Onion Happiness

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Onions are perhaps one of the most frequently used in our kitchen: many dishes are prepared with them, they are boiled, fried, cut into salads, and they are eaten just like that, without any heat treatment. Therefore, every self-respecting summer resident on his six hundred square meters must have a bed with onions. Feathers are cut off in summer, bulbs are eaten in winter. Everything is in business, nothing is lost. Even the husk can be adapted for coloring eggs or as an excellent natural fertilizer for the garden. But how do you get a good harvest of onions?

Choosing a plot and seeds

When choosing a place for a future onion garden, one must not forget that the onion loves bright areas open to the sun, it will feel uncomfortable in the shade. The soil in the garden bed should be light and fertile. You should not plant onions on clay soil, there you will definitely not wait for the harvest, since such a soil does not allow the onion to develop normally.

Important! Please note that you cannot apply manure to the onion bed before planting it. This vegetable does not really like fresh organic matter, so you can plant the bulbs in the garden after adding manure to it no earlier than a year later, otherwise you will get small bulbs as a result. This is because fresh manure retards the development of the bulbs.

The best precursors for onions are tomatoes, cucumbers, or cabbage. It is after them that the onion feels most comfortable in the garden.

For planting, choose medium-sized onion sets. Large bulbs are only suitable for obtaining feathers. By the way, if you want to independently get planting material for the next year, then take part of the garden for sowing small black onion seeds. It is from them that onion sets are obtained.

How to fertilize onions?

You should not be too zealous to fill the onion garden with various fertilizers just because it seems to you that it is so necessary for the onion to be large. Watch the garden carefully, and the plant will tell you what it needs.

Nitrogen. With a lack of it, usually dark green onion feathers with a light waxy bloom lose their original color, become light green and lethargic. If you notice a change in the color of the feathers, but at the same time everything looks normal with the bulb, then urgently "treat" the plant with nitrogen.

Phosphorus is necessary if the onion grows slowly, the head builds up mass for a very long time, the seeds are in no hurry to ripen. The culprit of all this outrage is the lack of phosphorus. Just water the bed with phosphorus fertilizer.

The lack of potassium will be indicated by the yellowish color of the feather and poor "health" of the onion in case of temperature changes.

To solve all problems with a lack of various microelements, it is best to use special complex fertilizers.

Watering onions

During their growth, onions are very fond of moisture. If you have a place on the site where the groundwater is located quite close to the surface, then this place is perfect for the bow. The main thing is that it is not in the shade.

Watering the plant is necessary during the period of emergence of the first shoots and active growth. The lack of moisture during this period leads to a significant decrease in the yield, since in the absence of moisture, the growth of the bulbs will stop. Therefore, in May, June and July, in dry weather, be sure to water the garden with onions. And then be sure to loosen it. To make the moisture evaporate more slowly, you can mulch the ground, for example, with straw. By the way, mulching will not only save water and time for watering, but also allow you not to loosen the soil, since the soil under the mulch will remain loose.

In the last month of summer, watering is removed to allow the bulb to ripen. After the feather has “fallen down” and dried, you can pull the heads out of the ground and lay them out to dry.