There is no such mistress who could completely do without onions in the kitchen. And in soups and salads, onions are always in place, gives a special taste to dishes. This vegetable can even make us cry a little. Doctors advise using it for medicinal purposes, and its flowers always delight nerds and nature lovers.
This amazing plant people use since ancient times. Even the Bible mentions onions, which the Israelites ate in Egyptian slavery. And this story was written almost 35 centuries ago.
What makes onions so tasty? The special specific taste sensations and pungency of this product are explained by the presence of sulfur compounds in its composition. And the tears in those who cut onions cause sulfenic acid.
If we talk about the health benefits, then onion is one of the leading places among all vegetables. Besides being rich in calcium, phosphorus and vitamin C (ascorbic acid), this plant is a real pharmacy and helps in the fight against diseases such as colds, laryngitis, atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, diabetes and even asthma. There are legends about its antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties. In recent years, science has established that onions help lower blood cholesterol, inhibit the development of cancer, and reduce the risk of blood clots. They say in vain: “Onion is the cure for 100 ailments.”
Types of onions
Depending on the variety of onion, you can find bulbs of various colors: brown, yellow, red, purple and green. This amazing vegetable is good in all forms - it is fried, dried, pickled, canned, made from it flakes and powder. There are lovers who eat it raw daily. Many people like green or lettuce onions - this is an immature onion with an onion that failed to develop.
The volatile properties of this unique plant even help protect other plants.
But the group of onion plants includes not only onions. Varieties of this vegetable are very numerous:
• Shallot (or shrubbery, or family), although it does not have such large bulbs, it ripens earlier and is very well stored.
• Leaf onions - batun, leek, chives , slime onions , allspice. The most popular in the world is leek.
Growing onions from seeds per year
This method of growing onions from seeds for only one year has become popular with many gardeners. Try it and you will learn how to do it.
What is required for this? It is necessary to carry out the earliest sowing of onion seeds, while sowing should be thickened.
• Prepare the bed in the fall. To do this, apply mineral and organic fertilizers. For 1 square meter of garden beds you will need: superphosphate - 1 tablespoon, chalk - 2 tablespoons, humus - from 3 to 6 kg.
• Around the end of April, soak the seeds in warm water to accelerate the emergence of seedlings. For 48 hours, keep the seed in water at a temperature of 20 to 23 degrees.
• Dry the seeds so that they disperse well.
• Sow seeds into furrows (depth 1.5 cm), cover with soil and compact.
• Pour the garden bed with warm water and cover the garden bed with foil.
• As soon as the shoots hatch, the film will need to be removed.
• Thinning seedlings will be required. The distance between seedlings should not be less than 5 cm.
• Feeding, loosening and watering, as for growing onion sets.
• In July, about the middle of the month, watering should be stopped.
• After the tops “lie down”, the onions are pulled out. This is followed by drying until the roots and leaves are completely dry.
• Large bulbs (at least 4 cm in diameter) do not need to be stored; they should be used immediately for food.
• Small onions must be preserved until spring to use as a planting material for onion turnips.