How to Get a Big Onion Harvest: 4 Simple Tips

Onions are an ancient garden crop. Growing them is easy, but to ensure a consistently good harvest, you need to follow a few rules.

• Onions prefer loose, crumbly soil. The best predecessors are cucumbers, cabbage, tomatoes, and potatoes. Onions especially appreciate a generous application of organic fertilizer under the previous crop.

Never plant onions after onions. Even if the predecessor is disease-free, the soil will be depleted of the nutrients needed for onions. To restore nutrients, plant onions in the same spot every 3-5 years. Garlic and carrots are also considered poor predecessors.

The soil should have a neutral acidity; in acidic soils, onions absorb nutrients poorly and there is a high risk of developing downy mildew.

The soil is prepared for planting in the fall. The soil is dug to the depth of a shovel, simultaneously incorporating composted manure. To reduce soil acidity, lime, dolomite flour, and wood ash are added.

• Onion sets are best grown from sets. To "awaken" the sets before planting, soak them in hot water (40-50 degrees Celsius) for 15 minutes, then cool them in cold water. Next, treat the sets with a growth stimulant (Cyclone, Rost-1, Gumisol) or soak them for several hours in a complex mineral fertilizer. To disinfect, soak the sets in a weak solution of potassium permanganate for half an hour.

The onion sets are planted in warm soil. Planting is usually done in the first ten days of May. The tops of the bulbs are trimmed before planting. The onions are planted in a 10 x 10 cm pattern.

• After planting, water the onions regularly until they begin to ripen. If there's insufficient moisture before this point, expecting a good harvest is pointless; excess moisture during ripening will result in poor storage quality.
• Fertilizing. The first fertilizing is done two weeks after planting the onions. For this, dilute 1 kg of manure or 0.7 kg of litter in a bucket of water. During the ripening of the bulbs, a phosphorus-potassium fertilizer is required. To do this, apply 15 grams of potassium salt and superphosphate as a solution per square meter of the bed.

Onions respond very well to yeast feeding. Dissolve 100 grams of yeast in a bucket of water. Feed the plants after watering, and water again the following day.

• There are several proven recipes for the most dangerous pest – the onion fly.

1. After the first leaf appears, water the bed. Add 1 tablespoon of ammonia to 5 liters of water. Water one square meter of the bed with this solution. The next day, water the bed with plain water. After two weeks, repeat the procedure, but instead of ammonia, dilute 5 tablespoons of salt in 5 liters of water. Ten days later, apply another treatment, but instead of alcohol, use a strong solution of potassium permanganate.
2. An excellent and effective method is to spray wood ash. Spread 100-200 grams of sifted ash per square meter of garden bed. This method not only kills onion flies but also fertilizes the soil.
3. A very environmentally friendly way to combat this pest is to repel them with aromatic infusions. To do this, pour a bucket of boiling water over 200 grams of fragrant herbs (valerian, mint, or wormwood) and let them steep for several hours.

• Onions are harvested from the garden in the first two weeks of August. A sign of ripeness is the yellowing of the leaves. After being pulled, the bulbs and leaves are dried in the sun, then ripened for two weeks in a warm, ventilated room to allow the nutrients from the leaves to be transferred to the bulbs. Next, the onions are trimmed, further dried, placed in ventilated boxes, and stored permanently.