Probably there is no garden where at least a small bed was not planted with onions. This vitamin plant does not require ultra-high labor for growing, but onions have their own secrets. In the southern regions, onions can be obtained from seeds in one season, in most places they try not to tempt fate: first they set onion sets, and plant it next year to get a crop of large commodity bulbs. Planting onion sets in spring has a number of nuances.
Dates of spring planting onion sets
Real summer heat for growing onions is not necessary: an adult onion normally tolerates even severe frosts. Therefore, they plant it very early, so that by the onset of a long daylight, it has already taken root and has grown. It is a large amount of sunlight that is required in order for the bulbs to mature properly, and then go on time to a state of rest and be stored for a long time.
At the same time, planting sowing as soon as the snow melts is also risky. Bulbs planted in the cold earth go en masse to the arrow, and it is not possible to get a high-quality yield of onion turnips. The best thing is to choose the moment when the soil warms up to about 10 aboutC, but do not delay longer. Since one does not have to look at the possibility of frosts in the case of onions, it is at this moment that it is worthwhile to find time for planting the onions on the turnip. As a rule, in most climatic regions, sevka planting dates fall on certain days of April or the first half of May.
Those gardeners who check their plans with the lunar calendar can be calm: there are not so many forbidden days for planting onions (these are only days of a new moon and a full moon). And if you choose the best days, you should know the following. If the onion is grown to obtain a feather, then the optimal dates are those on which the night luminary is under the signs of Water. If the plans are to obtain high-quality onions, the plant should be planted while the moon is under the signs of the Earth.
For example, in 2020, the best days for planting onion sets are:
- April 9, 15 and 28;
- May 13, 14 and 20.
Landing is prohibited on the days of the new moon and full moon: April 8 and 23, May 7 and 22.
Dependence of the landing period from the region
In general, if we consider the entire territory of our country, the optimal timing of planting seed for receiving onion turnip fit in about a month and a half. So, in the south, these works begin in the last days of March and finish in the first ten days of April. In the middle lane, in particular in the Moscow region, such work can begin at the end of April and end by mid-May.
The northwestern regions (for example, the Leningrad region), as well as the Urals and Siberia, are very heterogeneous in weather: in some areas, and by the end of May, the soil may still not thaw to the end. It happens that onion planting is postponed to the beginning of summer, but mainly they try to cope with this work by the beginning of the last decade of May.
Soil selection and preparation
Onions grow well only on light soils, but not quite on the sands: light loam or sandy loam is optimal. It also applies to landing on black soils. Even the close occurrence of groundwater is not an obstacle, if only it would not be wetlands. The soil for onions should be moderately moist and in no case acidic. In case of increased acidity, preliminary liming with chalk, slaked lime, dolomite flour, etc. is necessary.
Under the bow should be allocated areas well lit by the sun: even the shadow of fruit trees or a fence will adversely affect the crop. Onions are very good for high doses of fertilizers, but this should not be fresh manure: in this case, a fine feather will grow, but the bulb, although it will be large, will not be able to be stored for a long time. But for the year, under the previous crops, the introduction of manure is justified.
Onion beds should be located away from trees so that they are constantly lit by the sun
The beds for planting onions are prepared in the fall, while there is time. For digging with the removal of weeds, make 1 m2 at least one and a half buckets of humus or good compost, a half-liter can of wood ash and up to 80 g of azofoska. In the case of clay soils, they are simultaneously added to a bucket of river sand. In the spring, before surface loosening of the soil, it is advisable to add even a handful of rooms per square meter. After this, the bed is leveled and tamped a little.
Preparation of sets
Where does the onion set come from? It is grown from seeds, the so-called chernushka, just most summer residents do not think about it. This is not a very simple matter, so most of the time sovoks are bought at the market or in the store. The easiest way, of course, is to buy sevoc in spring, since winter storage should be carried out under certain conditions: in a small layer at a temperature of about -2 aboutWith or, conversely, in the room, but not hot. But storage at 0 ... 14 aboutSince it is fraught with the fact that the sowing planted in the garden en masse moves to shooting.
The sowing purchased in spring is sorted in advance, discarding all dried, bare, damaged bulbs. It is better not to plant those that managed to germinate during storage. Sevok of the 1st class is considered the most valuable: these are bulbs with a diameter of 15-22 mm and a mass of about 2-3 g. The larger sowing goes to the feather: it often darts and does not form a commodity bulb. Shallow sowing, with a bulb diameter of about 1 cm, is best planted in the winter, around the end of September.
Before planting, the largest sowing is better to take and plant separately, on the feather: the best bulbs will grow from a medium-sized sowing
Soaking set before planting
After the bulkhead, the good sevc selected is freed from unnecessary clothes. That husk that does not hold well on the bulbs, at this time it makes sense to remove. Soaking onions before planting is highly desirable, especially if the soil in the garden has already begun to dry quickly, and rains are rare. Sevk is kept for 1-2 hours in water with a temperature of 35-38 aboutFROM. Soaking is often accompanied by pre-fertilizer, adding trace elements to the water or just potassium permanganate in a concentration of about 1 g / l. Some lovers do not take out the onions after cooling the water, keep it in it for up to two days.
You can soak the sevka in any convenient bucket
Experts advise soaking in a different way, but in this case caution and care are needed. Immediately before landing in the garden, the onions in a bucket are filled with water at a temperature of 65-70 ° C. Maintain it at this temperature for only two minutes, after which it is quickly cooled with cold water. They say that after such a treatment the onions will definitely not shoot, but they cannot be sorted out with the temperature of the water and the soaking time, otherwise the sevka can be destroyed.
Preventive treatment for diseases and pests
Even if micronutrients are not added to the water during the soaking process, it is better to use the simplest chemicals before planting the onions in the garden. At least, gardeners often soak the seeds in a solution of complex mineral fertilizers. To do this, for example, a spoon of azofoska is dissolved in 10 liters of water and bathed in this solution for 8-10 hours. Even this elementary procedure increases the tolerance to disease.
A slightly more serious chemical used to prevent fungal diseases is copper sulfate. A teaspoon of the drug is dissolved in 10 liters of water and kept in it for 5-10 minutes. More effective, but less safe is the use of chlorophos (2 g / l): after such a bath, which lasts up to 30 minutes, the bulbs should be rinsed in water and dried a little.
Chlorophos is effective against many sores and insects, but it must be handled with care.
The best way to prevent the attack of pests, especially onion flies, is a solution of birch tar (the concentration of the solution is a tablespoon per liter of warm water). In this solution, the sevocs are kept for 20-30 minutes. More serious chemicals in private households are undesirable.
Trimming onions before planting
Regarding onion pruning, it is worth saying that, firstly, no pruning of sowing before planting it in the garden is mandatory. If the bow was soaked according to the rules, then in the garden he would have enough strength to break through the husk, and the feather would rise perfectly. Secondly, the pruning itself, which is sometimes used, only pushes the bulb to the beginning of growth, but does not affect the onion's subsequent life. Well, and thirdly, if there is a desire to help the onion, then you can cut off only the dry tip at the very top and, in addition, the dried part of the bottom.
It is strongly discouraged to touch live, wet bulb tissues during pruning: these inexperienced gardeners only weaken the northeast. After removing the entire top of the bulb, cut “live”, the leaves will certainly appear, but the bulb will hurt for a long time and is unlikely to produce a good crop.
Video: preparing sevka and its landing
How to plant the onion sets in spring: the process step by step and the scheme
The gardener himself can choose the onion planting scheme, relying on the geometric dimensions of the beds, but, in principle, everything is very simple here. The most commonly used tape scheme. Between the rows maintain a distance of about 20 cm, and between the bulbs in the rows - depending on their size. The smallest onion (about a centimeter in size) is planted every 5-6 cm, a large one - up to 10 cm.
There are many schemes for planting onions, but in any case it is placed quite tightly
The seeds are planted to a depth of 3-4 cm. Roughly, it looks so that the very tip of the bulb’s neck is barely visible above the soil surface. If some of them are not visible at all - it’s not scary, but bulbs should not stick out too much from the ground. If the planting is too shallow, the growing bulbs will almost completely crawl out of the ground, which will stop their growth when the weather is too dry and very hot. If the sowing is excessively deepened, the growth will also slow down, and at the end of the garden season the bulbs may not have time to mature properly, which will lead to poor crop safety.
The technology of planting sevka in a pre-prepared bed is as follows.
- With any suitable tool (you can use a corner of the chopper), shallow furrows are made according to the desired pattern, usually every 20 cm or better, if in a west-east direction.
Gardeners often make convenient tools for marking grooves
- If the soil is heavy, river sand is placed in the furrows with a layer of about 1 cm, and wood ash is slightly sprinkled on top of it. Some gardeners who did not handle the bulbs before planting, water the furrows with a weak solution of Fitosporin.
If the soil has already managed to dry out, you just need to water the grooves
- At optimal distances, the sowing is planted in the prepared grooves, pressing it a little into the soil (the outlined roots should be careful not to damage). The planting depth is chosen so that after filling the tops of the bulbs with earth only slightly rise above the ground.
Sevka is pressed slightly into soft ground: so that the bulbs hold firmly in it
- The planted seedlings are covered with soil, after that the land in the bed is leveled, for which it is convenient to use a conventional rake.
- Landings are carefully and abundantly watered with water from a watering can with a strainer.
Planting should be thoroughly wet with water
Up to the growth of greenery with plantings, you should not do anything unless weeds begin to rampage. They must be carefully pulled out manually; the hoe comes into operation after the rows are indicated.
Predecessors and compatibility
Onions almost do not care what grew on the bed before it, if only the soil remains fertile. The best previous vegetables for onions are cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbage or potatoes: these are crops for which they use quite large amounts of fertilizer. For various reasons, it is undesirable to plant onions after carrots, radishes and sunflowers. Well, following the rule of crop rotation, after any kind of onion, as well as garlic.
Onions also have almost no undesirable neighbors. Only legumes (peas and beans) are considered as such, and onions themselves are not the best neighbor for any kind of cabbage. But not only the best, but also the obligatory neighbor for onions is carrots. They mutually protect each other from pests: first of all, from onion and carrot flies. Potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, and beets are also excellent neighbors for all types of onions.
Onions with carrots - classic neighbors in the garden
Summer residents, holding the plot not to provide themselves with vegetables, plant a small amount of onions: winter stocks are made in the autumn at the market. But even a small garden, which is mandatory in any garden, must be planted on time and correctly. It is not difficult to do this, but in the summer at any time there will be greens and several onions at hand.
