THE ONION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 February 1941, Page 9

THE ONION

SOME GROWING HINTS. The onion in its various forms, shallots, garlic, and chives, are all members of the Allium family, and all arc very useful vegetables. The onion is the most popular of the family, and is appreciated by everyone. Il is one of the exceptions among vegetables, in that it can be grown successfully in the same position for years provided the soil is deeply cultivated in the autumn, liberally manured, and left rough and exposed to the weather during the winter. It is grown mainly from seed which can be sown in late autumn, or it can be sown where it is to grow in early spring and thinned

cut to six to nine inches apart as the seedlings are used for spring onions in salads. In Masterton many gardeners sou* Ailsa Craig, White Elephant or Giant Rocca seed in March or April - and transplant into a permanent plot - in July. e Frequent applications of soot, or an s occasional application of garden or fish s manure, which should be hoed in, will I maintain growth throughout the seat son. watering should receive attention 1 during very dry weather, and liquid I manure can be given once a fortnight. 3 In the autumn, when the plants show t signs of ripening off, the tops should - bo bent over carefully, all in one direc- ’’ tion to hasten ripening, or the half - of the roots can be cut with the scuffle s hoe for the same purpose. In about 1 a fortnight after the bulbs have been bent over, or the roots cut. they can bo pulled, and should the weather be dry they are laid out thinly to dry and turned every third day for 10 or 12 days. They are then gathered up and spread out on shelves in a dry. airy shed, or they are twisted up into ropes by the stems and hung up to the roof. The latter is the best method of keeping onions, and they take less room in the shed than when spread out on shelves. To maintain supplies of spring onions for salads sowing can be made at intervals of four weeks throughout the season. To provide pickling onions a small bulbed variety is sown on poor soil fairly thickly, and not thinned. To get bulbs for the early shows when heat is not available for early sowing, and to get supplies earlier onions are treated like biennials, the I seed being sown in the autumn in Feb-1 ruary or early March. For this sowing it is not necessary to use animal manure but a dressing of lime and wood ashes or if it can be got, soot can be worked in when preparing the ground It is then made firm by tramping or rolling and the seed sown thinly in drills an inch deep and twelve inches apart. In the spring the plants are transplanted to a well-prepared arid wellmanured piece of ground, the rows being twelve inches apart, and the plants six to nine inches apart in the rows. When transplanting, keep the base of the plant as near the surface as possible. In some countries onion sets are planted. These are small onions about 1 the size of a pea which have been raised from seed sown in poor ground in the autumn and ripened off prema-! turely. They are planted out like thei autumn-sown onions in the spring when they resume their growth and soon develop mtn nice medium-sized bulbs. Varieties to sow in the autumn are Giant Rocca and White Leviathian, for exhibition Ailsa Craig, and for ordin-] ary purposes Brown Spanish and Cranston.s Excelsior and James Keeping. 1 Shallots are very useful for providing supplies of early bulbs and also to j supply green leaves for salads m the I spring, and to be used for pickling I hey like ground prepared as for onions, and in early spring the bulbs are pressed into the ground two-thirds of their depth. They are now rcariy for lifting, and after being spread out for a week m dry they can bo stored, I away in boxes m a cool airy shed j j Garlic requires similar cultivation to I shallots The clove-, are planted with la dibber, being just covered with the? .soil at nine inches apart tn row- and| 112 inches between the rows When I ripe ihi v .lie lifted and stored libel | ■ hallo!" I'hr p'lta'n or underground onion id ! hinted m early spring, moulded u; j like the potato when growth t< «ufR i eienth advanced, and in January they' lire hftr-d and stored like •ballot- The I Welsh oj)h>n propagated by diets n I each stem which swelling ;>! the] base producing a new plant Tht-j leaves, which haw a -tror.g , flavour are {<■;■ s<-;ionms j Chives arc a'. ,1 j.creiuiiaf. which- ' provide leaves used m seanonitig I I They are divided u|> cither n .-.ut-.m-.r. i I or spring,