Onions are one of the most popular and also healthy vegetables. Today on the market there are many varieties and hybrids that are grown for various purposes. Sometimes summer residents and gardeners make a choice in favor of any of them is not easy. The article will focus on the winter variety Radar. You will be able to find out what are its advantages and disadvantages, when and how to plant it correctly and what care measures should be taken regularly.

Description and characteristics of winter varieties

Onion Radar brought breeders from Holland. This winter hybrid ripens in mid-late periods and is characterized by a high level of productivity. If you plant onions in the winter, in spring you can get fresh herbs, and ripe onions in May - June.

The vegetable plant forms feathers of dark green color, having a slight waxy coating. His bulbs are light yellow, rounded, slightly flattened, with dense internal and external scales. The mass of one piece can reach 150-300 g. The fruits are tasty, delicate and juicy. They can be stored for a long time, which is unusual for winter varieties. Bulbs can be used for various purposes: fresh or processed use, use for planting.

Did you know? At Yale University (USA), the first 3 cookbooks are stored in the form of tablets. They contain a record of the tradition of the inhabitants of ancient Mesopotamia to use different types of onions.

Advantages and disadvantages of the variety

• The hybrid is appreciated by summer residents and gardeners due to the following advantages:
• high level of productivity;
• unpretentiousness in leaving;
• resistance to disease and pest attacks;
• increased cold resistance;
• long storability;
• large fruits;
• resistance to shooting;
• excellent fruit taste;
• high germination sevka;
• universal purpose;
• good commercial quality of fruits;
• good adaptability to various weather conditions;
• the ability to harvest manually and mechanically.

Among the disadvantages, mention should be made of lower productivity in comparison with spring plantings.

Growing radar onions at home in the winter

The described hybrid can be grown in seedling and seedling methods. Less trouble, of course, with the second option, when the onion is planted directly on the bed. The seedless method is most often used for spring planting.

Optimum seeding time

The best planting time is the end of summer - the beginning of autumn, a month before the first frost. When exactly you need to plant depends on the region of cultivation. In areas with a cold climate, onions are planted until the beginning of September, in warm areas - until mid-October.

Possible sowing seeds or planting seeds. When sowing sowing, larger bulbs grow, which are better stored. If you sow the seeds, then in the first year only sowing will be deformed.

Growing conditions

You should choose a site that is well lit, since the onions are photophilous. It must be reliably sheltered from the winds and be on a hill - the plant does not tolerate stagnation of moisture and close occurrence of groundwater.

The culture can tolerate severe frosts - up to –23 ° С under snow cover and up to –15 ° С without it.

Soil and fertilizer

Onion Radar grows well in any soil, neither composition nor acidity matters. But before planting, the soil needs to be prepared - remove plant debris, dig, disinfect with a solution of potassium permanganate and make fertilizers: humus, superphosphate, wood ash, potassium salt. Before planting the bulbs in the ground, it must be well loosened.

Important! Fresh manure does not need to be introduced, since such top dressing will lead to an increase in green mass and the formation of loose bulbs unsuitable for long-term storage.

Preparing planting material

If planting is done, then it must be carefully reviewed and discarded. Only specimens that have a diameter of up to 1 cm, undamaged, with no signs of rot, any stains or scratches should be left.

Planting Bulbs

Planting must be done with a distance of 10 cm from each other. The embedment depth is 2-3 cm. A distance of 25 cm must be left between the rows.

Planted bulbs should be sprinkled with soil, which in the future should be mulched with humus, dry foliage, tops, spruce branches, and straw. Watering the beds is not necessary.

Variety Care Features

Hybrid Care Radar is easy and simple. Even a person who previously had no experience of planting garden plants at all can grow it. Standard procedures will be required - regular watering and top dressing, soil care, preventive treatments against pests.

Watering and feeding

Water the plant should be moderate and infrequent. The recommended frequency of hydration is 1-2 times a week. Watering should begin only in mid-May. For irrigation use water warmed to room temperature.

Since onions tend to accumulate harmful substances, it is not recommended to feed it with mineral fertilizers. If there is a need for top dressing, then you need to use organics. Most often, feeding is carried out with mullein mixed with water in a ratio of 1 to 10, or bird droppings in a ratio of 1 to 15. From wood ash can be prepared as an aqueous solution, mixing 1 tbsp. with 10 l of water, and make it in the form of powders in a dry form.

Top dressing is done twice: the first time - after removal of the shelter, the second - after the appearance of the first 4 leaves.

Soil loosening

The first loosening should be done as soon as the shelter is removed. Carry it carefully so as not to damage the roots, shallow. Subsequently, this procedure is carried out one day after precipitation or irrigation. It allows you to improve the moisture and air conductivity of the soil and prevents the formation of a hard crust on its surface. As a result, nutrients are delivered faster and in full to the roots of the plant.

To reduce the number of loosening allows mulching. This procedure limits weed growth and retains moisture in the ground.

Weeding

Loosening can be combined with weeding. It is important that weeds be removed as necessary so that they do not remove sunlight and nutrients from the onion.

Preparing for the winter

In order for the plant to tolerate wintering well, after planting the beds, you need to cover it with a special agrofibre, fallen leaves or hay. A polyethylene film is not suitable for this purpose.

Shelter and mulch will need to be removed as soon as the soil thaws in the spring.

Pest and Disease Control

With proper and high-quality agricultural technology, Radar onions are not affected by diseases and pests. However, if the owner of the site makes mistakes in care, then the plant's immunity can malfunction, as a result of which it will hurt. Of the diseases, onions are most often affected peronosporosis or downy mildew. This fungal disease develops in high humidity. It is characterized by the appearance of gray spots on the leaves.

Did you know? Presumably, onions were cultivated 5-6 thousand years ago in China and India. And today these 2 countries are leaders in growing vegetable plants - they account for 45% of world production.

They treat peronosporosis with 2–3 times spraying with 10-day intervals with “HOM” or a solution of copper sulfate. For prophylaxis, seedlings are heated before planting for 10 hours at a temperature of + 40 ... + 45 ° C, leaves 10 cm high are sprayed with 1% Bordeaux liquid, dusted with wood ash beds.

Of the pests for a vegetable plant, the greatest danger is onion fly. In appearance, it resembles an ordinary gray fly. Its length is 0.6–0.7 cm. The larvae of this insect feed on bulbs. In order to prevent the spread of the pest, a vegetable plant is sprayed 2-3 times with saline (1 tbsp. / 10 l of water), regularly dusted with wood ash, tobacco dust, carrots are planted nearby. In case of severe damage, insecticides are treated with “Aktara”, “Fly-eater”, “Alatar”, “Karate Zeon”.

Collection and storage of onions

Harvesting must be planned for a period when 60–70% of the feathers have died, and the bulb has acquired a golden yellow color.

Harvesting can be done manually - pulling the bulbs out of the ground by the feathers with your hands or digging them with shovels, forks, or with the use of equipment - the onion harvesting complex.

After harvesting, the onions intended for sowing should be sorted and sorted. Whole, undamaged and unburned specimens should be selected. You also need to select the oatmeal - very small fruits (less than 1 cm in diameter) that will go on landing in the winter.

Then the bulbs must be well dried so that they do not rot.

There are several ways to do this:

1. Spread in a single layer in the open air, periodically turning the heads for uniform drying.
2. Place the bulbs in a well-ventilated area. You can put them in nets or hang them from the ceiling.
3. Weave into bundles, braids and hang under a canopy.

Drying is carried out 3 days under the sun and about 10 days under a canopy or in a well-ventilated room. As soon as the root collar dries, the roots and feathers can be cut off from the bulbs and placed in long-term storage.

Sevoc can be stored in a warm and cold way. The first involves the placement of bulbs in room conditions in the absence of sunlight, temperature + 17 ... + 24 ° С and humidity 65–72%. When stored in cold conditions (in a cellar, basement, glazed but unheated balcony), the temperature should be from 0 ° C to + 3 ° C, humidity up to 85%. A vegetable intended for human consumption is stored under the same conditions.

For storage, wooden crates, trellised containers, fabric bags, nets are suitable. Bulbs can also be stored in bulk with a 15–20 cm layer. Mandatory conditions for the long-term preservation of onions are good ventilation and periodic inspection with timely culling of low-quality bulbs. Oatmeal is stored in a dark, dry place until autumn.

Onions, intended for eating, can be stored in room conditions at temperatures up to + 22 ° C and humidity 50–70%. At home, heads can be stored in boxes of wood, cardboard, wicker baskets, fabric bags. They should not stand in the sun. They need to be put in a dark place.

Important! Onions for eating, in addition to drying, require trimming roots and feathers.

Useful recommendations from gardeners

In order to receive a quality crop every year, you must adhere to the following recommendations:

1. Onions should be planted in the area where legumes, tomatoes, cabbage, and potatoes previously grew. The worst predecessors for it are all types of onions, garlic, carrots, cucumbers.
2. It is possible to plant a vegetable plant at the same place only 2 years in a row. In the future, it can be returned to the same garden after 5 years.
3. For planting, it is better to cook high warm beds.
4. After harvesting winter onions on empty beds, you can plant other vegetables with an early ripening period, which can ripen before autumn.
5. Plant and dig a bow must be on the waning moon.

So, growing winter onion Radar is easy. The main thing during cultivation is to observe the planting dates, properly prepare the soil, conduct a quality course and protect against diseases and pests.

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