Features of planting onions before the winter: after which crops can you plant

Planting onions before winter allows you to harvest an early harvest. And the body needs vitamins after a long winter. In the article, we will reveal the nuances of autumn planting of onions, and also tell you after which crops you can plant onions before winter.

Crop rotation

Perhaps every summer resident has heard about the rules of crop rotation. But not everyone knows what it is. Crop rotation of vegetable crops is an alternation of plants in the same beds. This is an ongoing, annual process.

Attention! The first and foremost rule of crop rotation: in the same place, no crop should grow for more than 1-2 years in a row (maximum three, but this is undesirable).

Violation of this rule will lead to the fact that the onion garden, for example, will be full onion flies, on carrot - carrot flea, on the site for potatoes - wireworms, Colorado beetles and fungus.

The culture is returned to its original place no earlier than after 3-4 years. The longer this period, the better. For carrots, onions, garlic, parsley, beets, cucumbers, it is increased to 4-5 years.

Characteristics and methods of growing crops

Onion Is a biennial culture. In the first year, it develops a bulb, from which a flowering plant grows in the second year, which gives seeds.

Well-dried bulbs are perfectly stored for several months at a temperature of about + 20 ° C and a humidity of 50-70%.

The "turnip" is grown in three ways: vegetatively, as an annual and biennial culture.

How to grow an annual

Large heads grow from seedlings in the first year. This method is rarely used, because growing and planting seedlings takes a lot of time and effort. But we must admit that these labor costs are paid off by a high yield of large bulbs.

For annual cultivation, such early varieties and hybrids as Stuttgarter Riesen, Yukont, Carmen, Snowball.

How to grow a biennial

In the first year, seeds are sown and onion sets are grown. In the second year, it is used as a planting material. Mid- and late-ripening varieties are grown through the set. For example, Setton, Aleko, Farmer late, Slava Ozharova.

Vegetative reproduction

Vegetative propagation is sowing with small bulbs. In this way, northern varieties of crops are mainly grown, forming a nest of 10-20 bulbs.

Local varieties of the region are suitable for the vegetative method, for example, the Kirov, Pskov, Novgorod regions. Such onions are planted simultaneously with the set or a little later (until the end of May).

Important! Planting in the fall is good because the plants are less susceptible to the onion fly invasion. By the time the fly is ready to lay eggs, a dense bottom and a developed root lobe have already formed at the heads. Thus, it will be more difficult for hatched larvae to get inside the heads.

The best predecessors of winter onions

The predecessors are called crops that occupied the garden last year. Onions have not been planted in one place for more than 2-3 years in a row. Then planting onions next year? The best predecessors for it are those crops for which a large amount of organic fertilizers was applied.

When choosing a place for planting, it is worth considering that the turnip onion does not like heavy clay soils. The land should be light, loose and fertile.

After that, plant onions before winter? For an autumn planting, a garden bed is suitable, on which tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, pumpkin, beans, any cereals, beets, mustard, rapeseed, and salads were previously grown.

After which crops it is not recommended to plant onions

Poor precursors for onions are potatoes, alfalfa, and red clover. Such a planting leads to the defeat of the culture by nematodes.

You cannot plant a "turnip" after any kind of onion and garlic, radish and radish, parsley and parsnip, celery and carrots. These plants consume a lot of organic matter, so there are few onions left for the next year.

Terms and rules for planting before winter

Before boarding in the fall, the planting material is sorted out and sorted. Instances with signs of disease, rot, mechanical damage are removed.

The selected sets are sorted by size into three groups: bulbs up to 1 cm in diameter (wild oat), 1 to 3 cm in diameter (sets) and more than 3 cm in diameter (sample). Sevok from the first and second groups are planted for growing bulbs, the sample is well suited for planting on greens.

A planting bed is chosen in a well-lit place. It is important that rainwater and moisture do not stagnate on it after the snow melts.

To protect against diseases and pests, the soil is disinfected with a solution of copper sulfate (1 tbsp. L per 10 l of water). Watered at the rate of 2 liters per 1 sq. m.

Then fertilizers are applied. For each square meter use 3-4 kg of humus, 5 kg of peat, 2 tbsp. l. superphosphate. The earth is being dug up.

Finished beds are leveled and compacted. On the surface of the earth, grooves are cut with a depth of 5 cm at a distance of 15 cm from each other. Sevok is laid out in furrows at a distance of 3-4 cm from each other and sprinkled with a mixture of peat and humus.

Landing dates

On average, onions are planted before winter from 5 to 30 October. When determining the timing, they are guided by the climate of the region, the weather. As soon as the temperature outside has dropped to + 5 ... + 7 ° C and is kept at this mark for a week, they start planting.

If the weather is unstable, the set can be divided into two parts. Plant one in mid-October, the second at the end. There is no point in planting after the onset of frost - the onion will freeze and will not rise in spring.

Important! From the moment of planting until the soil freezes, the seedlings should have time to take root, but not start growing. On average, this takes 2-3 weeks.

To protect crops from freezing, before frost, the bed is mulched with peat in a layer of up to 2-3 cm. In spring, the mulch is removed so that the soil warms up faster. If in winter the temperature drops below -10 ° C, the soil is additionally covered with snow.

Tips and tricks for gardeners

For those who first decided to plant winter onions, the recommendations of experienced gardeners will come in handy:

1. Do not be lazy to draw up a plan of the garden, marking all the beds on it. Every year mark where which crops are planted. It is useful to plan plantings several years in advance.
2. On the plan, additionally indicate how much space which crop occupies in the garden: a third, a quarter, a half, a whole, etc. For the next season, it will be possible to make suitable plantings like a puzzle. After all, it is not necessary to sow the entire garden bed with any one crop.
3. If there is no way to change the place of a culture, a neighbor from another family is added to it on the garden bed: they sow a row of one culture, a row of another. Onions are a good neighbor for beets, chicory, carrots... Unsuccessful neighbors for onions are beans, peas, parsnips, sage, parsley, radish, cabbage, radishes, chives, broccoli, kohlrabi, dill, turnips.
4. In the spring, after emergence, plantings are thinned out. Leave 5-6 cm between the plants. The pulled-out onion can be eaten.
5. When planting seedlings in autumn, it is important to properly deepen the onions. If planted too deep, the onions will sprout for a long time in spring, waiting for the sun to warm the ground. If placed near the surface, the sevok will freeze or get wet. The optimum sowing depth is 5 cm.

Conclusion

Landing before winter allows you to remove ripe heads from the garden in late July - early August. In addition, this onion is perfectly stored in the winter at home. When planting before winter, it is important to choose the right place for the garden, taking into account the predecessors.

Repeated cultivation of the crop without changing the place depletes the soil and provokes the accumulation of pests in the soil. Compliance with the rules of crop rotation helps to increase the yield of all garden crops, not just onions.