Growing black onions
Nigella onions are not a separate variety, but a crop grown from seeds. It is bred as a biennial or annual plant. The first option involves planting seed-derived seedlings for the next year. In the second option, onions are sown in early spring or before winter. You can also get large bulbs in one year if you sow seedlings at the end of winter. In the southern regions, almost all varieties can grow large bulbs from seeds in one season. In Siberia, this is more difficult to achieve.
Nigella onion
Where to get seeds
Ready-made black onion seeds are sold in the market and in many specialized agricultural stores. When buying, you need to carefully look at the expiration date. Onion germination lasts 1-2 years, no more. If the seeds are bought on the market, their appearance should be examined. The color of the seeds should be black, without specks or damage. At home, the seed should be soaked in potassium permanganate to neutralize fungi.
You can grow onions for seeds yourself. To do this, when planting sevka, large turnips are selected, the appearance of which fully corresponds to the characteristics of the variety. The bulbs are well soaked in a solution of potassium permanganate before planting. It is not bad to sow calendula and dill nearby, and carrots in the next garden bed: these plants disinfect the soil, counteract the defeat of turnips by onion fly.
How to harvest black onion seeds correctly? Around the middle of summer, the onions shoot arrows, on which white inflorescences appear in the form of umbrellas or balls. The seeds ripen unevenly, therefore it is advised to tie the mother plant with gauze or put on a nylon sock, then the seed can be collected without loss. When all the seeds are ripe, the heads are cut off. If the weather is rainy, you can do this 1-2 weeks earlier and dry the mother liquors indoors
After collecting, the seeds are separated from the husk, washed under running water, then blotted with a napkin, sprinkled on newspapers to dry. Only well-dried seeds can survive the winter. Store the material in a sealed container, in a dry place, at a temperature of 15-18 ° C. It is advisable to plant it next year.
Preparing seeds for planting
Before planting black onions, you need to prepare and germinate the seeds. Preparation consists of the following stages:
- Disinfection. The seed is soaked in a slightly pink solution of potassium permanganate for 30 minutes or in an ash solution (1 tsp per 1 liter of water) for half a day.
- Germination test. The seeds are placed on a damp cloth, placed on a windowsill or in another bright and warm place. Normal seed germination is 70-80%, after a year it drops by half, and after 2 years it disappears almost completely.
- Disinfection and germination of the remaining seeds.
Seeds germinate with this method in about 2 weeks. To speed up the emergence of sprouts, the seeds can be soaked for a day in a solution of Epin or another rooting stimulant.The method of germination in plastic bags has proven itself well: wet seeds are folded into a polyethylene bag, filled with air and placed in a warm place. The first roots of the sprouts appear after 4-5 days.
Garden bed preparation
In order for the cultivation of black onions to be successful, you need to properly prepare the bed for it. The crop grows best on land where legumes, cucumbers, zucchini and pumpkin were planted last year. You cannot plant onions 2 times in the same place, the break should be 4-5 years. It also grows poorly after carrots and garlic, although you need to sow carrots nearby: it counteracts onion fly infestation.
The preparation of the garden should begin in the fall. The place is carefully dug up and fertilizers of the following composition (per 1 m²) are applied:
- humus - 0.5 buckets;
- superphosphate - 20-30 g;
- potassium chloride - 20-30 g.
In the spring, the bed is dug up again, the soil is cleared of weeds. Weeds must be removed carefully so that they do not drown out the crops later. You can fertilize the soil again before planting. To do this, take:
- Option number 1 - nitrophoska (50-60 g).
- Option number 2 - urea (20 g), superphosphate (5-10 g)
- Option number 3 - wood ash (2 cups), urea (20 g)
You can buy ready-made complex fertilizers, apply them to the soil according to the instructions. Each gardener chooses the best option for himself. The place for planting black onions is chosen light and dry, preferably on a hill. The bed is raised above the ground, forming a mound 10-15 cm high.
Planting onions
When to plant nigella on open ground? It is best to do this before mid-April, then you can get well-ripe large turnips by the end of summer. If it is still cold outside, the ground can be warmed up for several days under a film. The landing stages are as follows:
- Grooves are made on the garden bed with a depth of 2-2.5 cm at a distance of 20-25 cm from each other.
- If the weather is dry, water the grooves with water.
- Light sand mixed with salt can be poured onto the bottom of the grooves. The sand will help you see the seeds better, and the salt will help prevent onion flies.
- Black onions are sown into the grooves thickly, this plant does not grow well with a rare planting.
- You need to deepen the seeds into the ground by 1-2 cm.
- Sprinkle on top with a thin layer of earth.
- The bed is tamped so that it does not lose its shape from the rain, it retains moisture well.
If you sprinkle the garden with salt, you can water the crops with salt solution after a couple of days. To do this, take 300 g of salt and dissolve in 10 liters of water. From above, the planting can be tied with humus or compost, but only if they were not introduced into the soil for the winter. How to properly plant onions in the ground, you can look at the photo and video.
Growing seedlings
Sow black onions for seedlings in February. Soil is poured into the container, it is best to use a mixture of sod land and humus in equal parts. The soil should be moist, but not wet. Before sowing, it can be fried in the oven at 60-80 ° C for 10 hours for disinfection. Another option is to pour with a weak solution of potassium permanganate. After processing the soil, it is recommended to freeze it.
For growing seedlings, it is best to take annual varieties. Suitable for this:
- Stuttgarter Riesen;
- Annual Siberian;
- Exibition;
- Danilovsky 301;
- Strigunovsky;
- Red Baron;
- Mayachkovsky 300;
- Annual Hawk;
- Odintsovo;
- Spirit F1;
- Early pink.
Seed preparation before planting onion sets for seedlings is carried out in the same way as before planting in open ground. Sowing black onions in a box is best done with tweezers. The grooves are made at a distance of 5 cm from each other, the distance between two seeds is 2-3 cm, the immersion depth is 1 centimeter. If different varieties are sown in the box, a label with their name is attached at the beginning of each row.
Seedling care is simple. From time to time they plow the soil, remove weeds, water as needed, about 2-3 times a week. When the onion feather reaches a height of 15-20 cm, the sets are planted in the garden bed.It is best to do this in early May, when there is no longer a strong threat of frost. The bulbs are carefully pulled out of the ground, the roots are pinched. Pits are made in the garden, the optimal distance between them is 7-8 cm.
Sowing onions for the winter
Planting nigella onions at home for seedlings requires space. Transferring plants to the garden is a waste of time. When can you still plant black onions so as not to waste time and extra effort? In order to get a full harvest, juicy greens and a large turnip next year, onions are sown not in spring, but in autumn. The seeds of this culture are not afraid of frost, they survive the winter well. Crop maintenance is not necessary. The first shoots appear at the end of March. Since the growing season of onions lasts 130 days, then by the next fall, not small sets will grow, but full-fledged large bulbs.
To plant black onions in the fall, you need to wait for the first frost. The garden bed is prepared in the same way as for spring planting. It is advisable to treat the seed with potassium permanganate, but not soak in water or growth stimulants, it is better to sow them dry. The seeds are deepened into the grooves by 2 cm, sprinkled with soil on top and tamped. In the spring, after the first shoots appear, the onions are thinned out. The optimal distance between two bushes should be 7-8 cm.
Growing onions
The cultivation of onions is only partially dependent on how they are planted. In any case, the plant needs care, it must be watered, weeded, fed and dealt with pests and diseases. Watering onions should be regular, 1-2 times a week, more often watered in dry weather. In dry ground, the plant "hibernates". The feather is weak, and the bulbs are small. Watering is completed in mid-June so that the bulbs do not gain too much moisture, otherwise they will deteriorate in winter.
After watering, you need to plow the land and remove weeds. This is done already when the first shoots appear, otherwise the weeds will drown out the weak onion feathers. As the stems grow, they are thinned out. First, 2 cm is left between the two plants, then the distance is increased to 3-4 cm, at the end - to 6 cm. After thinning, the torn black onion goes to the greens.
Fertilizer is applied twice a season. This significantly increases the yield of onions. The first feeding is as follows:
- mullein, diluted 1:10;
- ammonium nitrate - 1 tbsp. l. 10 liters of water.
Approximately two weeks after the first one, a second feeding is carried out. Here's how much fertilizer you need to apply to the ground:
- Superphosphate - 20-30 g per 10 liters of water.
- Potassium chloride - 10-15 g per 10 liters of water.
The calculation of fertilizers is given for 1 m² of the garden area. In addition to the above options, use ready-made dressings, diluted, according to the instructions.
Harvesting
Sowing and growing black onions ends with the harvest. Harvesting takes place in early September, when the onions turn yellow and dry completely. The bulbs are carefully dug out so as not to damage the scales, then they are dried for several days in the sun or under a canopy. If it is cold outside or it rains, the nigella is dried indoors.
Store sevok until next year in a dry and cool place. Can be folded into plastic bags with holes and placed on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. Sometimes the bulbs are put in a box, sprinkled with dry sand and placed in the basement. The next year, in the spring, sevok can be planted in the beds.
As you can see, getting seeds and good onion sets is a simple process. Growing a crop in this way is cheaper than buying bulbs in the market every year. The main condition is to keep the seed until next year. This applies to both turnips and seeds.