How to plant and grow onions in the spring?

If you plant onions in the spring, you can already get a good harvest of vegetables in the fall, but for this you need to correctly determine the timing of sowing work and organize competent care for planting. This process is not laborious, but requires compliance with certain agricultural practices and the rules for growing vegetables. Read about all this below.

When to plant?

In order to determine the optimal time for landing work in the spring, it is necessary to take into account both specific weather conditions and suitable dates according to the lunar calendar.

Climatic conditions

Planting onions can be done only after the frosts recede and stable warm weather is established. At the same time, the soil should warm up to a depth of 5-8 cm to + 12 … 14 ° C, otherwise the onion will sprout into an arrow, and the greens will grow more than the turnip itself.

As a rule, suitable weather is established in late April – early May. Exact dates vary by region:

• southern regions – the second decade of April;
• regions of central Russia and the Moscow region – the third decade of April;
• Siberia and the Urals – the first decade of May;
• Altai Territory – from the beginning to the middle of May.

Residents of central Russia are starting to grow a vegetable with cherry blossoms.

If onions are grown in a greenhouse, planting can be done 2-3 weeks earlier than the indicated dates.

Regardless of the region of residence, planting onions should not be delayed, otherwise, due to high temperatures and lack of natural moisture, the bulb will develop slowly, which is fraught with a decrease in the intended yield.

According to the lunar calendar

In order to accurately determine the dates of planting work, many gardeners are guided by the Lunar calendar, according to which in spring the favorable periods for planting onions are:

• 25 and 26 April;
• from 10 to 20 May;
• 23 May.

Onions planted these days give large bulbs and juicy greens.

What varieties can be planted?

For spring planting, a medium fraction onion is preferable, reaching a diameter of 14-21 mm, since this form does not give shooters and takes root more easily. As for specific varieties, suitable are:

• Centurion F1. An early ripe hybrid that bears fruit with even and slightly elongated fruits weighing up to 175-180 g. Their taste can be spicy or semi-sharp. The grade differs in high resistance to diseases and good keeping quality.
• Stuttgart Riesen. Mid-season variety, which is characterized by high productivity – from 1 sq. m gives up to 5 kg of large bulbs of a round and slightly flattened shape. Their average weight is about 150 g, but there are specimens of 200-250 g each. The taste of the fruit is bright and pronouncedly spicy.
• Red Baron. An early variety with a yield of up to 3 kg per 1 sq. m. It bears fruits of a rounded shape of red-violet color and weighing up to 150 g. Their taste is pleasant and semi-sharp.
• Sturon. Early maturing variety Sturon with a stable and high yield, which produces bulbs of medium and large sizes. They have a mild semi-sharp taste.
• Hercules. Mid-early hybrid with high yield, fruiting bulbs weighing 155-160 g. They have a wide elliptical shape and a spicy spicy taste.
• Stardast. Mid-early variety with good germination and high yields. The fruits are large in size, even and rounded in shape, pleasant and slightly semi-sharp taste.

Onion Centurion F1

Luke Stuttgart Risen

Bow Red Baron

Onion Sturon

Bow Hercules

Luk Stardast

Experienced vegetable growers choose these varieties for their quality characteristics and unpretentiousness in cultivation.

Planting material processing

What preparation to carry out depends on what is used as planting material – seeds or sets. We will consider each option separately.

seed

To grow onions on a feather, it must be planted with seeds. You can start processing them 25-28 days before sowing. It is produced in this order:

1. To check onion seeds (nigella) for germination, they must be transferred to a gauze bag and immersed in hot (+45 … + 55 ° C) water for 12-16 minutes. Discard unsuitable specimens.
2. In order to harden off after the first stage, immediately dip the seeds in cold water for 1,5-2 minutes.
3. In order for the seeds to swell and get rid of substances that inhibit germination, wrap them in a damp natural cloth and keep them in this form for 22-26 hours, while regularly moistening the bundle. After this procedure, soak the seeds in water at room temperature and hold for 2-3 days in the lower compartment of the refrigerator or in another cool place. Change water every day.
4. After soaking, drain the water, dry the black on a paper towel and mix with sand or sawdust.

After this treatment, strong small onion seeds can be obtained, which will be suitable for uniform sowing.

Onion sets

When growing onions on a head, planting should be done in sets. They can be purchased at a garden store or grown independently from nigella, preferring zoned varieties. In any case, bulbs with the following characteristics are suitable for spring planting:

• have dimensions of 14-21 mm;
• are dry and elastic;
• have a good density and a pleasant onion smell.

Not suitable for planting bulbs, which are characterized by the following features:

• wet;
• covered with mechanical damage and rot;
• smell like mold;
• have white roots or hatched green sprouts.

In order for self-grown sevka to be suitable for planting in the spring, it must be properly stored in winter – at a temperature of 15 ° C and a humidity of 70%.

Directly processing the seedlings should be started a month before they are planted. It consists in carrying out the following manipulations:

1. Throw away dry and rotten bulbs, and sort the rest by size – large, medium and small. Planting should begin with small and medium-sized bulbs, so that by autumn they will yield a crop of heads. Large sets should be planted with a break of at least 2 weeks so that they do not go to the arrow early. At your discretion, they can be used in green form or left in black.
2. If the sevok was stored in a cellar or other cold place, 2-3 weeks before planting, you need to warm it up and dry it, otherwise it will rot in the soil or go into the arrow. Sorted sevok should be spread in a thin layer and kept under the sun, for example, on the windowsill on the south side. An alternative option is to keep the seeds for 3-4 days near a heating source at a temperature of +35..+42°C.
3. After drying and warming up, lower the seedlings for 4-5 minutes in hot (70 ° C) water, and then for the same time in cold water.
4. For quick germination of seeds, soak for 8-10 hours in a weak solution of complex fertilizers or nitroammophoska (15-20 g per 10 liters of water).
5. After a mineral bath, in order to disinfect and protect the planting from fungal diseases, soak the seeds for 10-15 minutes in a solution of potassium permanganate (1 tsp per 10 liters of water) or copper sulfate (10-15 g per 10 liters of water). If diseases were observed during the cultivation of sevka in the garden or pests bred, the planting material must also be kept in an ash solution (1 tablespoon per 1 liter of water).
6. Rinse the seedlings under running cold water, dry and plant in the ground.

If you plan to grow a feather, then before planting, the tops of the bulbs need to be cut off.

Site selection and preparation of beds

A place for planting onions must be chosen in the fall. This should be a well-lit area, as bulbous plants grow hard in the shade and need plenty of direct sunlight. If the onion grows without them, then the heads will turn out to be very small.

It is equally important when choosing a site to take into account the rules of crop rotation:

• The best onion predecessors are those crops that loosen the soil with their roots and enrich it with nutrients. These are:
  • rye;
  • pumpkin;
  • peas;
  • beans;
  • peppers;
  • eggplants;
  • zucchini;
  • cabbage;
  • tomatoes;
  • potatoes.
• The worst predecessors are cucumbers, garlic, beets and carrots. After them, onion heads will grow very slowly, and the yield will decrease. Onions can be returned to their original place only after 3 years.
• It is better to plant carrots next to the onion bed. It will scare away the onion fly, while the onion will be an excellent prevention against the carrot fly.

As for the soil, it should be loose and with low acidity. Onions grow well on chernozems or loams, which pass air and moisture well.

The selected site with suitable parameters must be properly prepared. This procedure can be divided into two stages:

1. In the autumn. Dig a bed on a spade bayonet without breaking clods. This is a good treatment for pests and diseases – the ground will freeze deeper, so fewer larvae will survive until spring.
   In addition, when snow melts, moisture lingers longer in the soil. When digging, the land needs to be fertilized – add per 1 sq. m for 5 kg of rotted manure or compost. From mineral fertilizers per 1 sq. m it is worth adding 30 g of superphosphate and 15 g of potassium chloride.
   

   Until spring, all fertilizers applied will dissolve, and soil fertility will be restored.

2. In the spring. A week before planting, evenly distribute ammonium nitrate over the surface of the beds at the rate of 20 g per 1 sq. m and carry out its shallow loosening with subsequent harrowing. Immediately before planting, in order to disinfect, pour the dug-up beds with a dark pink solution of potassium permanganate.

Planting onions in the ground

The planting scheme depends on which planting material the vegetable crop is cultivated through.

Seed sowing

Produced according to the following scheme:

• width between holes – 1,5-2 cm;
  

  If you stand between the holes less than 1 cm, you will be able to get a good feather – the greens will grow more than a turnip.

• distance between rows – 12-18 cm;
• embedment depth – up to 1,8-2 cm.

After sowing, the soil must be watered and mulched using sawdust or straw for this. The landing itself must be covered with a dark film to prevent it from drying out.

Planting sevka

Before planting, you need to prepare the beds at a distance of 25-30 cm. The distance between the grooves depends on the size of the heads:

• large – 10-12 cm;
• medium – 8-10 cm;
• small – 6-8 cm.

Sevok should not be buried too deep in the ground. With the advent of the roots, it will drag even deeper into the soil, so the seedlings will have to wait even longer, and the crop will turn out to be small and weakened. The optimal depth for planting the bulbs is 4,5-5 cm, so that a layer of soil of 2,5-3,5 cm remains above the shoulders of the onion.

After planting, the bed should be watered and mulched with straw or sawdust so that moisture lingers longer in the soil until the bulbs germinate.

The intricacies of sowing onion sets throughout May are described in the video below:

Spring Planting Care

To get a good harvest, you need to follow the rules for planting care. They consist in the timely implementation of a number of agrotechnical measures.

Watering

The lack of moisture in spring will cause the feather to become bluish or white, and the tips will dry out and bend over. At the same time, excess moisture should not be allowed, otherwise the feather will turn out pale and thin, and the quality of the grown onions will deteriorate. So, it is extremely important to organize moderate watering of the crop, adhering to the following scheme:

1. In May-June, water the beds no more than 1-2 times a week at the rate of 7-11 liters of water per 1 sq. m.
2. During the ripening period of the bulb heads, reduce watering to 1 time in 1,5-2,5 weeks. However, in dry weather, onions should be watered more often, while reducing water consumption.
3. By the beginning of the ripening of the turnip, reduce watering to a minimum in order to only keep the soil moist. Excessive moisture will stimulate leaf growth and delay the ripening of large onion heads.
4. At the stage of cutting the bulbs, refuse to water. However, in case of severe drought, the planting can be slightly moistened, otherwise the onion feathers will lose color, bend and turn white at the tips.

Loosening

At least once every 2-2,5 weeks after watering or rain, you need to loosen the soil. This is an important procedure that should not be neglected for the following reasons:

• gives the onion turnip a lot of air and light, and therefore strength to “get out” to the surface;
• improves the air-moist regime, preventing the soil from being excessively compacted;
  

  If an impenetrable crust is allowed to form on the surface of the soil, the onion will begin to suffocate and lag behind in development, and the feather will turn pale and even turn yellow.

• helps keep the planting clean – fights weeds that grow rapidly as the roots and leaves of the bulb slowly grow.

Additional fertilizing

If the pre-sowing top dressing of the soil was carried out correctly, then only poor soil should be additionally fertilized. However, even with proper preparation, onion vegetation can occur sluggishly. In this case, summer dressing of the planting will help to stimulate the growth of feathers. It is produced using a solution that is prepared from such substances (in a bucket of water):

• 15-20 g of urea;
• 250-280 g of organic matter (mullein or bird droppings).

This composition must be applied under the root of plants at the rate of 3-3,5 liters per 1 sq. m. After 12-16 days, feeding can be repeated.

If, after feeding, the greens begin to grow actively and go into arrows, they will need to be removed immediately.

Protection against diseases and pests

In order to prevent the development of fungal diseases, when the onion feather reaches a height of 12-16 cm, it is necessary to carry out preventive treatment – sprinkle the beds with a solution of 5-8 g of liquid laundry soap and 15-20 g of copper sulfate per 10 liters of water.

If the vegetable crop is not processed, then the following pathogenic fungi can affect it:

• Peronosporoz. Carried by wind, insects and even humans. Appears as light spots on the feathers. If such signs are found, the plant should be sprayed with a suspension of Polycarbacin or 1% Bordeaux mixture. This treatment is carried out 3 times with a break of 10 days. The last of them to spend 20 days before harvest.
• rust disease. Leaves swollen orange spots of a rounded shape on the stems. To prevent the development of this pathological process, you need to regularly weed the bed. With mass growth, onions should be sprayed with a solution of copper chloride at the rate of 30 g per 10 liters of water. You can add some liquid soap to it. Spray the planting twice with a break of 7 days.
• Fusarium rot. Manifested by rotting of the feather and turnip. In order to prevent the development of the disease, it is advisable to treat the soil with Iprodion before planting, and soak the seed in a solution of potassium permanganate. In addition, you can not plant onions in the same area for 2 seasons in a row.

As for pests, among them the most dangerous are:

• wire beetles. To scare them away, you need to follow the correct agricultural technology.
• Lukovaâ flies. Creolin will help in the fight against it.
• Onion weevil (hidden proboscis). Against it, onions can be sprayed with insecticides, which contain nicotine sulfate.

To protect the onion beds from the attacks of any pests, you need to carefully clean the garden from plant debris and other debris.

Harvesting and storage of crops

You can start harvesting onions from 2-3 weeks of August to early September. The following signs will testify to the ripeness of the crop:

• the greens stopped growing;
• the feather fell;
• new feathers have ceased to form;
• the leaves turn yellow and dry;
• heads with a characteristic color and ripe scales were formed.

Harvesting must not be postponed, otherwise the heads will begin to grow again, and the onion will become unsuitable for storage.

You need to start harvesting on a sunny day or cloudy but dry weather. If it is not possible to cut off the stems, onions and sets can be pulled out by hand. In order not to damage the onion turnips, they should be carefully dug up with a pitchfork.

The harvested crop of onions and sevka must be dried. In sunny weather, it can be spread directly on the beds. An adult turnip will dry out in natural conditions in 7 days, and a set in 3-4 days. If the weather is cloudy, the harvested crop will have to be dried under a canopy with good circulation of air masses.

After drying, the bulbs need to cut off the stems, while leaving necks 3-4 cm long. Then they need to be sorted correctly so that large specimens can be eaten, and small ones (up to 3 cm in diameter) should be saved as seeds for a green feather.

Video consultation

An experienced gardener in the following video will share his experience of cultivating onion sets in the spring:

With the departure of winter frosts and the arrival of spring, you can start planting onions. Given the above recommendations, even an inexperienced gardener will be able to cope with such a task. The main thing is to properly prepare the seed and the bed, and after sowing, organize competent care for the crop.