There are about 600 varieties of onions in the world. Among them there are spicy and sweet varieties grown for turnips and green feathers. The latter includes the spring onion, which produces aromatic, semi-sharp greens. This type of onion is sown 2-3 times per season - in spring, summer and autumn with seeds.
Increased resistance to severe frosts allows planting before the onset of frost and harvesting the first harvest in early spring. From this material you will learn everything about planting spring onions before winter and caring for them in the open ground.
Is it possible to plant spring onions before winter?
Onion onions are characterized by increased frost resistance , which allows them to be planted in late autumn before winter to obtain early greenery in early spring. This planting method has more advantages than disadvantages.
Advantages and disadvantages of the method
Pre-winter planting of onions is characterized by a number of advantages:
- early harvest;
- there is no need to weed and loosen the beds;
- the risk of infection of plantings is minimized due to the fact that the winter plant grows stronger than the spring plant;
- space with nutritious soil is freed up for planting tomatoes or cucumbers after the onion harvest.
Among the disadvantages of winter sowing of batun, there is an increased risk of seed death in severe frosts and winters with little snow. However, insulating the area with agrofibre helps preserve the plantings.
Suitable varieties
Late-ripening varieties are best suited for planting batun before winter . They produce greens in 150-180 days and are highly productive. From 1 sq. m manages to collect 2-3 kg of green feathers.
The best late-ripening varieties:
- Maysky . Winter-hardy (withstands up to -45°C), highly branched. The leaves are dark green with a rich waxy coating. In spring, the feather grows late. From the moment of germination to full ripeness, 45-50 days pass. The plant throws out arrows up to half a meter high. In the second year it forms up to five stems. The taste is spicy, spicy, sweet.
- Gribovsky . High-yielding, perennial, branched plant. Green feathers sprout slowly. The onion head is almost invisible from the ground. From the moment of sowing until the first greenery appears, 60-65 days pass. The leaves are erect, 40 cm long, falling without support. The taste is slightly spicy with a slight bitterness and a persistent onion smell.
- Seryozha . The growing season is 80-110 days. The taste is semi-sharp. Green feathers are delicate, thin, sweet, up to 1.5 m high. The plant forms a white bulb.
- Ishikura long white. The growing season is 100-110 days after germination. The stems are erect, up to 55 cm high, dark green in color with a strong waxy coating. False stem without anthocyanin coloration. The taste is pleasant, semi-sharp.
- Early meal . The growing season is 100-110 days after germination. The stems are erect, 40-45 cm high, dark green in color with a faint waxy coating. The taste is sweetish, slightly spicy.
In Russia, the onion is often called “Tatar” , since it was brought by the Mongol-Tatars.
Multi-tiered bow
This variety is also called Canadian, Egyptian, viviparous, horned.
Multi-tiered bow
In the first year of its life, the multi-tier plant resembles the shape of a trampoline with hollow leaves. During the second year, a multi-tiered flower arrow forms on the branches of the onion, usually about 3 tiers. There are small bulbs on the tiers. Such parts, when large, reach 2 cm in diameter. These shoots are located at a height of about 80 cm and leaves up to 15 cm long are born from them. The leaves of the plant are tender and tasty.
Bulbs are the only natural way of planting.
Landing
- bulbs of multi-tiered onions
per 1 meter in a square of 7 bulbs; - water abundantly;
- loosen;
- feed.
Harvesting
The harvest is obtained from underground bulbs. Aboveground bulbs are useful only after heat treatment.
Diseases
Multi-tiered trees are often subject to the disease “ downy mildew ”. To reduce the risk of disease, it should be watered with herbal mixtures and special solutions. It is also advisable to leave sufficient distance between plants so that they are easily ventilated.
So, we have indicated the most famous onion varieties for planting in winter and examined some aspects associated with them.
Finally, it is worth noting that the advantage of planting in winter is the constant availability of the required species, and, consequently, a supply of useful substances. However, the main disadvantage is storage. Since during this process, good fruits can be subject to disease and complete destruction.
When to sow
The timing of planting the batun is determined taking into account the weather conditions of each region or according to the lunar calendar.
Favorable days according to the lunar calendar
Sowing of seeds is carried out in October - November before the onset of persistent frosts.
Sowing dates for 2022:
- October: 1-5, 8-11, 15-17, 21, 29-31;
- November: 1-3, 5-8, 11-13, 17, 20, 27-30.
Sowing dates for 2022:
- October: 1, 4, 6, 8, 10, 14, 17-23, 26,27, 31;
- November: 2, 4-6, 12, 16-19, 22, 24-30.
Suitable weather conditions for sowing
Batun is sown up to three times per season : in April, June, October and November. Sowing work is carried out before the onset of stable frosts. The optimal temperature during the day is +4…+5°С.
Crop rotation rules
Onions are planted after white and cauliflower, broccoli, tomatoes, peas , beans, zucchini, eggplant, flax, lupine, and oats.
Bad predecessors are garlic, carrots and onions. Batun is a perennial crop and is capable of producing greens for 7-10 years . However, the quality of the crop decreases. Peak fertility occurs 3-4 years after the first sowing. After another year, a decrease in yield is observed. Therefore, 4-5 years after planting the batun, a new bed is created and the seeds are sown again.
Thus, it is possible to replace low-yielding plantings with new ones. Seeds are collected from the old bed, dried, processed and sown. Such crop rotation does not require cash investments.
Seedling method
Compared to sowing, the method is more labor-intensive, but it allows you to get the first onion greens within 1.5 months from the moment the seedlings are planted on the ground - by mid-July.
To grow seedlings, gardeners widely use the bouquet method - in early April, onion seeds (5-6 pieces) are planted in small pots (4-5 cm) and for a month, until mid-May, the seedlings are grown in greenhouses and greenhouses.
After the plant has formed 3 leaves, the grown seedlings are transferred to open ground. The beds are formed at the rate of 12 cm between planting material and 20 cm between rows.
Preparation
Planting onions before winter begins with preparatory work : dressing the seeds, plowing and fertilizing the site.
Soils
The area for sowing onions is plowed halfway with a bayonet-shovel . Deep digging does not make sense due to the compact root system.
The crop is capable of growing in the same place for several years in a row without loss of productivity .
Therefore, you do not have to prepare the soil for planting every year. It is enough to fertilize the soil with nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus once every five years. For 1 sq. m of soil is added :
- 3-6 kg of humus or 30-40 g of urea or ammonium nitrate per 1 sq. m;
- 20 g of potassium chloride or 40 g of superphosphate.
Clay soil is lightened with sand - 3 kg per 1 sq. m or 200 g of wood ash per 1 sq. m.
Acidic soil is deoxidized with dolomite flour - 400-500 g per 1 square meter. m.
Planting material
Before sowing, seeds are disinfected in a pink solution of potassium permanganate for 20 minutes, then filled with clean water for 24 hours. Change the water 2-3 times.
To stimulate germination after snow melts and increase protective forces, the material is treated with succinic acid, Epin or Zircon. After soaking, the seeds are not washed and dried until they flow.
How to sow correctly
After applying fertilizer, the bed is leveled and furrows are formed at a distance of 15-20 cm.
Sowing depth depends on the soil:
- in light, sandy and loamy soils, seeds are buried 3 cm;
- into a heavy, clogged one - to a depth of 2 cm.
Sowing the trampoline too deeply makes it difficult for greenery to germinate in the spring.
The crop is highly frost-resistant, so even severe frosts do not threaten it, provided that the sowing dates are observed . However, experienced gardeners advise covering the beds with mulch - peat, hay, straw, dry branches or leaves, and sawdust. This coating prevents deep freezing of the soil.
With the arrival of the first ground frosts, the area is additionally covered with black agrofibre. Non-woven fabric actively absorbs ultraviolet radiation and promotes rapid thawing of the soil in spring.
Correct planting pattern
In the case of planting seeds, this does not matter, since in this way we obtain seedlings, which are dug up in the fall and transferred to the main place of residence. But then you need to start planning, since this is a perennial and does not need to be disturbed for many years. To do this, lay out the bed so that there is a square of approximately 25*25 cm left for each bush.
In early September, dig up young plants that you have grown from seeds or bought at the store and transfer them to the prepared bed.
How to care for plantings
After completing the sowing work and covering the beds, you can exhale and relax. With the arrival of spring, when the snow melts, agrofibre and mulch are removed. The first shoots appear after 5-6 days. Grown onions are immediately thinned out, since thickened plantings will cause low yields.
In spring, the batun slowly grows green feathers .
To stimulate protective forces and activate growth, plantings are watered with Epin or Zircon. Further care includes :
- Control the moisture level, watering the plantings as needed, taking into account the high moisture needs of young plants. The soil is shed to a depth of about 20 cm. During drought, the batun is watered every other day. In weather with moderate temperatures, watering is carried out with warm water twice a week at the root.
- Regular loosening of the beds after rain and watering and weeding as weeds grow.
- In the first year after sowing the batun, there is no need to apply fertilizer before winter. It is permissible to dust the beds with wood ash to increase plant productivity and protect against insects. Subsequently, the plantings are fertilized with mullein (1:10) or chicken droppings (1:15).
Protection from diseases and pests
Onions are susceptible to downy mildew (downy mildew) . The leaf blade is covered with a gray-violet moldy coating. Plant growth stops.
Rust on green feathers appears as yellow, round spots . The marketability of greenery deteriorates significantly, leaves die off and yields decrease.
For the prevention and treatment of diseases, preparations with copper are used: “HOM”, “Oxychom”, copper sulfate, 1% solution of Bordeaux mixture. 2-3 treatments are enough.
The spring onion is often attacked by the onion leaf beetle . Adults overwinter in the soil, and in early spring they rise to the surface and begin to actively feed on young greenery. The adult beetle is 6-7 mm long and has an oblong shape. The color is orange-red, the antennae and eyes are black, and the limbs are red. The larva is thick, convex, dirty yellow in color.
Adult onion weevils pierce the feather and suck out the juice. Weevil larvae burrow into greenery and feed on plant tissue.
Onion fly larvae eat the bulbs, causing the plant to wilt and turn yellow.
The onion secretive proboscis overwinters under plant debris and lumps of soil. It comes to the surface after the snow melts. It feeds on young green feathers of batun. The damage is caused by larvae and beetles. The damage looks like needle pricks, closely spaced along the leaf.
It is not recommended to use strong chemicals for processing onions . Green mass actively accumulates toxic substances, so its consumption leads to poisoning of the body.
Diseases and insect attacks are easier to prevent using such methods:
- Sowing onions in the same area no earlier than after 4 years.
- Growing crops on fertile soil.
- Compliance with the regime of watering and loosening the beds.
- Timely removal of weeds - most insects lay eggs in weeds.
- Removing sick, dead and damaged plants from the site - they spread infectious diseases.
- Use healthy planting material from the manufacturer for sowing and preventive treatment of manually collected seeds with a solution of potassium permanganate.
- Use of deterrents: potatoes treated with creolin or creosote, mulching beds with peat, dusting with tobacco shag and ash.
- Watering the roots with tobacco decoction. Infuse 1 kg of fresh or 500 g of dry raw materials in 10 liters of boiling water for 12 hours, dilute with clean water 20-30 times, add 30 g of laundry soap shavings.
Harvest and storage
The first harvest is harvested after the feather reaches a length of 25-30 cm . 45 days after planting, the final harvest of succulent greenery is carried out. This usually happens at the end of March - in April, depending on the variety.
Green feathers are cut with a sharp knife at a level of 5 cm from the ground . The greens are placed in boxes or packed in perforated plastic film and stored in a cool place.
The frozen product is stored in the freezer for about a year . The green feather can be stored in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator for a month.
Onions are suitable for drying in the oven, electric dryer and outdoors. Dry raw materials are stored in paper bags or glass containers for up to a year.
Botanical description
In our area, batun is grown exclusively to obtain an early and all-season harvest of green onions. And there is a simple explanation for this. Unlike onion, it does not form real bulbs. Its value lies in its juicy, tender leaves.
Onion plantations
Batun is a plant with a two-year development cycle, but many gardeners successfully cultivate it in one place for several years (more than five). Onion, like other vegetable crops familiar to us with a specific aroma and pungent taste, belongs to onion vegetables and the family of the same name. It also has other, less common names: butt, pipe onion, stone onion, Tatar onion.
On a note! Onions can be planted as an annual crop, then in the fall the crop is completely removed from the soil along with the roots; only the feathers of the perennial are cut off. The next year it again produces high yields of greenery.
By the end of the first growing season, onions grown from seeds form 2 stems consisting of 3–5 leaves. Each leaf is a hollow tube covered with a waxy coating. Depending on the variety:
- the color of the leaf blades varies from light green to gray;
- feather size - from 30 to 50 cm in length and from 1.5 to 3 cm in width.
Comparing onions with onions, you can notice that the lower part of its leaf plates does not have thickenings. It is this feature that prevents the plant from forming real, large bulbs. In it, like in most perennial bulbous crops, the main stem has changed not into a real bulb, but into a weakly defined rhizome.
Root system of onion
If you look closely at this modified stem, you will notice that it consists of numerous internodes. From each such nodule in the future a new bud with real shoots and leaves grows. The more short internodes the onion has, the more powerful the bush it forms. At the initial stage of development of young shoots, the rhizome serves as a source of nutrition for them. Over time, its old areas become depleted and die off, and the grown false bulbs become separated from each other, turning into separate plants.
Note ! The structure of the root system makes it possible to propagate onions without much difficulty by dividing the old bush into several small plots.
Onion reaches its highest yield in 3-4 years
A peduncle with a rounded umbrella 4–6 cm in diameter, consisting of 200–300 yellowish-green small flowers, is formed in the 2nd year of life. The flowering period occurs in June, and the seeds ripen in July. After the seeds ripen, the false bulb dies, and in its place a new plant begins to develop from a replacement bud.
