Onions are an ancient crop (more than 6 thousand years old), but they do not lose their popularity. Grow perennial different ways: for turnips and greens for food use. Most often, summer residents practice planting onions on a head in the spring, so that they can have healthy vitamins in their diet during the cold season.

Briefly about agricultural technology

Onions are grown in all dachas, but high yields are obtained on fertile soil with a loose structure. In this case, it is desirable to maintain the pH reaction at a neutral level. The depleted soil is enriched with organic matter in advance (in the fall), covering it to the entire depth of the cultural layer. In the spring, before planting, mineral fertilizers are applied to the site.

Onions can grow in a shaded area, but in the end the summer resident will reap a small harvest. Therefore, you should not treat the crop as secondary, but plant it in illuminated beds.

Planting onions in spring

On good harvest Crop rotation also has an impact. You cannot grow onions after lily “relatives”: asparagus, garlic. But the beds after potatoes, peas, cucumbers and tomatoes are saturated with microelements useful for turnips.

Which onion to plant on the head in spring

A novice gardener uses bulbs to obtain heads. different sizes. An experienced farmer knows that it is better to take seedlings for planting, but not all of them, but with a diameter of 1.7-2.1 cm. Smaller onions are usually used for growing greens.

In order to end up with a good head, the planting onion should weigh 2-3 g. The turnip itself is not always used - the larger the onion, the longer it takes root and the later it produces a harvest. There is also a high risk that an arrow will appear on the turnip. To prevent this from happening, large onions need to be planted a little later than small ones.

In addition, the following requirements are imposed on seed material:

• the entire onion should be dry and elastic;
• exclude seedlings on which sprouts have sprouted or the roots have become covered with a white coating;
• onions with mechanical damage are rejected;
• The sets should not smell like mold, rot or dampness.

Seeds of the same size are calibrated into the garden bed so that development is uniform.

Only if these conditions are met will you get a high-quality head presentation, designed for long shelf life. It should be taken into account that the age of the seeded onion should be a year, maximum two.

Another important point is the correct choice of variety, because not every one of them is suitable for growing per head. Below are the most popular ones for middle zone Russia.

The best varieties of onions for growing by the head

Residents of the Non-Black Earth Region should pay attention to the Bessonovsky and Strigunovsky varieties.

How and when to plant onions in the spring

The crop is grown as an annual and biennial. The second option is suitable for planting onions on a head if the gardener independently breeds varieties from seeds (nigella). Although planting material can not be harvested from last year, but purchased immediately before spring sowing.

“When to plant onions on the head?” - a pressing question for inexperienced gardeners. Many of them try to take the lunar calendar as a basis, determining for themselves the most favorable day for work.

Experienced farmers are more guided by the climatic characteristics of their region. Having waited for winter to give way, gardeners begin preparatory work in the beds, but they are in no hurry to plant onions yet - they are waiting for the soil to “ripe” for planting (i.e. warms up). In some regions this period falls in April, in others in May.

Guided by the climatic characteristics of their region

If it is possible to grow onion seedlings, you can start sowing at the end of March. To do this, it is not necessary to have greenhouses or heated greenhouses - seedlings feel great on window sills. When the feather on the bulbs reaches 8 cm, the seedlings are planted in the beds.

Preparing for landing

Having selected an onion suitable for planting, it must be properly prepared. To begin with, warm it up under the rays of the sun, placing the container on the windowsill of a south window. If this is not possible, then the boxes with the seeds are distributed on heating radiators (in private houses - on the stove).

After 2-3 weeks, start etching using warm solution manganese or “Fitosporin”. The onions are kept for 15 minutes, then the product must be drained, the planting material should be slightly dried and immediately planted in the garden bed.

Landing

Having decided which period is most suitable for work, we begin to decide next problem: how to plant an onion on a head in the spring correctly. They begin their actions by forming rows.

You can plant onions in grooves marked with a simple scriber, placing the grooves at a distance of 20-30 cm from each other. The spacing between the bulbs in the furrow depends on the diameter of the seed:

• for small sets – 6 cm;
• the middle onions are spaced 8 cm apart;
• large sample needs more space– 10-12 cm.

In a loose prepared bed, you can do without furrows - just distribute holes evenly over a strip, 2 cm deep. Mark them using a stick of a suitable diameter or use homemade markers that allow you to form several holes at the same time.

By the way, egg trays are great for this. The parameters of the cells and the distance between them are of the required size.

Is it possible to plant onion seeds on a head in spring?

As mentioned above, good heads are obtained from sets, which are grown from seeds. In the southern regions, some varieties are used in annual rotation.

Varieties for growing heads from seeds

In the Ural region, where the warm period is shorter, the seed is used to grow seedlings, which are planted in beds in May.

Nigella varieties for seedlings

When to plant onions on the head in the Moscow region: folk signs

The Moscow region belongs to a climate zone with unstable weather conditions. Shows itself to be particularly inconsistent spring season. It’s not for nothing that people associate this period with the character of an evil stepmother: sometimes it will warm you up, sometimes a cold wind will blow and rain will pour down.

March is the most capricious - the time for preliminary gardening efforts. If seedlings are needed, then in this month (dates 10-15) nigella is planted in boxes with soil. Sevok is sent to open ground when the soil temperature rises above 5 degrees Celsius.

The beds with the seedlings are immediately covered with a film frame. This will protect the onions from return frosts and speed up the ripening of the bulbs. But as soon as the heat sets in, the film must be opened, otherwise the onion will overheat.

In April, seedlings can already be taken out into greenhouses. If it is grown on a windowsill, then it’s time to harden off.

The last month of spring is the full mobilization of the labor force. It’s not for nothing that people say that the May day feeds the whole year.

Gardeners in the Moscow region should not rely entirely on lunar calendars, looking for the optimal number for planting onions. For many, the beginning of May is the time to sow nigella in beds and plant onion seedlings. There is even a specific day for this - on Luka, May 5th. But there is no change from year to year, so it is recommended to monitor the weather.

Previously, ancestors did not use calendars - they were guided by nature. On the 1st day of the month (on Kuzma) we looked at the weather. If the day turns out to be warm, you should expect frost soon.

Bird cherry has always been the signal for mass planting. As soon as the trees have bloomed, you can safely plant almost all crops. As for onions, here in addition there is such a sign - you need to wait for the violets and willow to bloom.

The beds with seedlings are immediately covered with a film frame

If the apple trees do not bloom on Mark (May 8), autumn will be lean. This forecast gives folk calendar. Therefore, the summer resident will have to make every effort not to lose money.

By the end of May, the seedlings are thinned, maintaining a gap of 5 cm. If the season turns out to be rainy, the beds with onions are periodically watered. Mulch made from rotted straw will help retain moisture.

As for varieties, the most suitable for the Moscow region is Khiberina MS with early maturation. Even with average agricultural technology, you can get up to 5.5 kg of heads weighing 125 g per square meter. To increase productivity, it is recommended to use the advice of experienced gardeners.

To help beginners

• The Moscow region, Kaliningrad district and other nearby regions are areas where it is better to use narrow beds (mitlider) for onions;
• Autumn preparation of the site is carried out not only with the application of fertilizers - it is also worth adding tomato tops and other plant residues to the soil;
• Before planting, the bottom of the furrows should be sprinkled with dry sand mixed with ash;
• If you don't have the desire (or time) to mess around with pre-treatment planting material, you can use varieties of Dutch selection (the same Centurion);
• When planting, you should not bury the bulbs more than 2 cm - they will begin to ripen later and may shoot;
• The bulb is lowered into the ground up to its shoulders, but the neck should not peek out - it is better to sprinkle it with a small layer of earth so that a tubercle of 1.5-2 cm is formed;
• Some gardeners trim the onions before planting, but for the Moscow region this is not acceptable - there is a high risk of infection;
• If the size of the set is too small, it is planted early (such onions easily tolerate frost). It is better to plant turnips closer to mid-May to preserve the harvest;
• You cannot plant onions if the soil is already dry. In this case, the furrows are moistened a day before sowing;
• 2 weeks after planting, the bed is watered with mullein solution. This will fertilize the onion and strengthen the immune system;
• Weeding should be done in a timely manner. If time was lost, then weeds, which has grown higher than the onion feather, it is better not to pull it out, but to trim it with scissors.

You should not plant one type of onion in the beds if you are not sure that it will give a good harvest. When selecting a crop variety, the regionality of the variety is taken into account. If the head will be grown on long-term storage, then preference should be given to spicy turnips.

Recently, family onions have become popular. The multi-bud variety allows you to get up to 30 bulbs in one nest, weighing from 25 to 50 g each. They taste in no way inferior to ordinary turnips.

We can’t do without this vegetable even for a day, so planting onions in our own area is a mandatory procedure. In the spring, many people plant onions not only on the feather, but also on the head. After all, how nice it is to have at least a few homegrown nets for the winter.

We have already talked about how to grow onions for greens, I wrote a lot about different types, about leeks, . Our onions are more familiar, and we use them more often. Fresh, in borscht, in main courses and baked goods, in kebabs, there are onions everywhere, we even use them for treatment.

It would seem that it would be simpler - stick a seed into a piece of land and grow a huge onion, but not many people really know how to plant onions, grow them and store them correctly.

Onions - growing conditions

Two-year unpretentious plant with a growing season of 90-180 days (depending on the variety). Onions can easily tolerate frosts of -5 degrees. But the most comfortable temperature for its growth is not higher than +25 and not lower than + 12.

If you sow onions with seeds, nigella, then by autumn you will get small baby onions, of which only next year You will get big “turnips”. Some people don’t bother with this process, because storing onion sets is quite problematic, sometimes it’s damp, sometimes it’s cold, in general, most gardeners just buy it in the store in the spring.

Choosing a landing site

It's amazing how all bulbs, vegetables, and flowers love the sun. Onions are no exception; they cannot be grown in the shade; then they will be small, if they grow at all. It’s good if there is a place on your site with loose and fertile soil which has not too high acidity, loams are best suited for onions, the main thing is that they allow moisture and air to pass through well.

The best predecessors for onions

When planting this vegetable, be sure to choose a place where tomatoes or cucumbers grew last summer; you can plant it after cabbage or potatoes. Onions grow very well in the place where rye was previously sown; it enriches the soil and makes it lighter with its roots.

When planting onions, it is important to observe not only crop rotation, but also the proximity of the beds. Everyone knows how annoying the bow is onion fly, but if you plant a carrot next to it, it will bypass your plantings, it just doesn’t like the way carrots smell. By the way, onions also help against carrot flies.

The rule of crop rotation for onions is to plant them in the same place no less than three years later.

Soil preparation

In terms of preparing the site for planting onions, everything is like with most plants - we prepare it in the fall. We add five kilograms of well-rotted manure to the selected digging site, which can be replaced with compost and one hundred grams of complex mineral fertilizer, which contains superphosphate.

Autumn digging is carried out to the depth of a spade bayonet, and in the spring only deep loosening is carried out and also after applying mineral fertilizers, two weeks before planting, you can add wood ash, one liter jar per square area.

Apply everything to the soil at once necessary fertilizers so as not to bring them into the onion beds later.

Before planting, you just need to thoroughly level the bed with a rake so that the water is distributed evenly when watering.

Which type of onion to choose

The choice of onion varieties rather depends on taste. As we know, there are spicy and sweet varieties. Out of habit, many people prefer our varieties, proven over the years:

• Strigunovsky
• Krasnodar
• Rostovsky
• Bessonovsky
• A guess
• Arzamas
• Amber
• Belovezhsky

Other gardeners fell in love with imported varieties that have taken root well in our climate

• Robusta
• Stuttgarten Risen

When to plant onions

According to the time of planting, planting is divided into spring and autumn, but in Siberia it is not customary to plant seedlings in the fall, simply because everything freezes in frosts of -40.

Before planting, the entire seedling is usually calibrated and sorted by size into small, medium and large bulbs.

1. Small ones, which are less than a centimeter, are planted first, in our Siberian region this time is closer to mid-May, then upper layer The soil has already warmed up enough and the onions will grow and not rot in the ground.
2. Medium ones from 1 to 2 cm - planted two weeks after the small ones, most often the largest part.
3. Large bulbs, about three centimeters in diameter, are planted later than everyone else, thus preventing them from going into arrows.

There is also the smallest thing, sowing, less than a centimeter in diameter, this usually cannot be preserved for a long time, it dries out quickly. It can be planted in a heated greenhouse.

Planting onion sets on the head

The most optimal way would be to plant onions on a head in the spring, when the soil is already well fertilized and warmed up. Whether you grew the onion or purchased it at a specialty store, it doesn’t matter, it needs to be properly prepared.

• Sizing and selection are needed to know which bulbs to plant when. In general, I select the largest ones and plant them in a separate bed on the greens, because they send out arrows very quickly and more often than not they do not make good bulbs. Any dried or rotten ones should also be selected and thrown away.
• Make a weak pink solution of potassium permanganate and keep the seed in the solution for fifteen minutes.
• Make a solution of ash, a tablespoon per liter of water, and soak the onions for five hours. Only if you wet the onions, then you must immediately plant them in moistened beds, so all procedures are done immediately before planting.
• If the set is homegrown and you have observed an infestation of insect pests or diseases in the garden, then heat the water to 45 degrees, dilute wood ash in it (the same as a tablespoon per liter) and keep the onion in the solution for no more than five minutes.
• If the pre-prepared sowing was stored in the cellar or simply in the cold, then it must be warmed up a couple of weeks before planting. It is enough to simply place the box of onions at room temperature so as not to put them in the soil cold, otherwise they will begin to rot.

Before planting, mark grooves in the garden bed at a distance of 12 cm and plant the seedlings in them. Small at a distance of 6-8 cm, medium 8-10 cm, large - 10-12 cm.

When planting, you should not bury the bulbs, especially if the soil is quite loose, then they are simply pulled deep into the ground and you have to wait a very long time for seedlings, such plants turn out weakened and the bulbs are small. The bulbs are simply buried a little into the groove and then sprinkled with earth.

Immediately after planting, the onions should be watered and mulched with sawdust or straw. This will keep moisture in the soil longer.

Onion care

When caring for onions, the main thing is to follow the watering norms. This culture is very responsive to excess moisture and stagnation of water. The first growth phase, when the vegetable is actively growing its root system and feathers, requires more water. Once or twice a week is sufficient in normal weather. When the feather stops growing, the head begins to grow, then watering is reduced to once every two weeks.

Watering stops completely a month before harvesting the onions. If you do not do this and continue to water, the crop will not be stored well.

If you took care of the condition of the soil in advance and added all the necessary microelements, then this will be enough for onions. As an additional fertilizer, you can water the plantings with an infusion of weeds. It is enough to do this three times throughout the entire season.

If some bulbs begin to throw out arrows, simply cut them off. Although small bulbs, they will still form.

During the entire growth period, more often in the first phases, you need to watch for insect pests. Thrips, nematode or onion fly may appear. But if you have chosen the right place and prepared the seedlings, then the risk is minimized. All this “living life” has to be fought with the help of a fungicide; it must be diluted strictly according to the instructions. You cannot do this treatment for onions on greens.

You will also have to keep an eye on the weeds; overgrown onions are not ventilated, begin to get wet and rot, or pests appear on them.

Growing onions from seeds

Often, gardeners still give preference to their own seeds and try to grow their own sets from nigella and onion seeds.

For growing good set you also need to work hard:

1. Prepare the seeds correctly. If they are purchased, then most likely they have already been processed. If the seeds are your own, then you need to keep them for a day in a solution of potassium permanganate, Pink colour. Then warm it in water or keep it on a damp cloth for several days at a temperature of 25-30 degrees.
2. Nigella seeds are sown in warm, loose soil. Before sowing, shallow furrows are made at a distance of 10-12 cm. It is very important to distribute the seeds not too thickly and not too far, 1-1.5 cm, so that the bulbs do not overgrow or grow too small.
3. The beds must be thinned out and weeded on time; it happens that in neglected beds, weeds are removed along with small onion sprouts. We carry out thinning in two stages: the first, we make a distance of 1.5 cm, the second - three to four cm.
4. Onions are harvested on a dry day, when the feather has turned yellow along two-thirds of its entire length. After cleaning, there is a good drying process so that storage is successful.

Onion harvesting and storage

Many times I observed a picture when gardeners deliberately trampled onion feathers so that they would die. This cannot be done forcibly, because if the feather is still standing, then the bulb is still in the development stage.

When all the stems have already fallen, you can start harvesting, it’s good if it’s a dry and sunny day. Then the bulbs can simply be spread in an even layer right on the garden bed so that they dry out and the soil falls off from them.

It is imperative to dry the onion well; when it dries, cut off the roots and stem, leaving a length of five centimeters (if the onion will be stored in braids, then you need to leave fifteen centimeters).

The onions are dried in a ventilated room; you can’t leave them in the sun for too long, they can get baked and then quickly rot. Look at the tails; if most of them are dry, then the onion is ready for storage. Select onions with raw stems; they are best used for canning or for preparing dishes right away.

Onions should be stored in a dry room, temperature from +18 to +22. You can also store it in a cellar, if it is dry and ventilated, but the temperature is not lower than +5 degrees. At home, onions are perfectly stored:

• In baskets
• In cardboard boxes
• In vegetable boxes
• In stockings
• In braids

Bulbs should not be placed in plastic bags; canvas or paper bags, which do not retain moisture, are acceptable.

At least once a month it is worth checking and sorting the onions, just “moving” them to improve air exchange.

It's hard to imagine dinner without onions. It is used in soups, borscht, main courses, salads, pickles and marinades. For vegetables, fish, meat - raw, stewed, fried onions are indispensable for Russian cuisine. Summer residents have the opportunity to grow large, crispy, fragrant heads on their own in their own area.

Which onion is better to plant on the head - varieties

In order for the harvest to be significant, you need to decide on the cultivation technology and choose the variety that is ideal for planting in your conditions. Onions per head can be grown in three ways: sow the seeds in the ground in early spring, plant sets (small bulbs grown last summer) or use seedlings. The choice of technology determines the planting time. The cultivation method also determines the varieties you should choose.

Onions are different varietal diversity. Some varieties will bear fruit well in annual crops, while others are unsuitable for this. In the southern regions of the country the following is grown from seeds in one year:

• Chalcedony;
• Strigunovsky;
• Lugansk;
• Golden;
• Globe;
• Lyubchik;
• Amphora;
• Aleko.

In two-year cultivation the following are cultivated:

• El Dorado;
• Stimulus;
• Ellan;
• Exhibition;
• Stuttgarter Riesen;
• Centurion;
• Timiryazevsky.

In one gardening season, onion heads can be grown only in warm regions of the country or using seedlings and film covers. Last year's seeds are used for sowing. They are soaked and sown in the ground in early spring, as soon as the snow melts and the soil dries out. The seedlings are thinned out, leaving an interval of 3-5 cm between the young onion shoots. The closer the plants are to each other, the smaller the bulbs will be. If your region is not the Krasnodar Territory, it is better to use seedlings for cultivation.

How to plant onion sets in spring

Planting onions in the spring on a head begins after warm weather has stabilized. Plants caught in frost will not die, but they will inevitably die and the harvest will be spoiled. It's good to use your own supply of bulbs. If they are stored correctly, there will be no unpleasant surprises. If spring is early, you can plant the seedlings before the end of April. If not, it’s better to wait until the beginning or middle of May.

How to prepare a place

Large onion heads grow in open ground when the location for the plants is chosen correctly:

1. The bed should be as illuminated as possible. Tree shadows and tall plants greatly reduce the yield of this crop.
2. In swampy and poorly drained areas, the bulbs grow watery, rot, and become unsuitable for winter storage.
3. Carrots, legumes, and potatoes are considered good predecessors of onions.

When planting onions on the head in the spring, minimal tillage and surface loosening to a depth of ten centimeters is required. It’s good if the garden bed has been filled with humus or compost since the fall. There is no need to add fresh organic matter to the soil immediately before planting. It provokes the growth of green mass, but at the same time slows down the development of the head. During drought, growing onions will need to be watered.

Preparing the sets

Onion planting material is carefully selected and prepared. The bulbs should be clean, tight, free from stains and mold. Too small and too large plants are not suitable for growing heads. The ideal diameter of the set is from 14 to 20 mm. This type of onion does not bolt, withstands late spring frosts without loss, and grows quickly. With proper pre-sowing treatment, seedlings of this caliber do not get sick and produce a generous harvest.

It is necessary to process onions before planting for the purpose of disinfection. For this they use table salt, copper sulfate or good old potassium permanganate. You need to soak the sets in a dark pink solution of manganese. The salt mixture is made at the rate of one tablespoon of sodium chloride or potassium permanganate per liter of water. Before soaking, it would be good to warm up the planting material for five to seven days at a temperature of 40-50 degrees, placing it near a radiator or boiler.

Landing

When the temperature of the ground at the dacha rises to +12 degrees, you can begin work. Onions are planted on the head in spring in rows. The arrangement of the bulbs is usual: the rows are placed at a distance of 15-20 cm, plants in a row - from 5 cm. Shallow furrows are made in the treated soil, the seedlings are lightly pressed into them, and covered with earth. In a week, the garden bed will be decorated with green onions peeking out of the soil in even rows.

Proper care

Onions do not need difficult care. All it needs is loose soil, sun and moisture. It is necessary to weed the bed on time, water it in the heat and loosen the soil after rain. Do seedlings planted on turnips need fertilizing? This issue must be approached thoughtfully, and fertilizer must be used carefully. If humus and compost have been added to the garden bed since the fall, that will be enough.

Remember what to feed the onion head with if you consider it necessary. The herbal infusion has an excellent effect on plant growth. Application:

1. Place all greens in a barrel. Add chicken manure, fresh mullein or a little yeast. Leave it in the sun for a week and strain.
2. This product, diluted in a ratio of 1 to 10, - good feeding for any vegetables.
3. Use the miracle potion to water onions that have four green leaves (feathers).
4. In the second half of summer, there is no need to feed the growing heads; this will negatively affect their storage.

How to harvest and store crops

3-4 weeks before the expected harvest date, watering is completely stopped. The heads must ripen, acquire the required number of scales, and dry out. Dig up plants after complete lodging of the tops. It is advisable to organize the collection when it is dry and hot outside. Well-dried onions are preserved in winter with minimal losses. Bulbs different varieties stored separately. Rules:

• Store the heads in wooden boxes, baskets, bags from natural material. Do not use plastic bags or plastic containers for this.
• The ideal temperature to preserve what is grown until the new season is from 18 to 22 degrees.
• It is important to remember that the spicy varieties store better than the semi-sweet ones, and the traditional golden-colored heads store better than the red and white ones.
• From time to time, sort through the vegetables, discarding any suspicious bulbs.

Video

Planting onions on the head in spring is successfully practiced by experienced gardeners. Personal and family secrets of good harvests are irreplaceable vegetable crop distributed in articles and videos. Find out whether you need to soak the onions before planting, how to plant the sets, and what to pay attention to when caring for the garden bed. A selection of stories that answer these and many other questions will help you grow an excellent harvest.

Preparing onions for planting

How to plant onion sets

Planting onions on turnips

This herbaceous plant, like onions, is grown by almost every summer resident. However, not everyone knows how to do this correctly and makes a number of mistakes. This crop is considered to be quite whimsical, therefore, if you do not handle it correctly, the harvest may deteriorate. If the onion grew too bitter, this indicates that it experienced a lack of moisture. initial stage growing season. A small head is a consequence of a thickened or deep planting. Failure to comply with crop rotation leads to the appearance of diseases and affects the keeping quality. Sometimes summer residents harvest a crop, half of which cannot be preserved even until mid-winter, and the other part can only be used for adding to soups, due to its excessive pungency. How to make sure you get a high-quality harvest and what features to consider when planting?

Planting onions

How to prepare a site for planting?

Onions should be planted in a well-lit place. This crop does not tolerate low areas with heavy, waterlogged soil. Ideally, plant onions in soil in which cabbage, cucumbers, and nightshades grew. The thing is that these crops and onions do not have common pests and diseases, and due to the fact that they are grown using huge amounts of mineral and organic fertilizers, many nutrients remain in the soil for a long period.

You can also plant onions after zucchini and peas. But you should not locate it in the place where carrots previously grew. This crop is not fertilized with fresh organic matter. Such soil is not suitable for onions, since it cannot be called fertile. Moreover, the area for it becomes free late, so you may not have time to prepare it for planting. new culture. But planting plants in the reverse order is quite acceptable. It is permissible to return the crop to its original place no earlier than after 3 years. If she was affected by diseases, such actions are possible after 5 years.

Plant onions on the head in spring time Needed in loose soil with moderate humidity. In this regard, the area should be dug up in the fall, and with the arrival of spring, fenced off with a rake and leveled. IN autumn period you can also feed the soil with compost, humus and phosphorus-potassium fertilizer. To neutralize the solution, acidic soil is treated with chalk or lime. Places that were fertilized with fresh manure should only be replanted in the second year.

If the site is dominated by heavy clay soil and it does not warm up enough, in the fall wide ridges are cut on which the crop will be planted.

When do you plant onions on the head?

It is impossible to say unambiguously when to plant onions, since this is affected by weather conditions and soil temperature. Onions are considered a crop that is resistant to cold, however, if they are planted in unheated soil, this will lead to the fact that they will shoot, and this in turn will negatively affect the quality of the harvest. You can go the other way and complete the procedure when the soil has not yet lost moisture, which the onion especially needs at the initial stage of growth. And the rather long growing season of the crop does not tolerate delay.

Planting onions on a head in the spring is not a labor-intensive and complex procedure, but it requires certain knowledge from the vegetable grower. If you do everything correctly, 9-12 weeks (depending on the growing region) after planting the seedling in open ground, you can get onion heads that will be especially large, fragrant and crunchy. Today we will talk about planting onions on the head in the spring.

When to plant onions in the spring

The main criterion that helps determine the right timing planting a seedling, is the soil temperature. In order to get a good harvest of onions over time, it is necessary to plant the sets in open ground until the soil in the area warms up to at least 12 degrees. At lower soil temperatures, it is not advisable to plant onion sets on the head.

This limitation is not due to the fact that the planting material may not tolerate possible frosts: the cold resistance of this crop is well known. The whole point is that when low temperatures soil and environment There will be a rapid growth of green mass and, on the contrary, an extremely slow development of the bulbs themselves.

Onions are a biennial crop. To obtain a large head, which can be used for preparing first and second courses and added to salads, you need to have a set. You can plant this crop in seedlings, but not all varieties are suitable for this option.

The time it takes to plant it depends on the size of the bulbs, so it is sorted as follows:

• less than a centimeter in diameter is planted in a greenhouse or in open ground in mid-May;
• from 1 to 2 cm in diameter can be planted about two weeks after the small ones (as a rule, this is the main part of planting);
• large ones, with a diameter of 3 cm or more, are planted later than everyone else, so that they do not go to shoots early. You can plant them separately on greenery.

Onion varieties for growing per head

In order for the harvest to be significant, you need to decide on the cultivation technology and choose the variety that is ideal for planting in your conditions. Onions per head can be grown in three ways: sow seeds in the ground in early spring, plant sets (small onions grown last summer) or use seedlings. The choice of technology determines the planting time. The cultivation method also determines the varieties you should choose.

Suitable varieties for growing from seeds:

• Exhibition.
• Danilovsky 301.
• Odintsovets.
• Annual Siberian.
• Strigunovsky.

Pre-sowing preparation of onions

There are several ways to process onion sets before planting, allowing you to avoid many problems during the growing process. But the most mandatory procedure is warming up the planting material, which helps reduce the percentage of arrowheads appearing in the future.

Technique for planting onions on the head

Shallow grooves are cut on the leveled bed. The distance between the grooves should be 15-20 cm to make it convenient to care for the plants. If the soil is not moist enough, the furrows are shed with water. Onions respond well to the addition of wood ash and sand into the furrows.

Treated seedlings can be planted in the prepared bed. The bulbs are buried with the bottom down to the “shoulders”, and then sprinkled with earth, so that a layer of 2 cm is formed on top. Surface plantings will give earlier shoots, but with this technique you will not be able to get a good turnip.

The sets in the row are placed at a distance of 6-10 cm (depending on the variety). Some summer residents advise planting it densely in a “snake” pattern in order to obtain not only bulbs, but also greenery from one bed. As the plants grow in the row, they are thinned out, removing the bulbs along with the feather. This method is convenient for a small garden bed, when you are sure that it will be thinned out in a timely manner.

How to care for onions

Proper watering - required condition good care. Bulb crops are very sensitive to stagnation of water and excess moisture. In the initial stage of growth, when it builds up root system And formation is underway feather, the plant requires more moisture. You need to water once or twice a week. When the head begins to form, watering is reduced to once every two weeks. Watering should be stopped 30 days before harvesting the onions. The harvest must ripen and dry completely in the ground, otherwise it will not be stored for long.

If the soil has been prepared correctly and all necessary fertilizers and microelements have been added, there is no need to apply additional fertilizing. You can water the plantings with weed infusion three times a season. The arrows that some varieties throw out just need to be cut off. Such seedlings will have small bulbs.

During the first phases of plant growth, care must be taken to ensure that the onion is not affected by pests. Sometimes onion fly, nematode and thrips appear. At making the right choice location and crop rotation, the risk of infection is minimized. If pests appear, it is necessary to treat the beds with a fungicide solution. Onions cannot be processed for greens.

Onion harvesting and storage

Many times I observed a picture when gardeners deliberately trampled onion feathers so that they would die. This cannot be done forcibly, because if the feather is still standing, then the bulb is still in the development stage.

When all the stems have already fallen, you can start harvesting, it’s good if it’s a dry and sunny day. Then the bulbs can simply be spread in an even layer right on the garden bed so that they dry out and the soil falls off from them.

It is imperative to dry the onion well; when it dries, cut off the roots and stem, leaving a length of five centimeters (if the onion will be stored in braids, then you need to leave fifteen centimeters).

The onions are dried in a ventilated room; you can’t leave them in the sun for too long, they can get baked and then quickly rot. Look at the tails; if most of them are dry, then the onion is ready for storage. Select onions with raw stems; they are best used for canning or for preparing dishes right away.

Onions should be stored in a dry room, temperature from +18 to +22. You can also store it in a cellar, if it is dry and ventilated, but the temperature is not lower than +5 degrees. At home, onions are perfectly stored:

• In baskets;
• In cardboard boxes;
• In vegetable boxes;
• In stockings;
• In braids.

Bulbs should not be placed in plastic bags; canvas or paper bags, which do not retain moisture, are acceptable.

At least once a month it is worth checking and sorting the onions, just “moving” them to improve air exchange.