Onion-batun is popular all over the world, it is loved for its unpretentiousness, ease of care and original taste. Unlike common onions, green onion-batun is not so sharp and does not give an unpleasant aftertaste. Therefore, the vegetable is very common in the gardens, and even a beginner can cope with its cultivation.
Onion
Onion is grown for the sake of greens
Onion-baton has a delicate taste without a pungent odor
Plant characteristics
Onion-batun is a perennial plant. It is found in the wild in Southeast Asia, Siberia, and Japan. They also call it “angelica”, “Tatar” or Chinese onion. A distinctive feature of this plant is the absence of a large bulb. The fruits of the onion are oblong, not sharp, slightly thickened at the end.
Grow onion for the sake of greens. The feathers of this onion, unlike onions, are thicker and hollow inside. They can reach a diameter of 2.5 cm. If they are not cut, they grow to 1 m. The variety is popular because of its delicate soft taste and the absence of a pungent odor, which is why it is called odorless garlic.
Onion-batun is as useful as onion. It contains many vitamins, minerals, amino acids, saturated fatty acids. Only 150 g of greens contain a daily intake of vitamins C and A. The onion-batun has a higher nutritional value than ordinary onions.
In addition to valuable nutritional qualities, this plant attracts gardeners with the ease of cultivation. Its distinctive features are the following properties:
- grows in one place for 8-10 years, although after 4 years after planting it grows smaller and thickens;
- if the feathers are not collected in time, they become stiff;
- already in the second year it throws 1-2 peduncles from each bush on which small seeds appear;
- grows well on any soil, but does not tolerate both the lack of water and its excess;
- it is best to grow onion in partial shade, as in the bright sun, the leaves will dry, the arrows will form faster;
- tolerates small frosts well.
Varieties of onion
Culture is widespread everywhere, a lot of this onion grows in the wild. Varieties with the most valuable nutritional properties are used for growing in the garden. Also popular are those who quickly sing and give a lot of greenery.
It is possible to note some of the best varieties of onion-batun:
- Russian size. It features tall and thick stems, which are not only added to salads, but also stuffed.
- Emerald. It is a hybrid of batun and onions, so its leaves are sharper than others. They are dark green, juicy, it is good to use them in salads. The variety is resistant to frost and pests.
- Russian winter. Grown as a perennial, has a special value in the second year - it gives a lot of juicy leaves. Unlike other varieties, it has a longer bulb. It is well stored after cutting.
- April. It ripens before everyone else, it appears as soon as the snow comes down. It withstands freezing up to -10 degrees, is resistant to pests, but does not tolerate weeds. Gives sweet, fleshy leaves rich in vitamins and minerals. Its peculiarity is that it can produce 3-4 crops per season.
- Tenderness. Appreciated for good yield, pleasant taste. You can collect it in the spring. The leaves are light, with a delicate sweet taste, the bush does not branch much, does not grow above 50 cm.
- Baron. Early ripe, tolerates frosts, unpretentious. It gives a large crop only in the second year. The leaves are straight, bright, sharp in taste. They can be prepared by freezing for the winter.
The choice of the variety of onion-batun for growing depends on many factors. It is necessary to take into account the climatic conditions of the terrain, especially the soil. The choice also depends on how quickly you need to get the crop and what it will be used for - for salads or long-term storage. You must also take into account taste preferences, since all varieties have different tastes: some are more spicy, others are sweetish.
Features of growing onion
The most common cultivation of plants from seeds. This is done in two ways: seedlings or sowing in open ground.
A vegetative variant of growing, that is, dividing the bush, is also possible. In late August or early September, 2-3 shoots are separated from each old bush, the slice is dried and greased with ash, and then planted. Before the cold weather, the plant must take root. With this method of growing, the greens are less tasty.
Usually, onion is cultivated as an annual or biennial plant:
- Annual better in that the leaves are more juicy and tender, not very wide, the bulbs do not bite. But the crop is harvested only from the middle of summer, and when grown by annuals, the bushes are dug up entirely together with bulbs.
- Biennial culture more widespread. At the same time, the seeds are sown at the beginning of summer, the plant is watered and fed, but the harvest this season is small, only individual leaves can be cut. Shoots appear in the spring, by the middle of May they can be used as food. With this method of growing, the crop is harvested several times per season.
In order for the onion-baton to please the gardener with juicy tender greens, not to dry out and not to get sick, when planting it, certain rules must be followed, which are important regardless of the method of cultivation:
- the soil should be sandy loamy or loamy, not tolerate acidic soils;
- you need to feed the plant with organic or complex mineral fertilizers;
- the onion does not like drought, it needs to be watered on time;
- it is undesirable to plant it in a place that is flooded in the spring, because the bow will shoot quickly;
- several times during the season you need to loosen the soil or replace this process with mulching.
Onion-batun does not have a dormant period, so it is easy to grow it on the windowsill all year round. You can also save it for the winter by replanting a bush in the fall in a flower pot.
Soil requirements
Onion-batun loves turf soil, rich in humus, but not sour. A good place for it would be loam or sandy loam soil. You can plant it in a place that does not meet these requirements, but you will need to enrich the soil to get the crop. Peat, chernozem are added to the sand, and rotted organic matter to the loam. Acidic soil must be liming.
The place for planting must be chosen so that the sun does not illuminate the plant all day. You can even sow it in the shade. It is recommended to plant onion-batun after legumes, cabbage, pumpkin, zucchini. If tomatoes were previously grown at this place, the risk of infection of the plant with a fungus increases. It is also undesirable to plant it after garlic, onions, cucumbers, carrots.
It is advisable to prepare a landing site in advance. With spring sowing, you need to do this in the fall. After applying mineral fertilizers and organics, the soil needs to be dug up and beds formed. It is recommended to fertilize the soil with rotted manure in an amount of 100 g / sq. Such fertilizers are also useful: nitrogen - 10 g, phosphorus - 12 g, potassium - 8 g.
When sowing seeds in open ground, it is very important to carefully clear the soil of all weeds. Onion-batun is very sensitive to such a neighborhood, and it is difficult to weed. Young shoots are so thin, and the roots are tender, that along with the weed the plant itself is pulled out.
Landing time
Sow onions in open ground 2-3 times per season:
- In the early spring (in April). When planting in spring, greens can be harvested in summer, bushes also form several peduncles. Spring shoots appear no earlier than 2 weeks after sowing.
- In summer (in June). Summer planting is mainly done to grow a biennial. Shoots appear in a week.
- Autumn (October-November). Sow onions in winter to get an early harvest next year. To do this, wait until the temperature drops to 3 degrees. If you sow the seeds earlier, they may not sprout.
Growing seedlings from seeds
This growing method is quite troublesome, but has many advantages. The most important thing is saving seeds, which almost all sprout at home. When growing seedlings, crops can be harvested already in early summer. Another advantage of this method is the lack of trouble with weeds.
Sown seeds in greenhouses, cups or containers around mid-March. The soil is a mixture of humus and turf, in which ash and fertilizers are added. It is better to buy ready-made land for seedlings, which is enriched with all the necessary substances.
The step-by-step process looks like this:
- In prepared containers, grooves are made and seeds sown. It is recommended that they be held in the refrigerator for several days at a temperature of 6 degrees, then wrapped in wet gauze for a day. This will increase their germination.
- After sowing, the seeds are covered with earth, watered, the container is closed with a film. It is necessary to monitor the humidity, keep the container on a sunny windowsill and sometimes open the film for ventilation.
- When shoots appear, the film needs to be removed. For the normal development of the plant, the air temperature should be about 16 degrees, and at night - even lower.
- Once every 2 weeks, the sprouts need to be fed with a complex mineral fertilizer.
- When full leaves appear, the seedlings thin out a little - they should be at a distance of 2-3 cm from each other.
- A week before planting seedlings in the open ground, you need to start making seedlings in the afternoon on the balcony. At this time, at least 3-4 leaves should form on the bush.
The plant is transplanted to the garden after 40-60 days. When transplanting, you do not need to dig up the bushes - they are transferred to the bed directly with a lump of earth.
In a similar way, you can grow onions in the winter on a windowsill. The pot should be deep, with drainage holes. A prerequisite for juicy greens is a sufficient amount of light - at least 14 hours a day, so you need additional lighting.
Open sowing
To sow onions in open ground, you need to observe many requirements. It is important to consider the timing of planting, soil features, place in the garden. The seeds of this plant do not germinate well, so it’s better to activate them. There are 3 ways to do this:
- soak for a day in warm water;
- soak by adding a growth stimulator or fertilizer to the water;
- use bubbling - soaking with air supply, this can be done using an aquarium compressor.
Before soaking, you can hold the seeds in a weak solution of potassium permanganate. This will help to avoid common diseases. After soaking, the seeds must be dried to facilitate sowing.
When planting seeds in spring or summer on a finished bed, a groove is made with a depth of 1.5-2 cm, watered with water. Then seeds are densely poured into it. The norm is 1.2 g per 1 sq. Km. The thicker, the softer the onion feathers. After sowing, the seeds are sprinkled with dry soil with humus and watered again.
Between the rows should be at least 20-25 cm. After the seeds have sprouted, seedlings need to be thinned out, leaving the strongest plants. Between them should be 5-8 cm. With a rarer planting, the leaves of the plant will be stiff.
Before winter, onions are sown to a depth of 2-4 cm, depending on the soil, so that the seeds do not freeze. After that, the garden bed is leveled and compacted. To protect the plant from frost, you need to sprinkle the soil on top with mulch, you can spruce fir branches. In the spring, the cover is removed, but the bed is covered with a film: thanks to the greenhouse effect, the seeds will sprout faster.
Crop care
Onion-batun does not suffer a lack of moisture. Without watering, hard, fibrous and sharp feathers grow that dry or turn yellow. A flower arrow quickly appears, which also makes the plant unfit for food. Therefore, the main condition for a tasty crop is regular watering. In this case, the soil should be wet to a depth of at least 20 cm. It is desirable that the water for irrigation be warm.
Fertilizing the plant in the first year is optional. It is enough that is added to the soil before planting. In the second year, fertilizing is needed, preferably with organic matter. If mineral fertilizers are used, they should have a little nitrogen, as the onion-baton accumulates nitrates.
It is necessary to regularly loosen the earth, especially after heavy rains. An important condition for a good harvest is also the removal of weeds.
Diseases and Pests
Onion-batun is affected by the same diseases and pests as the whole bulb family. It can be:
- black mold;
- Fusarium
- bulb fly;
- nematode;
- powdery mildew;
- rust.
The problem is that onions should not be sprayed with chemicals, as it will become unfit for food. Therefore, you need to try to prevent the disease. To do this, it is important to remove weeds on time, to prevent stagnation of water, so that rot and mold do not appear. For the prevention of disease, plants are also sprayed with infusion of onions, garlic, green potatoes or tomatoes.
Powdery mildew spreads especially rapidly in damp, cool weather. With this disease, the leaves and bulbs are covered with a white-purple coating. Rust, fungus may appear. The Bordeaux mixture or copper sulfate helps from them. The leaves processed by them are better not to eat.
Onion-batun can be affected by pests:
- root nematode, bulb onion or onion thrips climb inside the stem or gnaw the bulb;
- onion weevil pierces the leaf and sucks the juice.
Fighting insects is possible only with the help of insecticides (for example, by spraying the beds of "Karbofos"), so it is better to prevent their appearance. To do this, it is recommended to treat the planting with a solution of mustard powder. It is harmless to humans, but pests cannot tolerate it.
Harvesting and storage
Cut the feathers of the onion-batun as necessary. You can start harvesting a month after planting, when the stems reach a length of 15-20 cm. Leaves are cut from June to September. This should be done almost at the level of the soil.
Usually a crop is harvested 2-3 times per season, the last time they dig a plant along with bulbs. If the plant is left for the winter, a month before the frosts, you need to stop cutting the leaves so that it is prepared for the cold.
Feathers are stored in the refrigerator, packed in bags or plastic wrap. Onion-batun does not lose its properties and taste for a month. You can save the stems for the winter. To do this, they are washed, dried and put into containers, and then frozen. It is sometimes recommended to chop onions and dry. With such storage, it is used as a seasoning.
Watch the video about the features of planting and growing onion-batun in the garden:
Many gardeners plant onion-batun several times a year to be able to constantly cut its juicy tasty stems. The indisputable advantages of this vegetable and ease of cultivation make it one of the most popular garden crops.