Chalcedony onion and care

Onions Chalcedony is a precocious and high-yielding variety. It is unpretentious, can grow in any conditions. You can plant a plant with seeds or seeds. You can breed onions both for your own needs and for commercial purposes. This variety has been receiving excellent reviews for more than a year.

Chalcedony onion

Variety characteristics

Characteristics of the onion Chalcedony variety is small which differs from other varieties, however, it is quite popular, because grow it oh easy, you can get a turnip and a tasty juicy feather in 2 years. In the south, a large bulb grows in a single season even from seeds.

Here is the onion Chalcedony variety description:

• Turnip large, can have a diameter of up to 15 cm.
• Bulb weight – up to 150 g.
• Bulb shape is round.
• The pulp is plump, juicy with a pungent taste.
• The color of the pulp is white.
• The husk is light brown in color with a bronze tint.
• The feather grows to a height of 16 cm, juicy, without a taste of bitterness.
• Productivity – 7-8 kg per 1 sq. km. m beds.

Another characteristic mentioned in the description of the onion variety Chalcedony is early ripening. Already in mid-August, you can harvest. Seeds can sprout at fairly low temperatures.Greens develop best at 18-20 ° C. It is better to consider how Chalcedony looks, you can in the photo. Composition of onions without features. It has a lot of vitamin C, minerals, iron, as in other varieties of this agricultural crop.

Preparing the beds for onions

Onions Chalcedony is not too whimsical. It grows best on fertilized soil after zucchini, pumpkin, tomato, potato, cucumber, cabbage. Do not plant it after garlic, carrots, corn. Also, you can not plant crops twice in the same place. The landing site is chosen on a hill so that water does not stagnate, the onion does not like waterlogging.

The garden bed needs to be prepared in the fall. The earth is well dug up, weeds are removed and fertilizers are applied. It is best to dig in compost or humus, 3-4 buckets per 1 meter of beds. In the spring, a few days before planting, the soil can be re-fertilized. To do this, make:

• Humus – 2-3 buckets.
• Superphosphate – 20-30 g.
• Wood ash – 1 cup.

If you plan to grow onions to distill the pen, you need to add saltpeter to the soil. The bed is made high, it is best to raise it 15-20 cm above ground level. In wetlands, the height is up to 25 cm. After fertilizing, the earth is well dug up, roots and weed stems are removed, then the soil is cultivated, and if necessary, watered.

Growing from seeds

In the first year, it is worth growing onions Chalcedony from seeds. Chernushka is much cheaper than sevok. Sowing and caring for plants is simple. After a year, you can get full-fledged planting material for further breeding and growing turnips.

Preparing seeds

If you buy seeds in a specialized store, you can immediately plant them in priming. When buying on the market or self-procurement, it is better to prepare them. The process consists of the following stages:

• First, the onion seeds of Chalcedony are soaked for half an hour in a solution of potassium permanganate.
• Soak the seeds for a day in warm water.
• Next stage – treatment with growth stimulants.
• For sowing to be as successful as possible, germinate the seeds on a saucer with gauze for 5-6 days, changing the water daily.

Prepared seeds can be planted as in open ground, and in containers for seedlings. For planting at home, buy a soil mixture for vegetable plants and add 30% of river sand to it. You can prepare the soil yourself by mixing equal parts of peat, sand and plain earth from the garden.

Planting seeds

It is best if the seeds are planted in a container with cells. 3-4 seeds are planted in one hole to a depth of 0.5 cm. When the seedlings rise, it is convenient to pull it out of the container and transplant it into the garden.To do this, they dig holes in the bed 3-4 cm deep at a distance of about 7-6 cm from each other. It is advisable to pour a little water at the bottom of the holes, then plant each onion separately in them.

Seedlings begin to grow in early March. If seeds are planted directly in open soil, then its term is the beginning of April. A bed is pushed and grooves dig in it. Their depth is 2-3 cm, the size of the gaps between the rows is 20-25 cm. You can pour white river sand on the bottom of the grooves so that the seeds are better visible. Sow them to a depth of 2.5-2 cm and 2-3 cm in the distance from each other. Germination of the variety is not very high, because such a heap sowing justifies itself.

Planting sowing

Planting and growing from seeds in the first year allows you to get a good feather, but in the temperate zone when growing from seeds, it is unlikely to be able to immediately collect good turnips. The main crop of the first year is onion sets. It is dried and put into storage, and the next year it is planted in the garden. Pre-sowing grown from seeds should be prepared. Do it like this:

• The ends are cut off, leaving 2-3 cm.
• Soak the bulbs in a solution of potassium permanganate for 30-40 minutes.
• Soak the bulbs 10 hours at a temperature of 40-50 ° C (pour water or put in the oven).
• If this is not possible, just leave the onions in the room for several days, at a temperature of 20-25 ° C.

Chalcedony onion is planted in late March.If you plan to grow under a film or in a greenhouse, you can plant the plant in March. The bed is prepared in the same way as when planting seeds. Bulbs are deepened into the soil by 3-4 cm. The distance between them should be 6-7 cm, and between the rows – 20-25 cm. You can plant onions both in the prepared grooves and in the pits. Watering is necessary when it is dry outside.

Onion Care

To get a good harvest, Chalcedony should be properly looked after. If you plan to grow it on greens, you should not rush to cut the feather: this can affect the ripening of the bulb. Fertilizer is applied twice. The first time – after the appearance of 2-3 leaves. It is necessary to water the plants with mullein, diluted in a ratio of 1:10 with water. The second time – 20 days after the first feeding. Potassium fertilizers, urea and superphosphate are added to the soil.

The characterization of the onion Chalcedony says that he does not like overflow, so you need to moisten the soil as necessary. In July, watering is completely stopped so that turnips do not get too much fluid and rot in the winter. After watering, the soil should be loosened. Weeding is done several times during the season. When weed is overgrown, the yield of the Chalcedony variety falls by half. Most often, Chalcedony suffers from the following misfortunes:

• Onion moth.Small caterpillars of this insect live on the back of the leaves, can easily destroy the entire crop. Collect pests manually or treat bushes with insecticides. The carrot that grows on the adjacent bed “fights” onion moths well.
• Onion fly. The bush affected by this insect withers, turns yellow and eventually dies. To destroy the fly, use tincture of dry tobacco and soap (180 g of tobacco leaves, 1 tbsp. L. Soap chips per 10 l of boiling water). Prepared insecticides are also effective.
• Stem nematodes. Roundworms that lead to the death of a plant. For prophylaxis, seeds and seeds are treated with a salt solution before planting. The same solution can be sprayed on the affected plants.
• Rot on the neck. It occurs with too intense watering or in rainy summers. Can completely destroy bulbs. To overcome the disease, the soil around the planting is sprinkled with chalk or wood ash.
• Peronosporosis. Fungal disease, which is manifested by bright greenish spots on the leaves. Over time, they become gray. You can prevent the disease if you plant onion chalcedony in a sunny place.

Proper care can prevent all diseases, especially since the variety is quite resistant to them. It is very important to thin out plantings in time: first 3-4 cm is left between the plants, then 6-7 cm. Then the bulbs are large, and diseases and pests affect the sowing less often.

Harvesting onions

As you can see, it is easy to grow Chalcedony onion from seeds or sevk. A very important point is the harvest. If held incorrectly, turnips in winter will be poorly stored, part of the crop will be lost. No later than 20 days before the proposed collection, you need to stop watering and top dressing. You should start digging the bulbs when the feather is completely dry.

Harvesting time for the Chalcedony onion variety begins in August. It is best to choose a warm day without rain. The ideal air temperature is 25 ° C, but you can remove the bow from the garden even at a lower one. The bulbs are carefully dug up so as not to damage the roots (first of all, if it is sowing), then they are laid out on a litter and dried in the sun. At night they transfer the onions under cover. If the weather is rainy, you can dry the bow on the veranda, balcony or attic.

According to the description of the bow, Chalcedony has a good keeping quality. It is best to store it in pigtails. You can carefully trim the ends, fold the turnips into paper bags and put them on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. The Chalcedony onion variety is also well stored in nets, suspended in a dry basement or cool pantry.