When to plant onion sets: the timing of spring and winter planting

Onions in our family are the most popular vegetable. It takes a lot of it for cooking, plus conservation. I really don't like messing around with small onions, but it is not always possible to grow large ones. This year, there were also a lot of shooters, probably, I hurried to land. I decided to try to get my own planting material. I bought seeds, sowed and dug up quite pretty heads in the fall. Now, I hope I will have a good harvest. There is only one question left: when to plant onion sets? I heard that you can make a winter landing.

Few housewives enjoy spending their time peeling small bulbs. You can get a good harvest of large heads if you plant onion sets. Of course, if you don't trust sellers and prefer home planting material, you will have to wait a bit. It will not be possible to grow large bulbs in one season. This will take two years: first you need to sow the seeds, the so-called nigella. But the small onions that have grown from them in the fall are the sevok, which is planted in the second year. From it they already get a perfect bow, beautiful and large. When to plant onion sets depends on the method and region of cultivation, as well as on the specific variety.

There are two ways planting onions:

• in the spring;
• before winter.

Each of them has its own characteristics regarding the timing of planting.

Spring planting dates

Traditionally, onion sets are planted in spring. However, you should not rush with this culture. Planting too early in a cold, unheated garden bed can ruin your crop. Instead of elastic strong heads and lush feathers, an equally beautiful, but unnecessary arrow will flaunt there.

In open ground, seedlings should be planted not earlier than the end of April, or even in early May. By this time, return frosts should have gone, and the earth should warm up to at least 7 degrees Celsius.

When to plant onion sets in autumn?

Planting onions in the winter allows you to get the harvest two weeks earlier. In addition, the heads are usually much larger than the spring ones. It is also important that there is no need to store the bulbs. Sometimes during the winter most of the material deteriorates. But bulbs grown through autumn sowing are practically not affected by onion flies and rarely get sick. They are also better stored.

Before winter, it is recommended to plant frost-resistant varieties, the so-called winter onions. These include Radar, Shakespeare, Danilovsky, Odintsovets, Sturon and others.

So that the seed does not start growing prematurely and does not die when frost sets in, it is important to plant it on time. The daytime temperature should be no higher than 5 degrees Celsius, and the nighttime temperature should not be lower than 4 degrees below zero. Depending on the specific region, the timing of autumn planting ranges from early October to early November.

Video about spring planting onion sets