Family onion is a favorite plant for domestic gardeners. It is a variation of the usual onion. The main taste difference of the family onion is its increased juiciness and aroma. This type is also characterized by low bitterness, so many appreciate it for its soft taste. The family onion got its name due to belonging to multi-germ species.
Features of the family bow
has a number distinguishing features distinguishing it from other species:- The bulbs are oblong in shape. The mass of each bulb is in the range from 25 to 50 grams, together they form a kind of nest, which can contain up to 30 bulbs.
- The feathers of the family onion are not high in thickness, they are less sharp and have a wax-like surface.
- Bulbs tolerate long-term storage well.
- More tender taste qualities make it possible to widely use family onions in cooking.
- Multi-growth onions can significantly increase the yield from the same area.
Cultivation and care
The process of growing family onions is in many ways similar to the cultivation of ordinary onions. However, there are also some small features.
Soil preparation
prefers fertile soils, which may be heavier than for regular onion. The soil must be of good drainage system. Soil acidity should be neutral. Potatoes, legumes, carrots can be called as the best predecessors.Before planting, a positive role will be played by top dressing with ammonium nitrate at the rate of 7 grams per plant. square meter.
Landing dates
It should be noted that onions is a cold hardy plant. At a sufficiently low temperature, its root system can develop intensively, but this will not be noticeable by leaf growth.
The root system can grow at temperatures from +2 to +25 degrees. At the same time, it will calmly endure frosts down to -6 degrees. The green part of the plant shows the best growth at temperatures from +15 to +25 degrees, which does not prevent it from successfully enduring frosts down to -7 and heat up to +35 degrees.
These data should be carefully considered when choosing the optimal landing time.
If you miss the time and plant the bulbs with sufficient heating of the soil and air, the active growth of greenery will immediately begin, to which all the forces of the plant will be directed. The root system will remain insufficiently developed, which will adversely affect the future harvest.
Family bow allowed plant not only in spring, but also before winter. In this case, you can expect an earlier harvest, and the greens are formed 10–12 days earlier.
Landing pattern
The optimal distance is 20 centimeters between rows and 10 centimeters between bulbs. With this scheme, the consumption will be 1–1.5 kg of planting material per square meter of beds. In this case, it is better to use medium-sized bulbs for planting. Small onions will not give a good harvest, so it makes sense to plant them only on greens.
It is impossible to underestimate the distance between the planted bulbs, since in this case the crop will come out quite small.
Planting material preparation
To get a crop of large bulbs, planting material need to be properly prepared. Preparation process can be divided into several stages:
If planting is planned to be done in the spring, you should wait for the soil to warm up to +5 degrees. The whole disembarkation process can be divided into several stages:
- Loosening the top layer of soil.
- Formation of furrows for planting.
- Irrigation of furrows.
- Application of fertilizers. As a rule, you can limit yourself to the introduction of wood ash.
- Hilling landings.
plant care
Until the emergence of seedlings ten centimeters long, nothing can be done. Watering and other care is also not needed. With this approach, the roots will begin to seek deep into the earth in search of moisture, which will favorably affect the nutrition of the plant in the future.
Further recommended mulch the soil. As a mulch, it is easiest to use mowed weeds. There is no need to dry them out. A layer of about ten centimeters should be maintained. When the mulch dries, the bed will be covered with a porous dense layer. This will not only enrich the soil with nutrients, but also protect the bed from weeds. The mulch will retain the moisture needed to nourish the onion and also provide good access air and will not allow the soil to overheat in the sun.
As a rule, it does not require additional feeding when growing onions. But if the leaves become small or begin to turn yellow and wither, you can add a solution of 10 grams of ammonium nitrate and 15 grams of potassium salt per 10 liters of water. Potassium salt can be replaced with wood ash. As organic fertilizer can recommend manure aged for three years, or bird droppings. Manure is diluted with water in a ratio of 1 to 10, and bird droppings - 1 to 15. If onions are grown on poor soils, then such top dressing can be done twice. The first time fertilizer is applied during the period of intensive development of greenery, and the second - at the beginning of the formation of bulbs.
In case of damage to plants by diseases or pests, spraying with a 1% solution of Bordeaux mixture should be carried out. It is important to remember that in this case, greens should not be eaten. Processing must be stopped ten days before harvest.
Harvest
You can start harvesting when half the feathers wither. Most often this happens at the end of July. It is not worth delaying harvesting, as the bulbs will absorb excess moisture from the soil, which can activate the growth process, disrupting the dormant period necessary for storage. Shortly before cleaning should stop watering.
Ripe onions are dug up entirely after the dew dries. A sunny day is perfect for harvesting. During the day, the bulbs should lie in the garden under the sun, this will allow them to dry well. In the evening, the onion should be removed in a dark, cool place with low humidity, laid out in one layer. From this moment, the drying process begins, which lasts up to 15 days.
You can determine the readiness of the onion by the neck of the bulb, it should be quite dry. When the onion is well dried, you can trim the feathers. Good bulbs without damage should be selected for storage.
You can store family onions in boxes placed in moderately warm rooms with low humidity.
Varieties of family onions
We note the most popular among domestic gardeners family onion varieties:
shallot and family onion
The question often arises as to whether there is a difference between family bow and onions called shallots. Those who put an equal sign between these two concepts are mistaken.
Shallot is a special perennial variety Luke, which is characterized by its agricultural technology. In the first year, bulbs are formed from seeds. A shallot bulb resembles a head of garlic in structure, consists of individual cloves. After drying the shallots, the cloves disintegrate, they are planted in the second year. Already from these small shallots grow larger nests with more bulbs. Further reproduction occurs vegetatively over several years. Such features are characteristic only of shallots.
Family onions, unlike shallots, are more similar to normal onions . It forms arrows, gives seeds by which it reproduces.
Therefore, these should not be completely confused different types. Exquisite taste, which was appreciated by gourmets all over the world, is what gives the dishes shallots.
By correctly following all the tips for growing family onions, you can get not only good harvest bulbs for winter storage but also greens rich in vitamins. Detailed description agricultural technology will help achieve best results, and photos of the harvest of the most successful gardeners will give an incentive to plant family onions instead of traditional onions.
Varieties of family onions
To grow a decent crop of shallots, you need to choose the right variety that can grow in the conditions of your region, as well as properly prepare the planting material and comply with the conditions of agricultural technology.
Shallot (or Ashkelon onion) is a type of onion, which is distinguished by smaller onions (20-50 g), as well as good early maturity and keeping quality.
This type of onion is also called the family onion, or kushchevka. The thing is that the bulbs underground form whole nests.
Bulbs and tender green shallots can be eaten all year round. And in some countries, a special anti-aging tea is even prepared from its husk. How to grow such a popular onion yourself? Let's start by choosing the right varieties.
Shallots: varietal diversity
The range of planting material for family onions is quite diverse. Shallot varieties are especially popular. Pomegranate, Fun, Lyra, Olbia, Surprise.
Shallots - cultivation and care
The technology of growing shallots is practically no different from the agricultural technology of its onion "brother", but it also has its own characteristics. This culture is quite capricious, varieties of "northern" selection may lack the length of daylight hours, shooting is often difficult, and it is difficult to achieve flowering. Therefore, all recommendations for growing must be followed very carefully.
Soil and planting site
Shallot needs fertile soil with a neutral response. On acidic, heavy, damp soils, the plant will feel bad. It does not like waterlogged soil either. The scarce land in autumn (before digging) should be fertilized with rotted manure or compost at the rate of 3-4 kg per 1 sq.m. The bed set aside for planting shallots should be well lit.
Planting shallots
To get bulbs shallot planting material (small bulbs with a diameter of 2-4 cm), can be planted in early spring: in March-April. The holes should be made 5-6 cm deep and the bulbs should be placed according to the 20 × 10 cm pattern. When planting, they should not be pressed or screwed into the ground: their tops should be slightly visible from the holes.
To get a pen larger bulbs should be planted. Do this in the fall (October), so that the plants have time to take root before the onset of frost. Bulbs that have had time to put roots well tolerate winter even in northern regions and already in early spring they begin to increase the green mass.
Shallot Care
Shallot care consists of periodic watering, loosening the soil and removing weeds. Usually during the growing season in hot and dry periods it is enough to water the onion 3-4 times. After that, the soil must be loosened so that a crust does not form on its surface.
Shallot top dressing
For one season, family onions are fed 2 times. First dressing carried out in the spring, after the plants grow 3 leaves each. For these purposes, you can use an infusion of weeds diluted with water in a ratio of 1:3, urea or urea (1 tablespoon per 10 liters of water), to which ½ tablespoon of potash fertilizer is added.
Second top dressing needed when plants have 5 leaves. Since onions especially need phosphorus and potassium at this time, potassium monophosphate (1 tsp per 10 liters of water) is suitable as a fertilizer. If the weather is too wet, the fertilizer can simply be scattered between the rows and planted into the soil.
Onion harvesting and storage
Shallots are harvested in dry sunny weather, when 50-70% of the green mass is covered. The bulbs should be dug along with the leaves, and then dried well in the sun for 2 weeks.
To send the bulbs for storage, they need to cut off dry leaves, leaving only a thin neck 3-5 cm high. By this time, the onion should be ripe and dry. It should be kept in small wooden boxes or cardboard boxes in a dry room at a temperature of 0-3 ° C or at room temperature. At higher temperatures, the quality of shallots decreases and their taste deteriorates. Nests do not need to be divided into individual bulbs.
Shallots from seeds
It is quite difficult to reproduce onions from seeds - this requires a serious preparatory work. But if you have good breeding skills, it's still worth a try.
Garden preparation
Shallots are sown in the spring, but the soil is prepared in advance - in the fall. To do this, the land is freed from weeds, dug up and fertilized with organic and mineral fertilizers. Humus or compost is suitable, which are applied at the rate of 5 kg per 1 sq.m, as well as superphosphate - 70 g per 1 sq.m. After top dressing, you need to form beds and leave them until spring. Before sowing, the earth needs to be slightly loosened.
Seed preparation
In order for the seeds of the family onion to sprout better, they should be germinated: wrapped in gauze or a cloth, dipped in a container of water and kept for 2 days at a temperature of 22-25 ° C. Every 6-8 hours, the seed must be washed under running water, then lower it back into the container with clean water. Before planting, onion seeds need to be air-dried a little.
Shallot seeding
Shallot seeds are sown in late April - early May in beds prepared in autumn and covered with earth. Seeds are sown in grooves about 3 cm deep. From above, it is desirable to cover them with a layer of peat or rotted compost. At first, the beds with crops of shallots should be watered frequently.
Harvesting
After 20-25 days, it will be possible to harvest the first crop of greens. In the first year, the seeds give a medium-sized bulb, which, after drying, breaks up into 5-6 small ones. The next year, these bulbs are planted again in the garden to get larger nests of shallots. These bulbs will be suitable for similar reproduction within 5 years. After that, the planting material must be updated.
Selection in country conditions
One of the main problems that gardeners face when growing shallots is that many varieties of shallots degenerate due to various diseases. For example, for several years in a row, onions gave an excellent harvest, after which they began to "refuse" to grow. What to do? You can try to improve (or at least just maintain) the varietal qualities of a particular variety.
Onion breeding is based on its biological characteristics. You can try to breed your own variety from seeds, but this is very difficult. But there is another option. From each planted bulb of shallots, several new ones are combined into a nest. If you take a good look at the bulbs from the same nest, you will notice how different they are in shape, size and color intensity. Most often, changes in offspring occur under the influence of external factors environments and are not inherited. But there may also be mutations. Therefore, when selecting material for propagation, it is necessary to conduct 2 inspections of planting material:
Stage 1- arrange the bulbs of different nests in a row, inspect them, and then remove the nests with diseased, damaged or malformed specimens.
Stage 2- select the best nests from the remaining ones and select one medium uterine bulb from them for future offspring (sometimes all bulbs from the nest may be suitable for reproduction).
Please note that good growth and development of the onion largely depends on the mass of the selected bulb. Try to select planting material of the same size.
Until spring, selected bulbs should be stored in boxes in a dry, well-ventilated area. At the same time, planting material must be periodically checked and rotten bulbs removed.
In early spring, the selected bulbs must be sorted out again and planted in the ground as soon as possible. returnable spring frosts"family" is not afraid. This is how a simple summer resident can become a breeder and breed his shallot variety.
Diseases of shallots
The most dangerous disease onions - neck rot (gray rot). If you store the bulbs in a damp room, then there is a high probability that the crop will become infected with neck rot. The disease can appear even at the time of onion ripening in open ground. But if you store the onions in a dry place, the affected bulbs will dry out, preventing the disease from spreading to the rest of the crop. In moist air, infected specimens will become soft and watery.
Many gardeners are convinced that if you plant a family onion, you will get a meager, small harvest from it. Therefore, they stubbornly continue to grow only onions. Today we will give important recommendations how to grow family onions in the garden beds in such a way that the bulbs turn out to be beautiful, larger, and stored for a long time. Let's get acquainted with the features of this culture, its various varieties.
Family onions have been grown in villages and villages since ancient times. In each region, preference is given to its own variety, considering it the most delicious, beautiful and fruitful. And this onion has many names: forty-toothed, kushchevka, “family”, “Nesting”, “kvochka”, shallot. In Latin, its name sounds like "Allium ascalonicum". This is a variety of the well-known onion. A “nest” is formed from one bulb, consisting of several (on average from 3 to 10) bulbs. There are times when in one such "family" you can count 20 "residents". The weight of these bulbs is different - from 15 to 60 grams. Bulbs are pitcher-shaped, oblong, rounded, cuboid, elongated, ovoid in shape. Scales can be painted in golden, reddish, purple, bronze. On the cut, the bulb inside is white or pinkish-lilac shades. The greens of the family onion branch well, the “feathers” are thinner and more tender than those of the turnip, covered with a neat wax coating, less spicy in taste, leaving almost no aftertaste and characteristic odor from the mouth. Their height is from 30 to 50 centimeters. The greens of this onion are lush, it is possible to cut off (or completely pull out with an onion) in 2-3 weeks from the moment they landed in the still not quite warmed up ground. By the way, the onion has another positive distinctive feature: its feathers do not coarsen, they remain tender and juicy throughout the season. Onion heads in the ground "ripe" for a long time(at least 90 days), but the heads of the "family" are able to ripen in 50-80 days (depending on the variety). Already in June, when the stocks of onions run out, you can take family onion heads when preparing culinary dishes. There is information that this species onion overtakes the turnip in terms of nutritional value. Features of growing family onions
The Shrike is not afraid of frost, it is weakly susceptible to shooting, so you can start planting a family bow around the second decade of April (weather permitting). Long daylight hours are the most best time for the active vegetation of this onion, it is literally saturated with melt water contained in the soil. Shallot develops well at a temperature of 18-20 degrees. Seeds in the ground begin to germinate at a temperature of four degrees Celsius. Small planting material (less than two centimeters in diameter) is best used for growing greens, which can then be added to vinaigrette, various salads, soups, borscht, okroshka, vegetable stew, risotto, hodgepodge. Shrike is great for forcing in a pot on a windowsill or in greenhouses. But it is worth remembering that the family bow has a long dormant period, so you can start forcing only with the advent of January. An interesting observation is that if you plant a large bulb in a pot, it will give an abundance of luxurious feathers. For planting on the head, choose medium-sized bulbs (more than three centimeters in diameter). As a rule, they give a high-quality large crop. Varieties of family onions
Varieties this bow a lot has been released now. Experienced gardeners However, it is still recommended to give preference to local varieties that are more adapted to the conditions of your region. Large bulbs can be obtained by growing the following varieties:
Now varieties have been bred that give several giant bulbs in the "nest" (each weighing 100 grams). For example, the Kuban "Kvochka" (purple, red, yellow). If you do not like spicy onions, then pay attention to the Pesandor shallot variety. It is bred in France, it is distinguished by precocity. Gives oblong bulbs with tender sweet pulp purple. Great for salads. About 20 beautiful onions can grow from one set of such a family onion. In the southern regions, good yields are given by varieties: Kuban Yellow, Kunak, Russian Purple, Bargalinsky, Rostovsky, Belozerets-94, Kushchevka Kharkovskaya. AT middle lane such varieties of shallots are successful: "Grasshopper", "Bonilla", "Snowball", "Siberian Yellow", "Sprint", "Garant", "Golden", "Mashenka", "Krepysh". Planting a family bow
To grow family onions in the country, select those areas that will be well warmed up by the sun. The soil must certainly be fertile and loose - then you can count on a generous harvest. Acidic and heavy soils are not suitable for onions. Pumpkin, zucchini, beans, peas, potatoes, rye - these are the best predecessors for the "family". If last year a bed with onions was already arranged at this place, then it will be possible to plant a “nesting” here only after three seasons. To improve the soil before planting, when digging for each square meter, add five kilograms of humus, a glass of ash (you can dolomite flour), two tablespoons of superphosphate. When clay soil it is necessary to add another five kilograms of sand. Form a narrow bed, and make 2-3 deep grooves on it. Landing planting material is carried out in a checkerboard pattern. Between bulbs belonging to varieties that give large heads, leave a distance of 25-30 centimeters. For varieties with small heads, it is enough to leave a distance of 15-20 centimeters. If you need mainly greens, then leave a distance of 10-15 centimeters between the onions. Planting depth - 5-8 centimeters ( top part onions should be covered with a layer of three centimeters), then the roots will quickly start to grow. If the planting material is placed shallowly, then the root system may dry out. If you have accumulated a lot of small onions (from one to two centimeters in diameter), then you can carry out winter planting in early October. Before frost, the onion will take root and overwinter well. In the spring, you will get early greens, or you can grow larger heads over the season.
In the first half of the growing season, planting family onions should be watered periodically. If the bush does not have enough moisture in the ground, then it will finish the growing season ahead of schedule, the bulbs will not be able to fill up properly. Stop watering about three weeks before the expected harvest date. Be sure to remove weeds from the garden in a timely manner. A layer of mulch will help retain moisture and pacify weeds. On those beds. Which are intended for obtaining heads of family onions for the winter, do not cut feathers, otherwise this will negatively affect the crop. If you want to take greens from this ridge for cooking, then carefully rake the ground and unscrew some head from the middle of the "nest". Then free space will appear near the heads remaining in the ground, they will be able to further increase their mass. Bulb ripening normally occurs usually in the second half of July or early August. Signs indicating that it is possible to dig up a crop are wilting, lodging of 70% of the leaves, the appearance of dry scales on the bulbs, while the necks should be dryish. If you overexpose the bulbs in the ground, then there is a risk that the “nest” will fall apart into heads, which, under suitable conditions ( humid environment) will begin re-rooting, the duration of their storage in winter period. Optimal time for digging (pulling out) bulbs from the ground - this is dry sunny weather. Then you will be able to successfully lay out your bulbs on the grid for drying in the sun, under the rays of which it will dry out (dose) and disinfect. First, shake off all the bulbs from the ground, cut off the roots. If the weather is rainy, then drying should be carried out under a canopy, in attic or barn for 10 days. When the feather looks dry, then cut it off, leaving 10 centimeters, so that later it would be more convenient to get “braids”. The beginning and end of each "braid" must be fixed with ropes for strength. First, these "braids" for some time before the cold weather can hang in the gazebo or on the veranda, and then it is already necessary to determine them in the house. Another way to store family onions is in baskets or boxes (then keep the onion neck short). If you long years grow your favorite “family” variety, but notice that its yield is decreasing, some bulbs are getting sick, then try to restore the viability of your variety by resorting to seed propagation. To obtain family onion seeds, plant six to ten large bulbs in the garden in late autumn. About pests and diseases
Sometimes gardeners complain that “feathers” turn yellow on their onions, one of the insects eats it. Who harms onions? Aphid colonies, onion fly, much less often - onion secretive proboscis, onion moth, stalk nematode. To combat aphids, first try infusions hot pepper, herb yarrow or wormwood. You can use a biological product called "Verticillin". To scare away an onion fly, try spreading twigs cut from wormwood, yarrow or tansy on the garden bed. Once a week from the beginning of the appearance of feathers on the onion until July 1, water your “family” plantings with saline (a large glass of salt is taken for a ten-liter bucket of water).
We hope that the knowledge gained about family onions will help you grow tender, vitamin greens and strong, well-kept bulbs with medicinal and dietary properties. |
Family onions: growing experience
I have not grown onions from purchased sets for a long time. Somehow more like a family onion. In the literature and periodicals there are the names "family", "shallot".
I still can't figure out if these are different names for the same bow or if they are different bows. Different sources write differently. Some authors put an equal sign between these names, others separate them into different types. For example, they write about shallots that he does not shoot. The leaf is thinner, 30 cm high. The bulbs are small and not sharp. Then I definitely don't have shallots.
In my opinion, a family bow has many advantages. Stored until the new harvest is guaranteed. What was not eaten lay for a year and a half. Doesn't dry out. The onion fly is weakly affected, single onions. Whereas the onion fly on the set had to be fought. It adapts well to new growing conditions. There are practically no diseases. In the most unfavorable years, I noticed a Fusarium disease of less than a dozen bulbs per centner.
Seed material is always your own and there is an opportunity to conduct selection. These bows are very fast. Only 70-80 days pass from planting to ripening bulbs. It is also good for greens - after planting, it grows quickly, after 25-30 days the greens can be cut. For the taste added to different dishes, my family also likes the family one more. Although in salads it is not the best - quite spicy.
Family onions, like other crops, I grow without digging the soil.
I have been preparing the beds for planting since autumn - I level them with a rake and if there is fine organic matter, I mulch with a thin layer. If there is no such organic matter, I leave it open.
We plant the family at the same time as the carrots, while the ground is moist and not particularly warm. He is not afraid of frosts, and the soil temperature is optimal for good development roots. The growing season of the family onion allows it to be grown at a later planting, but the yield is somewhat lower.
Before planting, I prepare the bulbs. I cut off the dry neck and trim the bottom to fresh roots. The fact is that the bottom of the family bow is closed with a lignified “heel”. If you leave it, then there are few roots on the bulb, the development of the nest is delayed, and the yield can be halved.
Then I soak it overnight in water. Before planting, if necessary, I cut the onions into halves or even quarters along the bulb. There is important point. The roots of the family bow on the bottom are not evenly placed. Pay attention to the photos. On the one hand, there are almost no roots. You need to pay attention to this. We cut so that approximately the same number of roots remain on the halves. If we cut into quarters, it is necessary that the roots are on all parts.
Another interesting observation. The direction of the cut is very important, not only because of the number of roots. The rudiments of future bulbs in the family bow are located in a certain way. Look at the photo. The bulb has irregular shape. The bottom is beveled to one side. When cutting, each half should look exactly like this. Then the number of bulbs in the nest is less and the bulbs are larger. If you rotate the cut line by 90 degrees, then in the nest that has grown from a half there will be almost as many onions as from a whole uterine bulb, but they will be smaller - the total yield will decrease.
Some experts recommend cutting off the bulb "on the shoulders" - then the location of the primordia is visible. But such a technique, according to my observations, leads to an increase in the number of feathers, and the weight of the bulb decreases. So I am guided by the bottom.
I do not carry out any additional processing of slices of bulbs. I have not had cases of rotting of the bulbs on the cut. If you are thinking of using cutting, try it on a few bulbs first. I have a very low infectious background on my site, it’s hard to imagine how chopped onions will behave in you. But many of my friends already do this and do not complain.
In the spring, at the very beginning of May, I make grooves with a depth of 5-7 cm with a flat cutter. I make three grooves on a narrow (50 cm) bed. I sprinkle the grooves with a small amount of ash. I plant the bulbs in a checkerboard pattern, with a distance of 15-30 cm in a row, depending on the variety. Some varieties are genetically predisposed to produce large bulbs and a powerful feather, others are more modest.
I stick the bulbs into the grooves so that the upper edge of the bulb is 2-3 cm lower than the soil. At this time, the soil is still wet, so watering is not required.
If there is small, loose organic matter, I immediately mulch in a small layer. As soon as the feathers rise by 5-10 cm, I mulch the bed to the entire height of the feather. I arrange the mulch so that it does not lie on top of the feathers, so as not to interfere with their growth.
If the organic matter of the mulch is dense enough, then the care ends there. Mulch suppresses weeds and retains moisture well. In dry years, watering in the first half of the growing season is desirable to obtain the maximum yield. I don't use any fertilisers.
To ripen the bulbs, it is advised to rake the earth from them. I never do it. Bulbs, pouring, themselves rise above the ground. In a dry year, by the time of harvesting, there is still a layer of mulch 3-5 cm in the garden. But I don’t rake the mulch either. Bulbs ripen well despite moist soil under mulch. And in the future they are stored without problems.
I clean it when the tops are mostly planted. But I'm not in a hurry to clean it, I wait until the neck becomes dry, soft. I lay the harvested onion on a net in the sun. So he lies until the pen dries. I do not shelter from the rain. It happened that it got wet and dried several times - it is stored perfectly. In wetter regions, it is probably better to dry under a canopy. When the feather dries, but is not yet brittle, I cut the leaves, leaving 10-12 cm, and tie them into braids. I hang them on the veranda. There, the bow hangs until the onset of negative night temperatures. Then I bring it into the house. This bow does not need a special place for storage - I put some on the closet, some I place in a basket or net somewhere in a corner away from my eyes.
Then I bring it into the house. This bow does not need a special place for storage - I put some on the closet, some I place in a basket or net somewhere in a corner away from my eyes. I hang one or two braids near the stove - for immediate use.
Often, gardeners do not take family onions seriously - they will give birth to many small bulbs that you are tormented to clean. In some areas, even the names themselves speak for themselves: Shrike, Kushchevka, Kustovka. But family bows can differ greatly from each other in size, shape, taste, number of bulbs in the nest. From my mother at one time I got a family bow, without a name. Gave 8-16 medium and small onions. Of course, the onion is small. But it is stored until the new harvest, and if not eaten, then longer. Because of this quality, he was always planted little by little - "in the spring." At the end of winter and spring, onions are already over, stores are already expensive. And family just in time. It is this bow that is widely distributed in our area. Once I read in the newspaper about a family onion with large bulbs. The information is interesting. I began to pay attention to family onions in local markets. Bought several varieties. Their names are unknown. I bought a bow from Kurgan and Vologda by mail. Got something in exchange at the club. So for a few recent years several varieties of family onions have passed through my hands. Some had to be abandoned, leaving the best. But the fate of the rest is still being decided. I decided one thing for myself: this bow is worthy of the attention of gardeners.
Sometimes you have to hear that the onion has degenerated, one little thing is growing. Sometimes it happens because of illness, then it is difficult to help. But in most cases, “degeneration” is nothing more than the “selection activity” of the gardener himself. Only selection is aimed not at improvement, but at deterioration. For planting from the crop, small onions are taken according to the type of set. And the onion grows smaller from growing season to growing season.
Over time, I figured out how to get larger bulbs from any family onion. I use two methods. The first one is very simple. We plant the onion as usual. Then I look when the scales of the uterine bulb burst. When this moment comes, I look through the nests. In those nests where there are a lot of bulbs, I carefully remove the extra ones from the center. I hold the nest with one hand, with the other I take the false trunk as low as possible and twist it. I leave 3-4 onions in the nest. Larger bulbs grow in such a nest.
The second way is also not difficult. I cut the bulbs before planting. As in the photo. Multi-primary bulbs can also be cut into 4 parts. As a result, few bulbs grow in the nest. According to my observations, when using the second method, the bulbs are larger than in the first method. Cutting allows you to get twice as much planting material, without loss of yield. Not only are the bulbs much larger, but the overall yield is more significant.
The first way allows you to have a long green onion for food without additional boarding.
Landing at next year I select several of the largest bulbs - "for the tribe." For planting on food, I take medium bulbs. In my conditions, from each part of the cut bulb, the yield is greater than from a small bulb.
I plant large bulbs "for the tribe" too different ways. Some I cut to get large bulbs, some I plant as is. Whole large bulbs produce many medium and small bulbs. These bulbs, as a rule, have few primordia, and a small number of large bulbs grow from them - for food. Of these, I again select the largest bulbs for the seed plot.
In our conditions, onions almost always fall under frost. Perhaps for this (by analogy with onion) there are single arrows. Their number is small, and they do not create a problem. I do not use seeds from arrows - most are not ripe. Connoisseurs write that it is good to use seeds for healing family onions. I have never done this - yields are easily maintained by simple selection.
Small bulbs of family onions (1-2 cm in diameter) can be planted before winter. If the onion has time to take root, it easily overwinter. Once, in November, the temperature was minus 20 degrees for 10 days, without snow. Onions wintered without loss. On my site, I plant onions before winter in the third decade of September - the first decade of October. When planting at a later date, the likelihood of freezing increases. Winter planting of very small bulbs allows you to get full-weight bulbs. In addition, at autumn planting the pen appears 5-7 days earlier. Podzimnye onion plantings on my site do not play a big role, more for the experiment.
This bow can also be used for summer plantings- in July-August, then the greens are harvested in the fall. The feather of perennial bows is already stiff at this time.
Oleg Telepov , Omsk region
November 2009