Novice gardeners are puzzled by how to use the site after harvesting the onions. Such a crop significantly changes the composition of the soil, so not everything can be planted after it. In the article we will talk about how to benefit from the area on which the onion grew and what should not be planted after it.
What greens can be planted?
Immediately after harvesting the onions, hurry to use the vacant area to get vitamins. Greens – what grows well after onions. Let’s see what can be planted from this category.
- Salad. Lettuce leaves are always needed to decorate your favorite dishes. When buying seeds, pay attention to the mark “for summer sowing” and purchase only such bags.
- Dill. You can use seeds collected last year. Leave a few stems for a new seed collection, and actively use the green mass in salads and other dishes.
- Celery. Young greens of this useful culture can be used in the preparation of first courses, salads, smoothies. And she will have time to grow by the season of salting and seaming vegetables.
- Cilantro. This spicy culture is needed on the table at any time of the year, but the greens of summer sowing are most saturated with vitamins and aromas.
- Ruccola. Another culture that feels good in place of the onion. She does not need additional feeding, it is enough to water it moderately and collect greens in time to allow young stems to grow.
- Basil. This spicy summer plant can be frozen or dried for a savory taste all year round. Choose young leaves for this.
Greens are considered the champion of growth: already 15 days after sowing, you can get fresh bunches, you just need to buy varieties that are suitable for summer sowing. In the second half of summer (after harvesting early ripe onions), ideal conditions are created for growing greens.
In terms of taste, the plants do not differ from spring or June greens, but the sweltering heat subsides, the leaves turn yellow less, moisture remains in the soil longer, and the greens retain their appearance and juiciness better. Many experienced housewives harvest greens planted during this period for the winter, freezing or drying, and also use them in conservation.
What else to plant?
After harvesting onions in July, early-ripening hybrid varieties of cabbage can be planted, which have ultra-early ripening (a head of cabbage is formed in 45-60 days). Such hybrids can be sown immediately into the ground with seeds, and not waste time and effort on seedlings.
In place of the onion will grow well carrots and beets. If we are also talking about sowing immediately after harvesting the bulbs, then early varieties are chosen. These vegetables will not be stored for a long time, but they can be consumed until the end of summer and all autumn. If you sow these crops in the beds after harvesting the onion, then you can collect root crops in late September or early October.
In the summer after the onion crop, experienced gardeners plant radish (daikon) and radish, however, they do not deepen the seeds much. It is wrong to assume that radishes are planted only in May or early summer. It turns out that August is the most favorable period for radishes.
With a long daylight hours and an abundance of sun, the plant shoots an arrow, and in August-September the daylight hours decrease, the heat subsides, which makes it possible to grow juicy root crops.
The main condition is good watering. So that the place is not empty after the bulbs, you can also sow peas, beans (asparagus). The following season, onion plantations can be planted with tomatoes. Tomato roots go deep and will not be affected by depletion of the topsoil. It is better to plant tomato seedlings in this place, but with proper care, tomato seeds will germinate.
Many onion beds then plant strawberries, and it is better to do this before winter. This berry crop is also not afraid of exhaustion, because it takes root deep enough to get food from there. Vulnerable strawberries, like tomato bushes, do well in former onion plantations because there are practically no pathogens in the ground after onions. They die from phytoncides that emit bulbs.
After the onion harvest at this place, the following crops will also yield:
- all types of cabbage (including cauliflower, savoy, kohlrabi and other types);
- pumpkin crops (besides the pumpkin itself, squash, zucchini, pimply cucumbers grow);
- plants of the nightshade family (except for tomatoes and potatoes, these are peppers of all kinds and eggplants);
- legumes (lentils, traditional peas and beans).
You need to understand that onions can change the composition of the soil. A lot of potash fertilizers are added under it, which may well lead to a change in acidity. In addition, the culture itself sucks a lot of nitrogen out of the soil and consumes little phosphorus.
Knowing these subtleties, the gardener will have to competently feed those crops that were planted after onions next season. But after it, the land remains practically sterile from pests. And it doesn’t matter if it’s an ordinary onion or a perennial one. The latter type depletes the soil more.
What can’t be planted?
There is no specific ban on planting any crop after onions for the next season. With proper feeding and processing of the site, you can grow everything. The only vegetable that will be uncomfortable after onions is garlic. Experienced gardeners do not advise planting it after onions, if only because garlic also belongs to the onion family, which means that crops have common pests and common diseases. So, planting garlic after the crop, there is a risk of being left without a crop.
By the way, pay attention to the fact that after garlic, onions are also not recommended to be planted. The reasons are the same – soil depletion and common pests and diseases. Although it is believed that after the onion the earth remains clean from pests and there are no pathogens in it, nematodes can still remain there – the smallest worms that love onion crops.
Therefore, it is strictly forbidden to grow after the plant any kind of its closest relatives. In addition to garlic, these are batun, leek, and other types of onions: family type, multi-tiered, and so on. If you are planning to plant flowers in this place, then just not from the bulbous family.
For tulips, gladioli, daffodils, lilies, you will have to find another place. It is undesirable to plant physalis and pepper after onions. The root system of these plants, like that of the onion crop, does not deepen, and since the onion is able to deplete the soil, subsequent crops from the upper layer will have nothing to take for development.
If you do not observe crop rotation when growing crops of the onion family, you can generally lose the crop. Initially, the plants will bear less fruit, gradually stop producing crops. In extreme cases, alternate planting onions (or related crops) and carrots (every year).
This is a classic combination of partners who protect each other from harmful insects and pathogens. By the way, the onion fly also disappears from carrot beds. There are no other prohibitions about what not to plant after onions.
After the introduction of certain doses of organic matter and minerals, the soil on onion plantations is restored. If you are not an adherent of introducing chemistry into the ground, you can restore the soil composition with green manure such as oats, phacelia, lupine.
These herbs can be sown immediately after harvesting the bulbs. Even if harvesting falls in August, they have time to grow back. The grass is mowed, and the site is plowed. Before planting next year, these lands must be fertilized and prepared for new plantings, taking into account compliance with the requirements of crop rotation and the above recommendations. A good harvest after onion crops is received by those who are not too lazy to comply with all requirements.
