A NECESSARY CROP

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 70, 9 April 1937, Page 13

A NECESSARY CROP

The onion is one of the essential vegetables of the household, so if you have only a small plot, why not grow your ownl Onions do best on a rich, adhesive, loamy soil. Light or sandy soils should be made as firm as possible by treading before the seed is sown. Sow in rows ten inches apart. Afterwaxds thin out to four or five inches apart. For early sowing Early Barletta and White Italian Tripoli are, very suitable, as they will stiand through the coldest winter, and, if transplanted in the early spring into rich land, will make large onions earlier thau the spring sown ones. These Tripoli or silver.skinned onions are earlier than the Brown Spanish and Brown Globe types, but the^ are not suitable for keeping or marketing. Having a soft skin, they must be used directly they are gathered. These varieties are very mild in flavour and should have a place in every garden. The best onions to follow on in succession are the Early Globe, which has a golden skinj light-skinned Spanish and long_keeping Brown Spanish, which as a keeping onion and a main crop sowing nothing can excel. In warm climates it is advisable to only plant the early maturing varieties, so that they can grow to maturity before the excessive heat of summer stops their growth. ' We would recommend all the above varieties for such districts, exeept the long-keeping Brown Spanish, but early autumn sowing would be advisable. A niild mid-season onion much in favour for ©ating raw in salads and for boiling, is odourless. To grow sound, "longky^jing" onions too inuch manure is not wanted, so long as the ground is haturally rich, or has been manured for a previous crop, but if large, mild.flavoured onionfe aro required they will be benefited by well-enriched soil and oecasional applications of liqultf manure, and frequent waterings while they are in full growth should the weather be dry; whe,n nearly full grown, however, they do not need further stimulating or they will go to seed or into ' ' thiclc necks" instead of bulbing. They may be encouraged to develop and rlpen their bulbs by breaking down the green tops just above the necks. The great thing, however, in onion growing is to keep them well weeded and clean. As soon as the seedlings appear they should be earefully gone through, thinning where too thick, and carefully Temoving all weeds before they get too big. This should be repeated two or three times during the spring, and the inerease of crop will well repay the trouble. Potato onions, tree onions and shal. lots are grown from the bulbs, not from seed. These can be planted any time in the autumn and early winter; the shortest day is usually considered the latest time. ' Potato onions and shallots multiply at the root. Tree onions make one large bulb at the root and then elusters of little bulblets fomr at the top of the stems. These can be used for piekling or for planting again. Onions are more easily grown this way than from seeds.