What is a slime onion and how to grow it?

Slizun leaf onion has many useful qualities, therefore it is very popular among gardeners. You can grow it in any conditions. The main thing is to provide the plant with proper care.

The slime onion is a vigorous perennial plant with flat, garlic-like leaves. With proper care, onions stay green throughout the summer months. By autumn, arrows appear on it, decorated with light purple inflorescences in the form of neat balls. At this time, the bow looks especially beautiful. The plant blooms a year after planting. Flowering takes several weeks.

In the wild, the slime onion grows in cold regions. But people have learned to grow it in almost any conditions. Gardeners often plant such plants in flower beds. A slime bow can be used to decorate alpine slides or create beautiful low fences. Such plants go well with echinacea, sage and delphinium.

As a rule, people eat tender green foliage. It contains many vitamins and minerals. Eating green leaves is useful for people with beriberi, gastrointestinal problems, or low hemoglobin levels in the blood. You can add this product to a variety of dishes. It is usually used in the process of preparing soups, sauces, pies, as well as meat and fish.

The rhizome of the onion can also be used as food. In its appearance, it differs significantly from the usual bulb. But it has a very pleasant taste. Everyone can eat this product, except for allergy sufferers and pregnant women.

Onions are also used in cosmetology. The mucus from its leaves is commonly used to make hair masks. This product stimulates their growth, and also improves the condition of the hair. In addition, face masks are also made from it. These home remedies help restore the skin and make imperfections less noticeable. Mucus that is secreted at the site of cuts or breaks can be used to heal wounds.

Now there are many different varieties of slime. Each of them has its own characteristics.

1. “Salad”. The greens of such plants are very juicy and pleasant to the taste. Onions ripen about a month and a half after planting in open ground. From one bush you can harvest 2-3 kilograms of the crop. Onion leaves are ideal for making fresh salads and flavorful sauces.
2. Green. This variety is hardy and easy to care for. It tolerates both drought and severe frosts well. Onions rarely get sick and are attacked by pests. You can collect a lot of greens from one bush.
3. “Dwarf”. This type of onion is small in size. At the same time, it is worth remembering that it can not be grown everywhere, because the plant does not tolerate sudden changes in temperature.
4. “Leader”. This onion grows very fast. Its foliage is green and juicy. You can eat it as early as a month after planting. Onions have a very pleasant taste. It can be added to a variety of dishes when cooking.
5. “Simbir”. This variety has good cold tolerance. It contains many vitamins. Therefore, it is useful for people with vitamin deficiency and weakened immunity.
6. “Waltz”. This type of onion is most often used to decorate the site. Its foliage is twisted in neat spirals. This looks rather unusual. Such a bow looks beautiful both in vegetable beds and in flower beds.
7. “Broad-leaved”. This bow has flat and wide leaves. They become usable within 20 days after disembarkation. The dark green foliage keeps well and does not become less tasty even after processing.
8. “Health Well”. As the name implies, this plant contains a large amount of vitamins. This variety is early. The greens of such onions have a pleasant pungent taste and rich garlic aroma.
9. “Charm”. This onion has wide and long foliage. It differs from other varieties in its inflorescences. They are white. During the flowering period, such an onion looks very beautiful.

Planting this type of onion in your area is quite simple. Therefore, even novice gardeners are engaged in its breeding.

The easiest way to grow onions is to use seeds. They can be either bought or collected on the site in the fall. In order for the plant to germinate without any problems, the planting material is treated with a simple solution of potassium permanganate. After that, the seeds are washed with water and placed in a container with a stimulant overnight. After processing, the grains must be dried.

When planning to plant onions in open ground, the ground for it must be prepared in advance. It grows best in peat bogs. The beds are recommended to be located in a sunny area. Since autumn, the site is dug up, organic fertilizers are applied to the soil. In order for the onion to grow healthy and strong, the gardener needs to follow the rules of crop rotation. It is best to plant it after nightshade, cabbage or cucumbers. It also grows well in the area where green manure used to be. But where other varieties of onions or garlic grew before, the slime should not be planted.

Sowing is carried out in the spring. This should be done after the snow melts. To do this, in the garden you need to make several identical grooves. Each of them should be no deeper than two centimeters. The distance between rows should be within 30-40 cm. After sowing, the bed is covered with plastic wrap. Under such conditions, seedlings germinate much faster. It will be possible to remove it only after the first sprouts appear on the site.

This planting method is also popular among gardeners. Seeds are sown for seedlings at the very beginning of spring. Prepare them in the same way as in the previous case. Plant the seeds in small pots. The grooves should not be too deep. Before planting seeds, the soil is well watered with warm water. After planting – sprayed with a spray bottle.

Next, the container is covered with a transparent film or glass. It is removed only after the appearance of the first shoots in pots.

Planting young seedlings in the ground is in the middle of spring. It is worth remembering that culture is afraid of frost. Therefore, we must wait for the temperature to rise to 13-15 degrees. At this time, the seedlings will already be quite large and strong. To make it easier for seedlings to adapt to frost, it must be hardened in advance. To do this, from the first days of spring, pots of greens are taken out into the yard. To begin with, it is left there for only a couple of minutes. In the future, seedlings can be outdoors all day.

It is worth replanting young plants in the beds prepared in the fall. The soil should be loose and nutritious. The beds, as in the previous case, are located at a distance of 30-35 centimeters from each other. After planting seedlings, the soil must be watered with warm, settled water.

This method of propagation of green plants is suitable for bushes over the age of three years. They must be healthy and strong. It is best to engage in dividing the bush in the fall. In this case, by the spring he will already give the first greens.

The process of dividing a bush consists of a few simple steps.

1. First you need to dig a bush from the ground. It is recommended to do this in the evening.
2. Next, the bush must be divided into several parts. This can be done with a sharp knife or spade. Usually onions are divided into 2-3 parts.
3. The roots need to be shortened slightly. Don’t cut them too hard. It will only harm the plant.
4. After that, individual parts of the bush must be planted in holes prepared in advance. They should not be too deep.
5. Next, each bush should be sprinkled with a small amount of earth and watered well.

Onion-slizun is a rather unpretentious plant. But he also needs some care.

Regular watering affects the taste of onions. If the plants do not receive enough moisture, their foliage will become stiff and tasteless. Therefore, it is very important to monitor the condition of the soil. It should not dry out and crack.

At the same time, it is worth remembering that the slime reacts poorly to excess moisture. It is important to ensure that moisture does not accumulate at the roots. This can lead to root rot and the death of the onion.

For the first time, onions are fed at the beginning of the growing season. At this time, gardeners usually use organic fertilizers. It can be mullein diluted in a ratio of 1 to 10 or chicken diluted in a ratio of 1 to 20. More concentrated products cannot be used. It is also best to apply organic fertilizers in the evening. After top dressing, the slime onion is watered abundantly.

In the future, plants can be fed with potassium and phosphorus. This is usually done after cutting green foliage. Such top dressing allows plants to recover quickly. In summer, onions can also be fed with urea.

So that a dense crust does not form on the surface of the earth, it is recommended to loosen the soil well after watering. After weeding, nutrients and air more easily enter the rhizome. In addition, regular loosening prevents weeds from growing.

If the onion grows in one area for a long time, over time it can be transplanted to another place. In addition, a home-grown slime can also be grown on the windowsill. In this case, delicious greens will always be at hand.

It is best to transplant onions in the fall. Plants aged 2-3 years are suitable for this purpose. To begin with, the foliage is cut from the bushes. After that, they are carefully dug up, trying not to damage the rhizome. Next, the onion is transplanted into small pots or containers with soil prepared in advance. The container is taken to the basement or to the balcony. There, the plant can adapt to new conditions. In a couple of days it will be possible to bring it into the house. Green foliage, suitable for consumption, will appear on it in a month.

Lizun onions are rarely attacked by pests. The danger for this plant is the onion fly. But dealing with this pest is quite easy.

Usually plants are simply treated with soapy water. To prepare it, a piece of laundry soap is rubbed and diluted in 10 liters of warm water. If there are a lot of pests on the site, stronger insecticides can be used instead of a folk remedy. To protect the beds from these pests, plants can be dusted with wood ash or tobacco dust.

Gardeners collect green feathers several times a season. To get more yield, it is recommended not to cut the sheets, but to pluck them. In this case, the bow recovers faster.

You can use this type of greenery all year round. Green leaves are regularly cut and harvested in summer. In place of the cuts, new sheets quickly appear. This happens within a couple of days.

Onion leaves can be pickled and fermented. But the products prepared in this way are not very useful. Therefore, it is worth harvesting green foliage in one of the following ways.

1. Frost. The collected onions are washed under running water, dried, and then collected in bulk bundles and placed in plastic bags. Before use, such a product is thawed at room temperature, and then added to any suitable dishes. Onions can be stored in the freezer for several months. It is placed in the refrigerator only for 2-3 weeks. It is also stored in small bags.
2. Freeze in oil. Onions for freezing also need to be washed and dried. After that, the green foliage must be finely chopped. The greens prepared in this way are placed in plastic containers, and poured on top of any vegetable or butter. In this form, the product is sent to the freezer. Such blanks can be used for dressing salads, or in the process of preparing hot dishes, as well as delicious pastries.
3. Drying. Some gardeners prefer not to freeze green plants, but to dry them. The foliage is pre-soaked in a solution prepared from a liter of water and 2 tablespoons of salt. After 5 minutes, the leaves are crushed and sent to the oven, heated to 50 degrees, or to a special dryer. Products prepared in this way are stored in paper bags or glass jars. Dried onions can be used to make various soups.

After processing, green plants do not lose their beneficial properties. Therefore, foliage can be harvested for the winter in large quantities.