Growing onions is a seemingly simple task, but in reality it does not always give the expected result. Difficult weather conditions, pests and diseases often deprive the gardener of a good harvest. However, many troubles can be avoided by conducting a series of preventive measures in preparing the bulbs for planting.
Why process onions before planting
Onion is an unpretentious garden plant that is grown everywhere in our country. It is difficult to imagine Russian, and indeed any other cuisine without this vegetable. Therefore, you can meet onions in every garden - whether it is a dacha plot of a city dweller or the estate of a villager. However, despite the apparent ease of cultivation, there are certain subtleties that should not be neglected.
Onion lovers grow different varieties of this crop
In order to get a good feather in the summer and healthy beautiful bulbs by autumn, the seed must be properly prepared for planting. The selection of seeds, their treatment from pests and diseases, soaking to stimulate growth are the main preventive measures to guarantee a good harvest. There are different methods of seed treatment. Through trial and error, each gardener selects a suitable option for himself.
Seed preparation
Preparing bulbs for planting is the first and very important stage in growing a crop. It doesn’t matter if you bought planting stock in the market, in the store, or you use your own seeds - the correct processing of the bulbs will determine the future harvest in many respects.
Seed preparation consists of:
- sorting;
- warming up;
- soaking in a stimulating solution;
- disinfection.
Sorting and warming up
Before proceeding directly to preparation, the onions are sorted, removing all rotten, damaged or simply suspicious specimens. Dry tops must be carefully cut, without damaging the green tips that have bent down. This operation promotes friendly seedlings and slightly accelerates germination. Along the way, you need to rob all the dry scales, which can be easily separated.
Bulbs planted with onion peel do not develop well. The fact is that scales not only inhibit growth, but also release harmful substances into the soil, and this negatively affects the development of the plant.
The remaining healthy bulbs are sorted by size and laid to dry. Seeds are dried for a week in a dry, warm place, at a temperature of about +25aboutFROM. It is this temperature and dry air that will save the onion from the nematode, which does not like heat. The maximum temperature at which this pest can exist is +22aboutFROM.
Growing onions on a feather or turnip depends on the size of the bulbs, so first sort the seeds
Surprisingly, the largest bulbs grow from small seeds, so farmers who grow onions for sale leave all the little things for themselves. Large bulbs will delight the gardener with an early feather and seeds for the future harvest.
Warming with Fitosporin
3 days before planting the bulb, it is necessary to soak it for a day in warm water (temperature + 32 ... +35aboutFROM). This measure will improve the warming of the set and help to remove excess flakes. Phytosporin added to water will serve as a good disinfection for planting material and eliminate the need for pickling in a potassium permanganate solution. 20 g of powder, dissolved in 1 liter of water, will cope with many fungal and bacterial diseases. After soaking, you need to try to peel the bulbs to a white shirt and place in a plastic bag. For 2 days at room temperature, roots and green tips will appear - after that, onions can be planted.
The biological preparation Fitosporin is used both for disinfecting planting material and for soil cultivation.
Warming with growth stimulants
Warming in warm water can be combined with growth stimulation. To do this, add Epin or Zircon to the water at the rate of 40 drops per 1 liter of water. These drugs accelerate growth and root formation, as well as increase the immunity of plants to diseases and adverse weather conditions, but for the effectiveness of these funds it is necessary to acidify water. You can add a grain of citric acid or, as the instructions advise, 1 g per 5 liters of water.
Disinfection
It is important to remember that growth stimulants do not have disinfecting properties, so bulbs must be decontaminated before planting in the ground. The spores of pathogenic fungi are so small that they cannot be seen without a microscope, so even if the bulbs seem completely clean and healthy, you should not abandon this procedure.
There are various ways to disinfect planting stock, but not all of them are as effective as they are said to be.
Potassium permanganate
The most popular tool among gardeners is potassium permanganate. The bulbs are soaked before planting in a dark solution of potassium permanganate, and during spring planting, the procedure lasts 2 hours, and in the autumn - 5 minutes. This is explained by the fact that in autumn you need to plant bulbs, not allowing them to wake up, otherwise they will freeze in winter.
Potassium permanganate is a universal disinfectant
Blue vitriol
Copper sulfate is perhaps the second most popular remedy for all ailments. 1 tsp powder is dissolved in 1 liter of water. Fluid temperature should be approximately +45aboutC. Bulbs are soaked in the same way as in a solution of potassium permanganate, taking into account the time of year.
Before planting, onions can be soaked in a solution of copper sulfate
The use of soda, salt and ammonia
Instead of potassium permanganate, many gardeners use a solution of baking soda. For this, before planting the bulbs, soda (1 tsp. Per 10 l) is diluted in warm water (+ 40 ... +45aboutC) and soak the seeds for 10-15 minutes.
A solution of soda is also used to treat onions before planting
Soda is also used as a spray when powdery mildew or other diseases appear on the seedlings, but this remedy does not bring the desired effect.
Often you can find advice on soaking the bulbs in a salt solution, but this is a controversial opinion. Many experts believe that this measure is useless at the stage of preparing the onion for planting. However, watering seedlings under the root with a salt solution (200 g per 10 liters of water) is an excellent tool for the prevention of onion flies. The same applies to the ammonia solution. Watering plants (5 tablespoons per bucket of water) will relieve seedlings from many insect pests, and at the same time reduce the acidity of the soil and enrich it with nitrogen.
A solution of birch tar
Many gardeners use a birch tar solution to process the bulbs. The controversial method, the adherents of which argue that tar serves as an excellent prevention of many pests and diseases, in addition, it is a natural remedy that does not harm the soil and the culture itself.
Adherents of organic farming in the processing of planting material prefer birch tar
The peeled and dried onions are kept in any stimulant, and then placed for 2-4 hours in a tar solution. It is simple to cook - in 1 liter of water you need to dissolve 1 tbsp. l tar. Fluid temperature should be around +20aboutC. So that the bulbs do not float, they are covered with a plate.
Red pepper and liquid soap
Bulbs are often soaked in a solution of red pepper and soap. Thus treated sevka will be protected from many diseases and soil pests. To prepare a solution in 1 l of water, 3 g of red pepper powder and 1 tsp are diluted. green or any other liquid soap.
From red pepper and liquid soap make a solution for processing onions
Biological preparations
Preparations, the action of which is based on the work of beneficial bacteria, will help protect onions from rot, bacteriosis and alternariosis. One of the most famous drugs - Trichodermin - is available in powder or suspension form. For processing, you can simply powder the bulbs with powder or soak in a solution prepared according to the instructions.
Planriz has a similar effect. Processing the bulbs one day before planting with a 1% solution of this drug will have a disinfectant and stimulating effect.
Video: preparing and planting onion sevka in spring
Preparation of soil and beds
When preparing the beds for sowing onions, you must take into account its predecessors. Crop rotation is especially important for this crop, so bulbs cannot be planted in the same place where they grew before. Bad onion precursors are:
- garlic;
- carrot;
- greens;
- spices.
Sevka grows well after:
- cabbage;
- cucumbers
- legumes;
- siderats.
The beds for planting onions are prepared in the fall. Introduce rotted manure at the rate of 1 bucket per 1 m2 and dig well. Given the dislike of onions to acidic soils, it is advisable to add wood ash or dolomite flour to the soil. This measure will not only deoxidize the earth, but also enrich it with many useful trace elements. Mineral fertilizers for digging do not make, since onions are very sensitive to high concentrations of salts. It is better to use them as top dressing during the growing season.
A seasoned and dug bed for disinfection is spilled with a solution of Fitosporin (5 g of powder per 10 l of water). This procedure can be repeated in the spring, before planting.
Processed and planted according to all the rules, the sevka will please with a healthy feather and large bulbs.
My method of preparing onion sets for planting is simple but effective. 2 weeks before the intended planting, I sort the bulbs, peel them of excess husk, cut off the dry tips and lay them on the drying board. We live in a private house and use a water boiler. It is always warm, the surface temperature is maintained at about +40aboutC is an ideal place for warming the bulbs. After 2 weeks, I soak the seeds in a solution of Fitosporin-M. Unlike conventional Fitosporin in powder form, this preparation has a dark brown paste consistency. But what’s important - it is enriched with humic acids, nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus (the packaging always says what additives are included in the preparation). Therefore, by soaking the bulbs in the Fitosporin-M solution, I simultaneously disinfect the seed and stimulate further growth. The beneficial bacteria contained in the preparation kill pathogens of bacterial and fungal diseases, and humic additives and trace elements not only have a stimulating effect, but also increase the immunity of plants. I soaked the bulbs during the day and planted them in prepared beds. The onion is excellent - it does not get sick and does not turn yellow ahead of time.
Fitosporin-M is economical - to prepare a working solution, 200 g of paste is diluted in 400 ml of water. There is a very important nuance here - chlorinated tap water will kill all useful microorganisms, so you can’t use it. For soaking bulbs, I breed 1 tbsp. l working solution in 1 liter of water from an artesian well.
Despite its simplicity, growing onions does not tolerate neglect. Having spent quite a bit of effort and time on preparing the seeds for planting, it is possible to prevent the emergence of diseases and pests in the future, which means reducing efforts in growing the crop. Pre-sowing seed treatment is easy and not burdensome, even a novice can cope with it.
