Processing onion sets before planting in April 2022: selection and sorting of bulbs, additional processing using traditional methods

Knowing the key rules of how to prepare vegetables for planting is necessary regardless of their type. Otherwise, even with a bow, a lot of unexpected problems arise, among which going into the feather instead of the head is not the biggest one.

It is not difficult to avoid problems if, firstly, the plant is planted on time, and secondly, it is properly processed before planting. Properly carried out disinfection will provide reliable protection against any diseases and allow you to count on a truly large harvest.

Here you will learn:

Preparing onions for planting

The first and rather important stage in preparing sowing before planting is careful selection of seeds. It is performed as follows:

It is better to immediately throw away small onions that are too soft and spoiled, as they are unlikely to grow into anything good. The same applies to completely dried seeds;
If the bulb has not yet sprouted feathers, it is advisable to “trim” it. For this purpose, carefully cut off the husk to significantly speed up germination;
dry the selected seeds in a warm and dry place;
We warm up the onion.

It is recommended to do this in several stages. First, we keep the seeds at a temperature of at least 20 degrees for 2-3 weeks, and then we warm them up at 35-40 degrees for about 10 hours. Carefully monitor the time so as not to overcook the onions, otherwise it will be difficult to count on a good harvest.

As an alternative to such a long warm-up, another approach can also be recommended. It involves soaking the seed in water at a temperature of up to 50 degrees for 10 minutes, then “bathing” it in cold water and a nutrient solution of fertilizers. This procedure generally takes about 6 hours and gives almost the same effect.

Why process onions before planting and what are the advantages of this?

More than 60% of harmful diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, and fungi are transmitted through seed material. For this reason, experienced farmers interested in a high-quality harvest disinfect onions before planting.

Onion seeds have a dense horn-like shell with low water permeability. To speed up the emergence of seedlings, before sowing, seeds are soaked for a day in running water or the water is changed 2-3 times. When sowing prepared seeds in moist soil, seedlings appear in 7-8 days, dry ones germinate in 2-3 weeks.

Bulbs grown from seeds and sets treated with microelements have a high content of dry matter, including vitamins and sugars.

How to process onion sets

A mandatory preparatory step is processing the onions. It is performed immediately before landing and consists of the procedures described below:

immersing onion seeds in a weak (2 tablespoons of salt per two liters of water) saline solution. This treatment allows for rapid development of the plant, as well as its protection from any aggressive environmental influences, and disinfects the bulbs from nematodes. You can use either regular rock salt or sea salt, the effect will be the same. Dive time is approximately 2-3 hours;
disinfection using potassium permanganate. Despite the emergence of many effective modern substances, this remedy still remains the most popular and inexpensive. Treatment before planting is carried out in this way: 35 grams of potassium permanganate is diluted in 10 liters of water, after which the seeds are immersed in the resulting solution. Two hours will be enough to provide protection against any plant diseases.

Instead of potassium permanganate, you can disinfect before planting with copper sulfate or Fitosporin, using the same dosage.

How to treat onions before sowing against fungal diseases?

To grow healthy plants you need:

store seeds correctly;
dry and harden onions;
do not forget about timely preparation of the soil for planting.

Preventive disinfection of crops is best done using traditional methods and Fitosporin. This product should be used in cloudy weather, this guarantees the effectiveness of the drug.

It has been noticed that with the combined use of salt and potassium permanganate, onion seeds take root faster, get sick less, and produce a rich green product.

It is important not to forget to use biostimulants after heating and hardening the seed, and only after that carry out disinfection and protection from pests.

Preparing the soil for planting onions

Properly processed onion seeds can produce a good harvest. But to do this, you will need to choose the right place in your garden plot and properly prepare the soil before planting them. It is better to start this process in the fall. Remember that leek seeds germinate best in well-sunny areas. They are also moisture-loving, but at the same time do not tolerate excessive amounts of moisture. Therefore, it is necessary to choose a place open to sunlight, where there is no groundwater at all or where it lies at great depth.

The selected area in the fall needs to be dug well and fertilizers added to the soil (rotted manure or its mixture with peat will do). On acidic soils, it is better to perform liming, which will create optimal conditions for growing onions.

It is not advisable to apply fertilizer before planting if you are not going to grow onions exclusively for feathers. In addition, such treatment will lead to rapid growth of weeds, and you will have to weed the beds all summer to get rid of them. All that needs to be done in the spring is to loosen the soil a little, destroy the hard crust and start planting.

The plant grows well in areas where crops such as peas, cabbage, potatoes and tomatoes were previously cultivated. As additional protection for the onions, you can plant carrots in close proximity to them. Its phytoncides will become a powerful barrier to the onion fly and will allow you to get an excellent harvest. When planting seedlings, be sure to water it with a small amount of water and also sprinkle it with sawdust - they will help prevent wet soil from sticking to the seeds.

How to properly prepare the soil and cultivate beds

Onions require loose, well-drained soil. The crop has a long growing season - so that the onions can grow early and ripen before the onset of cold weather, choose a warm place.

For growing seeds, make beds 12-15 cm high and no more than 1 m wide. Humus or compost in the amount of 1-2 buckets per 1 m² is added for autumn digging.

In the spring, mineral fertilizers are applied during deep digging:

ammonium nitrate – 15-20 g/m²;
superphosphate – 25-30 g/m²;
potassium chloride – 10-15 g/m².

A garden mixture containing a complex of mineral fertilizers is applied in an amount of 70-100 g/m².

Dig up, level the surface and water with a warm solution of copper sulfate (1 tablespoon per 10 liters of water) at the rate of 2 liters per 1 m². Cover with film and after 2-3 days sow the onions in furrows 2 cm deep.

The soil for sowing turnips is prepared in the same way as for seeds, while increasing the dose of mineral fertilizers by 2 times.

The soil is loosened, the surface is leveled, and transverse furrows are made. Sprinkle generously with a mixture of tobacco dust and sifted wood ash (1:1), and then spill with warm water. After this, the seedlings are planted and covered with nutritious loose soil. A mixture of tobacco dust and ash protects young plants from damage by onion flies.

Excessive deepening of the sets during planting, and of the seeds during sowing, leads to an extension of the growing season - a thick neck is formed on the bulb, which may result in thinning of the crops and a decrease in yield.

Important! The optimal planting depth for sets is 3-5 cm. For example, planting density in the Moscow region is 60-70 pcs/m². With a five-line scheme, 20-24 bulbs are planted per 1 linear meter of bed. Large fractions of sowing produce an early harvest.

How to prepare a bow so that it does not go into the arrow

Preparing onions for planting includes several stages, each of which is very important:

Sorting and checking the quality of bulbs;
Drying;
Warming up;
Soaking and disinfection;
Rinsing and ventilation after disinfection.

Since planting this vegetable crop is a serious and responsible matter for gardeners, we should consider each stage of preparation in more detail.

At the very beginning, 3 weeks before planting, it is advisable to evaluate the quality of the material prepared for this. To do this, you need to carefully sort it out, inspect it, and remove diseased, dried and rotten onions.

Sorting and checking the quality of bulbs

Then you should sort the bulbs by size. This is done in order to plant large heads first, because they germinate more slowly and are more used for cutting green feathers and growing for seeds. Medium-sized bulbs are planted in the second place, and small ones - in the very last place. It is known that the smaller the bulbs, the faster they germinate and produce a better harvest in good soil.

Drying

At the next stage, the sorted onions must be thoroughly dried in a warm room, protected from drafts and moisture. This is usually done in attics.

At home, you can place onions on the top of your kitchen cabinets, or on the top shelves of your closet.

Warming up

Then, in order to avoid early formation of arrows, the dried bulbs must be warmed well, scattered near the battery. On warm spring days, onions can be warmed up under the warm rays of the sun.

It is recommended to warm the onions for the first 15 days at a temperature not lower than plus 20 degrees, and then warm the onions for 8-10 hours at a temperature reaching 40 degrees. During the last heating, it is important to monitor the time, do not overheat or overheat the onion.

Soak

This is followed by the procedure of soaking and hardening the future harvest. To do this, the onions are soaked in water at a temperature of plus forty to plus fifty degrees for 15 minutes, and then soaked in cool water for the same amount of time. After which you can place the onion in a solution of mineral fertilizer for 5-6 hours.

Treatment against pests and diseases

But the most important purpose of the process of soaking onion sets before planting is, of course, its disinfection, the destruction of pests and the prevention of diseases during crop growth.

You can disinfect onions in this way:

soak for 2-3 hours in a weak salt solution prepared at the rate of 2 tablespoons per 2 liters of water;
soak for about two hours in a dark solution of potassium permanganate.

After each soaking, the bulbs should be rinsed in clean water.

The old, proven and effective method is also very suitable for disinfection - soaking in a solution of copper sulfate, prepared at the rate of 30 grams per 10 liters of water. The bulbs should be kept in this solution for about two hours and then washed with water.

Soaking onion sets in a saline solution has a detrimental effect on pests such as onion flies, thrips and mites. And a solution of potassium permanganate perfectly destroys fungal spores, thereby preventing fungal infection of the bulbs.

Instead of potassium permanganate, other chemicals available in garden stores (copper chloride, etc.) are also widely used to disinfect bulbs.

Often, to stimulate root growth, bulbs are soaked in various growth stimulating solutions. Solutions of humate and zircon are more common here.

At the end of the soaking and disinfection stage, the onions must be washed, dried and ventilated. Only after this can you begin planting it.

Onions are usually planted in the soil after waiting until the ground warms up to plus 15 degrees. But it is also not recommended to delay planting onions.

Description and varieties of onions for planting

It is not difficult to grow onions - they grow in the north and south, are not afraid of the cold, and are resistant to wind. An unpretentious, early-ripening vegetable will delight even a novice gardener with a harvest. It is planted in spring or before winter.

Cultivation in spring is suitable for varieties such as “Sturon”, “Red Baron”, “Farmer”, “Shetana”. For central Russia, cold-resistant varieties are suitable for planting before winter - “Strigunovsky”, “Danilovsky”, “Arzamassky”, “Stuttgarter Riesen”, “Red Baron”.

Family onions (scallions, shallots, magpies) are multi-budded with the number of heads in one nest up to 10, in rare cases up to 20 pieces and require no more care than ordinary ones. Family onions differ from onions in a number of advantages:

the feathers are more tender, the bulb is not so sharp;
tolerates frost better;
produces greens earlier;
less affected by pests and diseases.

Separately, perennial onions are distinguished. Popular varieties for growing:

batun – “Long Tokyo”, “Saladny”, “Gribovsky”;
slime (bow licker) – “Charm”, “Leader”, “Green”;
chives - “Chemal”, “Honey plant”, “Velta”;
shallots – “Sprint”, “Siberian dacha”.

In addition, we recommend reading about growing leeks from seeds.

Selection of planting material, preparation

It must be remembered that conscientious and painstaking adherence to all the rules for preparing onion sets for planting will ensure their abundant and rapid growth, and as a result will delight gardeners with a rich and high-quality harvest!

Processing and soaking onions before planting

First of all, when preparing the seedlings for planting, you need to carefully sort them out. Arm yourself with several sorting containers.

It is necessary to discard all damaged and small specimens, leaving medium-sized bulbs for planting on the head. Large onions, small ones, and even sprouted ones are suitable for greens. But we throw away the empty, wrinkled, missing ones.

Next, carefully cut off the dry tail on the top of each head with scissors. This simple operation will help them germinate faster and better. Well, you need to be afraid that an infection will get into the cut, because the seedlings will be treated for diseases before planting.

Should I soak onions before planting? And what is the best way to do this? Let's figure it out.

Of course, we are interested in our seedlings growing large and at the same time being protected from diseases and parasites. Therefore, a simple scheme is usually used: first, the planting material is soaked in growth stimulants, and a little later, immediately before planting, it is treated with protective agents.

To nourish the onion so that it grows large, it is recommended to dilute complex fertilizer in water (40-45 degrees) and soak the onion there overnight. When the seed is saturated with nutrients, you can begin its protective treatment and planting.

Treating onions before planting with salt, potassium permanganate and ash

For a three-liter jar of warm (60 degrees) water, take 2 tbsp. l with a slide of salt dark pink solution of potassium permanganate 2 tbsp. l wood ash. Soak for 2 hours.

Treating onions before planting against pests with birch tar

The most nasty pest of onions is, of course, the onion fly. Luckily for us, she cannot stand the smell of birch tar. And if you want to protect your crops, then it would also be a good idea to soak the onions in the solution: 1 tbsp. l. tar in a liter of water for 10-15 minutes.

The same solution can be used to additionally water the plantings during the growing season.

Why is seed processing necessary?

Although onions are quite unpretentious to grow, it is necessary to carefully prepare the sets for planting in the spring. The quality of planting material is difficult to determine by eye, especially if the bulbs are small. Therefore, before planting onions, the planting material is prepared, including soaking.

Pre-sowing prevention will help separate good seeding from bad and improve the quality of the crop:

Accelerate the ripening of heads and the emergence of greenery. Keeping the bulbs in water, even for a short time, stimulates the germination of roots - this significantly increases the rate of germination of onion feathers. In addition, saturating the seeds with water helps to increase productivity.
Prevent shooting. Onions that are soaked in hot water are subject to temperature stress, which leads to the production of substances that block the formation of buds and the bolting of onions.
Disinfect the bulbs. Soaking in solutions disinfects the seedlings, destroys pest larvae and prevents rotting and disease. If bulbous crops are planted annually in one place, there is a high probability that the crops will become infected with bulbous flies or bacterial diseases, in which case soaking is necessary.

Sowing seedlings in the garden

Preparing a bed for onions

I will plant the processed onions in my new box bed (Fig. 3.1), which is 6 m long and 1.5 m wide. Since my plot is mostly loam, I added 30 kg to the bed for digging to loosen the soil. sand, adding a few handfuls of professional fertilizer such as Nitroammofoski and 4 liter jars of wood ash, so I won’t add anything to the furrows when planting onions.

For convenience, I marked with a marker every 10 cm along the long sides of the bed box (Fig. 3.2), and now it has become much more convenient for me to make furrows or plant seedlings at the same distance from each other. For the bow, I made grooves at a distance of 20 cm: first, using a building level, I marked the lines, and then dug grooves 8-10 cm deep along them.

How to grow shallots on regular sawdust

I thoroughly watered each furrow (Fig. 3.3) so that the onions would take root faster, and as soon as the water was absorbed, I planted the seedlings in 10 cm increments (Fig. 3.4), covered the furrows with soil and leveled the surface of the bed with the back of the rake. Now I just have to wait for the shoots.

This is how I disinfected my onion sets before planting from diseases and pests and additionally fed them with iron. Try my method too, and I wish everyone good luck, good mood and rich harvests.

Methods for processing onions before planting

Regardless of where the sets were purchased, it is imperative to process and soak the onions before planting.

Preparation takes place in several stages:

Sorting
Hardening
Warming up
Soaking and processing.

In order to properly process the planting material, preparatory activities must begin no later than three weeks before planting.

Sorting

At the first stage, high-quality material for planting is selected. Dried, rotting or damaged bulbs are not allowed for cultivation; they must be disposed of.

It is important to remember that the size of the bulbs determines how quickly the crop will germinate, so when sorting, select:

large onions - they are planted first;
middle - second;
small - last.

Hardening

Hardened bulbs have strong immunity and are less susceptible to pests. In addition, they store better. Hardening of the sets is carried out in early spring.

After sorting, the sets are put into a box and placed in a room with a temperature of 0 to 8 degrees - this can be a cellar or refrigerator. Hardening lasts up to ten days, then the bulbs are removed to a warm place.

If there is no time for regular hardening, you can carry out express hardening immediately before planting. After soaking, the bulbs are rinsed with cold water, dried and warmed in the sun.

Before planting, the sorted bulbs are heated to “wake up” the bulbs and prevent bolting. The procedure can be skipped if the sets were stored at home at a temperature of at least 18 °C, but purchased onions must always be warmed up - it is not known in what conditions they were kept.

The sets are warmed up three to four days before planting. To do this, place it in a box or box next to a heat source and cover it with a cotton cloth so as not to dry it out. Onions need to be heated from ten hours to several days at a temperature of 35 to 40 degrees.

Treatment with salt

This processing method is the simplest, so it is used most often. For ten liters of warm water, take five to six tablespoons of coarse rock salt or four tablespoons of fine iodized salt. The sets should be soaked for five hours. After disinfection, rinse with warm water.

Treating with salt will protect onions from mites, nematodes and other parasites. A less concentrated solution (two tablespoons per ten liters of water) is used to treat the bed before planting onions, but you should not carry out this procedure too often - this will damage the fertile soil layer.

Treatment with potassium permanganate

Another popular way to treat bulbs before planting is soaking them in a solution of potassium permanganate.

Depending on the case, a solution of varying degrees of concentration is used:

A weak solution is prepared in a ratio of 35 grams of potassium permanganate per ten liters of warm water. Soak the heads for up to three hours.

A solution of medium concentration is used if the seedlings are infected with fungus or mold. For effective prevention, use ten grams of potassium permanganate per liter of water, and soak the bulbs for 40-50 minutes. A highly concentrated solution is used to kill powdery mildew or onion fly larvae. You need to dissolve 25 grams of potassium permanganate in a liter of water and soak the sets for 15-20 minutes. After this method of soaking, the bulbs may darken.

Copper sulfate treatment

This method is very effective for disinfecting onions, but you need to work with copper sulfate with caution - it is a toxic substance, so use protective gloves when processing. You need to prepare a solution in the ratio of 30 grams of copper sulfate per ten liters of water and soak the seed for half an hour.

After processing, rinse the onions with cold water and dry them before planting.

Antiseptic treatment

Another product for treating onions before spring planting is Fitosporin-M, a special preparation based on a spore culture, which can be purchased at any specialty store. Ratio of antiseptic and water: 35 grams per ten liters. Soaking time for bulbs: 30 minutes. There is no need to rinse after the procedure.

Fitosporin will protect the future harvest from fungi and bacterial diseases.

Treatment of sowing with growth stimulants

To accelerate growth during spring planting, special growth stimulants are used:

Biostim activates the natural metabolic processes of the plant. The drug is diluted in accordance with the instructions; the bulbs must be heated in hot water before treatment. Epin-Extra accelerates the development of the root system. Dissolve two capsules in ten liters of water and soak the seed for fifteen minutes.

Wood ash accelerates growth and protects the plant from rotting. Soak the bulbs in a solution of 500 grams of ash per ten liters of water for ten minutes, then dry for three hours.

Treatment of onions and garlic against diseases during the growing season

If you have correctly carried out the whole range of measures for crop rotation and watering, as well as for heating and treating seed material, then your vegetables should not get sick. Some diseases (for example, bacteriosis or mosaic) appear on onions and garlic due to the actions of pests - therefore, in this case, it is necessary to fight them first, but more on that below.

Diseases not associated with pests are white rot, rust, Alternaria blight, Fusarium blight and downy mildew.

If the leaves of onions and garlic turn yellow and die, a white fluffy mycelium forms on the roots and scales of the bulbs, the garlic cloves and the bulb head become watery and rot - these are signs of white rot. At the very beginning of the disease, areas of onion feathers affected by the fungus can be cut out and sprinkled with crushed coal. The remaining vegetables should be treated with a fungicide. These are, for example, Abiga-Pik, Ordan, Previkur Energy. If the disease still manages to affect some plants, then they need to be removed from the garden along with a lump of earth, since white rot can persist in the soil.

The fact that plants are sick with rust will be indicated by the appearance of characteristic red spots on their leaves, which gradually turn black and die. No less dangerous for plants of the Onion genus is fusarium (bottom rot), in which the bulb begins to rot from below, becoming soft.

Unfortunately, you can protect onions and garlic from rust and fusarium only by soaking the planting material in a fungicide solution, as we already wrote about above.

Alternaria blight provokes the appearance of watery spots on the leaves of vegetables, which grow and darken over time. Subsequently, the disease affects the bulb, which also becomes watery. Diseased plants are completely destroyed, and the remaining ones are sprayed with 20 g of copper sulfate and 200 g of soap shavings, diluted in 10 liters of water. The treatment is repeated every two weeks until the disease disappears.

Signs of peronosporosis, or downy mildew, can be detected no earlier than a month after the onset of the disease. Light spots will appear on the feathers of the onion, as a result of which first the above-ground part of the plant will die, and then the entire bulb. If the crop can still be saved, it must be treated with a fungicide such as OxyHOM. It is also used for prevention 20-25 days after germination.

Bacteriosis, or bacterial rot, occurs on a plant if it is damaged. This can be either mechanical damage or the result of the action of one of the pests - onion flies, spider mites or onion hoverflies. As a result, the vegetable begins to rot from the inside, from the center to the edges. Mosaic onions and garlic are infected by nematodes, aphids and garlic mites. After this, chaotically located stripes and spots appear on the feathers of the plant. Unfortunately, vegetables that have become infected with bacteriosis and mosaic cannot be saved - only preventive measures are relevant for them.

As you can see, at the growing stage, diseases of plants of the Onion genus are in most cases much easier to prevent than to treat them later. Therefore, conscientiously complete all tasks for preparing planting material, observe crop rotation, dig up the soil, remove plant debris in a timely manner and monitor the humidity in the beds: it should not be too high. You can try choosing varieties of onion (Vetraz, Centurion, Stuttgarter Riesen) and garlic (Antonnik, Zubrenok, Novosibirsky) that are resistant to some diseases for planting. Let us immediately make a reservation that the same measures must be taken when fighting pests, but with regard to the latter, unfortunately, the measures listed are not enough.

The most dangerous onion diseases and measures to combat them
The onion rots right in the garden, or its feathers turn black and fall off. Perhaps he is infected with one of the dangerous diseases. Let us help you determine which one.

The main problems when growing onions

Some gardeners consider it normal to plant seedlings dryly, without any preparation. But this can only be done with completely healthy planting material that has been properly stored. Otherwise, the summer resident risks getting the following problems:

fungal and bacterial diseases;
damage to plantings by pests;
shooting a bow.

Proper preparation of the seedlings before planting will help you avoid most of them.

First of all, the sets are carefully examined, sorted by size and bulbs with spots and traces of disease, soft and sprouted are rejected.

Secondly, the tips of the integumentary scales should be trimmed without affecting the growth point. Trimming will allow the bulbs to germinate faster, but this procedure is best done after soaking, when the upper scales are wet and it will be easier to clean.

How to prevent shooting

The appearance of arrows in onion beds is a consequence of improper storage of planting material during the winter. To ensure that the planted seedlings do not go to waste, it is necessary to observe the temperature, humidity and their ratios in the room during storage. If the conditions are not met, the bow begins to throw arrows.

If the sets were purchased in a store, it is recommended to warm them up before planting. They do this in two ways:

Warming up at a temperature of about 30°C for a week. The seeds are poured onto a wooden tray in a layer of at least 2-3 cm and placed on the battery;
Immediately before planting, the onions are poured with very hot water (60–65°C), soaked for 2 minutes, the water is drained and the procedure is repeated in cold water.

Warming up reduces the ability of the seeds to shoot arrows. Single specimens shoot even after warming up. Then the arrows are broken out as soon as they become noticeable.

Prevention of fungal diseases

To disinfect, planting material is soaked in disinfectant solutions. For this use:

Salt. Stir a tablespoon of salt into 1 liter of warm water. Immerse the onion sets for 2-3 hours, then rinse them several times in clean water.
Potassium permanganate. In a strong solution (3 g or half a teaspoon / 3 liters of water), the seeds are soaked for 2–2.5 hours, then thoroughly washed with clean water.
Baking soda. 1 teaspoon is dissolved in 1 liter of warm water and the set is left for 2 hours.
Fitosporin. The drug is diluted according to the instructions and the seeds are soaked in it for the prescribed time. After treatment with Fitosporin, the onions are not washed.
Copper sulfate. 50 g of the drug is diluted in a small amount of hot water, then poured into a 10 liter bucket. The bulbs are disinfected for half an hour, then washed and dried.

There is no need to use all the products at once. Folk remedies and the biological product Fitosporin are good only for prevention. Copper sulfate is considered more effective and is used in cases where in past years onion plantings suffered greatly from fungal diseases.

However, keep in mind that for prevention you need to carry out a set of measures, including following the rules of crop rotation and cultivating the soil to remove fungal spores.

Processing of sevka in biostimulants

Such procedures are not necessary, but will help to obtain strong plants with high immunity, and, as a result, a good harvest. To stimulate growth, the seeds are soaked in the following preparations:

Epin-Extra. The biostimulator improves plant immunity, increases productivity and accelerates the formation of root crops. The drug must be used according to the instructions. Complex mineral fertilizer has similar properties. 1 tablespoon of fertilizer is diluted in a bucket of water and the seeds are soaked for a day.
Ash. A half-liter jar of sifted wood ash is dissolved in a bucket of water, infused and the planting material is soaked in this solution for 2-3 hours. Ash is considered an excellent antiseptic and contains a lot of essential microelements.

Diseases and pests under favorable conditions can destroy a significant part of the crop. In addition, pathogens persist in the soil and on plant debris.

This will make it difficult to grow vegetables in future seasons. To prevent the development of diseases, it is necessary to prepare the onions selected for planting. These simple measures will help you get a high yield of healthy bulbs without the use of chemicals to treat plant diseases.

Onion fly: how to fight it?

Before planting, the seedlings need to be soaked to ensure a healthy harvest. Thus, onions are treated against onion flies before planting. Traditionally, for disinfection, it is recommended to soak onion sets for a couple of hours before planting in a saturated solution of potassium permanganate, saline solution or Fitosporin. But this doesn’t help much against the hero of our article.

Experienced gardeners recommend doing this: the prepared (cut) seedlings are placed in a warm mixture of water and tar (1 spoon per liter) and kept for 2-3 hours. Since tar mixes very poorly with water, floating on the surface in spots, the sowing in the container is stirred from time to time. It's better to cook onions outside - the smell is still amazing. The resulting bulbs will not arouse the appetite of pests, and the plantings will be safe.

How to get rid of onion fly

Let us remind you when it is most effective to combat this pest: for the first time - at the end of April (when dandelion, lilac, cherry bloom), for the second time - at the end of July.

Onion fly: how to fight with folk remedies

Joint plantings

And again we take advantage of the onion fly’s sensitivity to certain odors. If you plant savory, carrots, celery, tomatoes, and chamomile near the onions, there is a high probability that this insect will fly past your garden bed.

Ammonia for onion flies

We have already written about the wonderful properties of ammonia, also known as ammonia. This substance contains nitrogenous compounds that are easily digestible by plants, so ammonia is recommended to be used for onion plants and as a fertilizer for yellowed tips and a “tired” appearance. That is, we kill two birds with one stone! Concentration – 10-20 grams per bucket of water, about a glass per plant. Watering is best done on damp soil.

Previously, gardeners clearly knew how to treat onion flies - with saline solution

We thoroughly watered the soil in the garden bed, then watered the plants with saline solution, and watered them again with clean water. After two weeks, the treatment against onion flies was repeated with a stronger solution, and after another three weeks - with an even stronger one (one, one and a half, two glasses of salt are added to ten liters of water, respectively). This is a really effective method, but do you want to put that much salt into your soil? You decide.

Sprinkling the beds with dusty and odorous substances is also good against onion flies: ash, tobacco dust, tabazol (a mixture of tobacco dust and sunflower ash), ground pepper, naphthalene, ground wormwood (can be mixed, or in its pure form). After sprinkling, it is recommended to loosen the soil.

Infusions of strong-smelling herbs

This can be an infusion of dandelion, tobacco, tomato tops, wild rosemary, mint, fir, valerian, conifers.

If you want to fight the onion fly without adding anything to the garden bed, you can install pegs around the planting and stretch a long cloth soaked in kerosene over them.

Video: Protecting onions from onion flies and diseases in one product. How to prepare onion sets for planting

Onion fly: how to fight with drugs

Since this insect can be eradicated quite well (if you don’t miss it) with folk remedies, you don’t have to resort to chemicals in households. This is an option for farms and people growing vegetables for sale. However, such drugs exist:

“Mukhoed”, “Medvetoks”, “Zemlin” - the soil is cultivated when planting seedlings
“Sochva Zh”, “Aktara” - spraying onions

Fighting onion flies, a couple more tips:

observe crop rotation: onions should be planted in the same place with an interval of at least three years;
dig up the soil after harvesting to a depth of at least 20 cm. This will bring the larvae to the surface, they will not have time to pupate and die;
safe proximity between onion beds is at least 400 meters. That is, if your land is clean and there are no larvae in it, this does not mean that the neighbor’s onion fly will not fly in and “throw” eggs at you. Therefore – prevention and prevention again!

This is what it is, an onion fly. The fight against such a widespread enemy must be proactive, because in a very short period the larvae can destroy the crop and make it unsuitable for storage. And since the choice of effective folk remedies is quite wide, the main thing here is not to be lazy and not to forget.

Have a good harvest!

How to water onion sets with salt and potassium permanganate

You can water the beds with a salt solution if it was not possible to treat the wild oatmeal before planting, but only when the feather grows to 11–16 cm. Half a glass of salt is diluted in 5 liters of settled water heated from the sun, 200 ml of the solution is poured under each bulb. Another method is to add a glass of salt and 10 ml of ammonia to 10 liters of water, pour it not under the onions, but into the grooves near the rows, the consumption of the mixture is approximately the same as in the previous recipe.

Attention! Salt for irrigation is used only once a season; the product helps get rid of onion flies, nematodes, thrips and mites, but it is poorly washed out of the soil and remains in it for a long time. Almost nothing grows in saline soil.

It is important that the salt does not get on the green feathers; in extreme cases, they are sprayed generously with clean water (the remaining substance is washed off). Onions are watered with salt solutions only in the evening; after the procedure, the bed is abundantly irrigated with clean, settled water for better penetration of the substances. Ammonia is also used only once a season; an overdose will lead to the active development of green mass, the bulbs will remain small and dry.

How to choose onion sets for planting

The most important criterion when choosing planting material is size. The fact is that bulbs of different parameters are used to obtain different results.

When purchasing, pay attention to the size of the onion set; the bulbs can be of different fractions:

8-14 millimeters. The smallest planting material that matures longer than others (about three weeks later). Not subject to shooting. It is optimal to plant it in the fall (if planted in spring, the ripening of the crop will take too long), however, if planted in winter, the bulbs may freeze in the winter. If planted in poor soil, the crop will be very small in size.
14-21 mm is the average size of the bulb, the most optimal size for planting in spring. Such bulbs do not have a tendency to bolt!
21-24 mm - bulbs of a large fraction. They are best suited for planting before winter to produce greenery (that is, planting on a feather). If you plant them in the spring, bolting is possible if the planting dates are not met and/or the planting material is improperly stored. However, such specimens allow you to get an earlier harvest due to rapid ripening.
24-30 mm - large specimens are planted in the fall before winter to obtain greenery. Just like the previous option, bolting is possible during spring planting. However, it has an attractive price.

Sorting your onions before planting will help you get results that won't disappoint. In this case, small specimens are planted earlier, and larger bulbs a little later.

Tips for choosing good planting material:

The bulbs should have a uniform color.
There should be no stains, damage, or signs of disease on the surface.
They should be dense to the touch and dry.
There should be no smell of mold or mildew.

How to store onion sets before planting

Before planting, it is important to properly store onion sets. The well-being of planting material and the future harvest largely depends on storage conditions.

The storage room should be dry, with good ventilation, with a temperature within 10-15 degrees Celsius.

The storage temperature should be stable, without fluctuations. When the temperature fluctuates (more than 1-2 degrees), bolting will begin. Air humidity should be between 70-75%. The room should be ventilated (but again it is important to avoid temperature fluctuations).

You can store the seeds in wooden or plastic boxes or nets. But it is not recommended to use cardboard boxes; they quickly absorb moisture and become damp.

If you have sprouted, sprouted bulbs, it is better to place them in the refrigerator before planting.

If you bought planting material and found that it is quite damp, then you need to immediately scatter it in the room in one layer and dry it.

Growth stimulation methods

Before planting bulbs in the garden, no matter in spring or autumn, you need to treat the seeds with specialized growth stimulants. The most accessible method is to soak the turnip in ash. For this purpose, half a kilogram of wood ash is diluted in 10 liters of water and the bulbs are left in it for 10 minutes. This soaking is a bit like treating it with copper sulfate, since you need to dry the seeds afterwards. Ash contains many natural antiseptics that prevent the process of decay.

Another option for a growth stimulator is Epin-Extra solution. To use it, you need to warm up the water to 45-50°C and add 1 capsule of the drug for every 5 liters. Biostim and Silcom are also good stimulants. During preparation, you must strictly follow the instructions so as not to harm the plants. Processing is carried out only after the bulbs have been heated in warm liquid. If the seeds are planted in the autumn, then there is no need for growth stimulants.

Steaming and sorting

Before planting onions in the garden in the spring, the seeds are sorted. If among them there are bulbs with even minimal signs of rotting, they must be selected from good seeds. Too large or very small onion heads or blackened turnips will be unsuitable for planting in the garden.

The gardener will do the right thing if he sorts the seeds by size before planting. Initially, the largest bulbs are planted in the soil, then the medium ones and then the small ones. This planting option greatly facilitates the subsequent care of the plants for the gardener.

Why is onion warmed up before planting? This action sets itself certain goals. High temperatures significantly affect harmful microorganisms. Also, if you process an onion in this way, it will give a feather much faster, but the arrows do not form so quickly.

The following methods are used for warming up:

Place onion seeds in a glass plate and heat them in a regular microwave oven. To do this, select the average power and set a timer for 1.5-2 minutes.
Another option involves heating for 6-8 hours at a temperature of 35-40°C. This method prevents powdery mildew after onion seeds are planted in the ground.
Onions for turnips should be stored at a temperature of 17-20°C, but there is one negative side: they may begin to germinate.
You can heat onion heads at a temperature of 30 to 35°C. If the bulb is small, then 10 days is enough, if it is large, 13-15.

Gardeners also practice a warming method called soaking:

Short - the seeds are initially soaked for 1-2 minutes in hot water (temperature 65-70°C), then transferred to cold water for the same time.
You can also simply soak it in warm water (45-50°C) for 15 minutes and repeat the same again with cold water.

The last few methods allow you to harden the seeds, making them more resistant to the most difficult and unfavorable environmental conditions. Planting such onions will allow the gardener to get good greens and large bulbs. In addition, heating prevents the formation of arrows.

There is a lot written on the Internet that if you treat the seeds with soda, bolting will be prevented. According to professional gardeners, this is incorrect advice, since this property of the root crop is determined by the temperature conditions of storage of seed onions before planting. And the lower it is, the faster the arrows will develop.

Tasks and basic processing methods

How to treat onions before planting? Do you need to process only the bulbs or the seeds too? These questions are often asked by inexperienced people who are just starting to grow vegetables. If the pre-planting instructions are followed correctly, the following results can be achieved:

improve onion growth;
increase the level of germination;
protect onions from powdery mildew and the subsequent rotting process;
increase the level of productivity;
prevent pests from eating the bulbs.

Another really important point before planting is preparing the seeds. When the gardener did not grow them himself, but bought them on the market, there is no maximum guarantee of quality. To achieve the previously stated goals, you can use the basic methods of onion processing, which are:

steaming;
sorting;
soaking in water, saline or antiseptic solution.
additional treatment with specialized growth stimulants.

We should also not forget that planting seeds of heirloom or onion requires proper selection and careful cultivation of the soil. For soil, you can use the same solutions that were used to soak onion seeds. Timely application of fertilizers increases the yield level.