How to grow onions from seeds. Growing onions from seeds (seedlings). Our experiment! When to plant onion sets for seedlings
Very often, when we buy onion sets for planting, we don’t get enough harvest because a lot of flower shoots grow. This is usually due to improper storage planting material.
And it’s not surprising: many stores specializing in the sale of seed material purchase onion sets in the fall. It is intended for winter planting. Unsold products are stored until spring, and then sold as newly arrived products. Conscientious gardeners who care about completing their planting material on time and purchase such low-quality planting material. And after that they will face only disappointments due to a failed harvest and regret about wasted money, time and effort.
I've been faced with this problem for several years in a row. Therefore, last season I decided to grow onions from seeds in one season. In the early 90s, I had already mastered this technology, but later abandoned it due to unnecessary problems with growing and transporting additional seedlings to the site. Now, the low quality of onion sets has forced them to again resort to growing onions from seeds.
Selecting onion seeds
I would like to immediately warn those who decide to follow my example: onion seeds quickly lose their viability, so when purchasing them, you must always look at the expiration date. If the package indicates an expiration date that expires in the year the seeds are planted, then these are already old seeds. At best, about 30% of the seeds will germinate from this bag. It is better if the reserve is two years, in which case about 90% of the seeds will sprout.
Nowadays you can buy a huge number of onion seeds of various varieties in stores. I had a chance to experience many of them. I consider the most successful varieties for my site to be: Stuttgarter Risen, Odintsovets, Exhibition, Chalcedony, and for red onions: Red Baron, Carmen and Carmen MS.
Growing onion seedlings
Ten days before sowing, I place bags of onion seeds (nigella) on a radiator to warm them up. It is convenient to do this by placing the bags on a cardboard lid from a shoe box. I grow onion seedlings in large juice containers. You just need to cut them wide side wall. The result is a waterproof, convenient container. I have been preparing the soil since the fall. To do this, I mix soil from a cucumber greenhouse sifted through a geological sieve (5 mm hole) with sifted compost, adding coconut substrate and a little vermiculite.
I start sowing on the twentieth of February on the root day according to the lunar sowing calendar. I place the seeds on leveled soil at intervals of one centimeter, and leave the same distance between the rows. I sprinkle a layer of earth on top with a layer of slightly less than 0.5 cm. Carefully water the planting with Energen solution (15 drops per 250 ml). Then I place the box in plastic bag, I tie it and put it in the room under the radiator.
Fresh onion seeds germinate in 5-6 days. When “loops” appear from the ground, I take the box out of the bag and put the seedlings on a rack, where I illuminate them with fluorescent lamps for 12 hours a day.
When on glassed balcony in early March the temperature will rise to +10°C (at open door into the room), I bring onion seedlings there to harden them, and the plants grow better when sunlight than under artificial light.
At the beginning of April, I take the seedlings out to the dacha and leave them in the greenhouse (from cellular polycarbonate). Now the seedlings will harden there. I haven’t done this before, because there was no such greenhouse. But it's very important stage in the process of growing onion seedlings from seeds. Plants receive enough light and get used to differences in day and night temperatures.
At first, I cover the boxes with seedlings with a thin white spunbond so that the onion “strings” do not get burned. If a sharp drop in air temperature outside is expected in the evening, then I also cover the seedlings from above with thick spunbond, but only at night.
After seven days, I begin to accustom the onion seedlings to the sun’s rays. In cloudy weather, I remove the spunbond for the whole day (in the evening I again cover the boxes with seedlings with it), and in sunny weather I remove the spunbond after 16 hours, when the sun is less active. I do this for a week, and then I remove the spunbond completely. During their stay in the greenhouse before planting in open ground, onion seedlings grow noticeably, become strong, not elongated, and even small onions begin to form.
I definitely feed the seedlings. I do the first fertilizing a week after the emergence of shoots - with a solution liquid fertilizer“Ideal” (2 caps per liter of water). Then I alternate these fertilizers with fertilizer fertilizers "Kemira Universal" (one small matchbox without a slide for 10 liters of water). I feed the seedlings once a week. When it is already growing in the greenhouse, then I feed it with a solution of chicken manure (or horse manure) with sapropel with the addition of the drug “Baikal EM-1”. All components are infused in a barrel for three to seven days.
Planting onions in the garden
I prepare the onion bed in advance - in early April. Its width is about a meter, height is about 10 cm, low so that the soil does not dry out quickly. I plant onion seedlings after the zucchini. Be sure to add wood ash to the garden bed in the spring, sifting it through a geological sieve. Since the soil on our site is sandy, I add rotted compost to it every year, otherwise there will be problems with watering. Over many years, with the annual addition of large amounts of organic matter, our soil has become “greasy,” but without compost it dries out quickly and then does not absorb water well when watering. Mineral fertilizers I don't contribute.
Of course, onions are demanding on soil fertility. But when we add a large amount of organic matter, it begins to grow fat in our soil. Turnips grow large, but such onions are poorly stored, so we use them immediately for food and for winter preparations. But I don’t need to carry onions for food from the store; I grow them as much as needed for consumption at the dacha. And in winter we buy onions: there is nowhere to store ours, and during storage, midges infest them.
When the bed is ready, I water it with a solution of the Baikal EM-1 preparation and cover it with black film before planting the seedlings so that the soil warms up and the weed seedlings die. Later in the summer, there is no longer any need to weed the onion bed - the weeds have all “burned out” under the film.
I plant the grown seedlings on permanent place on the twentieth of May on the root day according to the lunar sowing calendar. You can, of course, do this in early May, but tender plants you will have to cover it with thick spunbond from damage by night frosts. This is what happened to me in the early 90s. I then planted the seedlings on May 9, and a few days later, night frosts damaged them. Back then we didn’t have any covering material. True, after a week and a half, new leaves began to grow on the onion. This did not affect the growth and development of plants in any way. That season, a huge harvest was collected from one small ridge - a potato bag of large onions. And none of the neighbors believed that such onions could be grown from seeds in one season.
Last year I planted seedlings in the garden on May 20th. It just didn't work out before. And in many reference books agriculture It is recommended to plant onions when the soil warms up well.
To make it more convenient to remove the grown seedlings from the box, I water them abundantly. Moreover, so that the ground is wet, like in a swamp, then each plant can be quickly removed from the soil, and it will undergo replanting painlessly. This significantly speeds up the process of plant transplantation. This is especially true for older people who do not want to grow onions from seeds just because they need to work at an angle for a long time when planting seedlings. Damaged roots are quickly restored, especially if the weather was cloudy that day.
When planting seedlings, I leave a distance between plants of 10-13 cm, between rows - 13 cm, so that later it is convenient to loosen the soil with a hoe. I plant one plant at a time. I dig a hole with my hand, immerse the seedlings in it, water it and cover it with soil. After the seedlings are planted in the bed, I water it with Energen solution (1 bottle - 10 ml - per 10 liters of water) and cover the bed with spunbond for 7-10 days for better plant survival. A week later, always in cloudy weather, I remove the spunbond. Then the seedlings take root painlessly. As a result, last year, by the end of June, my onions overtook my neighbor’s onions, planted with sets, in development.
Caring for plants in summer
I water the garden bed generously as the soil dries out. I feed the plants once every 14 days until the beginning of July. I use the same fertilizers as for seedlings. But be sure to water the onions with a pink solution of potassium permanganate once a season, when the bulbs begin to form. At the end of July, I water the bed with a salt solution (one matchbox per 10 liters of water).
I don’t remove the feathers from such onions for eating, so as not to weaken the plants, otherwise the bulbs will be small. To obtain green feathers, I additionally plant onion sets, which I then pull out along with the roots for consumption. I plant it throughout the summer at intervals of one and a half weeks. I plant the seedlings to various plants so as not to occupy scarce land.
I harvest onions grown from seeds in one season in the first half of August in sunny weather as they ripen. Harvest I scatter it right on the garden bed to dry in the sun. Then I transfer it to the attic of the bathhouse, where it is hot and dry. When the tops are dry, I collect them in a basket, carry them into the house and leave them in the kitchen so that they are always at hand. For onion processing and storage, it is better to harvest during the root or fruit days. In no case should you collect it on the days indicated in the lunar sowing calendar dotted line or on leaf days! The harvest collected on such days is not stored. Unfortunately, the weather last season did not allow me to get the harvest I had hoped for - the bulbs turned out to be much smaller than those that I had grown from seeds before.
Many gardeners advise planting onions together with carrots so that they mutually repel each other’s pests. I do not agree with this statement.
- Firstly, these cultures different terms planting: we sow carrots in late April–early May, and onions in the second half of May.
- Secondly, these crops have different watering requirements: onions can no longer be watered in late July–early August, but carrots still require abundant watering.
- Thirdly, growing quickly, the carrot tops lie on the onion leaves, creating a shadow for it. Feathers and bulbs become moldy and rot.
- Fourthly, at the beginning of August there is no longer any need to feed the onions, but we still feed the carrots.
- Fifthly, my carrots are covered with spunbond until the end of June to prevent pests and for rapid growth. At the beginning of June, I already free the onions from the spunbond, otherwise its leaves will be crooked, and high temperatures under the spunbond do not contribute to the good development of plants. That's why I never plant onions and carrots in the same bed!
To protect the onion from pests, I water it with an infusion prepared from wormwood (one branch), aconite (one branch), dandelion leaves (from one plant), tomato (several small stepsons), hot pepper (2-3 ground large peppercorns) . I place all the ingredients in a bucket, pour boiling water over it, let it sit for a day, and strain. I dilute one or two liters of this infusion in a bucket of water (10 liters) and water the garden bed. I carry out several such waterings during the season.
If you count how much money gardeners spend on buying onion sets, then with this money it is quite possible to buy onions in the store and not waste your time and effort on growing them. Growing onions from seeds is very profitable, since 3-4 bags of seeds are required for one six-meter bed. The only difficulty arises when planting seedlings in the garden. But if the seedlings are grown correctly, and they do not look like pathetic thin strings, then they can be planted quickly. For example, last spring I spent 20 minutes planting all the seedlings. And this is on a six-meter bed!
I consider this method of growing onions to be the most successful, economical, and most importantly reliable. I am always sure that I will have a rich harvest of onions, and not a harvest of flower shoots that sometimes grow from onion sets.
Have a good harvest!
Olga Rubtsova, gardener, Candidate of Geographical Sciences
Photo by the author
I think that everyone without exception plants onions in their gardens, because not a single dish can do without this vegetable, it is used everywhere, both in and as main courses.
Today we will talk about different varieties onions, for example distinctive feature The exhibition of this type of onion is its large and beautiful appearance, and most importantly, the taste is quite pleasant and sweet.
What needs to be done to make the bulbs grow large and how to care for and grow this crop, we’ll talk about this further. What other varieties of onions do you know and what do you usually sow?
If you have not yet sowed others vegetable crops such as , and or perhaps , then hurry up, there is little time left.
First, I suggest everyone answer this question. Knowing the answer to this, you can easily plant the seeds correctly in the ground, and the seedlings will definitely grow stronger and healthier. I remind you that you can make up your own Lunar calendar, knowing the phases of the moon, or you can already use ready-made option, which you can watch and download for free
Since onions are a plant whose fruits do not grow on the surface of the earth, but precisely inside the soil, this means that in order to determine the correct timing, we must remember one basic rule, as gardeners and gardeners remind you.
Important! That all the tops are planted on the waxing Moon, but with the roots it’s the other way around - on the waning Moon.
I suggest you consider the table regarding onions.
It is best, but again depending on what region you live in, to sow Exhibition onions in such months; for residents of the Moscow region this is the beginning or end of February, but for residents of Siberia and the Urals, the beginning or middle of March.
But for leeks for seedlings, if you live in the northern regions, sow them in April, and if in the southern regions, then in May.
Onion sets should be planted on the head on such days... In general, it’s difficult to say now, depending on what spring will be like. The main thing you must understand is that the earth must be well heated to a depth of 10 cm to 12 degrees Celsius. Therefore, it can be produced at the end of April for the Moscow region, and for Siberians and Urals it is the beginning of May. This information also applies to Chernushka’s onion.
Care and cultivation of onions from seeds to seedlings at home
Growing exhibition onions through seedlings
Let me start by saying that I want to show you the description and the packaging itself for this vegetable. Perhaps you are seeing this for the first time and do not believe that the heads can reach a weight of about 800 grams. This is indeed true if you know all the rules and take into account all the recommendations of gardeners and gardeners.
In fact, there are many ways to grow onions from seeds, and all these options have their place, let's look at the most common ones. And you can just choose the one that is convenient for you.
Seed disinfection
Carry out the disinfection procedure, to do this, dilute manganese, you need to take 1 liter of water for 1 g of the substance and add the achenes there, keep them in this solution for about 7-8 hours. The water should be approximately 40-45 degrees Celsius at least.
Preparing and germinating seeds
In order to avoid having to examine each seed for germination, I suggest germinating it immediately in order to see the first shoots. Place a paper napkin, fold it into two or three layers and moisten it well with water. Distribute the seedlings over the surface.
Cover the top with another napkin and also moisten with water. Leave it for a couple of days and maintain moisture, after 3-4 days you will see the first shoots. Take off the napkin and you will see everything for yourself.
As you can see, this plan should produce sprouts. The rest may still rise, wait a couple of days.
Preparing the soil mixture
Now the most important thing is to prepare the soil for seedlings; take either a store-bought soil mixture or make it yourself. Take rotted mullein (1 tbsp.), as well as humus (9 tbsp.) and turf soil (9 tbsp.). Or you can even make it from garden soil, plus sand and humus or sawdust.
Planting seeds in cups or other containers
It is the rich harvest that indicates that it was quite strong and healthy seedlings. To do this, you must correctly decide on landing capacity, you can make it yourself, or you can buy special cups or pots at the gardening supermarket.
Place the sprouted achenes in cups, place one sprout in each pot to a depth of 1 cm. Cover with soil and moisten lightly with water.
Top dressing
Care and watering
A little time will pass and you will see small green shoots, they are very thin and delicate in fact. They are as easy to gobble up as twice two.
Therefore, when the greenery grows a little, make a support so that it does not fall down, from ordinary sticks, which you can also make by hand or purchase.
Grow onions in a sunny place, water abundantly and fertilize periodically with mineral fertilizers.
I also want to offer you one landing option. Enough interesting way exists in my opinion, it is called a diaper or a snail. Either polyethylene is used, or even a substrate that goes under parquet floors or laminate. The main advantage of this approach is space; very little of it is needed in the room.
You may have already heard about this, but if not, then watch this video and learn with the owner of the channel.
Hardening
Like any crop, Exhibition onions should be hardened, especially before transplanting into the ground. After about two months have passed, you will have to take it outside or ventilate the room often. And the soil mixture itself should also be fertilized with potassium nitrate in the proportion of 1 liter of water per 1 g.
Rules for planting onions in open ground
Well, as soon as everything is ready and it’s time to plant it in open ground, remember one thing important rule, plant onions where there will be a lot of light. And the soil must be free of manure, otherwise the plant will die or rot.
In the garden bed, you will need to make small holes about 20 cm apart from each other.
You can look in more detail in this story:
How to plant leek seedlings? Proper sowing of seeds and care in open ground
For most gardeners and gardeners, it has become a new fashion to grow on your own personal plot a variety of this onion.
Leeks have quite an interesting taste and can be used in almost all types of dishes. Mostly the false stem is eaten.
Correct soil and container definition
For this crop, use soil made from exactly these components to grow seeds for seedlings. The proportions are 25o g of dolomite flour + 50 g of double superphosphate + 30 g of urea and plus 40 g of potassium sulfate.
Disinfection and germination of seeds
For this purpose, use a solution of potassium permanganate, but remember that the water must be warm. Keep in this liquid for 7-8 hours.
As with all seedlings, including spring onions, you will need to soak the seeds in a moist environment in advance. To do this, simply use a cloth moistened with water; after a while, sprouts will appear. The room temperature should be 20-25 degrees.
Sowing seedlings and care
The plant should be watered only with warm water, also feed with compost and water occasionally in proportions of 1:10. Or use special mineral fertilizers.
Be sure to harden off the crop once you are ready to transplant it into open ground, do this a week in advance.
Important! After transplanting into open ground, it is important that the soil is already sufficiently warmed up.
The landing is no different from the Exhibition bow. Plant them in furrows, with a distance of approximately 20 cm between rows.
Regularly weed and water the onions so that they will please you with a super harvest, fight weeds and pests.
How to sow nigella onions?
In principle, there is nothing special about how and when to plant this useful vegetable; the rules for planting and caring for this plant are the same as for other types of onions discussed in this article. Therefore, you can completely use all the recommendations in this article.
Nigella onions are mainly planted from germinated seeds immediately into open ground. That's why I brought you this video. In it you will learn all the tricks and subtleties of this matter, and also learn the secret of why you need to add salt to the furrows, this will help you achieve an excellent harvest of large and healthy bulbs.
Onion sets per head in open ground
Well, there's still one left important point, this is a species like sevok. Many people know him firsthand. As I already mentioned above, you must determine the specific planting date yourself, depending on what spring it will be like, as soon as the soil warms up at a depth of 6-10 cm to 12 degrees Celsius. Therefore, if you go by the weather, in early spring you should plant the seedlings at the end of April.
The main points in planting this type of onion are the following recommendations. Most importantly, you need to correctly mark the beds, which you can easily do with your own hands.
Disinfection
It is recommended to dry purchased seedlings first, but soak them in water immediately before planting. saline solution 2 tablespoons of salt per 2 liters of water, and then disinfect. To do this, place it in a warm solution of potassium permanganate for 30 minutes and rinse again. Like this preparatory work ahead, it really is not difficult.
Selecting a location
Now you need to decide on a landing site. As you know, onions are quite light-loving plant therefore, it needs to be planted in a sunny place and the ground should be open. The onion loves fairly loose and nutritious soil.
Therefore, the bed itself for digging needs to be equipped with ash and add 1 tbsp for each square meter Azofasci.
Interesting! Will great solution, if you place onions next to carrots, this is a great neighbor. In this way they will mutually protect against pests.
Since the correct placement of bulbs during planting increases the germination rate of the seedlings and improves the quality of the products, it is necessary to make the correct marking of the bed.
For this purpose take regular board 20 cm wide, the length should be approximately 80-100 cm, i.e. the width of your bed. And using a drill attachment, make through holes with a diameter of about 3 cm.
This way, uniform markings are obtained with the same distance between holes in a row of 10 cm and between rows of almost 20 cm. It is this row spacing that is very convenient to process with a flat cutter.
The depth of planting the seeds in the ground should be about 4 cm. And then cover the holes with earth using a rake.
Important! If you plant the seedlings much deeper, the first shoots will be delayed and the onion may probably develop a more retracted shape. And planting at a shallower depth can lead to the roots not having enough nutrients.
Finally, you need to use a watering can with a rain attachment to thoroughly moisten the soil. Onions have increased demands on watering, especially the first months after planting, that is, this is the period when they rapidly grow green leaves, and only then their heads begin to fill. During this period, especially monitor the soil moisture and do not allow it to dry out.
That's all for me, dear friends. Share your feedback and wishes. Come to my page more often. Smile, because spring is coming, and then summer. Bye everyone! See you soon!
Sincerely, Ekaterina Mantsurova
Onion seedling method
Have you tried growing onions from seeds using seedlings? At first it seems like too much trouble. And if you really want to get a harvest in one year, the market offers seeds of modern early ripening varieties and hybrids that can be sown early spring straight into the ground. However, let's think about this fact: in Egypt, Italy, Spain, Mexico, where there are certainly enough warm days for a fairly long growing season of onions, they are grown not by simple sowing in the field, but by the “troublesome” method - through seedlings.
What is good about this method? Experts have calculated that it is much more economical: the space required (and therefore fertilizers, plant protection products, and watering) is 25% less than when first growing sets and then commercial onions. Seeds, which are now expensive, especially from foreign selection, are needed 3-4 times less than with direct sowing. And the harvest is always higher.
We have been growing onions using seedlings for several years now, and we have become convinced of a paradoxical, at first glance, fact: the “troublesome” method takes less from the gardener physical strength. And we switched to new technology because the centuries-tested method of growing onion sets from onions has in our time ceased to be reliable. If you grow seedlings yourself, it is difficult to preserve them well: you need a special temperature regime, a certain humidity, and heating. It is impossible to create such conditions on a small farm. If you violate the storage regime, then the so-called growth hormone is formed in the bulbs, causing bolting. The sets of the currently most popular sweet and semi-sharp varieties are especially poorly stored.
The technology of direct seeding into the ground has its drawbacks. To obtain marketable products in one season, seedlings must be thinned, and this is a considerable loss. Shoots do not appear smoothly, the process lasts for several weeks - due to the fact that for active germination onions need an air temperature of 18-20 ° C, and weather conditions in early spring are rarely like this. So, in open ground, seedlings develop slowly and are strongly suppressed by weeds, which are significantly ahead of them in growth. When watering and during rains, seedlings are nailed to the ground, and during frosts, even small ones (-2...-3°C), they partially die. Of course, a bed or two can be covered when it gets cold, but we grow onions in large areas. The seedling method helps us out here too: surprisingly, plants planted in the field (after hardening, of course) calmly tolerate a short-term drop in temperature to -8°C. So, after this, believe the common stereotype that only sissies grow up in greenhouse conditions.
Among the advantages of seedling technology (besides those already mentioned), we are especially pleased with the fact that onions do not bolt, ripen well, so the bulbs do not rot or germinate within 8-9 months after harvesting. And this makes storing them much easier.
We grew our seedlings domestic varieties Veselka, Lyubchik, Mavka, Globus, Amphora, as well as foreign hybrids Sterling F1, Candy F1, Daytona F1, Copra F1, Exhibition F1 . And each time they received an onion of the same quality and weight as indicated in the characteristics given by the originator. Our experiments with different technologies and varieties also confirmed that the yield of onions using the seedling method is higher than when sowing seeds in the ground.
We grow onions with seedlings, mainly semi-sharp and sweet varieties. We sow the seeds in boxes at the usual time (the second ten days of February) with a row spacing of 4-6 cm. Seed consumption is 15-20 g per sq.m. Before emergence, we maintain the temperature at 18-25°C, and after mass emergence we reduce it to 14-16°C so that the plants do not stretch out. We feed the onion during the greenhouse period with a diluted (1:10) infusion of chicken manure.
We select seedlings from the greenhouse at the age of 50-60 days; by this time they form 3-4 true leaves. On the day of planting, water it abundantly. We take the plants out of the boxes along with the soil, which we then shake off. If the seedlings grow directly in the soil of the greenhouse, then dig them up with a pitchfork so as not to damage them during sampling.
We sort the selected seedlings, discarding underdeveloped or damaged plants (however, we have very few of these). Then we cut the roots by 1/3 (leaving them 3-4 cm long) and dip them in a regular mash of clay and mullein.
When planting, as a rule, especially if the weather is dry, we cut off the leaves by a third. With shortened roots, planting seedlings is faster and easier, since they do not bend, and cut leaves reduce water evaporation, so the seedlings take root better.
FIELD TESTS
We usually plant seedlings in the field in mid-April - in cut furrows, well watered beforehand. We deepen the plants 1 cm more than they grew in the boxes; we place them in a row every 15-20 cm. When planting, make sure that the roots do not curl upward. We plant using a wide-row method with row spacing of 45-60 cm or a double-row strip method (50 cm between stripes and 20 cm between rows in a strip). The optimal plant density at the time of harvesting should be 500-600 pcs. for 10 sq.m. After planting, we water the seedlings (at the rate of 8-10 liters of water per 40 pieces), compact the soil near them so that there are no internal voids at the roots, and mulch.
We usually carry out loosening after 2-3 days, at the same time we plant new plants in place of the fallen ones. In the first month, we especially carefully monitor the soil moisture and water it regularly (first every 3 days, then every 7-10 days). We try to keep the soil moist to a depth of 30 cm in the first half of the growing season before the bulbs begin to form. We stop watering 3-4 weeks before harvesting. During the growing season, we carry out 4 inter-row cultivations, loosen the soil shallowly - first to a depth of 6-8 cm, then more superficially (5-6 cm) so as not to injure root system. We do not hill up the plants under any circumstances; this delays the ripening of the bulbs.
10-12 days after planting, we feed the seedlings with a solution of mullein or bird droppings(1:10), add 25 g of urea to a bucket of infusion. We feed in such a way that 10 liters of solution is enough for 10 m of planting. We carry out the second feeding in mid-June - with phosphorus-potassium fertilizers, this promotes the accumulation of carbohydrates in the bulbs, accelerates their ripening and increases their shelf life. We carry out the last loosening of the rows a month before harvesting, lightly raking the soil away from the bulbs, which contributes to the formation high yield due to the large number of large bulbs. If the harvest time is approaching, and the leaves are still green and the neck is thick, then a week before harvesting we cut the roots with a shovel at a depth of 5-6 cm below the bulb.
It is believed that onions are a fastidious crop in all respects and require special attention. However, seedling technology allows you to get strong plants that you don’t need to “babysit”; you just need to care for them.
Svetlana and Valery Pomazan
Onions in seedlings
Many old gardeners grow onions using seedlings. Thanks to early sowing, such plants develop faster, tolerate replanting well, quickly begin to grow, and do not require special care.
The main advantage of this method is that it allows even in the northern regions to get annual crop pretty good ripe onions. This method is especially effective in areas where the planting area is small.
Seedlings are most often grown on semi-sharp, low-primed onion varieties, which produce large bulbs already in the first year of cultivation: Kaba, Krasnodarsky 35, Karatalsky and others, and from foreign varieties - Red Baron, Carmen, Stuttgarter Riesen and others.
Onion seedlings are usually grown in boxes in greenhouses, hotbeds, and even on a windowsill in an apartment. The best age for seedlings is 55-60 days. Planting younger seedlings will reduce the yield and reduce the number of ripened bulbs. And when planting older seedlings, their survival rate worsens, plant loss increases, and yield decreases.
First, a steam bed is prepared in the greenhouse. As soon as the biofuel is heated, a layer of earth up to 10 cm thick is poured on top of it to retain heat. A layer of specially prepared greenhouse soil is poured on top of the ground for growing seedlings.
Greenhouse soil includes turf soil - 4 parts, greenhouse humus - 4 parts, peat chips - 1 part, rotted sawdust - 1 part. Add 1 teaspoon to a bucket of this mixture. ammonium nitrate, superphosphate and potassium sulfate and half a glass of wood ash. Under no circumstances should you use land from a site where onion crops were grown for the previous 2-3 years.
Since onion seedlings are demanding of light, when growing seedlings in a greenhouse, it is necessary to fill it with biofuel and nutrient soil as high as possible so that the plants are closer to the glass frames.
And since onion seeds germinate very slowly, they must be prepared for sowing. In addition, many diseases are transmitted with onion seeds, from which they must be disinfected. To do this, the seeds are calibrated, disinfected, treated with microelements, and soaked in the same way as when growing onion sets. Optimal time for sowing seeds - mid-March.
Onion seeds quickly lose their viability when stored. Therefore, when testing, germination should be no lower than 50% (standard 70%).
Sow the seeds in the greenhouse soil or in a seedling box with a distance between rows of 5-6 cm, spreading the prepared seeds every 1.5 cm to a depth of 1-1.5 cm. Then the seeds are covered with soil and pressed lightly.
Then a thick cloth is placed on the soil and until the shoots appear, watering is carried out over the cloth using a watering can with a fine strainer. In this case, the earth is not washed away, water is evenly distributed over the entire area, and seeds are not washed away deep into the soil. After the first shoots appear, the fabric is removed. In the future, watering is carried out carefully at the root, because The seedlings are thin and when watered they fall over and wither.
When grown in a greenhouse, onion seeds begin to germinate at a temperature of 3-4°C, but this takes about 5 weeks. Therefore, the air temperature in the greenhouse before germination must be maintained at 18-20°C; the seeds will germinate in 10-12 days.
As soon as the shoots appear, in order to avoid their stretching, the air temperature must be reduced for 4-5 days to 10-11°C, and then maintained during the day to 15-16°C, and at night - to 10-12°C and depending on weather conditions, begin intensive ventilation of the greenhouse.
If there is severe frost at night, then the greenhouse must be covered in the evening with a double layer of film or other insulating material. When warmer weather arrives, the film cover should be completely removed for the day so that the plants get used to natural conditions. If the weather permits, the greenhouse does not need to be closed at night at this time.
The first true leaf forms 8-10 days after emergence. Approximately 20 days after germination, the cotyledon leaf dries out and a second true leaf appears. Subsequently, each subsequent leaf appears after 5-7 days.
Onion seedlings in a greenhouse are usually grown without picking, thinning them out if necessary, leaving the plants at a distance of 1.5-2 cm from each other.
During the last 10-12 days before planting in the ground, seedlings of southern semi-sweet onion varieties should be grown under shortened daylight hours (no more than 10-12 hours). This will speed up the ripening of the bulbs.
Every 2-3 days, onion seedlings must be watered, while simultaneously weeding out all the weeds that appear. Two weeks before planting in the ground, seedlings must be fed with nitrophoska (1.5 tablespoons per bucket of water). In the evening, before planting in open ground, seedlings must be watered abundantly.
Onion seedlings can be successfully grown in a room on a windowsill. I'm ready for this soil mixture pour into seed boxes and sow seeds as described above. But it is much more convenient and efficient to grow seedlings in nutrient cubes.
To make them, prepare a nutrient mixture of 6 parts peat, 2 parts humus, 1 part rotted sawdust, and 1 part mullein. Add 1 teaspoon of ammonium nitrate and superphosphate and half a glass of ash to a bucket of the mixture.
The prepared soil mixture is poured into a sowing box, watered abundantly, bringing it to the state of very thick sour cream (not thinner). Then the surface of the mixture is leveled, allowed to dry slightly and cut into cubes measuring 3x3 cm.
Using a stick, make a depression in the cubes with a diameter of 1.5 cm and a depth of 1 cm, put 5-6 seeds in them and sprinkle the dry mixture on top with a layer 0.5 cm thick. When shoots appear, 3-4 plants are left, the rest are carefully plucked.
When growing seedlings in a room, it is very important to observe temperature regime. Before emergence, it is necessary to maintain a temperature of 19-20°C. With the emergence of seedlings, it should be reduced to 8°C for a week so that the plants do not stretch. This can be achieved by opening the internal frames and placing the drawers closer to the glass.
When the outside temperature drops, the frame must be closed. After a week, the temperature is raised to 16-18°C. Watering must be done every 3-4 days. When 2-3 leaves appear, add a mixture of peat and humus to the cubes.
A week before planting seedlings, a window is opened in the room for the whole day or the boxes are taken out onto the balcony, gradually increasing the time spent on outdoors. If the weather permits, the seedlings are left outside overnight, and the greenhouse or greenhouse is not closed. Seedlings ready for planting onions should have 3-4 leaves, as well as a false stem thickness of 3-4 mm.
Seedlings are planted in open ground with the onset of heat when the soil reaches physical ripeness at the age of 50-60 days. It is advisable to do this in cloudy weather or in the evening. Before planting in the garden, seedlings are watered abundantly. Then it is selected from a box or greenhouse along with the soil. The root of each plant is shortened to 2.5 cm and the leaves are cut by a third.
In this case, it is advisable to dip the roots in a mixture of clay and humus. With this operation, the wounds of the seedlings heal faster and their survival rate is accelerated.
Seedlings are planted obliquely at the same depth at which they grew before, since they cannot be planted deep into the soil. Planting should be done with row spacing 15-16 cm wide, and between plants in a row 5-6 cm, followed by thinning. Then the seedlings are watered, and the bed is mulched with peat chips in a layer up to 2 cm thick.
The planting can also be thickened in order to additionally get as many green onions as possible from this area. But in this case, all excess plants must be removed in the first half of June. Onion plantings are watered every 2-3 days until the plants are fully established.
Further care of seedlings planted in the ground consists of regular loosening of the soil, destruction of weeds, fertilizing, watering, etc.
And onion seedlings grown in cubes are planted together with these cubes at a distance of 12-15 cm from each other, and up to 25 cm between rows. The planting depth is equal to the height of the cube. By autumn, several bulbs grow in place of the cube. But all this is a topic for another conversation.
V. G. Shafransky
(Ural Gardener No. 6, 2013)
And all other cultures, for which the time has also come, are already preparing for this with all their might.
One of these popular garden crops is onions. Many people sow it for seedlings, sowing seeds, while others plant seedlings, sometimes for greens, and sometimes for the growth of good strong heads.
Whatever it takes to grow good harvest, it is best to use high-yielding, early-ripening varieties. Therefore, when purchasing seeds in a store, pay attention to the information on the packaging.
When selecting seeds for growing turnips, it is necessary to take into account the fact that the variety has an early or at least average term maturation. And also the fact that these seeds were collected last year.
It is worth noting that among annuals, varieties such as exhibition and chalcedony are considered the best. Keep this in mind when purchasing seeds.
If you decide to plant it through seedlings, then you must first select the right soil. To do this, it is best to stock up on your own garden soil in the fall, with the addition of humus and a small amount of wood ash.
Having prepared the soil, take the necessary container - a box, or individual cells. The seeds must be thoroughly dried. Seeds should be sown in a common container at a distance of 1 cm from each other, and then covered with soil about two centimeters. There are two or three seeds in cassettes. In both cases, cover the plantings with polyethylene and keep them at a temperature of 24 - 25 degrees. Wait for shoots.
Seeds are also planted using the “snail” method. This is done on toilet paper, and simply on soil. This method will be discussed in the videos, which you can find later in the article.
As soon as the first young shoots appear, the cover can be removed. At the same time, the temperature drops to 20 degrees. Under this regime, the seedlings will not grow much. It is necessary to water as the soil dries out, and this is best done with a spray bottle. If seedlings are planted in winter, additional lighting is necessary.
Before transplanting, seedlings must be fed regularly. An infusion of chicken manure diluted in water in a ratio of 1:10 is well suited for these purposes. Or use other fertilizers, such as Krepen or Zdraven.
Unlike other types of seedlings, onion seedlings do not need to be plucked. The only thing that can be done is to straighten it out by removing the weakest copies. It must be taken into account that for the effective development and growth of seedlings, the distance between them should be one and a half to two centimeters.
After two months, the seedlings can begin to be prepared for planting in open ground.
Before this important moment, only good sprouts are selected. Leaves and roots must be cut off by one-third. Immediately before transplanting, the earth is dug up and a bed is formed, furrows are made, which are thoroughly watered.
Small plants should be planted at a depth of about 2 cm so that they feel stable enough in the ground. And between the rows, be sure to maintain a distance of at least 50 cm.
After the plants are planted in their place, they must be watered abundantly and covered with mulch. After 3-4 days, the soil should be slightly loosened so that there is better access to air and water.
After such care and attention, your harvest will grow and will certainly bear good fruit.
Features of growing from seeds in the middle zone
In central Russia, the conditions for growing this crop are most favorable. It has been developed here for centuries various technologies its cultivation.
Most gardeners increasingly prefer to grow it from seeds. They begin to prepare them for seedlings in February. They select, buy seeds, prepare the soil and containers for planting.
Then they begin to work directly with the seeds.
It's best to soak them in hot water, its temperature can be up to 50 degrees. In this case, you can add to the water boric acid. After this, the cloth is moistened with a growth stimulator, seeds are placed in it and left overnight in a warm place.
Then everything is as usual. Seeds are sown in a container filled with soil and pre-moistened with water. They should be covered with cellophane or film and placed in a warm place. After the first sprouts appear, the film is removed.
- If it is cloudy outside, and the days are also short, then the seedlings are illuminated throughout the day.
- The soil must be constantly moist. In order not to break the seedlings, it is better to water them with a spray bottle.
- Every 10 days, seedlings are fed with complex fertilizers. They are applied according to the instructions on the package.
Growth must be monitored every day, all necessary procedures timely.
In March, seedlings can be slowly hardened off on the balcony. By mid-April it becomes quite strong and lush and can be prepared for planting on your summer cottage.
Among the many early varieties Suitable for growing in the middle zone, I would like to note such a variety as Sturon. Not only does he have early dates maturing, but also beautiful taste qualities. In addition, it has a fairly high percentage of germination and, accordingly, high yield.
The only thing you should know is that this variety is not suitable for producing green feathers.
Another early ripening variety, which is worth paying attention to is Stuttgarter Riesen. Equally high-yielding and with great germination. He is loved by many gardeners for his excellent qualities.
And the last variety, which also cannot be ignored, is the high-yielding onion Centurion, which is sown even on an industrial scale.
It has a slightly spicy taste and is very good for long-term storage. However, this variety is also grown for feathers.
Growing onions from seeds for greens
Growing this crop for greens is the most traditional way. Fresh vitamins are always good. Many people probably put a glass with a sprouted head on the windowsill and plucked off the green feathers that appeared.
However, it is better to grow onions for greens using sets rather than seeds. The duration of growth of greenery grown from seeds with fertilizing and proper care will be up to two years. Whereas from the heads - only a few weeks.
Varieties such as batun, multi-tiered onions, chives and leeks are well suited for planting crops on greens. These are all early ripening varieties, so they can be planted directly into the soil (in spring).
If you are growing green onion seeds in the fall, then it is important to cover the beds well with snow and insulate them with spruce branches.
When growing seedlings, the soil for planting must be prepared in the fall. Before this, the seeds must be germinated. Sprouted seeds are planted in the ground to a depth of 1 cm. Moreover, they are sown two months before the moment when they begin planting sprouted greens in the soil.
Before the first shoots appear, the temperature should be about 25 degrees. When they appear, the temperature must be lowered to 10 degrees, then raised again, but to 20.
After the seedlings grow to 20 cm and 3-4 leaves appear on them, you can prepare them for planting outside. This usually happens around the 15th of April.
The seedlings are planted in a row with a row spacing of up to 20 cm. At the same time, the roots are slightly trimmed.
How can you grow an exhibition variety from seeds in one season?
In addition to growing onions for greens, they are also planted on turnips. For this purpose, varieties are selected that have good quality heads One of these varieties is the handsome one - Exhibition.
This variety is quite different large sizes heads compared to others. The weight of one head reaches up to 700 – 800 grams. This variety came to us from Holland, and is gaining more and more popularity every year.
As usual, to grow this magnificent variety, you need to start by preparing the soil. There are no special or specific requirements for this. You can use soil from your garden or store-bought soil.
Plant the seeds in small plastic containers with a lid. Then you will get a kind of mini-greenhouse. But if there is no such container, you can use any boxes, pots, etc. Before sowing the seeds, they should be soaked for two days in water at room temperature, or even slightly warm.
Before planting, water the soil abundantly. Sowing can be done quite densely, with the depth of the seeds being 1 cm. Wrap the box with the planting in film material and place it in a warm place, somewhere near the radiator. The air temperature should not be less than 20 degrees. If the conditions are met, the sprouts will appear on the 7th day.
The sprouts have appeared, and the film can be removed and the shoots exposed to the light. As they grow, mineral supplements are added. Onions love complex fertilizers.
When the important moment comes for transplanting sprouts on your site, and this should be stable warm weather, you can good mood start the procedure. Since the bulbs result in large size, this must be taken into account when transplanting. Therefore, it is better to make the interval between rows at least 30, and between seedlings at least 20 cm. Planting should be done to a depth of at least 3 cm. The roots and shoots of the plant can be trimmed a little.
After planting the seedlings, it is necessary to ensure regular watering. However, overfilling must also be avoided. Water for irrigation should be warm. It is also necessary to take care that the onions are not overgrown with weeds. For this purpose, we use the ones sold in the store. chemicals, which are applied over black soil about a week before the start of planting work. This will help provide weed protection throughout the plant's growth and maturation.
If you approach the matter correctly and carry out all the work correctly, you will get an excellent harvest in the fall.
Features of growing leeks from seeds
Our gardeners love to grow leeks. summer cottages, he is loved and popular garden crops. As you know, it is a biennial plant. But now they have learned to grow it in just a season
If you care for it properly, you can get stems weighing from 100 to 600 grams. In addition, this variety is characterized by high cold resistance. The main advantage of leek can be called the high concentration of vitamin C in it, which, by the way, not only retains winter storage, but even saves.
The peculiarity of this variety is that its seeds can germinate at air temperatures from -2 to 0 degrees. And this is a real miracle. But if you want them to germinate faster and the seedlings to turn out great, then warm conditions 22 – 24 degrees is still preferable.
For better germination, seeds must be soaked in hot water, the temperature of which is 40 - 45 degrees. Leave them in this form for a day. Then hold the seeds by wrapping them in wet wipe and placing it in a warm place for 4 or 5 days. And only then sow it into the soil.
Keep warm. And after the seedlings appear, the temperature should be lowered to about 16 degrees during the day. At night it can be up to 10 degrees. This will be quite enough for all the seeds to germinate and for the emerging sprouts to not stretch out too much. After this, the temperature rises again.
Do not forget to water the seedlings regularly, they are thin and you should not wait until the soil dries out. Feed every two weeks. When the plants get stronger and grow, they can be prepared for hardening and planting in the ground in a permanent place. But this will happen no earlier than 6–8 weeks after the seedlings appear.
Leeks are considered unpretentious plant. However, subject to the right conditions By growing it you can get what people love it for. Namely, a thick white “leg”, the diameter of which will reach 1.5 cm.
And finally, a video with details about growing leeks.
Video about how to care for leeks from planting to planting in the garden
This video explains the method by which leek seeds are sown on toilet paper, using the “Snail” method. IN lately Other vegetable crops are also sown in this way. The shoots turn out friendly and strong.
And also from this material you will be able to learn how to sow it in containers, plant it and care for it throughout the entire growth period.
And with the onset of warm days, it’s time to plant the grown seedlings in the ground. And here you can also see how to do it. Of course, there is a lot of work and care ahead, but if you want to get a decent harvest, then you can try. And in the video you can see how gorgeous the bow has grown.
And today I also wish you exactly such harvests.
Good luck with this, and have a great mood!
Growing onion seedlings is expensive manual labor, however, it allows you to accelerate the development of plants, creates a “race” in time of about one and a half to two months, which is especially important in northern and central regions Russia, where the growing season is short and insufficient for onions to ripen. Using seedlings, you can grow onions in one year in those areas where onions are grown from sets. In a limited area when growing seedlings, it is easier to provide plants with necessary conditions and care.
The optimal age of seedlings for planting in the ground for onions is 50...60 days from sowing. Accordingly, the time for sowing seeds for seedlings is middle zone- it's mid-March.
Onion seedlings can be grown in heated glass and film greenhouses. The soil in nurseries is prepared from humus and turf land in a 1:1 ratio. To grow seedlings, you cannot use the soil on which onions were previously grown, or soil contaminated with root rot. The seed sowing rate is 15...20 grams per square meter of seedling box area.
Onion seedlings are very light-loving, so you should not use deep boxes for seedlings so that the plants are not shaded. The optimal depth of the drawers is 7…8 centimeters. Before sowing, seeds must be soaked for 18...24 hours, changing the water 2...3 times, and sown in rows to a depth of 1 centimeter. The distance between rows is 4...5 centimeters. The seeds are sprinkled with soil on top, which is slightly compacted, and humus is added. Up to 20 grams of seeds are sown under one greenhouse frame, and up to 2 grams are sown in a box measuring 40 X 60 centimeters.
The crops are watered using a watering can with a fine strainer so as not to wash out the rows. To prevent the soil in the boxes from drying out, they are covered with film before germination. Before the emergence of shoots, the temperature is maintained at 18...20 degrees, and with the appearance of shoot loops it is reduced to 14...15 degrees during the day and to 10...12 degrees at night. More high temperature causes severe growth of plants: they stretch out and, as a result, do not tolerate transplantation well, they get sick for a long time, so greenhouses should be ventilated, and in warm weather the frames should be removed. From now on, onion seedlings require good lighting.
If a good one was used for sowing fertile soil, seedlings do not need to be fed. If, nevertheless, the condition of the plants shows that fertilizing is required, use slurry (1:5 or 1:6). After feeding, water lightly clean water, and when the surface dries, the soil is loosened. Loosen very carefully and shallowly (2...3 centimeters) so as not to damage the surface root system. Constantly monitor soil moisture, preventing drying out or, conversely, waterlogging.
Growing onion seedlings in cubes. Good results are obtained when growing seedlings in cubes measuring 4 x 4 centimeters, small pots or special cassettes with cells. The nutritional mixture in the box can simply be cut into cubes with a knife. Three to four seeds are sown in each cube, and the seedlings are nested. Seedlings in cubes take root better, since the roots are not damaged during transplantation, the plants develop better, and the yield increases.
The seedlings are ready for planting when they have three to four true leaves and the thickness of the neck reaches 3...4 millimeters.
Seven to ten days before planting, seedlings begin to harden, maintaining at temperature and conditions open ground. Seedlings are planted at approximately the same time as onion sets, usually in the first ten days of May. Before planting in the ground, onion seedlings should be stocky and strong with three to four true leaves. It is better to plant in the afternoon or in cloudy weather. A day before planting, the seedlings are watered abundantly, watering is repeated 1...5 hours before planting, so that they are well removed from the soil.
The seedlings are taken out of the box, the leaves are cut off by one third, and the roots are dipped in mash from the soil with the addition of a small amount of mullein. This technique prevents the roots from drying out and dying, and improves the survival rate of plants. When planting, make sure that the growing point from which new leaves are formed is not covered with soil, otherwise the plant will die.
If the seedlings were grown without pots and have long bare roots, they are cut back to a third of their length. The soil should be loose and moist. When planting, make sure that the top of the false stem, where the leaves emerge from (the growing point), is not covered with soil. Otherwise, the development of new leaves will be difficult. It should be taken into account that after planting in the ground, the soil settles a little and pulls the seedling with it. Plant in moistened grooves 10...12 centimeters deep, for seedlings in cubes - 15...18 centimeters.
Planted in rows with a distance between them of 20...45 centimeters, and between plants 6...10 centimeters, depending on the size of the bulb of a given variety. Ribbon planting is also possible. After planting, the plants are watered and the soil must be mulched to prevent the formation of a soil crust.
All other measures for caring for plants are the same as when growing onions from seeds by sowing them in a permanent place.
