Processing onions before planting: what to soak onion sets in

Onions are considered a simple and low-maintenance garden crop. However, obtaining a good harvest of large, high-quality heads is impossible without knowledge of the important nuances of agricultural technology. It also includes the preparation of seedlings. Saline solution for onions before planting is an affordable, effective and comprehensive product that generally has a beneficial effect on plant immunity and ensures the prevention of pest damage. The procedure also has other advantages. It has no disadvantages if you use the product according to the instructions.

Why do you need to treat onions with salt before planting?

Soaking onions, including in saline solution, is an optional part of preparing them for planting. When cultivated on an industrial scale, it is not practiced; only amateur gardeners resort to such “disinfection” of sets. Also, onions are not treated with salt before planting before winter.

Gardeners who plant seedlings in the spring on their own plots are not recommended to neglect this procedure. The only exception is complete confidence in the quality of onions for planting, in particular, cultivation in healthy soil, storage in winter in suitable conditions, and the absence of pathogenic microflora. But most often there is no such guarantee, so:

• germination rate drops significantly;
• the bulbs ripen small and deformed;
• many of them are not suitable for long-term storage due to the presence of traces of mold and rot.

It is impossible to independently verify that purchased onion sets were stored in proper conditions and are not contaminated with pathogens.

All these negative consequences can be avoided by soaking the onions in a saline solution before planting. Salt is an accessible and cheap natural antiseptic; its disinfectant properties have been scientifically confirmed.

It not only “dissolves” surface deposits of dust and dirt on the seed heads, but also effectively destroys pathogenic microflora. The risk of onion becoming infected with the most dangerous diseases for it - powdery mildew, late blight, and gray rot - is noticeably reduced. Also, a salt “antiseptic” is an effective prevention of pest attacks (onion flies, thrips, nematodes) throughout the season.

The phytoncides contained in onions protect them from many, but not all pests.

Treating onions with salt before planting in the spring (but not in the fall) has other advantages:

1. Increasing overall endurance and “stress resistance”, reducing the negative impact of adverse weather factors on onions.
2. Stimulation of rooting and growth of seedlings, ripening of heads. This is especially true in regions with cold late springs and short summers.
3. Fewer arrows.
4. Protecting the soil from pathogens transmitted along with planting material. Most of them successfully winter in the ground; they are dangerous not only for onions, but also for crops that will be planted in this bed in the future.

When shooting, the quality and keeping quality of the bulbs inevitably suffers.

Properly prepared saline solution for onions is harmless. But if the concentration is too high or the recommended soaking time is exceeded, the liquid “softens” the seed, which provokes the development of rot.

Important! To enhance the effect, gardeners often do not limit themselves to soaking onions in a saline solution.

Salt is compatible with any purchased fungicides and folk antifungal remedies

Why is pre-sowing treatment necessary?

Some gardeners, after purchasing, immediately send the planting material into the ground, take care of it and hope to get a bountiful harvest, but the result wants to remain the best:

• small bulbs;
• traces of rotting are visible on the soft bulbs;
• germination is low due to the death of most onion seeds or seedlings.

Fortunately, these consequences can be avoided by pre-treating the onion seeds. For these purposes, experienced gardeners traditionally use two publicly available products:

• Potassium permanganate. Regardless of what planting material is used for growing onions, purchased or your own, upon visual inspection it is impossible to detect traces of infections on it. Therefore, to ensure the reliability of seeds or seedlings, they must be disinfected. For these purposes, a solution of potassium permanganate is used, which acts as follows: affects fungi and their spores, providing an antifungal effect (helps protect future crops from gray rot, powdery mildew, late blight and other fungal pathologies);
• protects seeds from wintering parasites, has an antiseptic effect;
• provides the crop with full growth and development, as it is a foliar fertilizer that allows the plant to have the necessary minerals.

Vashchenko Petr Nikolaevich

Agronomist of vegetable farming of GC JSC "Petroovoshch"

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After treatment with salt and manganese, planting material becomes resistant to destructive microorganisms and tolerates aggressive environmental influences well.

Selection and preparation of planting material for processing

Even salt “disinfection” will not “save” an initially spoiled onion set that is clearly unsuitable for planting. Therefore, only specimens of medium size, regular shape, with dry but not flaky outer scales are selected for soaking. Onions that are too soft to the touch and obviously dried out (very light and empty inside) are rejected.

There must be no traces of mold, rot, or other suspicious symptoms.

Before soaking in saline solution, onions need to be prepared:

1. “Trim” specimens that do not yet have feathers, carefully cutting off the dry “tail” on top and the roots, but without touching the neck and bottom. Here it is important not to “overdo it” so as not to damage the growth points.
2. “Warm up” the seeds for 2-3 weeks at a temperature of 18-20 °C. Then, for the last 8-10 hours before soaking in saline solution, raise it to 35-40 °C (for example, put the seed under the battery). The experience of gardeners shows that this procedure is an effective prevention of bolting and reduces the risk of developing neck rot.

If heating is neglected, onions, usually stored at low temperatures, exhibit poor germination and slow growth

Important! There is also an “express method” for preparing onions for soaking in a saline solution: they are first kept in hot (45-50 °C), then in cold (18-20 °C) water for 10-15 minutes.

How to soak onions in salt before planting

Treating onions with salt before planting in the spring follows a simple algorithm. The main thing is to follow the rules so as not to harm the sets.

Preparation of the solution

The salt is diluted in clean warm (45-50 °C) water, stirring until the crystals disappear. Experienced gardeners recommend different proportions of saline solution for soaking onion sets - 0.6, 0.8 or 1 tbsp. l. per liter Accordingly, you will have to experiment for several seasons, choosing the option most suitable for the climatic conditions of a given region.

Important! Any salt is suitable for processing sevka. You can use regular table or sea water, iodized or plain, coarse or finely ground.

Any salt has antibacterial properties.

Rules for soaking onions in saline solution before planting

In order for disinfection of onions in saline solution to be as effective as possible, it is carried out according to the following algorithm:

1. Soak the sets for 1.5-2 hours in plain water at room temperature. Tap water is pre-softened by any method, for example, by settling or freezing.
2. Pour the onion with freshly prepared saline solution that has cooled to room temperature so that the liquid completely covers the set. Leave for 2-3 hours.
3. Rinse the onion thoroughly in cool running water. First, you can simply rinse it under the tap. Finally, the saline solution is washed off with settled water heated to a temperature of 25-28 °C.
4. Dry the onions well for 2-3 days in a room with good ventilation, spreading them in one layer on a cloth or soft paper so that they do not touch each other. Only after this can you begin to plant it. The onion will dry out faster if you turn it over from time to time.

The “holding” time is adjusted depending on the saturation of the saline solution

Pre-soaking onions in a saline solution can be replaced by spraying “feathers” that have reached a length of 5-7 cm. The liquid concentration is approximately the same - 300 g per 10 liters. The beds with onions are first watered well, then generously sprayed with saline solution. After 1.5-2 days, it is washed off with clean water.

Important! Spraying onions with saline solution in the beds is carried out no more than once per season. Otherwise, the substrate will quickly become salty, and nothing will grow in such soil.

If onions are grown “for feathers”, such preparation can be neglected. Here, warming up and soaking in clean water is enough, but only with full confidence in the quality of the planting material.

The experience of gardeners proves that soaking onions in a saline solution before planting promotes the formation of larger heads

Copper sulfate to help

This solution is effective for cleaning onions from bacteria, but it is important to remember that you need to be vigilant with copper sulfate, and when processing you need to use gloves because the substance is toxic. To work, you need to combine 1 teaspoon of powder with a liter of water. Water temperature - 45 degrees. Soak the bulbs in this solution for 2 hours. Then the planting material is washed in cold water and dried. Copper sulfate stops fungal diseases.

Advice from experienced gardeners

Knowledge of important nuances and recommendations from experienced gardeners will help you treat onions with a saline solution before planting with maximum benefit:

1. There should not be much time between soaking the onions in a saline solution and planting them in the beds. As soon as it is completely dry after washing, you can already plant it. Delay in this case negatively affects the germination of the seeds.
2. It is not recommended to neglect soaking onions in a saline solution before planting in regions where cool summers with frequent and heavy rainfall are typical. Such conditions favor the active development of many pathogens, especially mold and rot fungi. The risk of losing most or even the entire harvest increases, because such bulbs are unsuitable for human consumption. Accordingly, sevka needs good general endurance and effective “support” of the immune system in order to minimize the likelihood of infection.
3. Soaking onion sets in salt before planting, increasing its proportion and thus hoping to provide it with the most effective protection from diseases and pests, is a bad idea. It is very likely that the liquid will simply “burn” the growth points, destroying the rudiments of roots and “feathers”.
4. Increasing the time spent in saline solution will not give a better effect. On the contrary, the experience of gardeners shows that in this case the risk of rot development increases. If several products are used sequentially to soak onions, the total “holding” time should not exceed three hours. It is divided approximately equally between salt and another “antiseptic”. A maximum of 30 minutes is allocated for fertilizers and biostimulants.
5. Soaking onions in salt before planting is not a panacea. The product may be useless even against pathogens that have managed to penetrate inside the bulb. Accordingly, during the season we must not forget about preventive treatments with insecticides and fungicides. Equally important for the normal development of plants is the correct choice of location for the bed, its preparation and regular care of the plantings throughout the season.

Limiting yourself to treating with a saline solution before planting and not caring for onions at all during the season will not work.

You can treat onions with salt before planting only in the spring. For pre-winter sets, soaking, on the contrary, will be harmful, because the soil temperature drops quickly, and the risk of freezing or rotting of the water-saturated bulbs increases. An exception may be the southern Russian regions with a subtropical climate. But here the gardener, counting on friendly shoots in the spring, must take care of insulating the beds, because in the south, as a rule, there is little snow.

For onions planted before winter, soaking in a saline solution is not suitable; other antibacterial treatment is required