ONIONS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 323, 7 April 1928, Page 24

ONIONS

A NECESSARY CE.OP vegetables of the household, so if you | have only a small plot, why not grow i your own? Onions do best on a rich, adhesive, ! loamy soil. Light or sandy soils | should h_ made as firm as possible by treading before the seed is sown. Sow in rows ten inches apart. Afterwards thin out to four or five inches apart. For early sowing Early Barletta and White Italian Tripoli are very suitable, as they will stand through the coldest winter, and, if transplanted in the early spring into rich land, will make large onions earlier than the spring sown ones.

; These Tripoli or silver-skinned ; onions are earlier than the Brown I Spanish and Brown Globe types, but I they are not suitable for keeping or | marketing; having a soft skin, they | must be used directly they are gathi ered. These varieties are very mild in i flavour and should have a place in ; every garden. The best onions to follow on in suc- : cession are the Early Globe, which has j a golden skin; Light-Skinned Spanish j and Long-Keeping Brown Spanish, | which as a keeping onion and a main j crop sowing nothing can excel. In j warm climates it is advisable to only j 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, except the Long-Keeping Brown Spanish, but early autumn sowing would be advisable. A mild mid-season onion much in favour for eating raw in salads and for boiling, is odourless. The “Long-Keeping” Variety

To grow sound, “Long-Keeping” onions too much manure is not wanted, so long as the ground is naturally rich, or has been manured for a previous crop, but if large, mild-flav-oured onions are required they will be benefited by well-enriched soil and occasional applications of liquid manure, and frequent waterings while they are in full growth should the weather be dry; when nearly full grown, however, they do not need further stimulating, or they will go to seed or into “thick necks” instead of bulbing. Thej/ may be encouraged to develop and ripen 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 carefully gone through, thinning where too thick, and carefully removing all weeds before they get too big. This should be repeated two or three times during the spring, and the increase of crop will well repay the trouble. Fotato onions, tree onions and shallots are grown from the bulbs, not from seed. These can be planted any time in the autmn 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 clusters of little bulblets form at the top of the stems. These can be used for pickling or for planting again. Onions are more easily grown this way than from seed.