Onions - a vegetable widely used in cooking, which is not used except in the preparation of desserts. Onions are indicated as an ingredient in recipes for winter preparations (salads, assorted vegetables), so many summer residents and owners of private houses grow this culture in garden beds. In this article we will consider how to feed onion beds in the spring, so that the bulb grows large and strong.

Do onions and sevka need top dressing?

Fertilizing the beds in which onions are grown on turnips requires the addition of minerals and organics to the soil. Nutrient addition during plant growth is also needed. The frequency and amount of fertilizer applied is different for onions grown on herbs and plants grown on turnips. The abundant introduction of nitrogen provokes the rapid growth of the aerial, green parts, in this case all the nutrients go into the pen, to the detriment of the turnip. The cultivation of onions requires the proper introduction of organic minerals, as well as observing the correct time and dosage of fertilizing.

Important! When growing onions, it is recommended to observe crop rotation and not to return the crop to its original place for 3-4 years. Good precursors for onions are: cabbage, radishes, tomatoes, beans, beans and crops.

Top-up dates

The growing season for onions is about three months. If cultivation begins early, from the end of April, the harvest dates are in late July or early August. The crop planting dates are calculated based on varietal characteristics.

Within 12 months, fertilizers under the turnip are laid five times:

1. In the fall, when digging the beds.
2. In spring, with preplant soil loosening.
3. At the beginning of cultivation, 14 days after the appearance of green feathers.
4. In the middle of cultivation, 21 days after the first irrigation combined with top dressing.
5. At the end of cultivation, 21 days after the second feeding.

Soil preparation

If the work is done in the fall, the plant residues of the previous culture are preliminarily removed from the soil, after which they are disinfected with a solution of water and copper sulfate (15 g per 10 liters). A 10 m² bed will require 2 buckets of mortar.

Then, on acidic soils, the soil is chalked with chalk powder or dolomite flour, because this crop produces good crops only on neutral or slightly acidic soils. Dolomite flour can be replaced with wood ash at the rate of: 1 liter can of ash per 20 m² of beds. And only after these works, fertilizers are laid out on the ground and digging a quarter bayonet in depth is carried out by a shovel. The soil is dug up with a turnover of the reservoir so that the organic fertilizers are covered by the ground.

Before starting spring work, the soil must be loosened, as it caked during the winter under the influence of rain and snow. For loosening, you can use garden forks or a bayonet shovel. Before starting loosening on the ground, chemicals containing useful substances are scattered.

Important! The introduction of fresh manure immediately before planting the planting material will lead to decay and softening of the turnip. Fresh manure is either laid in the soil in the fall, giving it the opportunity to overdo it, or they use already well-rotted organic matter.

Before planting, the soil is harrowed with a rake, breaking up large soil lumps, while the surface is leveled with a slight slope from the center of the bed to the paths. Do not make the surface of the beds absolutely flat, like a table, as this will contribute to stagnation of moisture in the root zone of plants and waterlogging.

An interval of at least 24 hours must be observed between disinfecting the soil, liming it and applying nutrients. The most successful is the weekly interval between these procedures.

It is necessary to pay attention to the location of the beds and the soil composition of the soil where the onions will be grown:

1. Onions can be grown in sunny places, on well-drained, fertile and humus-rich soils. The acidity of the soil is of great importance for success in growing this crop, so it is advisable to check the pH of the soil before harvesting. Bulbs grow better in soil with a pH of 6.5 to 7.0. In soils with a pH below 6.0, liming must be carried out.
2. The fertilizer needs of plants are high, with the exception of nitrogen, which the crop needs little. Therefore, it is grown in soils fertilized with manure last fall. You can not fertilize onion beds with manure in the spring, immediately before planting. Plants respond well to the introduction of ripened compost into the ground.

Under winter onions in summer

In the warm period, fertilizers are applied so that the bulbs grow stronger and larger. Large bulbs, with layers of pulp tightly adjacent to each other, are better and longer stored.

The first application is carried out in late April - early May, approximately 20-25 days after the first. To do this, prepare a liquid solution of 10 liters of water and 30 grams of nitrophosphate, this amount is used per 1 m².

The second application is carried out at the end of June. This procedure is mandatory only for light and poor soils. Preparation of the solution: 30 g of superphosphate in granules are dissolved in 10 l of water. The solution is sufficient for watering 1 m² of soil surface.

Did you know? The bulb contains valuable flavonoids, powerful antioxidants that reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease.

Under spring onions in autumn

In autumn, poor and depleted soils are enriched with humus or compost at the rate of: 0.5 buckets per 1 m². They also bring in: 30 grams of urea and double superphosphate, as well as 25 grams of potassium sulfate or potassium sulfate.

For black soil rich in humus, the need for humus is reduced by half, and urea containing nitrogen is not introduced at all. On the soil, mainly consisting of peat, compost or humus is applied at the rate of 5 kg per 1 m², kg of coarse river sand is added there, and fertilizers containing nitrogen are not applied.

Under the spring bow

If during the autumn preparation of the onion bed fertilizers were not added to it, in the spring before planting, organic fertilizers and superphosphate in granules are added. Well-rotted cattle manure, two-year-old dry chicken or duck droppings are suitable as organic fertilizers, but it is best to add compost to the garden. If the gardener does not have organic matter at hand, you can feed the soil with ammonium nitrate or urea.

If the site is fertilized in the fall, then springtime will be enough when digging to add to the soil any complex fertilizer containing: nitrophos, ammophos, azofoska. Chemicals are scattered on the surface of the soil at the rate of 15 g / m².

You can also carry out spring dressing when the feather reaches a height of 10 cm. For this, a liquid solution is prepared: 15 g of superphosphate, 5 g of potassium sulfate and 10 g of urea are dissolved in 10 l of water. This amount is enough to process 1 m² of beds. The soil with fertilizers is dug shallow, since the roots of the onions rarely reach a length of more than 5-6 cm, and will not be able to reach the nutrition.

Folk remedies

Among practicing gardeners, the most successful recipes of home-made fertilizers for cultivated plantings exist, and are passed by word of mouth. Among them, watering plants with saline or ammonia solution, as well as feeding nettle-yeast infusion.

Salt

There are vegetable growers who claim that top dressing onions with saline has a beneficial effect on crop growth and repels onion flies. To prepare the solution, 100 g of sodium chloride is dissolved in 10 liters of water, after which the plants are watered under the root. During the season spend two irrigation of crops with salt water.

I would like to warn vegetable growers that onion and other plants grow very poorly on saline soil. Even a good soil with a neutral pH can turn several saline irrigations into solonchak, so you need to weigh well if there is a need to take such a risk, or if you need to use another method of fertilizer and protection.

Ammonia

Ammonia, of which ammonia mainly consists, is a nitrogen compound, so it is the usual nitrogen outside root dressing. Nitrogen contributes to the rapid growth of leaves, which become juicy, lush and quickly gain the desired height.

Feeding with ammonia is carried out once every seven days, not more often. Pre-prepare a solution of 10 l of water and 3 tbsp. tablespoons of ammonia, after which they pour liquid into a regular, garden watering can and water the plants. The ammonia solution is used for its intended purpose immediately, immediately after preparation, so ammonia tends to evaporate. Exceeding the concentration of ammonia in solution leads to burning of the roots of the bulbs.

Did you know? To protect the growing onion from the onion fly, use joint planting with carrots. Both cultures emit, characteristic only of them, a sharp aroma and thereby scare away pests from each other.

From bread, yeast and nettle

Among gardeners, leaf dressing, prepared with fresh yeast, is popular. Yeast tincture on nettles (with the addition of bread) carry out irrigation of bulbs on a leaf. The solution contributes to the enrichment of the soil with nitrogen and oxygen, and also saturates with yeast, acting as an inhibitor for soil pathogens. The effect of yeast feeding on sandy soils and humus poor is especially visible.

Preparation of nettle yeast solution:

1. A large capacity (you can take a 50-liter garden barrel) fill 3/4 of the volume with fresh nettles.
2. The remaining volume is filled with a sugar-yeast solution. The solution is prepared as follows: in 10 liters of water heated to a warm state, 100 grams of fresh yeast and 50 g of sugar are dissolved. Stir until completely dissolved, after which the remainder of the brown bread, crackers and a glass of sifted wood ash are added to the solution. For a large capacity, you need to prepare two or three buckets of sugar-yeast solution, as needed.
3. The yeast solution is added to the nettle and left to infuse and ferment for a couple of days. The resulting concentrated solution is diluted in a ratio of 1:10 and used for watering plants. Such top dressing is carried out once per growing season, for the first half of the growing season is chosen (late May - early June).

Features onion fertilizer

To carry out work on fertilizing plantings, morning or evening time is chosen. This is because the air temperature should not be higher than + 20 ° C. The heat contributes because a significant part of the fertilizer evaporates, and the remaining leaves leave burns on the leaves and roots of plants. The most convenient for carrying out work of this kind is the evening, after 18 hours - at this time the heat of the day leaves, and the air temperature drops significantly.

All top dressing is done with liquid solutions, simultaneously with abundant watering of the soil. If the summer is rainy, mineral fertilizers can be scattered directly in the root zone of plants, they will be dissolved and introduced into the ground by rain water. In this case, the scattered fertilizers are sealed into the ground by loosening the row-spacings or with a chopper they make special longitudinal furrows in the row-spacings and lay mineral fertilizer there, after which they sprinkle with earth. The minimum depth of fertilizer placement during the first feeding is 5 cm, for all subsequent fertilizers - 10 cm.

Important! During the application of mineral fertilizers, it is recommended to protect the plants from contact with the solution. Liquid feeding on leaves can cause burns, especially on a hot day.

When growing onions on turnips

Onions grown on turnips are periodically fed during the growing period. Bulbs intended for winter storage require fertilizing three times: once in the early spring and twice in the summer.

When growing on greens

Onions on a green feather are fertilized 1-2 times with a two-week interval between dressings. As feed, use any ready-made complex fertilizer. When feeding seedlings, you need to use only nitrogen fertilizer, because it is nitrogen that causes the rapid growth of leaves. Plants grown on herbs are not as demanding on the presence of phosphorus and potassium in the soil as onions.

Preparation of a solution for feeding:

1. One hundred grams of ammonium nitrate is dissolved in 100 liters of cold water and used on a bed of 10 m². Make top dressing by irrigation.
2. Nitrogen food is served a few days after green rows are indicated on the bed. If the soil is rich in humus, the gardener may skip the first fertilizing and not add nitrogen to the bed.

Feeding winter onions

Winter onions are fed three times in the summer. For the first time enrich the culture with a nitrogen-phosphorus mixture. The second top dressing contains half the amount of nitrogen, but potassium is added. The third top dressing does not contain nitrogen at all; only potassium-phosphorus mixture is introduced under the root.

Nutrient dressing

Leafy types of onions are grown to get fresh herbs in early spring, so they require sowing in well-seasoned organic soil. In this case, in the spring it is only necessary to carry out loosening and irrigation of the beds. If in the soil there are no organic fertilizers in order to get a good harvest of green feathers, it is required to carry out liquid foliar top dressing with nitrogen-containing substances. It can be both chemicals and liquid natural fertilizers.

To make a liquid natural fertilizer with your own hands:

1. A half-liter bucket is filled up to half with bird droppings (pigeon, chicken or goose), after which water is added so that 10 cm of free space remains to the edges of the container. This is necessary for subsequent fermentation of the solution.
2. The contents of the bucket are mixed well and covered with a lid, after which they are left on the street in a sunny, well-warmed place for a week for fermentation. The mixture is mixed well with a stick daily to release carbon dioxide.
3. After a week, concentrated dressing is ready. This fertilizer can be used during the summer. Before use, it must be diluted with water (10 liters of water 0.5 liters of concentrate), mix.

Leek dressing

Leek can be grown as a perennial crop, provided that the gardener shelters the garden for the winter from frost. But growing onions in the same place for several years depletes the earth, so in spring the soil requires fertilizer. This procedure can be combined with spring water-charging irrigation and carried out a day after loosening row-spacings. For feeding, you can use nitrogen fertilizers dissolved in water in granules or feed the plants with bird droppings, the recipe of which is given above.

Tips from experienced gardeners

Excessive soil moisture provokes a culture of neck or gray rot on the turnip. Also, stagnation of water in the ground often causes fungal and viral diseases. Therefore, systematic watering of plantings is carried out only in the first half of the growing season (until 1 decade of July). One and a half months before the expected harvest date, artificial irrigation is terminated.

Also, onion plantings can be protected with the help of other plants: use garlic and tobacco tincture for processing onions, use pollination of leaves with tobacco dust and wood ash. The beds along the perimeter in several rows are planted with dill or marigolds, which during the summer serves as a protective barrier against pests and pathogens.

Video: How to feed onions in the spring for good development

For harvesting turnips choose a dry sunny day.Bulb harvesting is carried out carefully, since mechanical damage will not allow the crop to be stored for a long time. Before laying for storage, the bulbs are dried for several weeks. The place to dry is chosen dry, warm, located in a draft (canopy, porch, attic). The readiness of the bulbs for storage is determined by the well-dried upper layer of the husk. For long-term storage, only absolutely healthy bulbs are suitable without external signs of fungal diseases or rot.

Growing large onions or getting lush and juicy onion greens can only be done if the gardener provides the crop with nutrients. Fertilizer can be applied both under the root of plants, in the soil, and foliar top dressing can be carried out.