Chives and features of its cultivation

Chives have many names – from English onions to winter onions, from skoroda to trimbulki. And it is also called chisel, and this perennial edible plant owes its popularity to such a variety of names. Somewhere it is big, somewhere more modest, but now the time has come when chives more often look at domestic plots.

It is a frost-resistant, moisture-loving perennial that can be grown in one area for 5-6 years. There is an alpine bow (Russian, European), and there is a Siberian one. The first involves bushes with two hundred branches, and its feather is small, it grows very quickly.

Description of chives:

• well-developed fibrous root system, extending into the ground by 30 cm;

• the roots can intertwine with each other, as well as with the rhizome of neighbors, forming a turf;

• the feathers are green, the color saturation depends on the variety – they can be either very light or very dark, the length of the feather is up to 40 cm;

• pinnate leaves taste bitter-sharp, the aroma of onions is very felt;

• beds in May at the flowering stage look very beautiful, they are compared with white, pink or lilac lace, so this bow often appears in flower beds as flowers.

Bright green leaves are folded into tubules – this distinguishes the sibulet onion (another name for the plant). In the second year of planting, a flower arrow grows from each bulb, and in a perennial it will bloom annually. If the bush is already 3-4 years old, the number of stems reaches a hundred, and there will also be many inflorescences. Flowers that bloom in late spring delight with their beauty until August. And then seeds are formed in the umbrellas, which will turn black by the end of the summer.

The homeland of the plant is China and Mongolia, or rather, the northern territories of these countries. In the wild, it is actively growing in India, other Asian regions, it is also found in North America and Europe. But this plant is relatively easy to adapt to a new habitat.

Everything is relative – the choice of variety depends on how strong and experienced the gardener is, in which region the onion will grow, what requirements (mainly decorative) are presented to it.

Brief description of popular varieties.

• Chemal. On 1 square meter it will give 6 kg of greenery per season. It has branched and large bushes, the feather reaches half a meter in height. The leaves will taste spicy.

• Honey plant. Probably the most popular variety of chives, it has dense bushes, semi-sharp feathers. Gives a good harvest, about 5 cuts.

• Crocus. And his leaves grow very quickly. The crop will give 4 years, growing in the same soil.

• Spring. It ripens in a month, the bush is tall and powerful. The main difference from other varieties is slightly sharp leaves. The plant has the highest winter hardiness.

• Albion. This schnitt has large bushes with one and a half hundred branches, the length of the feather is 40 cm. The taste is spicy. Gives 5 cuts per season.

You can sow seeds directly into the ground, you can divide the bush, but there is also a third option. And now about each in order.

Those who have been growing this type of onion for more than one season, as a rule, use their seeds. But you can buy them in the store. The seeds will sprout and dry, but it will be useful to help the process: they are filled with water (just do not take very cold water), left for 24 hours, changing the liquid several times. After soaking, the seeds are laid out on textiles or paper towels, dried so that they become free-flowing again. Then you can sow.

Seeds are usually sent to the garden in the spring, and if the region is southern, you can do this before winter. If it is in the fall, then you need to take dry seeds, sow them 2 cm deep, cover them with mulch (sawdust or fallen leaves) on top. And they do it before the onset of frost. In the spring, the mulch is raked away, and the seeds germinate faster. But still, spring sowing is much more popular, and they do it, for example, in the middle lane, in mid-April. First, grooves are prepared, they are watered. Then the seeds are lowered into them: it is possible in several such grooves-rows in the garden, it is possible in one.

You can expect shoots in a week and a half. When a pair of leaves is formed, you need to thin out the greens, a distance of 8 cm remains in the row. After repeated thinning, when the green bush is ready for transplantation, the distance will grow to a minimum of 15 cm. And the longer the onion lives in this place, the greater the distance between the bushes should be.

This method is affordable and simple, it is preferred by many gardeners. At the beginning or end of the season, a bush is dug up, which will be divided. 5 or 6 bulbs should be separated from the sample. And they go to a pre-prepared hole. At the end, they need to be watered. So you can plant chives, which has already grown on the site and is ready for reproduction.

This is the third landing. Bulbous plants, in principle, lend themselves well to forcing, winter, produced at home. Distillation involves a number of stages: in the fall, several sods must be separated from an adult bush, each for 5 onions. Leaves and flower stalks should be cut off, and the roots should be trimmed with sterile scissors. Such sods need to be planted in a spacious container, they can be planted in individual pots. Then the plants are watered, and the containers are sent to a ventilated basement.

In December, the containers must be removed from a cold place, and after the hibernation season they will go to a bright windowsill. They must be watered with warm water. So you can stimulate the vegetation of the culture, which will begin to quickly grow feather leaves. After 2 weeks, the first feathers can already be picked and eaten. The higher the temperature, the faster they will grow. If growth needs to be slowed down, the pots are sent to where the temperature is around 12 degrees (on a glazed balcony, for example).

This is the simplest, since there are practically no tricks of agricultural technology for a crop that grows in the open field. Watering is the main thing that the onion needs. Whether it is an onion growing at home, ripening in a pot for seedlings, or any other. Schnitt, indeed, is considered a very moisture-loving culture. If you do not allow it to dry out, you can grow a rich harvest. Nevertheless, the roots are not as strong as those of more powerful crops, and in a short time without water they can droop.

Top dressing is important for the vegetation of the crop. The first is carried out in May, with active regrowth of leaves. Suitable composition with nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus. They usually take potassium nitrate, potassium phosphate, as well as urea, superphosphate. Everything is done strictly according to the instructions – overfeeding can destroy the plant, and underfeeding will have no effect. The second mandatory top dressing should be in September, a month before the chives go to winter sleep. Here it is more important to purchase compounds with magnesium, iron, copper, zinc, sulfur, selenium. And therefore complex fertilizer is more suitable.

Well, the third top dressing is carried out at will, and rather it is needed by those who grow chives for flowering. Then it should be held in July or August. Phosphorus-potassium preparations are used. Any top dressing is carried out after rain, or after significant watering. The weather should be dry, but not sunny. About a week after top dressing, it is better not to cut off the feather for food.

This is not a disease, but still an unsafe phenomenon – it happens that as the chives grow, or when the roots are washed away the bulbs of the plant are exposed. Then they are carefully sprinkled with peat, garden soil or humus. This way you can avoid drying out the bulb.

And, in general, the plant can not be called painful. There are so many phytoncides in it that he is almost not afraid of attacking him (he will also take care of his neighbors). But there is still no absolute guarantee of the absence of diseases. And it can be attacked by powdery mildew and rust, because these fungi are extremely active. Powdery mildew can be diagnosed by pale green spots on the feather, structurally they look like flour, hence the name.

Rust, on the other hand, is manifested by spots of an already brown-red hue, and also by characteristic swellings. And these disputes are especially dangerous, because lightning-fast distribution is inherent in them. A whole plantation can be ruined by such a disease. Fungicides will help in the fight against fungi. And if you count on prevention, this is cleaning the leaves in the fall. The spores that remain on them do not die in winter, by spring they “wake up” and are taken for a landing attack.

Of the pests, thrips can be considered dangerous. They can damage the entire feather of the bow, down to the underground part. Onions must be weeded, do not leave vegetation in rosettes for the winter. If a pest is found, absolutely all infected material is burned. Acaricides work well against insects. Well, the prevention of damage by these pests consists in pickling the material that is being planted, as well as spraying the bushes with Bordeaux mixture.

Lawns and lawns on the site will become much more colorful with bright heads of chives. Lilac and purple are the most popular, they can be seen more often in the garden. But varieties with white heads look especially gentle. And since the buds will bloom at the end of May, the beginning of summer will be met with rapid flowering – this is very beautiful.

Schnitt also fell in love with those who are active on Instagram: this product is very photogenic. As a border at the garden path, it looks more luxurious than many garden flowers. In a bunch on a wooden cutting board, it looks very pretty, just like finely chopped chives draw attention to the photo. In a word, in modern realities, the demand for it is growing.

It is noteworthy that such a beauty and a piquant product can be grown without significant expenses, without complicated care, and even in the northern regions.