ONIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 October 1939, Page 3

ONIONS

INDISPENSIBLE VEGETABLE. The onion is a native of Central Asia and like its cousin the leek it has been cultivated from the earliest days. It is really a bud, with the succulent leaves wrapped round one another, the outer and protective ones being thin and papery. As a vegetable, the onion is indispensable. In the very young stage it is used in salads; half-grown it can be used for flavouring, and when fully grown it can be stored away for the winter. Unlike most crops, the onion can be grown year after year in the same, position, provided it is deeply dug and well manured in the autumn and the surface left rough during the winter. Now the surface should be forked over, all lumps broken up, and the surface made fine and level with the rake. Onions like a firm soil, and unless it is wet and sticky it should bo tramped or rolled all over before sowing. The drills can bo drawn 10 to 12 inches apart, about half an inch deep, and the seed sown fairly thickly. While preparing the bed, give a dressing of lime and soot and dressings of soot at intervals of a fortnight throughout the growing season will be appreciated by this crop. Thinning should be done if the seedlings are too thick, but as a rule the serious thinning is done when the seedlings are large, enough to be used in salads. Tho final distance is from four to six inches apart in the rows. Onions are sometimes sown in the autumn on a well-drained border and the seedlings transplanted into rows at about six inches apart in tho spring. When transplanting, take care to keep the base of the stem as near the surface as possible. For large bulbs, Ailsa Craig is sown, but for ordinary crops Brown Spanish or James Keening would be suitable.