Onions are ready for storage. Agricultural technology for growing onions. useful tips Why do turnip onions have a thick neck?

They begin to harvest the onions when they themselves signal about it - the leaves begin to lie down (when 60-80% of the feathers have fallen). You can catch this moment from mid-August. By this time, the onion accumulates maximum nutrients and finishes growing. The outer leaves of the bulbs are already well formed and have acquired the color characteristic of the variety.

Leaf lodging

Harvesting on time is the key to good storage.

If you start harvesting onions earlier, when the feathers have not yet died, the neck of the onion is still too thick, juicy, it takes a long time to dry and this increases the risk of rotting of the bulbs.

If harvesting is late, the bulbs become overripe and the upper scales begin to crack, which also leads to spoilage and rotting of the bulbs; these bulbs are only suitable for canning and immediate consumption, but not for storage. In addition, overripe onions begin to form a secondary root system. The bulbs become more watery and their taste deteriorates.

Onion harvesting time

Despite the right time for harvesting - early August, the calendar does not always strictly dictate the time for harvesting onions for storage. Sometimes all the deadlines have come, but the onion does not lie down, sticks out vigorously. This usually happens when the summer is quite humid. If you see that the outer scales have not yet completely changed color, then you can speed up the ripening of the onion.

There are several ways to do this. One of them is cutting off the roots. 10-15 days before harvesting the onions, the roots of the plants are cut with a sharp shovel or knife at a depth of approximately 5 cm below the bottom of the bulbs. The nutrition of the bulbs is sharply reduced, and ripening occurs faster. Sometimes it is enough just to rake the soil away from the bulbs.

But in general, many gardeners use various ways, which seem to them the most productive, for example, you can often see how gardeners cut off the feathers of onions, leaving a false stem about 10 cm long. Or they lift the bulbs from the ground with a pitchfork (partially cutting off the roots and drying out the bulbs also occurs).

You just need to remember that mowing the onion before the feather has died, although the most easy way, but often leads to rotting of the bulbs and loss of yield. Therefore, it is better to spur the bulbs to ripening by digging with a pitchfork or cutting off the roots.

Digging up onions

It is best to harvest onions during a period when there is no rain - the soil is dry, and the bulbs will also have to dry for a short time. Literally 2-3 days in good sun - and the onions are ready for storage.

It is not difficult to dig up onions planted on peaty or loose sandy soils. But on dense loam, the usual pulling out of the bulbs can lead to the fact that most of the pulled out bulbs will be left without bottoms and will simply rot in the next month, if their homemade preparations are not urgently used.

Therefore, before pulling out the onion, it is better to dig it up. The easiest way to do this is with a small pitchfork. Stick them into the rows, at a short distance from the bulbs, and slightly lift the layer of soil.

Immediately warn your assistants that this cannot be done - the bulbs easily receive mechanical damage and are not stored for a long time - they rot. All adhering soil must be cleaned off with your hands; it is especially convenient to remove and shake off the onions while wearing fabric gloves with rubber pads.

The collected onions must be laid out to dry so that the outer scales ripen and dry. This takes 7-10 days in warm weather. Remember that in August there are cold nights and heavy dew falls. Therefore, do not leave onions to dry directly on the rows or in the open air for the whole day. Place the bulbs on wide trays or a large piece of tarpaulin and bring them into the house, barn or greenhouse overnight.

After the onion has dried thoroughly, take scissors and sit down to trim the roots (under the bottom) and stumps - leaving the neck no more than 5 cm long and no shorter than 4 cm. At the same time, separate all the damaged bulbs, or bulbs with thick necks - these will not be stored , they can be used for salad preparations. How to understand that the onion is dry and the neck is not thick: if the onion rustles in your hand, and the neck easily breaks if you twist it.

Onion storage

Dried bulbs, ready for storage, are necessarily hard to the touch, have several dry, dense covering scales and a well-closing neck (no voids or cut of succulent leaves are visible on the cut of the neck). If you are sorting through the onions and notice that the necks do not seem to be thick when trimmed, but are not yet dry - they are cut with force, or as if they are rubbery, then the onions need to be dried a little.

It is advisable to dry the onions at a temperature of 33-35 degrees for 5-7 days. If the weather is no longer sunny or has become colder, then the onions can be dried at home on the mezzanine. It is warmest in the kitchen, but usually there is dry air in any room and the onions dry out perfectly within a week.

If you did not have time to collect the onions in dry, warm weather, and it suddenly began to rain, then the onions will have to be washed damp earth and dirt. It is necessary to remove the spoiled husk. But you need to lay out such onions to dry not just in a warm room, but also in a well-ventilated one, otherwise the onions will take a very long time to dry and putrefactive bacteria will begin to develop in an anaerobic environment. Therefore, you can place the onions in one layer on baking sheets covered with several layers of toilet paper and put them on the balcony to dry during the day, and bring them into the room at night.

Over many years of cultivating this crop, little has changed in the technology of its cultivation, except for fertilizers and plant protection products - that’s all.

Dig the soil with a garden fork. I hope thatin autumn you have already added organic matter to this bed: green manure (oilseed radish - it cleanses the soil wellfrom nematodes - big fans of onions), added dry Zhiguli fertilizer, or old humus, compost.

I do it Necessarily in the fall in all beds, otherwise you will leave worms and beneficial microbes without food. And who then will prepare food for plants and protect them from diseases?!

Add a deoxidizing agent to the soil, i.e. a glass of ash or dolomite per square meter of bed. They are sold in stores. You can buy Mittleider mixture No. 1 instead. Rake them into the soil.

Remember!

Onions do not tolerate acidic soil . Therefore, during the summer, apply these deoxidizers 2-3 times between the rows.

Next, I make 4 furrows (with a bed width of 80cm) approximately 4cm deep. I spill them with a solution of liquid Biohumus (manufacturer - Ilya Tkachenko, tested by me for years, until it is “naughty”, it works honestly).

Its vermicompost is not simple, but contains, in addition to extracts from earthworm manure, also a mineral additive and, in particular, superphosphate, which plants really need to quickly grow the root system immediately after planting.

Ilya began producing this new drug at the beginning of last season, I tested it not only on many vegetables, but also on ornamental crops. Works great. I recommend.

To make a working solution for planting onions, you need to dilute liquid biohumus in the following concentration:

1 tbsp. spoon per 10 liters of water - if you fertilized the soil in the fall,

2st. spoons per 10 liters of water - if organic matter was not added in the fall.

Planting onionsnot deep , slightly burying them in the mud, at a distance of about 10 cm from each other. Cover with planting soil. It would be good to mulch the bed with peat. When planting bulbs deeply, a thick neck is obtained, the onion does not ripen well and rots during storage.

We take a board and roll the surface of the bed, you can even step on it with one foot.Soil compaction after sowing and planting - a mandatory event for all types of crops, because at the same time, moisture in the soil is better retained.

If you have an old spunbond or film, then cover the bed with it - the onion will come up faster and better, because... under this shelter moisture is better retained and the average daily air temperature is equalized.

Now let’s look at the problems that summer residents encounter when growing onions.

Sergeev N.I. (Dubovy Umet village) complains about the massive death of onions from the onion fly. The onions are grown in the field, and there is no way to cover them with spunbond.

Advice . Try to do the same as German summer residents do. Dilute the drugPrestige (2 ml per 10 liters of water) in a watering can, remove the sprinkler from it and pour a thin stream into the furrow before planting the onion, and then plant it. This drug will protect onions from all types of pests located both in the soil and above it, and not just from the onion fly.

In addition, the Prestige drug contains not only an insecticide (poison) against pests, but also a fungicide (a drug against diseases). The validity period of this German drug can reach 50 days. During this period, you should not take or eat onion leaves.

Makarova Z.P. (village of Maloye Mishutkino) asks: why doesn’t the onion go down, although it’s time to harvest, and it’s already gone into the hole?

Answer. There are many reasons. Firstly, there are varieties and hybrids that have a thick neck, which have to be carefully laid out for ripening in August. I try to buy hybrids that are reported to have a thin neck. With such hybrids there are no such problems even with excess moisture and nitrogen in the soil. They ripen well, their neck dries out quickly, blocking access to infection, so these onions are perfectly stored.

If, after all, your onion has a thick neck, then do not cut its tops short, leave 10 cm and before you put it in storage, split this ten-centimeter tail into 4-6 parts, i.e. soak it so that the neck dries faster.

Most often, around the neck we see accumulations of pathogenic microbes in the form of black dots, which, when storing onions, lead to their rotting. Therefore, it is advisable to remove the husk around the neck, at least in the form of a collar, and if these sclerotia are present, wipe the bulb with a rag moistened with a solution of the Vostok EM-1 preparation.

For these purposes, I strip the Exhibition bow naked and wash it with a damp cloth with this preparation. It is harmless to humans, because... contains mainly the well-known yeast and lactic acid bacteria. Larisa Igorevna Malanina even drank a solution of the drug Radiance, which also contains these microbes.

Attention!

Peel the onion skin very carefully so as not to scratch its flesh with your nails, otherwise it may also get sick.

And now I want to give the most important advice for the whole season for everyone vegetable crops: cover the beds with spunbond No. 17 and you will not need to treat with pesticides. It is better to refuse to buy fertilizers and stimulants and all types of pesticides, thereby saving money on the purchase of spunbond.

• ✓ A sure sign that it’s time to harvest onions
• ✓ Sunbathing for onions
• ✓ Should the onion be trimmed or not...
• ✓ Preparation for weaving onion braids
• ✓ Both beauty and benefit
• ✓ How to weave onion braids- photo
• ✓ How best to store onions - advice from summer residents

Onion storage conditions. How to weave braids from onions.

No housewife can do without onions, and therefore stocks of this healthy vegetable are available in every home. But it’s not always possible to save them without loss

Often, already in the middle of winter, the bulbs begin to deteriorate, and closer to spring they begin to germinate. Meanwhile, harvested on time and properly prepared, onions can be stored until the next harvest even in an ordinary city apartment. And now it’s time to remember the ancient tradition of weaving onion braids...

However, first things first. First, the harvested crop must be properly harvested and thoroughly dried, otherwise all efforts will be in vain. Well, then you can start weaving.

A sure sign that it is time to harvest onions

The foundations for success are laid while the bulbs are still in the garden. And the first task is to correctly determine the time of harvesting: if the bulbs are not ripe, they will not be stored well, but they should not be overexposed - a late harvested crop can be affected by rot, especially if the summer was damp.

It is difficult to name a specific time for harvesting onions: it also depends on the time of planting ( winter onion ready for harvesting earlier than the one planted in the spring), both depending on the variety and weather (climatic) conditions. But there are reliable signs by which you can easily determine that the time has already come.

Onions are harvested when the feathers have died and the bulbs have “dressed up” - they have dense covering scales. It happens that powerful, strong greenery does not lay down - then experienced gardeners recommend laying it down forcibly. They say that this technique helps the bulbs to ripen faster and stimulates the outflow of nutrients to them from the above-ground part of the plant. But there is no need to rush. Only in this case you need to keep in mind: a thick, fleshy neck will take a long time to dry.

Another sure sign of a ripe onion: it comes out of the ground very easily. If the bulb “holds” tightly to the bed, you should wait a little while cleaning. However, here too there is important nuance: if the moment is missed, the plant begins to grow new roots, especially when there is enough moisture in the soil. This is also very bad for future storage.

But the yellowing of the feather, which gardeners sometimes rely on, can actually signal anything: a lack of moisture, for example, or pest damage to the bulb, or other problems that have nothing to do with the ripening of the crop.

An important nuance is that not all varieties are stored equally well. As a rule, sharp onions have the best shelf life, but sweet and juicy ones, with thin, delicate scales, are unlikely to last safely until spring at home. Onions grown from seeds in one season are often inferior in “longevity” to those grown in the traditional way - from sets.

Sunbathing for onions

We often see that plants ripen unevenly. Of course, in this case, stage-by-stage harvesting of the bulbs is most preferable, but for a summer resident who comes to a suburban area only on weekends, this option is usually unacceptable. As a result, you have to wait for the bulk of the crop to ripen in order to harvest it in one go.

It is advisable that the weather on the day of cleaning be dry and clear. Place the pulled out onions on the garden bed: the sun's rays will not only dry them, but will also help disinfect them thanks to the bactericidal properties of ultraviolet radiation. Ideally, the bulbs should be kept in the air for 2–3 days, and if this is not possible, at least for one day.

Should I trim the onion or not...

After sunbathing in the garden, all the onions should be laid out in a well-ventilated, dry room (an attic or hayloft is ideal, but it can also be done on a veranda, for example).

We lay them out in one row so that they are well ventilated and dry better.

This is perhaps the most important part of the preparation: a poorly dried crop will not last long.

Those who prefer to keep onions in nets, boxes, stockings, or other similar methods that do not require leaving the feather behind usually wonder if they can be trimmed before drying. In fact, “clipped” bulbs take up much less space, which is important in a small country house.

The theory says that the feather should not be trimmed immediately - in the first days after harvesting, accumulated nutrients are transferred from it to the bulb. Practitioners, however, argue that pruning time does not affect the taste and keeping quality of the crop. Well, it is possible to compare the composition of bulbs dried with and without herbs only in laboratory conditions, so here you just have to take the scientists’ word for it.

But if we intend to braid onions, we cannot do without a feather.

Please note: drying is not a quick process. Many people believe that 1.5–2 weeks will be enough, however, if you want to achieve good result, you should focus on a period of at least a month (depending on conditions: temperature, air humidity and other parameters). There is no need to spare time and space: the better we dry it, the more reliably we will preserve it. We determine readiness by the condition of the neck (this is the place at the base of the onion): if it is completely dry, then it’s time to braid the hair.

Preparing to weave onion braids

To begin with, it is advisable to sort the bulbs by size: large, medium and small. This makes sense from an aesthetic point of view (an even braid of bulbs of the same size looks better), and the shelf life of bulbs of different sizes can

Differ. For the same reason, it is not advisable to weave together onions of different varieties. Of course, garlands in which multi-colored bulbs alternate beautifully look impressive. But if you are interested not so much in decorative as in practical side question, give preference to homogeneous options.

After drying, the feather becomes grayish-brown, quite fragile and brittle, so for the strength of the weaving it is advisable to use natural (linen) twine.

He will not allow our creation to crumble over time. In general, onion garlands are woven in different ways, and real craftsmen create amazing, very beautiful products.

But from the point of view of harvest safety, even the simplest option is in no way inferior to these masterpieces. The length of the braid can be arbitrary (up to 1.5–2 m), but it is still better to start with short ones, because they are easier to weave, but a long, heavy garland will be difficult to manage at first. Having mastered one, the simplest method of weaving, you will be able to improve your skills in the future.

Both beauty and benefit

Onion braids are not just a convenient way to store onions, but also a wonderful interior decoration. They look great and don’t take up too much space.

Expert advice

When sorting, be sure to discard all soft, damaged and diseased bulbs.

We use those whose necks have not completely dried out for food first. There is no point in braiding them - such onions do not store well.

The main thing is to create for them the right conditions. Onions do not like high humidity and temperature changes. Therefore, you should not hang the braids, for example, near the stove - the steam and hot air rising from it will not benefit the onions. It is also undesirable to place garlands close to the radiator - they will dry out. The optimal temperature for storing onions at home is + 18...+ 22 ° C, with a humidity of 60-70%.

There is also a “cold” storage method - at a temperature of about 0°C. However, it is unrealistic to find such a room in a city apartment, and not every basement of a private house is suitable for this.

Hanging braids should be inspected from time to time, removing damaged or sprouted bulbs. However, if everything is done correctly, there will be very few of these. But when choosing a place for storage, do not forget: over time, a thinning garland loses its attractiveness, so it can only be used temporarily as an element of kitchen design.

By the way, it is no coincidence that in the old days onion braids were hung in the house as a talisman against pestilences (epidemics) - this superstition has a completely scientific basis: as is known, onions secrete phytoncides that have bactericidal properties. And it turns out that the half-forgotten ancient tradition has many advantages: excellent preservation of the harvest, colorful interior decoration, and even purification of the air from harmful microorganisms. It's worth reviving it, isn't it?

How to weave onion braids - photo

1. We will need two pieces of twine. One segment should be slightly larger than the intended size of the braid. And the second one is twice as long. Fold it in half.

2. Make a loop at the tip of the folded twine and secure the onion in it.

3. Then we braid the feather like a regular braid, not forgetting to weave in the second piece of rope.

4. Add the bulbs one at a time. To make the braid neat, we try to distribute them evenly. This skill comes with experience; in practice, everything becomes clear very quickly. How smaller than an onion, the more often and densely you can weave them.

5. When the braid reaches the desired length, tie it with one of the ends of the twine, tightening a strong knot. From the remaining ponytails we form a loop from which we will hang the braid. We carefully trim off the excess rope and tops.

6. Be sure to keep in mind that the braid comes out quite heavy, so the loop must be strong and reliable. For the same reason, it is worth taking care of the strength of the hook on which the garland is supposed to be hung.

Read an interesting article about how to equip storage on a balcony with your own hands here

At the beginning of our gardening, it was always like this, even when there was no rain: the weather is dry, and the onions are rotting. I even stored one onion in egg cells. And one rainy year I asked my neighbor: “Are your onions rotting?” “No,” he answers, “I dry it in the sun.” On next year and we began to dry it in the sun, after 3-4 days we turned it over, after a week we cut out the feathers. It takes two weeks to dry. The onion was healthy and did not spoil. We told all our neighbors that ultraviolet light was needed. Now they dry everything this way: some lay it out on boards, some on window frames, some on the roof.

This disease is called neck rot. You should not delay cleaning - we remove it when the feathers begin to fade and fall to the ground.

Be sure to dry in the sun, covering it with oilcloth. Store in mesh bags in a dry but cool place. Crop rotation – at least three years.

Onions and garlic also suffer from stem nematode, a small worm that lays eggs in plant tissue. Onion heads crack, garlic cloves fall apart, and plant leaves become deformed. There was a year when almost an entire bed of garlic died from a nematode. Now soak the onions and garlic in a saline solution (1 cup of salt per 1 bucket of water) for 3 hours and plant them wet.

Onions should be harvested only in dry weather, dried until the leaves dry out and dry covering leaves form. There was a year in our practice when it rained constantly, the onions lay in the air, but did not dry. We installed iron arches and put plastic film on top, leaving 30 cm of the sides open. The onions dried remarkably well and did not rot.

Ultraviolet rays apparently passed through the film. We also learned that after storing onions for a month, they need to be sorted out once a season - they come across spoiled ones. That's what we do.

I also read in our favorite magazine that onions react negatively to increased acidity of the soil; manure is not needed. Our opinions differed. My husband believes that without rotted manure there will be no harvest, so we add it. But we also need to add lime before planting.

Below are other entries on the topic “Do-it-yourself cottage and garden”

Determining the time when to remove onions from the garden is very simple. After the onions begin to turn yellow and lie on the ground, the onions can be removed. The main signs of ripe onions:

feathers become yellow and begin to dry out,

the stems lie on the bed (either the entire bed of onions or part of the plantings can lie).

Typically, for central Russia, the time to harvest onions from the garden begins in the last days of July, after July 20th and continues until mid-August, provided the weather is good. If the weather in August is rainy, then you need to harvest the onions earlier, without waiting for the rains.

It is better to dig up or, more correctly, pull out onions in clear sunny weather. Pull the onion out of the garden in the morning and leave it to dry in the sun until the evening, shaking it and turning it over from time to time to help it dry better.

Then move it to the attic, to the barn, or, in extreme cases, to the balcony and dry it in a ventilated, dry place for several days. If the weather is dry and sunny, and you live in the country, then you can dry the onions after harvesting in the garden for about 7-12 days. At night, cover with film or covering material.

How long does it take to dry onions? You need to look at the neck. When it is dry, then you can put it away for storage. We must remember that what better onion dried, the better it will be stored, the less it will rot during storage.

Onions are harvested when the leaves of most plants fall off and lie on the ground.

* Onions harvested early do not have time to form covering scales, the neck remains thick and open. Through it, even in the garden, pathogens of the most dangerous disease - neck rot - easily penetrate into the bulb, which ultimately leads to large losses of products during storage. Late harvesting also negatively affects the keeping quality of onions, since overripe bulbs crack and dry scales fall off, roots re-grow, and this reduces resistance against disease.

* Sometimes, in order to speed up the ripening of onions, the tops are mowed a week before harvesting. This operation leads to crop loss. It is better to cut off some of the roots with a shovel or lift the bulbs with a pitchfork, limiting access to moisture from the ground. Undermining the roots will speed up the ripening of the onion, and from the dying leaves the nutrients will have time to flow into the bulbs, and the harvest will not be damaged.

* Bulbs dried after harvesting become shelf-stable and resistant to neck rot. In dry, warm weather, drying is carried out directly on the beds. The plants are pulled out and left on the ground for 5–7 days. At the same time, the tops dry out, the bulbs ripen, and dry, tightly fitting scales form on them. If the weather is cold and rainy, then drying is carried out under a canopy or in a heated room. Your hand can easily fit into a heap of well-dried onions, but you can’t push your hand through an under-dried onion. You should also not overdry the onions: in this case, the dry outer scales crack, separate, and bare bulbs appear that are poorly stored.

* After drying is completed, the dry leaves are cut with scissors, leaving a neck 3–4 cm long. Such bulbs are stored.

* Temperature conditions are very important for storing onions. It depends on the purpose of the product: onions for food are best stored at -1–3°C, onion sets, from which turnips grow the next year, are also stored at the same temperature (then they will not shoot). You can also store the sets warm, at a temperature of +18–20°C. Mother onions are kept at a temperature of +5–6°C. At higher temperatures, diseases develop on it.

* Relative air humidity when storing onions for any purpose is maintained at 70–80%. If the humidity is high, the onion does not leave the dormant state in a timely manner and begins to sprout. In addition, in humid air, the upper scales of the bulbs become damp, the neck becomes moist and the onion rots.

* It is especially important to maintain low air humidity when storing onions that are not fully ripened, because they are less resistant to neck rot.

Those gardeners who are on the site every day during harvesting can dry onions directly in the garden for about 7 - 12 days. To properly dry a vegetable, it must be laid out on a flat surface so that the bulbs lie in one direction and the feathers face the other. It is recommended to lay root vegetables in rows and in one layer. The sun can best disinfect your crop, which needs to be turned over periodically.

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