liquid soap to it. The composition is sprayed landing twice with an interval of 7 days.
- Fusarium rot. Manifested by the decay of the pen and turnip. In order to prevent the development of the disease, it is advisable to treat the soil before planting with Iprodion, and the seed to be soaked in a solution of potassium permanganate. In addition, you can not plant onions in the same area for 2 consecutive seasons.
As for pests, among them a special danger is:
- Wire beetles. To scare them away, you must follow the correct agricultural practices.
- Onion fly. In the fight against it, Creolin will help.
- Onion weevil (secretive worm). Against it, onions can be sprayed with insecticides, which contain nicotine sulfate.
To protect the onion beds from attacks of any pests, you need to carefully clean the garden from plant debris and other debris.
Harvesting and storage
You can start harvesting onions in the period from 2-3 weeks of August to the beginning of September. The ripeness of the harvest will be indicated by such signs:
- greenery has stopped growing;
- the feather has died;
- new feathers ceased to form;
- leaves turn yellow and dry;
- heads with a characteristic color and scales of a ripe appearance were formed.
Harvesting cannot be postponed, otherwise the heads will begin to grow again, and the onion will become unsuitable for storage.
It is necessary to start harvesting on a sunny day or in cloudy but dry weather. If you can’t break off the stems, you can pull out the onion and sevoc by hand.In order not to damage the onion turnips, they should be carefully dug with a pitchfork.
Harvested onion and sevka need to be dried. In sunny weather, it can be spread directly on the beds. An adult turnip in vivo will dry out after 7 days, and a sowing - after 3-4 days. If the weather is cloudy, the harvested crop will have to be dried under a canopy with good circulation of air masses.
After drying, the bulbs need to be trimmed off the bulbs, leaving the neck 3-4 cm long. Next, they need to be sorted correctly so that large specimens are eaten, and small ones (up to 3 cm in diameter) should be stored as seeds on a green feather.
With the departure of winter frosts and the arrival of spring, you can begin to plant onions. Given the above recommendations, even an inexperienced gardener will be able to cope with such a task. The main thing is to properly prepare the sowing material and the garden, and after sowing to organize competent care for the culture.