Growing Multi-tiered Onions In Annual And Perennial Crops

Viviparous onion

The multi-tiered onion (Allium proliferum Moench Schrad. Ex Willd) is a perennial plant of the Liliaceae family. He came to Russia under the name Egyptian Horned Bow.

In the Old World, it was also called Catavissa, Canadian, Viviparous, Luft, Buebenzwiebel, Tree, Edyption Onion, and in the New - Top onion, Tree onion, Onion viviporent garden.

Many researchers believe that multi-tiered onions are a natural interspecific hybrid that has lost the ability to reproduce by seeds. Back in the 14th century in China, a herbalist mentions onions growing in layers (Lau-tsi-tsun), not producing seeds, morphologically close to multi-tiered onions.

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Presumably, this form was exported at the beginning of the 19th century to England, where it spread under the name of the arboreal or bulbous onion. The reason for the massive use of this type of product in Europe was the pungent taste and strong aroma of airy bulbs, which especially came to the place and to taste when cooking pickles.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, this type of onion has been widespread in the European part of the Russian Federation, in the Urals, Altai, Siberia, the Amur Region, and Kazakhstan. He is well known in the USA, Canada, China and Europe.

Annual and perennial crops of this species are possible.

Annual culture of tiered bow

After harvesting early vegetables (salad-spinach group, radishes, early potatoes), multi-tiered onions are planted in bulbs, preferably on prepared and seasoned ridges 1.0-1.2 m wide, 18-20 cm high, which is especially important in humid climatic conditions North -West RF. The best are areas with light soils (pH 6.0-6.5), early free of snow.

6-8 kg / m² of organic fertilizer (rotted manure, compost, ready-made peat soil, etc.), 30-40 g / m² of superphosphate, 20-30 g / m² of potassium salt, 15-20 g / m² of ammonia saltpeter.

The planting pattern on the ridges is two- or three-line: 20 + 50 cm x 10 cm or 40 + 40 + 60 cm x 10 cm.On a flat surface, the bulbs are planted in rows with a distance of 50-70 cm between them, and between the bulbs in a row - 10 cm …

With perennial culture, a breakthrough is carried out in the spring, leaving plants in a row at a distance of 20 cm from each other. The removed plants are used for food.

Planting depth 2-3 cm from the top of the bulb to the soil surface. The optimum size of planting bulbs is 1.5-2.0 cm in diameter (tier 1 and 2), while the optimum planting time is from the beginning of August, when the ripe bulbs are harvested, dried, and sorted. They can be planted later, until mid-September. Although, after drying in a ventilated unheated room, the bulbs can be stored at temperatures down to -15 ° C … -20 ° C in winter (in an insulated garden house, a shed, a household refrigerator, in an insulated attic) and planted in a protected ground in room conditions in boxes from October to January and from February to March, because they have no rest period. The optimum storage temperature is from 0 ° to 1 ° C.

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Unlike sevka and sampling of onions, multi-tiered onions are planted by bridge (solid planting), consuming 3-8 kg / m². The yield is up to 17 kg / m². It is possible to use small fractions, as well as spring sowing. However, spring planting in the first year does not give good results.

It is advisable to water the bulbs planted in autumn in dry weather, and until the soil freezes, the aisles to loosen to a depth of 5-6 cm. By this time, the plants take root and form leaves.

The multi-tiered onion is winter-hardy and tolerates frosts down to -45 ° C. Even with a strong freezing of the soil and a small snow cover, it hibernates in the Arctic with practically no attacks. Onions planted in autumn form more vigorous plants, produce production earlier, growing back immediately after the snow melts.

With an annual crop, the plants are harvested as a whole, together with the bulb, as soon as the leaves reach a height of 20-25 cm. The yield is 2.0-2.5 kg / m². Under shelters, you can harvest two weeks earlier than usual. From the bulbs of autumn or spring planting, without cutting off the leaves, by autumn you can get a medium-sized turnip that is well stored. A multi-tiered onion is driven out indoors, at home. At the same time, it grows 1-2 weeks earlier than the onion of a batun or onion at a temperature of 10-15 ° С, and a batun at a temperature of 18-20 ° С, onions - at 20 ° С. It is advisable to use primarily root bulbs for forcing.

Multi-tiered onions in perennial culture

A multi-tiered onion is capable of growing in one place for several years. At the former Gribovskaya Experimental Station (now VNIISSOK), the plantings of this species were in good condition even at the age of 18.

Onions are planted in the same way as with an annual culture. In the nests from planting large bulbs by the fall of the first year, 3-4 daughter ones appear (and from small ones - 1-2). In the second year in the nest on average 10-12, in the third - up to 20 daughter bulbs. For 3-4 years, the plantings thicken strongly. If the planting is planned to be left, it is necessary to thin it out, leaving 1-2 basal bulbs in the nest. The removed plants are used for food. Such plantings are placed outside the crop rotation, on a separate (for example, onion) bed.

To obtain green onions, the leaves are cut (no more than two times) when they reach 25-30 cm. The cutting height is 5-7 cm above the neck of the bulb, the interval between cuts is 3-4 weeks. After each cut, fertilizing is carried out simultaneously with ammonium nitrate and potassium salt, or with complex fertilizers with microelements (5-7 g / m²). If necessary, planting water 2-3 times. The yield at the first cut is 1.5-1.8 kg / m², at the second - 0.7-1.0 kg / m².

Starting from the age of two, in May, plants are shot.

To obtain air bulbs, it is better to select a separate bed. They are harvested from the second year after planting. The harvest of green leaves is not obtained.

Fist-like leaves of a multi-tiered onion reach a length of 80 cm and 3-4 cm in diameter in its widest part, and arrows growing in May reach 30-150 cm.Air bulbs are placed on them in one to four tiers instead of flowers in groups of 2-12 PCS. in each tier. The size of the air bulbs is from 0.3 to 4 cm, and the mass is from 0.5 to 15 g. Considering the massiveness of the plants and the instability of the arrows under the weight of the crop, in order to avoid lodging, they put stakes in the garden bed and pull the twine between them at a level above the middle of the arrows. In the conditions of the Leningrad region, the bulbs are removed in late July - early August, when they are easily separated from the arrows.

By the time the arrow dies off, a basal bulb is formed at the base of the arrow. It is small and serves as an organ of vegetative reproduction. In August, it starts to grow, forms several leaves, of which, when freezing, some die off, while others winter safely. In the spring, there is a rapid regrowth, division, shooting - a highly developed bushy plant is formed. If there are enough bulbs, then basal bulbs are best used for food or for forcing in greenhouses.

Considering the exceptional prospects of multi-tiered onions for the practice of year-round cultivation, the dietary properties of its marketable products, the high content of vitamin C (up to 80-90 mg%, i.e. 1.5-2.0 times more than that of onions) and more than other species, phytoncides, essential oils, as well as the value of bulbs for the amazing taste of blanks, breeding work is being carried out with this species. Varieties have been created in which the leaves become coarser later than onion and chives. They can be used for food throughout the growing season.

At present, the State Register of the Russian Federation includes varieties Likova (1987), Memory (2005) of the VNIISSOK selection.

Likova is a winter-hardy, early maturing variety, resistant to leaf lodging. The growing season from mass regrowth of leaves to harvesting is 22 days. The leaves are green with a weak waxy bloom. Their average length is 45 cm, width is 1.8 cm, the taste is spicy. The basal bulb is poorly expressed. Air bulbs in a tier of 2-8, the color of the covering scales is green-purple. Productivity 3.6-3.8 kg / m². The leaves do not have a dormant period, they grow quickly even in low light.

Memory is a new winter-hardy, early ripening variety (from mass regrowth to the beginning of technical ripeness for 24 days). The leaves are fistulous, green with a waxy bloom of medium intensity, 44 in length, 1.2 cm in width. The basal bulb is poorly expressed. Aerial bulbs are rounded-elongated, red-violet, formed in three tiers (large on the first and second, medium-sized and small on the third). The yield of green leaves per cut is 1.58 kg / m², per season (several cuts) - up to 3.0 kg / m². The yield of air bulbs is 0.7 kg / m². Recommended for fresh green leaves and for preserving aerial bulbs.