For many years I have been growing onion sets from seeds - nigella. This culture seems simple at first glance. In fact, at first the cultivation of onion sets brought a lot of disappointments. I used to buy onion seeds from grandmothers in the market for planting. Most often, they turned out to be of low germination, and sometimes - completely inconspicuous. Apparently, this was due to improper storage of seed. With good germination, onion seeds turned out to be non-standard - very small or large.
Now, having gained some experience, I do not make past mistakes. Failures behind, growing onion sevka from chernushka brings joy.
For sowing, I grow onion seeds - nigella - myself. The most important thing is not to be late with their cleaning, because they ripen unevenly (some are only at the stage of wax ripeness, while others are already crumbling). I remove the testes in which they are located when the “caps” begin to crack. I spread the “hats” on burlap to ripen the seeds of wax ripeness. Nigella matures for two to three weeks. I store seeds in a cool, dry place.
In the spring, one of the most important points is not to be late with sowing.
2-4 days before the alleged sowing of the boxes with onion seeds, I rub them over a bucket or basin with water. Germinating, heavy seeds settle down. Flakes and lungs are not germinating, floating on top, I merge with water. I wash the chernushka, which has settled to the bottom, with water, and soak for two days in water at room temperature with the addition of a weak solution of potassium permanganate. Potassium permanganate disinfects from viral, fungal diseases, provides seed nutrition, promotes friendly seedlings. Water needs to be changed several times.
Then I wrap the cinnamon in the fabric and stand for 1-2 days at room temperature, making sure that the fabric is wet. During this time, almost all onion seeds begin to germinate. I mix them with chalk so that they differ in color from the soil, and I saw them in the garden. Everything, chernushka is ready for sowing. If the weather is unfavorable (frost, snow), then put the prepared onion seeds in a cold cellar or refrigerator until the weather is favorable. If they are left in a warm place, they will germinate, and the sprouts break off easily - there will be nothing to sow.
The place for sowing in the garden I choose open, sunny, dry. I sow in the beds, where cucumbers, legumes, cabbage, and potatoes used to grow. Since the autumn, I have been planting humus. In the spring I deposit based on 1 m2 1 tablespoon of superphosphate, nitroammophoski and a handful of wood ash. When sowing onion seeds, I use two methods.
The first generally accepted one is sowing tapes on a ridge 1 m wide. One tape is 12 lines with a distance of 8 cm between them. To create grooves during planting, I use specially made 12-line rakes, but you can make grooves with the sharp end of the chopper. The grooves are carefully sealed with the reverse side of the rake, slightly compact the soil with a plank or a shovel, mulch with humus.
Recently, more and more often I use a different method of sowing onion seeds. On prepared soil (excavated from autumn), I measure 1 meter wide ribbon beds. I do not form ridges, but simply level them with a rake. But if your site is in a lowland, the ridges must be done. Chernushka mixed with chalk is sown on a leveled, without stitching soil surface in ribbons at the rate of 10 g of seeds per 1 m2. I scatter seeds visually so that they lie on the surface at a distance of 1-1.5 cm from each other. I fill them with loose, moist soil with a layer of not more than 1.5-2 cm. Then the soil surface is slightly compacted, mulched, as in the first method. In a week and a half, friendly shoots of onion sets appear. The second method of sowing is good in that the seeds that got together, subsequently, during the formation of the bulbs, push each other away, find and occupy free space on the bed. And sowing at the same time forms the same size.
I do not thin out shoots. If the weather is dry in May-June, I water the beds 1-2 times a week at the rate of 5-10 l / m2. In July, I stop watering, as the ripening of onions is in progress. I keep onion crops clean, I destroy weeds in a timely manner.
The sowing rate of onion seeds (chernushka) of the first class is 7-8 kg per 10 hundred parts or 700-800 g per 1 hundred parts.
Signs of ripening onion sets are lodging and yellowing of leaves. Even if the leaves are not completely yellowed, I still pull it out. Immediately remove the leaves from him, lay out in the sun a thin layer of ripening, drying.
Keep onion set at a temperature of 17-18 ° C. Higher temperatures are undesirable, since the bulbs will go in the arrow when planting next spring.