Growing Onions

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Perennial onions are healthy crops that provide early, aromatic greens

Batun onions, chives and other perennial onions give outdoor gardeners the earliest greens. Growing perennial onions, especially outdoors, is easier and cheaper than growing onions.

Perennial onions have increased cold resistance, they are moisture-loving, but stagnant water on the soil surface oppresses plants, and then destroys them, therefore, areas with a close location of groundwater are not suitable for these crops. Like onions, these types of onions grow better on light loamy and sandy loam soils.

Heavy clay areas are not suitable for perennial onions. The soil must be non-floating, sufficiently moist, or the site must be equipped for irrigation. It should be free from weeds, especially perennial ones, protected from cold northerly winds by plantings or buildings.

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Perennial onions are distinguished by a high demand for the presence of easily assimilated nutrients in the root layer of the soil, especially nitrogen, necessary for the rapid regrowth of leaves. They are very sensitive to increased soil acidity, especially during the initial growth period. A feature of perennial onions is the ability of plants to quickly form from the axils of the scales of the old bulb of young shoots, giving new bulbs, which in the second or third year are woven into sod.

This then leads to self-suppression of the plants, as a result of which the leaves become coarse. The cessation of air access to the soil during the formation of a crust greatly oppresses the plants, therefore, loosening after rain or watering enhances their growth.

On one site, perennial onions can be grown for 3-5 years. In perennial culture, green leaves are cut 2-3 times per season. You can also grow some perennial onions in an annual crop, removing the plants by the roots when the leaves reach a height of 25-30 cm.

Both in annual and in perennial crops, for all perennial types of onions, as well as for onions, row crops are most suitable as a predecessor: potatoes, cabbage and other plants for which manure was applied. It is good if perennial onions go in pairs - that is, before growing them, the site will be free of any crops and kept in a weed-free state.

Since perennial onions are grown on one site for several years, 6-8 kg of manure or peat compost are introduced into the soil before plowing or digging for 1 m2 on highly fertile areas, and 10-12 kg of organic fertilizers on insufficiently fertile ones. During spring and summer sowing, organic fertilizers are applied under the fall or in two doses - 50% in the fall, 50% in the spring. In addition to organic fertilizers, part of the mineral fertilizers is introduced in the fall - 20-30 g of superphosphate and 10-20 g of potassium chloride. After harvesting the predecessor, they carry out autumn plowing or dig up the area on a full bayonet of a shovel (20-25 cm).

In spring, deep cultivation is done or the soil is dug to a depth of 15-18 cm. At 1 m? make 20-30 g of ammonium nitrate and 10-20 g of superphosphate. The acidity of the soil sharply increases from increased doses of mineral fertilizers. It is not recommended to grow perennial onions at pH less than 5.5. Therefore, such soils must be limed.

1 m? make 250-450 g of ground limestone or dolomite. On more acidic soils (pH 4.5-5.0), the dose of lime is increased to 1 kg / m2. In the conditions of the North-West, especially in low areas and in areas with a small arable layer, perennial onions are grown on ridges, due to which they are not flooded in spring when the snow melts, the soil warms up faster and they grow earlier.

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Batun onion

The influence of the shelter on the growth of the batun

This perennial onion is widespread, especially in northern and central Russia. It has several more names: fist, Tatar, winter, sand.

Its leaves, like onions, are hollow, tubular. By the end of the first year of life, the batun plant branches and, depending on the variety, forms a different number of shoots - children. Its leaf mass grows constantly, while vegetation is possible. Batun leaves are used for salads, pickles, seasonings, for decorating various dishes, snacks, etc. Bulbs can also be used for food along with young leaves (Fig. 1).

The onion does not form a real bulb, it is inconspicuous, cylindrical, turns into a false stem. The flower arrow is not high (20-60 cm), ending in a spherical simple umbrella of unpainted simple flowers. The batun is propagated mainly by seeds, which are smaller than those of onions. Its root system is more powerful, more developed in comparison with onions.

Varieties.

Different local forms of three subspecies are used: Chinese, Russian and Japanese. Plants of the Chinese subspecies are very large, but less winter-hardy than the Russian and Japanese. In the conditions of Russia, they can only be cultivated in an annual culture.

The Russian subspecies has two varieties: Central Russian and Southern. Maisky - 7, Khibinsky - varieties of the Central Russian type. They differ in average power. Their leaves are from small to large, dark green, very pungent taste, quickly coarse. Plants are highly branched. Each new branch for the next year gives an arrow and 3-5 leaves. In the third year, up to 20-30 branches are formed. These varieties are characterized by high frost resistance. Plants do not freeze even in severe winters with insignificant snow cover, are distinguished by early maturity and in early spring, still under snow, start growing.

April 12 and Gribovsky 21 - varieties of the southern type. April 12 (Fig. 2) is medium sized. Leaves 35-40 cm long with a strong waxy bloom, tender, juicy, semi-sharp taste, do not coarse for a long time. Plants are winter and frost hardy. Grow back early in the spring. Cutting is poorly tolerated. Designed for growing in a two-year culture in greenhouses and for harvesting the whole plant.

Onion batun Russian, variety April -12 (left), and Japanese (right) subspecies

Onion batun Russian, variety April -12 (left), and Japanese (right) subspecies. Gribovsky 21 has leaves of medium thickness, vertically directed, 30-40 cm long. The number of branches in the third year of life reaches 25-30. The height of the arrow is up to 70 cm. It is grown in both annual and perennial crops.

Japanese (Fig. 2) subspecies - medium-branching plants of medium height with delicate, light green leaves of a semi-sharp taste, their tops at the beginning of growth in the upper part are drooping. Currently, the varieties of Batun onions are also zoned: Emerald, Ladozhsky, Tenderness, Parade, Russian winter.

Growing. Onion seeds can be sown in spring and summer. Summer sowing can be done after radishes, dill, lettuce, spinach or other early ripening crops grow on the site, but no later than July 10, so that before the onset of cold weather the plants develop well and do not die in winter. Seeds are sown on a ridge with a distance between the lines of 15-25 cm. To increase the yield, you can create a plantation of batuna onions, placing the plants more densely - 10 rows per ridge (or 5 double rows), placing them along it.

There is evidence that ten-row belt sowing allows you to get a yield of 25-35% more, but with such sowing, caring for the plants becomes more difficult. 1-1.5 g of seeds for a perennial crop are consumed per 1 m²; with a one-year cultivation, the seeding rate can be increased to 2-3 g.

A large seeding rate contributes to the friendly emergence of seedlings and retards the growth of weeds. It also speeds up the growth of the leaves and improves their quality. They become thinner, more delicate. However, thickening of plants is possible only with an annual culture. Seeds in rows can be distributed evenly along the entire length of the row or sown 2-3 seeds per nest, and the nests can be placed at a distance of 15-20 cm from each other. Seeds are planted to a depth of 1-1.5 cm on light and 0.5-1 cm on medium-textured soils.

You can grow batun onions and seedlings. Of particular interest is the so-called "group method" of growing batun seedlings: 4-5 plants grown in one pot are planted with a distance of 10-15 cm between these pots. This method is used to grow perennial onions only for one year. The value of the group method is that it makes it possible to obtain green onions in the early spring period.

During care, it is necessary to loosen the soil especially carefully and in a timely manner, preventing the growth of weeds. Weeding and watering are done as needed.

Top dressing is especially important for all perennial onions, including trampoline, since the main purpose of their cultivation is to obtain the largest number of leaves. In addition, plots have been used for onions for several years, so top dressing is the main way to replenish the reserves of those nutrients that are taken out of the soil with the harvest. After each cut, the plants are fed with nitrogen fertilizers.

After that, you need to water the planting. This brings the plants themselves and their root system into an active state. In the fall, a month before the onset of stable frosts, the onion is fed with phosphorus-potassium fertilizers at the rate of 10-15 g of the mixture (2: 1) per 1 m². This increases the winter hardiness of the onion. After the first strong autumn frost, the leaves must be cut off so that they do not delay the appearance of new ones in the spring.

Annual and perennial batun culture

With an annual culture of this onion, the crop is harvested in the spring at one time, pulling out the plants by the roots, or after 1-2 cuts, the final harvesting of plants with bulbs is carried out; for perennials, up to three cuts are made over the summer. You need to start cleaning when the leaves reach a height of 30 cm - in mid-May. The last cut is carried out no later than mid-August. A large number of cuttings depletes the batuna plants, and it freezes more often than onions, which were cut 1-2 times over the summer.

During the first three years of the life of the trampoline, cutting the leaves stimulates the branching of plants. The timing of cutting in the fall has a great influence on the time of leaf regrowth in the spring of next year and the readiness of the trampoline for harvesting, and this, in turn, affects the size of the harvest and the yield of early production. So, in the conditions of the Leningrad region, during the last harvest in early August, the height increases twice as fast; in addition, the harvest is 3-4 times more than in the case of the last harvest in mid-September.

From the second year, arrows form in the batun, which not only reduce the yield, but also worsen the quality of the leaves. If there is no need to grow seeds, the arrows should be cut out. If the onion is shot, then the arrows and hard leaves are cut off, leaving stumps of about 5 cm, loosened the soil, fed with nitrogen fertilizers (15-20 g / m²) and watered to start the formation of leaves.

In recent years, in the conditions of the Leningrad region, the annual culture of batuna onions has attracted attention. The soil is prepared as for perennial crops, only the dose of organic fertilizers is reduced to 4-7 kg / m², depending on the fertility of the site. If the sowing is done in the spring, then the plants are harvested in the fall, if in the summer (late June - early July) - by the fall the plants form 2-5 leaves and go into the winter, and in the early spring they start growing and are ready for harvesting at the end of May- June. An increase in the seeding rate of this onion seeds to 1.8-3.0 g / m² increases the yield by 1.9-2.5 times.

To speed up the production of batun onions, it is necessary to put film shelters on the garden bed (Fig. 3). From under the film, green onions are obtained 2-3 weeks earlier than from open ground. The earlier the batun onions are covered with foil, the higher the growth rates and the higher the yield. The early period of shelter (after the snow melts) allows you to get a harvest in late April - early May. In cold weather, the onion under the film is ready for sale in 20-30 days, and in warm weather - in 15-18 days after the snow melts, while from open ground - not earlier than 40-45 days.

Install film shelters only on beds free of snow. If placed without removing the snow, this can sometimes lead to a later ripening of the crop. In this case, the cold will be kept under the film. You can speed up the melting of snow in the beds by sprinkling it with peat chips or ash.

Plants grown under film shelters have significantly higher height and weight than in open ground. Products from under the film have higher commercial qualities. The leaves are tender and juicy, and the content of sugars and organic compounds does not decrease. The content of dry matter and vitamin C decreases slightly, which is explained by a decrease in illumination under the film, but this is compensated by an increase in yields and early production.

Depending on the conditions and method of cultivation, the yield of batun onions is 1.5-4.0 kg / m².

Fig. 3. Plant of onion batuna during harvesting with annual culture

The batun can be used for forcing greens in greenhouses. The period of its rest is 4-6 weeks, and therefore already from December after the separation of the bushes they are planted in a greenhouse. As a rule, bulbs of the third year of cultivation are used for forcing, since by this period it shoots strongly and grows so that it becomes difficult to process it. The leaves are pre-cut to 2/3 of the height, and the plants are undermined with a pitchfork. They try to preserve the roots, and sort the bulbs.

The power of the leaves of the batun depends on the size of the planting material. You can plant his plants in flower pots and use the greens during the winter, growing them on a light cool windowsill.