Onion-slime, or, as it is also called, onion drooping, has not yet received wide distribution, such as onion, batun or leek, but its useful properties, healing, nutritional qualities deserve more attention. In the garden, he will not bring much trouble to the gardener. It is very decorative, in addition it is a good honey plant.
Onion - slime, photo, description
Slime onions are salad onions. Its taste is pleasant, slightly spicy, with a faint garlic-onion odor. A valuable property is that the leaves do not rough until autumn. Therefore, over the summer, you can spend three or four cuts of leaves.
The leaves are thick, fleshy, tender juicy. If they are cut, they emit a viscous, transparent, viscous mucus, which, obviously, gave the name to this type of onion.
Its productivity reaches 3-4 kg per 1 sq. Km. m
It grows wild in the south of Western and Eastern Siberia, Altai, in the mountains of Central Asia. It grows in large clumps in the steppes, forest-steppes, as well as on solonetzes, on the southern slopes of mountain ranges, subject to good lighting and sufficient soil moisture. Local residents of Altai and Siberia use it fresh, salt, and dry it.
Watch the video, so they collect slime onions in Altai:
Useful properties of onion-slizuna
Onion-slime is very useful, since the leaves contain 3-3.5% sugars, 40-90 mg% vitamin C, 1.8-2.0 mg% carotene, vitamins B1, B2 PP, highly active volatile. Its benefit is also that it is rich in mineral salts of potassium, zinc, manganese, nickel, molybdenum, iron, etc.
Due to the high content of iron salts, onion-slime is useful for anemia. Tibetan medicine uses it as an anti-inflammatory, analgesic.
Growing Slime Onions
Onion slime is a perennial plant. It has linear (flat) leaves 8-15 cm wide, 20-25 cm long, light and dark green in color. The plant is squat, spreading, the false bulb is shortened, 2-2.5 cm thick, covered with white dry scales.
Branches throughout the growing season, forming three or four shoot branches with 8-10 leaves in the second year. The number of shoots increases every year, by the end of the fourth or fifth year, their total number reaches 20-25, and the number of leaves from 50 to 200 per plant.
In the first four years, the shoots of slime onions are powerful, but then the energy of shoot formation decreases. Old shoots begin to die, the plant as a single organism ceases to exist. Therefore, it is advisable to grow onion-slime in one place for no more than four to five years.
The plant blooms in the second year. The flower-bearing stalk is 20-60 cm high and about 1 cm thick. The inflorescence is a spherical umbrella. The number of flowers is 150-300. Before flowering, the umbrella "looks" down. At the beginning of flowering, the arrow straightens. This quality of the slime is also reflected in its name - drooping bow.
The plant shoots late - in July-August. Shooting and flowering stretched for 25-30 days. Therefore, the seeds do not ripen at the same time, they have to be harvested in two or three doses.
Onion-slime is characterized by exactingness to moisture, soil fertility. To obtain juicy, wide, thick leaves, to quickly grow back after cutting, it is necessary to make at least 5-6 kg per 1 sq. m humus, 30-35 g of superphosphate, 20-25 g of potassium salt, and in the spring under presowing treatment - 15-20 g of ammonium nitrate.
After each leaf cut, carry out loosening of row-spacing, watering, and feeding.
Slime, like chives, is frost-resistant and winter-hardy. It withstands frosts up to 30 degrees, so it can be grown almost throughout Russia.
Sowing onion-slime and its propagation
Propagate onion-slime seeds and vegetatively (parts of the bush or shoots). During seed propagation, seeds are sown directly in the ground or seedlings are grown.
Sowing seeds is best done in the spring at the first opportunity to enter the field. For sowing, grooves are cut through 30-35 cm, in which 1-1.5 g of seeds are sown per 1 square. m. Seeding depth 1.5-2 cm. Seedlings appear after 20-25 days, depending on moisture, soil temperature. Commercial harvest can be obtained in the second year after sowing.
In the first year of life, the main thing when growing onion-slug is the fight against weeds, which can easily drown out small plants. In the future, care consists of regular watering, cultivating row-spacings, weeding.
In the spring of the second and subsequent years, the site should be cleaned of plant debris, deeply loosened. Before loosening, you need to make 1 sq. Km. 15-20 g of ammonium nitrate, 40-6 g of superphosphate, 30-40 g of potassium chloride with the addition of trace elements.
To better prepare the plants for winter in August-September, fertilizing with potassium and phosphate fertilizers is carried out.
Three to four year old bushes of onion-slug can be used for distillation (cultivation) at home or in heated glass greenhouses. To do this, in the fall, after the onset of cold weather, but before the soil freezes, the plants are dug out of the soil, placed close to each other in shallow wooden or, better, plastic boxes, left in the open for freezing.
Then, as necessary, the boxes are brought into the greenhouse or room, watered. After 20-30 days, the plants grow back, they are used together with bulbs. Productivity in this case is 15-20 kg per 1 sq.m. If only leaves are cut, then in two slices you can get up to 10 kg of green onions with 1 sq. m
Slug, like chives, is not affected by powdery mildew (peronosporosis). Seed productivity is good. On average, 5-7 g of seeds can be obtained from one plant. The most productive plants of the third year of life.
When cutting leaves, the plant does not bloom, the leaves contain less fiber, so they become more tender. They are used as a seasoning for various dishes in the preparation of salads.
Slices of onion-slizuna recipes
Slice Onion Salad
Slime, finely chop the parsley, chop the onion into rings, lettuce in strips. Finely chopped boiled egg. Mix all vegetables, chopped eggs, add salt and black pepper to taste, season with sour cream or mayonnaise.
Ingredients:
- slime onion - 200 g,
- onions - 100 g,
- leaf salad - 200 g,
- parsley - 100 g,
- boiled egg - 2 pieces,
- sour cream or mayonnaise - 100-150 g.
Green Pea Slice Onion Salad
Slice onion-slime, cut into thin strips, mix with canned green peas, boiled, finely chopped egg, add salt to taste, pour sour cream or mayonnaise. Put in a salad bowl, garnish with parsley, dill.
Ingredients:
- slime onion - 500 g,
- canned green peas - 250 g,
- boiled egg - 2-3 pcs.,
- parsley - 5 g,
- dill - 15 g
- sour cream or mayonnaise - 150-200 g.
Omelet with Onion-Slime
Sliced finely chopped onion-slime in butter, add finely chopped parsley, salt, pepper to taste, pour eggs whipped with milk, fry on both sides.
Ingredients:
- slime onion - 50 g,
- parsley - 20 g,
- butter - 20 g,
- eggs - 3 pcs.,
- milk - 100 ml.