Hello, friends! Planting onions It’s a serious matter, because it doesn’t always work out for everyone. Many people advise planting onion sets when it becomes very warm, they say that early planting can cause them to go into arrows. But in fact, it shoots if the temperature is very low or zero, that is, there is a large difference between day and night temperatures. There are others, no less important, mainly They are main reasons shooting onions - sets.

Firstly: due to improper storage of the sevka, it cannot be stored at low positive temperatures, that is, above +3º, but below +18º. It should be stored in a dry place at a temperature from 0 to +2 degrees, but not higher. Humidity 70 - 75% and always in a ventilated place. If you store in a cardboard box, then know that this is not the best option, since the cardboard becomes damp during storage and this moisture will transfer to the stored onions. You can also store it in a dry and hot place. Previously, it was stored on a Russian stove on a shelf.

Secondly: very large set, more than 2 cm in diameter. If it is smaller than this size, then, as a rule, it does not shoot.

About the size of the sets

• 8 - 14 mm, these are small bulbs, they do not bolt almost at all, but in poor soil they will grow into small turnips, or they may lag behind larger seeds in development.
• 14 - 21 mm is the best size of set for planting on turnips.
• 21 - 24 mm is a large fraction; if such a seed was stored incorrectly, then many varieties can bolt. However, if the storage conditions are met and it is properly processed before planting, then this is a good option: it ripens early and produces almost 100% of the harvest.
• 24 - 30 mm - this type of seeding is best used for producing greens, since there is a large percentage of arrows.

How to choose sets

It must be without stains dry, dense, without damage, mold. If the onion is damp, be sure to dry it.

About timing and boarding

The soil

Good predecessors for onions will be cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplants, in general, all those crops for which a lot of fertilizers have been applied. If you were unable to allocate such a place for onions, then in the fall add 1 square meter. meter about a bucket of cow humus, a teaspoon of nitrophoska, 2 tablespoons of superphosphate, a handful of wood ash. By the way, onions love ash very much.

In our area, all this has to be done in the spring, because if I do it in the fall, then everything will be washed away with the spring waters.

But if you are luckier, then it is better to prepare the bed in the fall and dig it up again in the spring.

Onions need loose, fertile soil; clay soil is not suitable for it. If this is exactly what you have, then try to add humus, peat, sand under the onion (coarse sand is needed, fine construction sand will not work, it cakes) - in general, make it moisture-permeable, breathable, and light.

In the second feeding In addition to mullein, superphosphate and ash, you need to add 5 g of potassium sulfate, which is responsible for the good ripening of the bulbs and the accumulation of sugar in them.

Third feeding- at the end of June exactly the same as the second.

Do not use potassium chloride, and stop all fertilizing a month before harvesting. In other words, let the onions already ripen in July.

After watering, fertilizing and rains, loosening is mandatory. A month before harvesting, I stop watering and fertilizing.

On heavy soils, you need to do unhilling or raking, that is, rake away the soil from the bulbs so that only the roots remain in it (in the ground). This must be done carefully so as not to damage the plant. This procedure will help the onions to form and ripen faster. Since our soils are heavy, I also use raking and do this in the first half of June. By the way, this operation can be carried out on any soil, then the onion fly larvae are not easily hatched, and the bulbs themselves calmly grow in breadth.

If the weather is rainy and the onion does not ripen, help it by simply damaging the root system by digging up the plant. 2-4 days after this, you can remove the onions, if the weather permits.

Don’t be late with harvesting; 10-15 days after the feathers are laid down, new roots may begin to grow and the plant will resume growth. Then it will be very difficult to preserve the onion. Onions begin to be harvested after lodging of the leaves of 50% of the plants. It is advisable to carry out the cleaning before the August rainy season; it is best to do this in early August, in the very first days, especially if the weather is good.

After harvesting, the onion needs to be dried well, and only then the leaves are trimmed, leaving a neck 3-4 cm long. It needs to be laid well dried, then it can be stored for a very long time in a dry and well-lit place.

So, let's summarize: in order to get an onion harvest, you need to - choose the right size of the set for planting, dry it, warm it up and subject it to other necessary processing, properly prepare the soil, plant it at the right time, fertilize until the end of June, unhilling and weeding at the beginning of June , watering, loosening, and cleaning up in time.

All the best and see you later, friends!

Fresh, pungently smelling onion greens are a wonderful appetizing seasoning for any dish. In addition to its pleasant taste and aroma, green onions have many beneficial properties. It contains many vitamins and useful minerals, as well as special volatile compounds - phytoncides, which can destroy various pathogens.

Green onions can grow all year round. It can be successfully grown in the warm season in open ground, and in winter in a greenhouse and even on the windowsill of your own apartment. It is in winter, when the body is so lacking in vitamins and fresh herbs, that growing green onions brings the greatest benefit. Several simple methods will help you tell how to quickly grow green onions at home.

Onion greens

Onions are always available in every home. Usually in winter, housewives, before the onset of persistent cold weather, try to buy a decent amount of onions, since without them no food can be prepared, and when frozen they are tasteless and poorly stored. In warm weather, some bulbs begin to sprout, and the turnip becomes unsuitable for food. Instead of throwing away sprouted onions, you can use them to grow healthy and tasty greens.


You can quickly grow a feather from a bulb in two main ways - on water and on soil. Almost all housewives practiced water forcing in Soviet times, when green onions in winter were considered an unprecedented luxury and were not sold in stores. Then they did it very simply - for planting they took glass jars of mayonnaise or sour cream. The diameter of their neck was just the size of an average onion. If it “fell through” into the jar, a circle wider than the neck of the container was cut out of cardboard, and a hole was made in it the size of the bottom of the onion. The trick was not to immerse the bottom in water, otherwise the onion would quickly deteriorate before it had time to produce greens. The bottom should only touch the edge of the water, and the growing roots will perfectly reach the liquid and feed the plant.
This method is perfect for modern housewives, with the only exception that instead of a battery of rather ugly cans, a kitchen window or balcony can be decorated with elegant multi-colored vessels in which the newly-minted Cipollinos will proudly sit. The bulbs also grow well and quickly in special containers for forcing flowering bulbous plants.
The easiest way to speed up the germination of onions is by hot soaking. It can be combined with biological stimulation methods. You don't even have to spend money on it. Surely there is at least one scarlet plant in the house. Its juice will be a powerful accelerator of the onion growth process and will help you get a large amount of greens in the shortest possible time.


It is better to carry out hot soaking and stimulation one at a time, since hot water destroys some of the beneficial substances contained in aloe juice. That is why it is recommended to first warm the onion in hot water (not higher than 50˚C), and then place it in diluted juice squeezed from a leaf of a fresh plant. This treatment not only speeds up germination, but also “strengthens the health” of green onions. When heated, the causative agents of many diseases die and the larvae and eggs of pests are destroyed, and aloe juice “finishes off” the survivors, strengthening the plant’s immunity. As a result, the feather grows quickly, and the bulb itself remains fresh and viable longer.
The water under the bulbs is usually not changed, but only fresh water is added. You will only have to change the water, wash the roots and cut off the dead ones if for some reason it deteriorates and blooms.
In order for onions to grow quickly, they need enough light. You can enhance natural light by placing tall and narrow mirrors on the sides of the window. They will reflect natural light, enhance it and direct it to the growing onion. But this method is good if natural light is rather weak. In the dark days of mid-winter, special lamps will have to be used to speed up the growth of green onions.

Growing in soil

Another common method for quickly growing green onions is to plant turnips over a bridge or sow them in a specially prepared tray with soil.
For this method of quick growing, you can use both regular “adult” bulbs and sets. The difference lies in the size of the plants and the possible amount of greenery from a certain planting area. The bulbs are much larger and will take up several times more space than sets, but can produce more powerful greens due to the significant supply of nutrients in the bulb.


In any case, regardless of the size of the bulbs, they are planted in the ground close to each other, using a bridge method. Since the bulbs will not grow in this container for a very long time, such tightness will not affect the quality of the product.
The planting tray must be high enough and stable. Usually it is selected according to the size of the window sill or the place on the balcony where it will be located. Ideally, the tray should have perforations along the bottom to drain excess water and a tray to collect it. In garden centers you can find a huge selection of suitable containers in all colors of the rainbow and choose them so that they do not spoil, but decorate the interior of the kitchen, balcony or loggia.
The best option is special plastic containers; they are easy to care for, diseases and pests do not harbor in them, and they can last for many years. You can also use polystyrene foam pallets, but they are quite fragile and most likely will be disposable. The least successful choice is wooden trays. They are heavy, absorb moisture, are susceptible to fungal diseases, and do not always have a good aesthetic appearance. In addition, the tree is prone to rot. In any case, the final word in choosing a container remains with the owners.


New containers are washed, and old ones are cleaned and disinfected. Rinse the plastic well with hot water and soda, and scald the wooden tray with boiling water after cleaning.
It is better to use purchased soil for planting, intended for growing seedlings. It has a balanced amount of nutrients, it is quite loose and at the same time retains moisture well. Taking soil from the street is dangerous, as it may be contaminated. If you still have to use just such a soil, it needs to be improved by adding sand and peat. Typically, street soil is too dense and heavy. To disinfect such soil, it is best to bake it in the oven. After cooling, it is ready for planting. Also, watering with boiling water or a strong solution of potassium permanganate can serve as disinfection.
To plant the bulbs in the ground, it is not enough just to warm them up. They need to be protected from possible fungal diseases, which spread quickly in warm and humid indoor conditions. To do this, crystals of potassium permanganate are dissolved in hot water until a very dark, almost black solution is obtained. The bulbs are dipped in potassium permanganate and kept in it for at least half an hour. The treated bulbs are placed in a tray, deepening them into the ground by no more than a third. Plant the bulbs in rows close to each other. The finished “plantation” is watered with warm water or a pale solution of the same potassium permanganate and placed in a warm place.

Temperature conditions are extremely important for the rapid germination of greenery. If you need to quickly get high-quality green onions, at the beginning of the growing season the room should be warm, at least 22 - 25˚C. When the feathers are formed, the tray with the onions is moved closer to the light, to a cooler place. Adult, actively growing green onions are not too demanding on temperature conditions; light and irrigation are more important to them.

Light mode for quickly growing onions

In winter, the main factor inhibiting plant development is insufficient light. If you want to grow a good crop quickly, you will have to supplement it with light. You can simply increase the duration of daylight hours, this will significantly increase the yield. To do this, purchase special lamps designed for plants. They emit the necessary light spectrum, promoting the well-being of plants and their active growth. They are placed at least 30 cm above the onion plantation and turned on as needed. The darker and shorter the days become, the longer the light should remain on the bow.
If your goal is to get green onions in the shortest possible time, leave the backlight on around the clock. It consumes little energy, but the results will be dramatic. You can get onions several times faster than the usual way. This is very important for winter with its vitamin deficiency.

Summer residents often encounter a situation where prepared planting onions germinate ahead of schedule. This happens due to improper storage and non-compliance with temperature conditions. Contrary to popular belief, this root vegetable “loves” both cold and heat equally; in the first case, there is a high probability that it will spoil, and in the second, it begins to germinate quickly. To prevent this from happening, you need to store it in a cool and dry place with good air circulation, at a temperature from 0 to +20 C. If the moment is lost, germination cannot be stopped, a logical question arises: is it possible to plant sprouted onion sets? Onions are a finicky crop, it is worth discussing this in detail, in order.

You should not store onion sets in a cardboard box, as many do, making a grave mistake - the cardboard draws in moisture and transfers it to the bulbs, thus unconsciously creating all the conditions for its germination.

The best time to plant onions

It is believed that the earlier you plant onions, the better. In reality, it is not the time that is important, but the accompanying weather conditions for planting. Regardless of the air temperature, the soil must warm up to at least +30 C; in unheated conditions and with periodic night frosts, the planted crop will certainly go to waste.

Planting sprouted onions

But you can’t wait too long - the soil must be moist and contain enough moisture, thanks to which the bulbs will form a strong and developed root system in just a few days. It should be added that a common mistake is planting onions according to the sowing or lunar calendar, without taking into account the size of the territory of Russia and the many climatic zones that surround it. Under normal weather conditions, the most favorable time in almost all regions is considered to be early to mid-May.

What to do with sprouted onions

Onions do not always germinate earlier, until it is time to plant. The culprit for this is often a delayed winter; naturally, in such a situation, it grows, regardless of storage conditions.

Note! If unfavorable weather disrupts plans, and the onion set sprouted before planting, all that remains to be done is to continue to germinate it, otherwise it will spoil, and right in the house, so that at least you can use the onion greens.

For these purposes, use a box with soil, where the seedlings are planted close to each other and watered abundantly. The original solution is a kind of bottle ridge:

• earth is poured into plastic bottles;
• make many holes in height;
• bulbs are placed in them in a horizontal position.

Onion in a bottle

This method of growing has a number of advantages:

1. The “home flower bed” takes up little space on the windowsill, where at least a dozen bottles are placed;
2. Onions grown in this way are easy to conveniently water, simply pouring water into the neck of the bottle, it will evenly moisten the soil;
3. It is also convenient to cut greens using ordinary stationery scissors;
4. There will always be fresh early leeks from the sets on the table, before the peculiar planting of the virtually doomed ones;
5. In cold, dank weather, a bulbous “herbarium” looks lushly green on the windowsill, looking like an exotic plant.

Is it possible to plant sprouted onion sets in the ground?

Important! Many gardeners believe that sprouted onion sets are hopeless and are simply thrown away. But in fact, it can be cultivated, and to the question: what can you do with sprouted onions, there is a simple answer - plant them with the rest.

It should be noted that not all and not for its intended purpose:

1. If the bulb has sprouted slightly, it’s okay - it’s quite suitable for planting, like all the others. After proper preparation, it will not shoot arrows and can please you with the harvest;
2. If the sprout is already large enough, the set can be grown, but it will no longer produce a turnip - the plant will give everything to the above-ground part. It is suitable for greens, but the sprouts must be cut off before planting;
3. If the onion has an excessively long sprout tail, and the bulbous part is dry and wrinkled, such a specimen is truly hopeless. No measures will help, it should be thrown away.

Onions in the garden

Before planting, sprouted onions especially need processing - soaking in a special complex solution, in which they are saturated with useful substances that promote healthy growth.

How to plant sprouted onions

Planting sprouted sets is no different from the rest, regardless of whether they are grown onions or for feathers:

• immediately before planting, germination is carried out by soaking;
• the bed must be at least 5 cm deep so that the seedlings are 3-3.5 cm underground;
• the distance between each of the planted bulbs is from 10 to 12 cm;
• the interval between the beds is 25-30 cm.

Note! Before planting on greenery, it is imperative to cut off the sprouted top, it will grow even more magnificently and intensively, but you cannot even partially cut the root, otherwise the plant will die, even if it is completely healthy.

What to do if onion sets become moldy

If stored in a too damp place, without access to fresh air, onions, in addition to sprouting, may become moldy. It is quite simple to determine this - the head is covered with a powdery coating, bluish in color. If you squeeze it with two fingers, it turns out to be soft and wrinkles like a punched soccer ball, often accompanied by an unpleasant, musty smell.

Important! Is it possible to plant sprouted and moldy onions? In this case, you will receive one harm. Fungal spores will quickly spread through damp soil, destroying onions and affecting neighboring crops.

Sprouted onions that are not dried out or covered with mold can bring benefits, and under favorable circumstances, even a harvest. Therefore, you should not despair, write off and throw away such an onion.

By the beginning of spring, onions stored at home begin to germinate on their own. If you do not notice this in time, the bulb will begin to rot, and then spoil others nearby. But from sprouted bulbs you can get a good harvest of fresh green onions. And it’s quite simple to do this: if you have the desire.

In indoor conditions, onions are forced to grow in bulk, by planting the bulbs in boxes close to each other. In the first 10 - 12 days, the boxes can stand in any warm, slightly darkened room, says Nikolai Kupreenko, deputy director of the Republican Unitary Enterprise “Institute of Vegetable Growing” for science, head of the laboratory of onion crops, candidate of agricultural sciences, breeder. - When the onions grow 5 - 10 cm, they are exposed to the light. After two weeks, the first leaves are cut off, thereby thinning out the plantings. The optimal growth temperature is plus 17 - 20 degrees. In warmer conditions, greenery grows faster, but the leaves turn out to be pale green, thin, and quickly lodging. Caring for onions consists only of regular watering - 1 - 2 times a week with warm (plus 30 - 35 degrees) water.

It is better to use small bulbs with a diameter of 3 - 4 cm as planting material. But at the same time, the larger the onion, the higher the yield of leaves. Onions grow better on southern, southeastern and southwestern windows.

There are many options for planting onions. Double layer, for example. It allows you to get 2 - 3 times more pen than usual. Fill a small container with a layer of earth. Then, having cut off the dry necks, we plant the bulbs closely, sprinkle them with earth to fill the voids between them and cover the already planted layer by a couple of centimeters. We plant a second layer of bulbs above it, but we no longer cover it with soil. We water and care for such a tiered planting as we would for any indoor plant. And we are waiting for a thick brush of feathers.

Or here's another way. Take a container and pour a 5-cm layer of peat and sand mixture into it. Then moisten the onion, dip its bottom in the ground chalk so that it sticks. After this, press the onion halfway into the ground, and sprinkle on top with a layer of chalk or the same layer of crushed eggshells. Place the container by the window. Take snow or crushed ice and cover the bulbs with it to a depth of 3 - 4 cm. With this planting, the onions begin to germinate very quickly, and the bulbs do not rot. Sprinkle them with snow every 5 days.

Some amateur vegetable growers recommend using buckets for forcing onions. Holes with a diameter slightly smaller than an onion are punched in the walls of the container (a large plastic bottle will do) in a checkerboard pattern. We fill the bottom of the bucket up to the first holes and insert the bulbs from the inside into each hole. Then we add soil again - and so on to the very top. We also plant the bulbs on the surface of the bucket. Thus, you will have a green vitamin “bush” in your apartment, taking up very little space.

When growing onions indoors, recalls Nikolai Petrovich, one must take into account such an important feature as the dormant period, that is, the ability of the onion to survive without germinating. Bulbs with a short dormant period (sweet varieties grown in the south) germinate 2 - 4 months after harvesting, and those with a long dormancy period (sharp and semi-sharp varieties) - after 4 - 6 months. Some local vegetatively propagated varieties may not germinate during storage until a new harvest. Therefore, they can be used for forcing during spring and summer.

If you decide to grow onions in a jar of water, then you need to make sure that the onion does not drown. Only the roots should be in the water. To do this, place a circle of foam plastic 1.5 - 2 cm thick in a jar, cut a hole in it for the roots of the onion, pour water and place the onion in the hole. You can forget about watering.

Onion feathers contain 10 times more vitamins than turnips. In addition, growing green onions create a favorable microclimate, moisturize and disinfect the air, releasing phytoncides.

Council "SB"

The bulbs will germinate faster if, before planting, they are wrapped in damp burlap and kept in this state for three days. Or use a sharp knife to cut the neck of the onion to the shoulders, soak in warm water at a temperature of plus 30 - 35 degrees and leave for 12 - 15 hours. Bulbs with a cut or damaged bottom are not suitable for forcing.

By the way

Almost all varieties of onions are suitable for forcing, but it is better to use sharp, multi-primed ones. They form 3 - 5 leaves from one primordium.

Help "SB"

Shallots are ideal for forcing, producing up to 6 - 12 tender, tasty leaves. Good results can be obtained using varieties of perennial onions: batun, slime, chives. The aerial bulbs (bulbs) of multi-tiered onions are also used for forcing. In 25 - 35 days they produce 10 - 13 kg of green onions per 1 sq. m.