Onion cultivation is carried out in two ways: from seeds (nigella) or from small bulbs (sevka). In this review, we will talk about the features of cultivation and technology for sowing onions from seeds.

Description and characteristics of black onion

Nigella are onion seeds, so named because of the characteristic black color. Nigella is called the seeds of all varieties of onions. You can buy them in a store or grow them yourself. They ripen on the shoots of an adult bulb: after the growth of the plant ends, it throws out several arrows, at the ends of which spherical inflorescences form. After flowering, they turn into clusters of ribbed capsules with future seeds.You need to collect the chernushka after the boxes begin to acquire a brown color - to ripen. So that the seeds do not crumble to the ground, boxes can:

• cut and fold into a ripening paper bag;
• tie with gauze for ripening on the arrow.

After cutting the heads, they should be stored in a cool and dry place for several weeks. When the heads are completely dry, they are shaken vigorously to release the seeds from the boxes. The resulting chernushka is also stored in a dry and cool place.

The seeds sown in the ground germinate and yield a crop of small bulbs, not more than a few centimeters in diameter - this is the so-called onion set. And in the second year, full onions grow from the planted seed. There are also annual varieties of onions that form bulbs in the first year of cultivation.

Important! Most seeds purchased from private companies are hybrids. They are obtained from 2 parental varieties by cross-pollination. Collecting seeds from such an onion is impractical - they will not reproduce vegetables with the same signs and characteristics.

Beneficial features

The positive qualities of Chernushka were known to the ancient Greeks. They used it to treat many diseases, including headache and toothache, and also noted the antiparasitic characteristics of these seeds. The ancient Egyptians worshiped the bow, believing that its spherical shape and concentric circles inside symbolize eternity. They also appreciated its seeds: they found chernushka in Egyptian tombs - it was one of the items needed when traveling to the underworld.

Onion seeds contain up to 38% fat and up to 2.5% essential oil, and also include calcium, iron, potassium and sodium, fiber. Various studies of the properties of onion seeds have shown that they reduce the risk of developing diabetes and have a beneficial effect on the body. Essential oils from seeds are involved in the treatment of asthma, diarrhea and circulatory disorders.

Chernushka oil has the following properties:

• anti-inflammatory;
• antioxidant;
• antimicrobial;
• antipyretic;
• antitumor.

It also prevents the spread of cancer cells and lowers blood pressure. Taking capsules with 40–80 ml of oil reduces the symptoms of allergic rhinitis or eczema.

Important! Although seed oils have been used for many centuries, very little is known about their acceptable dosage or interaction with other drugs. Therefore, if you are undergoing treatment, then consult your doctor before including onion seed oil in your diet.

Varieties of onions grown from nigella

Among modern onion varieties, one can also find those that grow into large heads in just one season. For this purpose, some varieties of shrubbery (or shallots) from the early ripe category are suitable, as well as mid-ripening and late-ripening varieties of ordinary onions and many others.

Popular annual varieties that can be grown from seeds:

1. Delight - late ripening variety, which gives large, dense, bright yellow bulbs weighing from 150 g for sowing seeds and up to 300 g for sowing seedlings. Additional features of the variety: resistance to disease, endurance to weather factors, the possibility of long-term storage. The growing season is 130–140 days. The variety is an annual hybrid.
2. Centaur - an annual hybrid, can grow under adverse conditions, and the harvest is stored for a long time. The growing season is 90–110 days. The centaur belongs to mid-season grades. You will get dark yellow rounded bulbs weighing 100 g when grown by seeds and weighing up to 300 g when germinated from seedlings. The yield of the Centaur is 10 kg / m².
3. Crimson Ball - no less large hybrid variety with dark purple color scales. Sweet and juicy round bulbs weighing from 80 to 200 g will be good in fresh form, but they are almost not used in workpieces. The growing season is 90 days. The variety is an annual with stable yields of up to 7 kg / m².

Dutch hybrid onion varieties are also popular among gardeners. Their feature is not only disease resistance, but also stable yield. They are great if onions are grown for sale and must be transported.

Features of Dutch varieties:

1. Varieties with golden yellow scales are the most common. The best representatives of this group are Centurion and Golden Gourmet. Bulbs have white, dense, peninsular flesh. They are universal, as they are suitable for cooking and for canning. They are distinguished by a mild taste and good yield.
2. Varieties with red scales have white flesh with a red tint on the edges of each layer. They are great for salads. Bright representatives of this group are the varieties Electric, Red Carmen, Senshuy.

Among the varieties that have long and well established themselves, modern gardeners use the following:

1. Myachkovsky - an early ripe biennial with a vegetative period of 90 days. Productivity of a grade - 4–5 kg / m². Turnip weight - 100 g. The variety is well stored and suitable for transportation.
2. Spassky - biennial, a representative of multiglore varieties with a bulb weight of about 40–50 g. Spassky’s vegetation lasts about 100 days. It does not have a high yield (1.5–2.7 kg / m²), but it has a good taste and resistance to putrefactive bacteria.
3. Amber - mid-season variety with oval bright yellow bulbs of medium size and weighing 50–80 g. You can collect 120 days after planting. The variety is an annual with stable turnip yields of 199–362 c / ha.
4. Bessonovsky - gives bulbs with golden scales and spicy taste, weighing up to 60 g. Grown in a two-year culture. Bessonovsky’s productivity is 1–2 kg / m².
5. Zolotnichok - An annual that grows well in cold regions and is undemanding to climate. Productivity does not exceed 1.8 kg / m². The variety with round bulbs weighing up to 60 g, which ripen within 80–90 days, is excellently stored and suitable for use both in raw and canned form.

Growing black onion at home

Onions are vegetables that can be grown in cool weather, from early spring to late autumn. For ripening, some varieties only need 45-60 days, and late-ripening onions will take up to 140 days. The main feature of the plant is that large bulbs cannot be obtained before the onset of warm days. In addition, they slowly increase in size.

Did you know? Onions were part of the human diet more than 7000 years ago. Archaeologists have found traces of it in the Bronze Age settlements.

There are 2 ways to grow onions:

• sowing seeds in the ground;
• planting seedlings.

Each of the methods has its own characteristics. When growing seeds indoors, you need to start sowing 10-12 weeks before the time comes for planting seedlings in the ground in spring. You should also pay attention to the light mode. The optimal daylight hours should last 10-12 hours. With an increase in its duration to 16 hours, you will receive the early formation of small bulbs.An excellent modern method is winter sowing of chernushka. This can be done both in December and in February. It doesn’t matter if it snows on the street or not, and what temperature is there - the seeds will remain inactive until the time comes for them to germinate.

For sowing you will need a container with a lid, soil and the chernushka proper. Landing technology:

1. Fill the container with soil. There must be drainage holes in the bottom of the container, and the cover will protect the crops from excess moisture in case of rain.
2. Plant seeds at a distance of about 2 cm from each other, then cover them with a layer of soil about 1 cm thick and water.
3. Place the container in a place protected from bright light. You can put it in the gazebo or in the basement.

In the growth phase, you will need to monitor the moisture level in the container. Unlike seedlings grown indoors under lighting, there is no need to control the lighting or adapt the temperature - these seeds are immediately in improved natural conditions, which allows them to give a larger crop.

Did you know? Chopped onions can relieve irritation after insect bites. In combination with chopped aspirin and a small amount of water, onion slices are also used as a folk remedy for the treatment of warts.

Optimum sowing time in open ground

The easiest method is to sow the seeds directly into the soil on the site. Landing is carried out in the spring or in the fall:

1. Autumn seed planting - in November-December. The main criterion is a fairly soft soil suitable for cultivation. Seeds will germinate only when optimal conditions arise in the spring.
2. Spring planting - in March or April, when the soil begins to warm up.

Among the advantages of autumn planting, the absence of pests and weeds, accelerated harvest time (2–4 weeks earlier) are noted. In addition, it is believed that such a crop is more plentiful, and the bulbs are larger and lighter.

Growing conditions

Most seeds germinate over a fairly wide range of soil temperatures, but at different rates. Too cold - and they grow slowly. Heat can also reduce the rate of germination. The optimum temperature range for sprouts is 10–20 ° С, at which plants will grow at the maximum rate.

You can warm the soil an additional several degrees, if you cover it with a film - this will accelerate the germination of seeds. The introduction of humus allows you to create a kind of source of heating from below, which at the same time provides the plant with nutrition.Humidity is not critical for onions: it can grow both at normal humidity - 55–65%, and at high (during rains). The main thing is that the site is well lit.

Site selection and soil preparation

The best option for sowing onions is considered sandy, warm soil with good drainage, rich in nutrients. If the site has clay soil, then it can be improved by diluting with sand and providing good drainage, since the onion roots lie almost near the surface. It is good if the site is inclined - this will provide a natural removal of excess moisture after rain. If the soil is too wet, this can lead to the appearance of rot and a decrease in yield. The acidity of the soil should not be lower than 6.5–7 pH.

Sowing technology

Bed preparation includes:

• making sand, if you need to make the soil more loose;
• application of leaf soil, compost or other organic fertilizers in order to fill the bed with nutrients.

Make grooves about 2 cm deep and sow the seeds at intervals of about 7 cm to avoid crowding. Lightly cover them with soil and moisten well. The advantages of this method are its simplicity - you just sow onions and harvest when it is ready.

Spring sowing

To grow larger bulbs, you should start sowing early. Sowing seeds outdoors is permissible about 1 month before the frost-free period. It can be March or February, depending on the climate of your region. If the frost has already ended, then you can plant the germinated seeds.

Important! Use fresh seeds not older than 1 year for sowing, as they quickly lose viability during storage.

Winter sowing

Sowing onions before winter is used more often than others. Landing is carried out at any time in the winter. When the temperature and duration of the day are suitable for starting the development of the sprouts, the seeds will sprout on their own and without any additional effort on your part. With this method of growing, plants form larger bulbs than during spring planting.

Growing seedlings

To grow onions in a seedling way, you need to sprout the seeds in the container, and then plant the seedlings on the bed. The container will be a regular drawer for seedlings or a cassette with separate cups. Fill it with the starting soil mixture - it can be ordinary garden land with the addition of sand to give it looseness and compost to increase nutrition. The components can be mixed in equal parts.

Sowing nigella costs 10-12 weeks before the date of transplantation into the ground, that is, about 2-4 weeks before the last freeze.

Planting and growing technology:

1. Fill the container with 2/3 soil and put the seeds there. Deepen them no more than 1-2 cm, sprinkling on top with a small layer of soil.
2. Cover the pallet with foil and install in a warm room with bright lighting. The air temperature should be around 20 ° C.
3. After a week, the seeds will begin to germinate. Remove the lid and keep the onion at about 15 ° C. Daylight hours should last at least 10-12 hours, gradually increasing.
4. When the green leaves reach a height of 12–13 cm, cut them to stimulate stronger growth of roots and stems.
5. 6 weeks before transplanting into the ground, onions need to be acclimatized. Start by placing the container in a secure place on the street during the day. Start at 2 o'clock, gradually increasing the time. Seedlings are able to withstand even a slight frost, so do not worry about their health.

Now that the seedlings are ready for planting, decide on its date. This should be no earlier than 2 weeks before the last alleged freeze.

To gently transplant seedlings, you will need:

• gently dump the seedlings from the container;
• prepare a bed and make a landing trench;
• plant plants in the soil at a distance of 7-8 cm from each other;
• compact the soil around the bulbs and water well.

The advantages of growing onions from seedlings is that you know exactly where and how many onions you have come from, and you see how healthy it is. You can also choose the most powerful seedlings for planting. The downside is that seedlings experience stress during transplanting, and there is a risk of losing some of them. Therefore, seedlings need to be planted 30% more than you need.

Important! Onions can cause poisoning to pets. It can weaken red blood cells in the blood of a cat or dog, cause anemia, and even cause death.

Care Features

Onion planting care is minimal. In spring, the soil contains enough moisture to eliminate the need for regular watering. If you have taken care of the nutrition of the soil, then there is no need for fertilizers. Therefore, the first couple of weeks after planting, the seedlings simply take root.In the future, among the main care measures:

• watering;
• fertilizer application;
• weed control;
• pest control.

If the soil dries out during the formation of the bulbs, then the head will crack and may form several bulbs. To prevent this, it is necessary to mulch the beds or water in a timely manner.

Watering and feeding

The roots of the onions are short, and they may earlier be left without moisture in dry land than other plants. If this happens regularly, then the bulbs will not reach the maximum value. Therefore, water the beds as the soil dries.Drip irrigation is the best option for hydration, it minimizes water consumption and also reduces access to water for weeds. Sprinkler irrigation is also acceptable. It is better to moisten the beds in the morning, since a lot of water evaporates during the day under the bright rays of the sun. Evening watering is unacceptable due to the fact that the roots will be in contact with moisture for too long, which contributes to the occurrence of rot. Onions really need a lot of water, but the soil does not have to be moist all the time. The ideal choice is to water the vegetable once a week.

Rules for watering onions:

• if the soil is dry, water immediately;
• keep the soil moist until seedlings appear on the beds;
• water well-drained beds 1 time per week to a depth of 3 cm;
• stop watering as soon as the tops of the leaves begin to turn yellow - this means that the onion has ripened and the time for harvesting will soon come.

Did you know? In the Middle Ages, onion was an analogue of the monetary unit and was used to pay rent, goods and services, as well as gifts.

In addition to the sunny area and the drained soil, onions need fertilizer. In the process of growing onions, you need to carry out 2 dressings. The first is carried out at the stage of 3 green leaves, when the plant accumulates substances for the formation of the bulb, and the process of photosynthesis is actively ongoing. Add urea at the rate of 1 tbsp. l drug per 10 liters of water. Add to it any version of potash fertilizer. This is necessary to enhance cellular processes in the leaves.When the onion has 5 green leaves, spend the second top dressing with potassium monophosphate as part of 1 tbsp. on 10 l of water. Fertilizer should be applied until the bulb formation is complete.

All 3 macroelements (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) necessary to increase the size and weight of the bulbs must be included in the composition of the applied fertilizer. You will need:

• 1/3 nitrogen (Ν);
• 1/4 phosphorus (P);
• 1/2 potassium (Κ).

Use complex balanced fertilizers. They perfectly satisfy the needs of plants, and also provide a high yield and quality characteristics of the products.

Soil loosening

When the onion is well rooted, it is necessary to loosen the soil between the rows. This is due to the fact that the plant does not have enough green mass to suppress weeds and has a very small root system, so it will not be able to compete with weeds for moisture and nutrients. A garden hoe not only removes weeds, but also loosens the surface of the soil and creates a fine texture , which allows the roots to "breathe".Be careful not to damage the roots of the bulbs. The optimal frequency of tillage is the day after each watering. Depth of processing is 3-5 cm.

Did you know? When slicing onions, tears begin to flow from the eyes. The reason is that sulfuric acid is released from the vegetable, which causes lacrimation. To avoid this, it is recommended to cut the onion under a stream of water or in a basin with water.

Weeding

Effectively weed can only moistened soil. It is worth starting the weed from the beginning of the bed, while removing all erect weeds, as close as possible to their roots. They can also be pulled out with your hands. A pruning shear can be used to remove creeping weeds. Do not try to remove all wheat grass or other plants of the same type - this is not possible until the crop is harvested.

Mulching row spacing also helps in the fight against weeds. Under the covering material, moisture is not only well preserved, but weed germination is also prevented.

Pest and Disease Control

If it was planted very early, then it will not necessarily suffer from pests, because it simply does not have time to attract harmful insects. However, when growing late varieties, it is worth paying attention to pests such as onion flies or nematodes.A sign of the appearance of an onion fly is yellowed in the middle of the season stems. The fly itself is a small insect of gray color, up to 7 mm long. It looks very similar to a regular housefly. Appears as soon as dry and sunny weather sets. This fly is dangerous because it lays larvae inside the stem, affecting the bulbs. Young plants can die, and old ones stop their growth. Dig a few bulbs to make sure the presence or absence of white larvae. Affected plants are removed and burned.

Insecticides can be used to fight the fly (Aktaru, Extraflor), but most gardeners prefer folk remedies because of their low toxicity to greens. Among the popular methods of struggle are watering the beds with saline (200 g per 10 liters of water) or treating crops with kerosene, since the fly does not tolerate its vapors. The spraying of plantings with tobacco solution, vinegar, soda or boric acid works in the same way.

Also, the bulbs can be affected by the nematode. These are small worms up to 1.8 mm long. On one plant, they can be up to several thousand. They live in the ground, but can attack any root crops and bulbs. Signs of the presence of a nematode are leaf deformation, putrefactive odor, especially after watering, and softening of the bulbs. At the initial stage of the lesion, you can pay attention to the white spots on the bulbs.Pest development is suppressed by observing crop rotation rules. On the site where the nematodes were found, do not plant onions, peas, beans or strawberries for 4 years. As a preventive measure, the soil should be treated with ameliorant pericalcitis. It is able to destroy pests wintering in the soil both in the egg stage and in the form of larvae. Soil treatment is carried out a week before planting onions in the garden. And to disinfect planting material, the bulbs are kept for several hours in a solution of wood ash.

The most serious onion disease is white rot. Its spores persist in the soil up to 7 years after the destruction of damaged plants. The disease manifests itself in the form of damage to the tops of the leaves: they discolor, become covered with a watery coating. To develop the disease you need high humidity. The fungus itself spreads in the wind and with thickened crops manages to hit the plantation in a week. To combat it, treatment of crops with copper sulfate (2 g) with urea (10 g) and zinc (1 g) dissolved in 10 l of water is used. Spraying is carried out as a preventive measure, before the onion is infected.Powdery mildew is the second most common bulbous disease. It manifests itself in the form of a soft gray coating, brown spots on the leaves, which then dry up. Bulbs become soft and unsuitable for storage. The disease thrives in humid conditions, so the best preventive measure is to prevent overmoistening. To combat the disease, the drug "Baikal Em-1" is used, which plants are sprayed with from various pathogens of diseases, including downy mildew. Spraying is also carried out with a 1% solution of Bordeaux liquid or a solution of sulfur (50 g per 10 l of water).

Did you know? According to the Guinness Book of Records, the largest onions were grown by British farmer Peter Glazbrook in 2011 and weighed about 9 kg.

Harvesting and storage

When 75% of the stems turn yellow and fall off, the onion is ready to be dug up. It is necessary to stop watering 2 weeks before harvesting. If the weather is wet and the onion does not turn yellow, then you can raise the bulbs by pulling them on the leaves - breaking a part of the roots will cause growth to cease, and the foliage will begin to die.

Harvest on a sunny, dry day. Dug onions should be dried for 2 weeks in a dry, well-ventilated area, and then put in boxes or braided for further storage.Remember that not all onion varieties can be stored equally long. Therefore, do not mix them in drawers and use first those whose shelf life is shorter. Do not store damaged bulbs or those with any deformations.

Useful recommendations from gardeners

Onions grow well in most areas and with any soil. But still, farmers developed a number of additional recommendations, adhering to which, beginning gardeners can get higher yields from their beds:

1. Use only fresh seed every year. The germination rate of the seeds you store is reduced by 30–40% annually. Fresh seeds not only germinate better, but will not be infected by random phytopathogens.
2. Warm weather speeds up the process of chernushka germination. At a temperature of 16–18 ° C, sprouts will appear after 1 week, and at low temperatures (1–10 ° C) - only after 2-3 weeks.
3. All conducted top dressing contribute to the root zone of the onion. Do not water the soil where the root system of the plant simply does not reach.
4. The best harvest comes from rich, well-rotted compost.
5. Remove weeds regularly so that onions get enough nutrients.
6. Remember that mulching is more effective than weeding. This agrotechnical method simply does not allow weeds to germinate, and also prevents the root system from contact with some pests, including onion flies.

So, now you know how to get a rich onion crop on your site and what you need in order to grow a delicious onion from chernek seeds. Remember that having good planting material is the main key to success in this endeavor.