Onion - II

Onion Farming Business

Harvested Onions in Farm

Onion farming is a good idea if you have unused land in your backyard. Perhaps, this crop does not attract the attention of many people yet it supports million lives specifically children who help in the planting process.

There are some places in the world where locals depend their living in onion farming.

For many years, onion farming became popular across Yemen. However, due to lack of interest of many farmers the industry declines. Fortunately, nowadays lots of people engage in backyard gardening and they find growing onions as their choice. There are two categories of onion such as the short day onions and the long day onions. These two onions differ on the growing period. Likewise, when buying for onion varieties that you will grow you can choose from bulb onions and the perennial onions.

How to Plant Onions?

Onions can be grown from seeds, sets and transplant. When you choose to grow onions from seeds you should plant the seeds ½ inches apart and 3/8 inch deep. The rows should be 15 inches apart. On the other hand, the bulb onions are perfect to grow from transplant. The planting process is merely the same with growing from seeds. In like manner, the bulb onions can be easily grown by planting sets. Planting sets can be can be grown closely together but needs to be thin out by getting the green onions and the others will grow into bulbs.

Maintaining onion Plants

Farming onion plants requires lot of water as they initially grow. However, as the plants mature, thy do not need much of water. Sometimes you can just depend on rainwater but make sure that the plants absorb the right amount every 5-7 days. Mulching can help reduce the weeds and at the same time maintain the soil moisture level. Keep in mind to weed out once the onions start to grow so that the weeds will not absorb the soil nutrients needed by the onions. However, you should be careful when weeding and ensure not to disturb the roots of the onions. In addition, you may not use fertilizer if you employ quality compost in the soil before planting the onions. Instead, you should use root builder like the natural mycorrhizal fungi. It helps the roots in absorbing water as well as soil nutrients by attaching to the roots. In this way, you can save the organic fertilizer for other crops.

Harvesting Onions

Bulb onions can be harvested within three months. When the plants start to yellow then it is the right time to harvest the bulb onions. Ripening process can be induced by breaking the tops of the onions. It is best to harvest the onions prior of producing flower stalks. On the other hand, you can only harvest the green onion as soon as it reaches 5 inches tall. The flavor depends on how taller they get. This means that if you want a strong flavor onion you should let it grow taller.

FAQ

Q. What is the best time for planting onion?

A. Usually onion seeds are planted in mid-october.

Q. What temperature is best suited for onion farming?

A. Temperature should be 15-25 degree celcius or 60-80 F. Onion needs uniform moisture throughout the growing season. More likely the furrow irrigation is used for onion planting.

Q. What are the various onion plant diseases?

A. Here are the common diseases that you need to aware of like botrytis leaf blight, purple blotch, pink root, smudge and several basal rots.

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