Growing onions requires a lot of effort from the summer resident, organizing proper care of the plantings. Therefore, many gardeners consider this plant to be capricious. The most convenient option is to plant and care for onion sets in open ground. Sets are small bulbs with a diameter of 1.5–2.5 centimeters that grow in the first year of sowing seeds. To facilitate the process of growing a plant, some knowledge about preparing the soil, planting material, and caring for seedlings planted in open ground will help.
Technology for growing onion sets
Onions are a biennial plant that produces a bulb in the first year, and in the second year produces seeds called nigella for its color. To get onion sets, fresh seeds must be sown in the spring. Before planting, nigella is soaked in water for 2–3 hours, and then wrapped in a moistened cloth for a couple of days. After some seeds begin to germinate, the seed material is dried to a free-flowing state.
Growing onion sets from seeds begins with preparing the soil. First of all, grooves are formed, having a depth of 2 centimeters. The distance between the furrows is 10 centimeters. The seed material is sown densely, and then the furrows are mulched with peat or humus.
To obtain large seedlings, you will need to regularly thin out their seedlings. Growing and caring for onion sets requires the application of fertilizers. Plant crops need to be fed with liquid mullein at a rate of 10 liters per 1 square meter. Prepare a composition of 1 liter of fertilizer and 10 liters of water.
You can harvest the sets after the feathers wither and fade, and the onion necks acquire a thin and soft structure. The harvested crop is dried, cleared of tops, and sorted by size. All bulbs, except the largest ones, are placed in a 6–10 cm layer in small boxes or bags made of fabric, 2–3 kilograms each. They can be stored at a temperature of 16–18 degrees.
Preparing the soil for planting
Before planting onions in open ground, it is necessary to fully prepare the soil. The place where the planting material will be planted should be located in a lighted summer cottage. The best place is considered to be soil with deep groundwater deposits.This arrangement will avoid overwatering the plant, which often leads to the withering of the crop.
The soil begins to be prepared in winter. Before the onset of cold weather, the earth is dug up at a depth of 16–20 centimeters. Fertilizers are applied to the beds. The best option is manure or peat compost. It is necessary to fertilize the soil before the onset of cold weather; this should not be done before planting seedlings.
You should also evaluate the acidity of the soil, since onions do not grow in an acidic environment. To reduce acidity, chalk and wood ash are added to the soil. Lime and fertilizers should not be applied at the same time, otherwise the level of soil fertility will decrease: nitrogen, which is necessary for the formation of full-fledged plant crops, is removed from manure and peat. Onions grown in soil prepared according to the presented scheme are distinguished by large bulbs.
What is the best time to plant seedlings?
The best time for planting seedlings is considered to be the last days of April. Such timing is due to the fact that most varieties of onion sets are resistant to cold. If planting is done later, the top layer of soil will quickly dry out and lose accumulated moisture. Such processes negatively affect the rooting of bulbs, which slows down the process of germination and contributes to incomplete ripening of the crop. For planting, the air temperature should be between 12–14 degrees.
In the Ural and Siberian territories, planting should begin in early May - approximately from the 5th to the 10th. At this time, the soil temperature reaches 7 degrees.
Also, some summer residents plant seed sets before winter. They do this in the second half of October.
How to plant onion sets?
Before how to plant onions- seeding, it is necessary to properly prepare the seed.Preparing any varieties of onion sets is to follow the following instructions:
- To increase growth and productivity, the seedlings need to be warmed up before planting. The material is spread over a flat surface and left for 2-3 weeks at a temperature of 18-20 degrees. Then the onion is heated at a temperature of 38–40 degrees for 7–10 hours.
- Then disinfection and stimulation of growth of planting material is done. Mineral fertilizers are used for stimulation. Before processing, the seeds are washed with water, alternating warm and cold temperatures. Then the bulbs are immersed in mineral fertilizers for 5–7 hours. Then disinfection is carried out using potassium permanganate or copper sulfate.
- There is also a folk recipe for preparing planting material. The onions are dried at a temperature of 20 degrees for 1 week. Then the seeds are washed in a saline solution and then kept in it for 2–3 hours. The onion is washed with running water and immersed in a weak solution of potassium permanganate for disinfection for 2 hours. Then the seed is washed with water and dried until the top layer is dry.
After these activities, you can plant the head in open ground.
Onion planting scheme
The beds should be organized in place of tomatoes, eggplants, pumpkins, potatoes or cereal crops. It is better not to plant sets where garlic is grown, as the soil in this place is greatly depleted.
Planting should begin by clearing the area of debris. It is also necessary to fertilize the soil with the following minerals:
- superphosphate: 6 grams of fertilizer are applied per 1 square meter;
- urea: 1 gram of substance is taken per 1 square meter;
- potassium chloride: 2 grams of fertilizer per square meter.
The substances are scattered on the ground, and then the soil is cultivated.
7 days before planting the crop, it is necessary to disinfect the soil using a solution prepared from 1 tablespoon of copper sulfate and 1 bucket of water. Then you can start planting. Growing onions from sets is carried out in several ways. The most popular of them are plantings before winter and spring. The planting method is identical to the spring one, except that during cold weather the plantings are covered with mulch.
Planting onions in spring
1 week before transplanting, the soil should be dug up and watered with a solution of copper sulfate and water. Next, when planting, you should follow the instructions:
- Bulbs with a diameter of 1 centimeter should be planted at a distance of 5 centimeters. If the diameter of the bulbs is 1.5 centimeters, they should be planted at a distance of 8 centimeters. With a diameter of 2 centimeters, a gap of 10 centimeters must be maintained.
- There should be a distance of 20–25 centimeters between the beds; under this condition, the onion root system will actively develop.
- Sevok is planted to a depth of five centimeters.
- The upper parts of the bulbs are sprinkled with mulch in the form of sawdust and straw. The thickness of the mulch should be between 3–4 centimeters.
If a summer resident has a walk-behind tractor, a gap of 60–72 centimeters should be made between the rows. If the seedlings are planted according to the instructions indicated, it will be possible to harvest in August.
Care
Caring for onions involves following the rules of watering, fertilizing, and protecting them from pests and diseases.
Sprouted seedlings are often subject to the harmful effects of onion flies.The presence of the disease can be determined by yellowing feathers. If such signs appear, the plant should be discarded, as its bulb will no longer be suitable for consumption. Because of this, every summer resident must treat the planted sets with special solutions that protect against pests and onion diseases. Among folk remedies, a solution of potassium permanganate and tobacco ash is especially popular.
Also, one of the aspects of planting care is timely loosening of the soil, which helps enrich the root system with oxygen. If this rule is neglected, various pathologies can attack the onion.
If the onion does not die from pests, you need to pay attention to neighboring plantings. Garlic and carrots are destructive neighbors for onions. If tomatoes, cucumbers or cabbage are planted next to the sets, the plantings are not affected by pests.
Feeding sets
The first fertilizing should be applied 2-3 weeks after planting. During this period, the onion begins to actively form leaves. Urea is used as a fertilizer: 25 grams of the product are dissolved in 10 liters of water. The specified amount of liquid is used to process 10–12 linear meters. Also at this time you can feed the plants with nitrophoska, nitroammophoska.
To water 1 square meter, 25 grams of product and 10 liters of water are used. After applying fertilizer, the bulbous arrows must be thinned out. After fertilizing, water the plant using a fine-mesh watering can, washing away any remaining substances from the greenery.
The next feeding is carried out using phosphorus-potassium fertilizers. It is done 3 weeks after the first. To do this, you can use 25 grams of superphosphate and 10 grams of potassium salt.You can also use 40 grams of nitroammophoska dissolved in 10 liters of water.
If the plants are weak, you can carry out a third feeding. For this purpose, phosphorus-potassium compounds are used. The dosage of the drug corresponds to the second feeding.
How to water onions?
For the onion to fully develop, it requires a small amount of water, but constantly moist soil in the first month after the formation of seedlings, as well as during the development of the bulb. At first, watering is carried out once every 2 weeks; in dry weather, the number of waterings is doubled. When increasing the amount of watering, it is necessary to loosen the soil.
In order for the plant to form a good turnip, in the first month the soil should be watered to a 10-centimeter layer. Gradually, towards the development phase of the bulbs, this layer increases to 25 centimeters. In the last month of growing any variety of onion set, watering stops. It is replaced by regular loosening of the soil, freeing the upper bulbous part from the ground.
Storage and harvesting of seedlings
After the bulb has acquired a yellow tint and has stopped forming feathers, you can begin to harvest. Most often, cleaning is carried out in mid-August or early September. The crop is washed and cleared of husks, dry feathers, and roots.
The onions are then dried in a ventilated area for several weeks. After dry scales appear on the bulb, it can be stored.
Grown bulbs from sets should be stored in a cool, dark room. If the onion was grown taking into account all the recommendations presented above, any of its varieties and names will have a long shelf life.
