The timing of harvesting onions in Siberia differs from areas with a warm climate. The ripening of bulbs is affected by weather conditions. And the unpredictability of the climate plays a major role in growing and harvesting onions. To ensure that the harvest does not go to waste, all factors must be taken into account. They rely on the varieties of vegetable plants when calculating the time for collecting bulbs. In the regions of Russia, it is important to correctly determine the time for digging up onion heads. If it is late, it is more difficult to preserve the harvest, and prematurely dug up fruits will spoil due to insufficiently developed scales.
Climate features and variety selection
For residents of the Siberian region, you need to know what varieties of onions to choose so that the vegetable tolerates:
- frosts in spring;
- cool summers with heavy rainfall;
- dry hot weather;
- temperature fluctuations during the growing season.
In order for the harvest of onions to yield large heads covered with dense scales, you need to choose varieties with early and medium ripening periods. The best varieties for Siberia are presented:
- mid-season vegetable Alice with a long shelf life;
- early Apogee with brown husk and white juicy pulp;
- Velina with rounded bulbs weighing up to 90 grams;
- Voronezhsky 86, suitable for storage during the winter;
- early-ripening Ermak, which has a semi-sharp taste of fifty-gram heads;
- Mid-season golden spindle:
- Annual Siberian.
To start harvesting onions before frost, choose a vegetable plant with optimal ripening times. It is important that the vegetable is stored for a long time and is resistant to damage, fungal infections, and rot.
Newbie mistake
Beginning gardeners do not always correctly determine the time when to dig up onions. After all, in order to carry out cleaning on time, you need to take into account the optimal timing for a particular area. Onions dug up in Novosibirsk, along with the central regions, may not be ready for storage. Weak scales will not protect the heads from diseases and pests, and the crop will die.
The bulb needs to reach the point where it is ready to lie in the basement or cellar all winter, retaining its useful qualities. Therefore, it is necessary to dig up onions in Omsk when the end of July - beginning of August arrives. Having stayed longer in the soil, early varieties of vegetables will begin to rot. For late plant species, harvesting time is at the end of August.
Deciding on deadlines
When to harvest onions in Siberia, are determined by the following parameters:
- the weather during the planting and growing season of the vegetable crop was hot, dry with little precipitation;
- externally the plant is ripe and ready for harvesting;
- According to the lunar calendar, the time has come for digging up the bulbs;
- according to mathematical calculations taking into account the landing time.
Don't wait for the weather to get worse and for it to start getting colder and raining. Every gardener can speed up the ripening of vegetables. Then the harvest will not be lost.
Before harvesting, stop watering the beds two weeks. This will prevent the bulbs from getting wet. Dry, they will last longer in the basement.
Mathematical calculations
The quality of the bulbs depends on the precise timing of onion harvesting. For Siberia, the timing is determined by both the type of vegetable and the weather conditions of the gardening season. In cold summers with rain, onions will take longer to ripen.
There is also a mathematical calculation method. To do this, add 70 or 90 days to the number when the crop was planted. The result obtained will be the starting point for harvesting. The dates will shift by several days if it has been cold for a long time.
Weather
To decide when to harvest onions in Siberia, you need to know the weather forecast for the next two weeks, when the harvest will be harvested. Weather conditions affect the ripening of onions during the growing season.
If the weather was cold and rainy after planting the vegetable, the development of the bulbs will be delayed for a week or two.
And the dates are shifted to earlier if a cold snap with heavy rains is predicted. You should not wait for the stems to become lodging, otherwise the heads and root collar will begin to rot, which will lead to loss of the vegetable harvest.
It's better to start cleaning earlier to prepare onions for the winter. And ripen the heads in a room with cool and dry air. And here it is important not to cut off the stems, which will make it possible to provide nutrition to the root crops. After three weeks, another layer of scales forms on the vegetable heads, protecting the bulbs from damage and rotting.
External parameters
Determining the timing of when to harvest onions from the garden in Siberia is difficult mathematically. Therefore, external signs of ripeness are important:
- Green onion leaves fade, turn yellow, and dry out.
- The basal neck becomes thin and fades.
- Feathers spread across the ground. Although in rainy summers this is not a guideline in determining the ripeness of onions.
- After digging, golden scales are visible on the bulbs, easily peeling off.
You shouldn’t wait for all the stems to fall to the ground; a quarter of the lying leaves is enough to start harvesting the vegetable.
Moon calendar
The influence of the Moon on plant development has been known for a long time. Therefore, you can get rid of the mathematical calculations of harvesting onions by turning to the lunar calendar. During the onion harvest period, the Earth's satellite should be in a waning phase. It is considered favorable to harvest on the full moon.
According to the lunar calendar, onion harvesting is in 2024 year will be favorable in August from the 7th. The harvest collected at this time will lie in the cellar for a long time and will not spoil.
But in rainy weather, the harvest is transferred to dry days. On the waxing moon, biological processes in plants slow down, and all the strength goes into the root crops. You can dig up onions even when the month is growing; the harvest will be juicy, with a large supply of useful microelements and vitamins.
Is it possible to speed up the ripening process?
When the weather forecast for the ripening period of the bulbs is unfavorable, the onion harvesting time is accelerated in various ways:
- Having loosened the beds, lightly tug the stems. The roots are undermined and stop developing, beginning to become covered with scales.
- The bulbs become ripe faster when sunlight and air penetrate them. One has only to expose the heads by moving the earth away from them.
- Throw the stems into the garden bed and start harvesting after a week.
- When growing sets, the roots are cut with a shovel, using the tool five centimeters below the bottom.
It is recommended to mow the leaves to speed up the ripening of the vegetable. But this method leads to loss of harvest. If unripe onions are dug up ahead of schedule due to unfavorable weather, then it is the tops that will help the heads ripen by supplying them with nutrients.
Cleaning Features
If the time has come to harvest onions in Altai and other areas of Siberia, then choose a sunny day. First of all, they dig up the onion, and then the other types of vegetables.
It must be removed carefully. Do not pull the stems sharply, because the bulbs will be damaged and rot during storage. You can directly dig into the ground with a shovel or garden fork, removing the bulbs from the layers of soil. It is not recommended to beat the soil from the heads, otherwise the bulbs will be damaged when knocking against each other. It is necessary to carefully shake off the lumps of earth from the roots. During drying, the roots will be cleared of soil.
The harvested crop is left in the garden to dry. Then in the evening they are transferred to a dry room, where they are laid out in one layer. The bulbs need to dry thoroughly, so they are left for a week or two. Turn the heads over constantly to allow them to dry on all sides. If the weather permits, take the onions out into the sun for a day.
Important nuances of drying are that the leaves are cut off, leaving a shoot of ten centimeters. This will help you braid the heads for storage. But the roots are removed so that the bottom is clean.
But feathers cannot be completely removed. This will open a passage for pathogenic microorganisms and pest larvae to enter the bulb. The neck remains, dries and closes the opening for pests of the vegetable.
