Proper processing of onions before planting is a guarantee of a good harvest. This procedure is complex, as it involves the sequential soaking of planting material in various disinfectants and disinfectants, which include salt and potassium permanganate. Their use will be effective if you follow all the rules for preparing onions and the recommendations of experienced gardeners.
Why do you need presowing treatment?
After purchase, some gardeners immediately send planting material to the ground, take good care of it and hope to get a plentiful crop, but the result wishes to be better:
- bulbs are small;
- on soft heads traces of decay are visible;
- germination rate is low due to the death of most onion seeds or seeds.
Fortunately, these effects can be avoided by pre-sowing the onions. For this purpose, gardeners with experience traditionally use two publicly available products, which are:
- Potassium permanganate (potassium permanganate, potassium permanganate). Regardless of which planting material is used to grow onions - purchased or homemade, with a visual examination it is impossible to detect traces of infections on it. Therefore, to ensure the reliability of seeds or seeds, they must be decontaminated. For these purposes, a solution of potassium permanganate is used, which acts as follows:
- infects fungi and their spores, providing an antifungal effect (helps protect the future crop from gray rot, powdery mildew, late blight and other fungal pathologies);
- protects seed from wintering pests, producing an antiseptic effect;
- provides the crop with full growth and development, as it is an extra-root fertilizer that allows the plant to deliver the necessary minerals.
- Salt. It helps to clean the seed from surface contaminants (dust, reagents), and most importantly - it acts as an excellent prevention from pests that pose a threat to culture. These include:
- onion fly;
- thrips;
- ticks;
- nematodes.
After treatment with salt and manganese, planting material becomes resistant to harmful microorganisms and tolerates aggressive environmental influences.
What planting material to process?
Before subjecting the seeds or onion sets to soaking in any disinfecting solution, they must be prepared for this procedure, adhering to the following sequence:
- Inspect and select quality seeds or seeds. To do this, discard too soft and damaged specimens, since strong shoots will not appear from them. For the same reason, remove completely dried seeds.
- If the bulbs are not allowed to feather, it is advisable to “cut” them to speed up this process - carefully cut dry husk, as it releases substances into the soil that inhibit the germination of the heads.
However, inexperienced gardeners when "stripping" sevka can damage the roots or cut the neck too much. So, in the absence of relevant experience, it is worth delaying with such a technique - subsequently, when soaking, the dry neck softens, and pruning is not required. - The sowing stored at low temperatures after planting will go into the arrow and does not form a large head. To avoid such consequences, in the spring you need to dry and warm the bulbs, adhering to this scheme:
- spread the seed near the battery or other heating device and hold it for 14-20 days at a temperature of + 20 ° C;
- 8-10 hours before planting, warm the seed at an elevated temperature (+ 35 ... + 40 ° C).
- If the previous step was skipped or there is a need for faster heating of the bulbs, you can use an alternative method. It consists in soaking sevka in hot (+ 45 ... + 50 ° C) water for 10-15 minutes. After this procedure, the seed should be immediately immersed in cold water for the same time, and then dried. This technique requires less time, but gives almost the same result.
It is not worth drying the seedlings longer than the indicated dates, otherwise they will be excessively dry and will not bring a good harvest.
A warmed onion will better take root and give less arrow. This procedure is also a good prevention against neck rot and powdery mildew. To prevent the formation of an onion arrow, some soak the seed in a soda solution, however, this procedure is less effective than pre-sowing heating.
Salt treatment
The selected and warmed seed before planting in the ground must first be treated with salt - sea or ordinary table salt. This is done in several stages:
- Humidification of planting material. During the storage season, the onion loses a lot of moisture, so it should be moistened initially - put in 2 hours of ordinary water. Thanks to this technique, disinfection will be more effective.
- Saline preparation. Dilute the salt in warm clean water at the rate of 1 tbsp. l on 1 liter of water.
- Soak. Immerse planting material for 2-3 hours in saline.
- Flushing. After soaking the bulbs or seeds, rinse thoroughly with a change of several waters.
If the treatment of onions with saline was not carried out, then with this composition you can spray onion beds:
- Dissolve 300 g of salt in a bucket of water.
- Pour the onion with the finished mixture.
- Wash off the salt from the feathers of plants by spraying them with clean water.
Such watering can be done 1 time per season. If you do this more often, you will be able to more effectively deal with the onion fly, but the land will become too saline. In this regard, the plant will lag behind in development or will cease to grow at all. Salt itself will be difficult to wash out of the soil and will remain in it for a long time.
The procedure for processing potassium permanganate
After soaking in saline, you need to start processing planting material with potassium permanganate. Depending on the condition of the seeds or seed, you can use a solution of varying degrees of concentration, on which the soaking time will depend. Valid options will be considered separately.
Method number 1
It involves the use of a solution of medium "power". The rules of this method are as follows:
- The concentration of the active substance is 1%. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare a manganese solution of dark purple color. To do this, you will need to dilute 10 g of potassium permanganate in 1 liter of water.
- If it is not possible to accurately weigh the powder with the help of scales, it can be assumed that for 1 hour it holds 6 g of potassium permanganate without top.
- Dissolve a measured amount of powder in warm water.
- The soaking time of the bulbs or seeds in the solution is 40-50 minutes.
Such treatment will help if planting material has fungal infections or is infected with mold.
After such pickling, the onions should be immediately rinsed with warm water and dried for planting or left under the film for 6-8 hours so that it releases the roots. When planting, you need to act as carefully as possible so as not to damage the formed roots, otherwise you can significantly slow down the survival rate of the bulbs.
Method number 2
This technology involves compliance with the following rules:
- apply a weaker solution - 35-40 g of potassium permanganate per 10 liters of water;
- soak time increase to 2-3 hours;
- before immersion in water, onion seedlings should first be placed in a stocking, so that later they can be easily removed from the solution;
- After soaking, rinse and dry the planting material.
By the force of influence on seeds or onion sets, the second method is more gentle, therefore there is less risk to harm it. However, experienced gardeners prefer to expose onions to a more aggressive effect in order to destroy all microbes and viruses on its surface.
Method number 3
The most aggressive technology, involving such rules:
- maximize the concentration of the active substance - up to 20-25 g per 1 liter of warm water (a solution of dark beetroot shade should be obtained);
- reduce soaking time to a minimum - up to 15-20 minutes.
After soaking, the onions may darken. In any case, they need to be thoroughly washed and dried.
Such treatment can be used only if there is suspicion of infection of the onion with onion fly larvae, powdery mildew spores or other dangerous diseases. This solution is very strong, therefore it effectively disinfects onions. The disadvantage is that it can also damage the seed material and reduce its germination.
Useful Tips
When processing onions before planting with salt and potassium permanganate, the advice of experienced gardeners should be taken into account. They are as follows:
- Soak the seeds or seeds immediately before planting to increase their chances of good germination.
- Particularly carefully approach pre-sowing treatment of onions in regions that are characterized by frequent rains and, as a result, dampness. Under such conditions, the likelihood of infection of an onion planting is significantly increased, so the onion needs treatment that stimulates the production of immunity.
- When preparing solutions, strictly observe the dosage of the active substance, otherwise its excess will harm not only the pathogenic microflora, but also the planting material itself, so it will not be able to ascend - the ovaries of the root system can “burn out” without even forming.
- So that the sowing does not rot, it cannot be kept too long in the prepared solution. Soaking time in any solution - no more than 2-3 hours. When combining procedures, the time spent on them should not exceed 2 hours. Of these, about 1.5 hours can be allocated to saline, and 30 minutes to manganese.
- Soak the bulbs immediately before planting in the prepared heated soil. If they are disinfected, and then left for several more days in ordinary water, then they will be submerged in the bacterial medium again.
- Prepare a solution for soaking immediately before processing so that it does not get bacteria dangerous for onions.
- Soak the planting material before spring planting. Soaked in moisture, the sat in the heated soil will quickly harden and begin to grow.
- If you plan to plant onions before winter, it is undesirable to carry out such treatment. The fact is that the seeding soaked with moisture will plunge into the ground (approximately in September - October), which will not be insulated every day, but rather freeze. For this reason, it can rot or freeze, which will leave a negative imprint on the plant's yield.
- The previous rule may not be relevant for the southern regions, where even in autumn the soil retains heat for a long time. However, winters here do not differ in heavy snowfalls, so you need to arrange in advance quality insulation of the beds for the winter season.
- Presowing treatment effectively fights bacteria and viruses, however, even after soaking, not all harmful microorganisms will be destroyed. Those pathogens that have already entered the seed or sowing can survive. In this regard, it is required to observe preventive measures to protect onions from diseases and pests.
Pros and cons of soaking
Despite the emergence of new special preparations for processing onions before planting, many gardeners prefer to use such affordable products as salt and manganese. Their advantages are as follows:
- contribute to the parallel formation of heads and feathers, which allows you to get a good crop and greens, and elastic bulbs, suitable for eating;
- disinfect planting material, as a result of which the seedlings develop immunity to pathogens and temperature changes, that is, they are less likely to get sick;
- they protect the soil from diseases transmitted by seeds, as they prevent the process of decay.
As for the shortcomings, the soaking does not have such, however, if you violate the rules of this procedure, you can destroy all planting material. Here are some problems novice gardeners often face:
- seed sets quickly lose their quality characteristics, acquiring unnatural softness for them;
- traces of decay are observed in the region where the roots of the system are formed.
To prevent such consequences, it is necessary to act strictly within the framework of the above instructions.
Before planting, onions need competent processing, which can be carried out using salt and potassium permanganate. If the saline solution will protect onions from soil pests, including onion flies and nematodes, then manganese will protect the planting material from fungal spores. However, it is necessary to approach this issue with all responsibility, since there are many chances to make a mistake.