Correct planting of onion sets in spring
Planting onion sets in the spring is a painstaking process, although you cannot call it too complicated. It is important to choose the right beds for the culture, prepare the bulbs and plant them correctly in the ground. It is necessary to maintain the planting time, the yield largely depends on this. Sevok is harvested independently from onions grown in seeds last year. If this is not possible, it is easy to buy bulbs at the market or in the agricultural store.
Planting onion sets in spring
The choice of the garden
Before planting young onion sets in the spring, you need to choose the right garden bed. The culture grows best on a hill. The place should be dry and well lit. Onions should not be planted where groundwater is too close to the surface. The best soil for onion sets is loamy. You can plant a culture after zucchini, pumpkin, tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers. Do not use the beds after carrots and garlic.
If onions used to grow on the site, the next time it is allowed to plant them in the same place in 3-5 years, otherwise the chance of infection of plants with diseases specific to them will increase. Pests who love onions also stay in the soil. In addition, many trace elements are taken from the soil by the plants. If you plant the same crop in the same place, its yield will decrease, neither a large head nor a good feather will be able to grow.
If you decide to plant onion sets in the spring, it is better to prepare the site in the fall. To do this, add compost or ripe manure to the soil, then dig the earth to a depth of about 15-20 cm.If the soil in the garden is acidic, you need to additionally sprinkle the bed with dolomite flour, limestone, crushed chalk or ash from a tree.
In the spring, only mineral fertilizers are applied to the garden. Their number should be moderate: onions do not like too much nourished soil. For example, with an excess of nitrogenous components, the turnip grows weakly, all the strength goes into the feather. Too much superphosphate or wood ash can burn the roots and slow the growth of both bulbs and feathers. Together with fresh humus, fungal diseases are often brought in, therefore this fertilizer is applied only in the fall.
Boarding time
To grow a good turnip from onion sets, to get abundant greens, it must be planted at the right time. They largely depend on the region. In the Leningrad region, in the Urals, in the Moscow region and Belarus, it is best to plant a turnip in May. By that time, there are no frosts anymore, the air temperature rises to 10-15 ° С, and the soil warms up to 7-8 ° С.
In the south, onions are planted in the ground faster. For example, in the Kuban, Ukraine, Moldova, you can plant sevok in the second decade of April. The soil is preliminarily heated by covering it with a film. If the air temperature during planting is too high, about 20 ° C, the onion will grow into a feather, but at the same time give a too small head. When planted in the early stages, both the bulb and greens develop poorly, arrows appear quickly.
If you grow onions in a greenhouse, you can plant them there at any time, the timing does not matter.In the presence of heating, the crop is harvested all year round. When the greenhouse is not heated, it is allowed to plant sevok in it already from the second decade of March. Many farmers prefer to plant onions according to the lunar calendar, but this is everyone's business, to believe in the omens or not.
Preparing onions for planting
To get a good harvest of onions, they must be properly prepared before planting. Medium-sized bulbs weighing 4-6 g are selected. Too small give little greenery and a small turnip. The big ones are quick to fire arrows. They should be planted only if you want to grow the onion with seeds in the future.
After sorting, it is necessary to cut off the tips, then the feather will grow better and the bulb will develop. If the planting material is bought in a store, it must be dried, then the turnip is heated to activate the growth processes. There are several options:
- Keeping the seedlings at a temperature of 20 ° C for 2-3 days, then another 8-10 hours at a temperature of 30-40 ° C.
- Soaking with water at 50 ° C for 10-15 minutes.
- Soaking with water at 70 ° C for 2 minutes.
It is advisable to treat the heated planting material with antiseptics. You can protect against onion flies by dipping each head in a saturated salt solution. Potassium permanganate and copper sulfate are well protected from fungi. To prepare a solution of copper sulfate, take 1 tbsp. l and diluted in 10 l of water. The potassium permanganate solution should be slightly pink. You need to disinfect the sevok for 15-20 minutes. Before planting, the bulbs must be dried.
Planting onion sets
How to properly plant onion sets in spring? After preparing the bulbs, you need to dig up the garden bed. The earth is dug up to the size of 1 shovel. Be sure to remove all weeds that can drown out cultivated plants. A few days before planting, mineral fertilizers are applied. Their composition can be as follows (calculated per 1 sq. M):
- Nitrogen compounds - 1 tbsp. l. 10 liters of water. They are brought in when they are grown on greens and feathers.
- Superphosphate - 1 tbsp. l. 10 liters of water. They bring in when onions are grown on a turnip.
- Wood ash - 1 cup per 10 liters of water.
It is advisable to make the bed high, especially when the site in the country is located in a lowland. Onions should be planted as follows:
- They dig grooves to a depth of 3-4 cm.
- There should be at least 15-20 cm between each groove.
- Each head is deepened into the ground separately, at a distance of 7-8 cm from each other.
- Sprinkle the turnips with earth.
- Tamp down the soil slightly.
If it's cold outside, cover the bed with foil for a couple of days. Such simple care will increase germination and protect the onion from diseases and pests. It is advisable to plant large bulbs first, and then small ones. Arrows can form from large ones. They are left if they plan to sow onions with seeds next year.
Onion care
Planting onion sets in early spring allows you to get a fresh feather in 2-3 weeks, and by the end of summer - a large head. But a good harvest can only be obtained if the plants are properly cared for. During the summer, onions are watered 1-2 times a week, depending on the weather. A watering can with small holes is used.
The earth is pushed 3-4 cm deep. This should be done after watering, simultaneously pulling out all the weeds. It is necessary to feed it several times with wood ash or superphosphate. Fertilizers are applied for the first time when 2-3 feathers appear, then feeding is repeated every 2-3 weeks until mid-July. It is also advisable to water the greens only until mid-July, then stop watering so that the turnips do not absorb too much moisture and are well stored in winter.
How to grow a set from seeds
If you do not want to buy new bulbs every year, you want to keep the variety you like, you can try sowing and growing by seeds. For this, the largest turnip is left on the arrow. At the end of July, you will see on it a round head with white flowers. Seeds ripen in mid-August.They must be collected and stored in a dry place with a temperature of 10-15 ° C in winter. There can be several heads, then it will be possible to collect more seed.
Before sowing, the seeds are hardened. To do this, they are poured first with cold, then warm water. When the water gets cold, they put it in the refrigerator for a day, then the seed is soaked for several days until it swells. Treatment for fungi is useful before sowing: you need to soak the seeds for 10-15 minutes in potassium permanganate. You can plant seeds on the beds in early May. The landing pattern is as follows:
- In the beds, grooves are dug about 1.5 cm deep at a distance of 10-15 cm from each other.
- The seeds are planted to a depth of 1 centimeter.
- The distance between the two seeds should be about 2 cm.
- Sprinkle the sowing with soil and ram it.
When the first shoots appear, be sure to thin out the garden bed. First, plants are left that are 2 cm from each other, then 3. Ultimately, the distance between the two bulbs should be 6 cm. Crop maintenance also includes regular weeding, feeding and watering until mid-July. Around the middle or end of August, turnips are dug up, dried in the sun or in the attic. They are best stored in nets, suspended in a basement or a cool closet.
The next spring, the planting material is warmed up, it is processed from fungi and pests, as described above. The preservation of the bulbs largely depends on the size and variety. Medium sized heads are best stored. If you follow all the storage rules, almost all onions will remain germinating until spring. What quality we plant material depends only on us.