Mid-season onion variety with good frost tolerance “Chalcedony”

Chalcedony is an onion variety that ripens quickly and produces a good harvest. In one season, you can collect a total of up to 5.5 kg from one bed. It is usually sown in April, and the bulbs are harvested in late July - August. Most vegetable growers prefer this variety due to its good keeping quality and adaptability to any climatic conditions.

In this article you will find the characteristics of the Chalcedony onion variety, a description of methods of growing from seeds through seedlings and direct sowing into the ground, as well as reviews about it and advice from experienced gardeners.

Description of the variety

This mid-early variety of onions for the table and forcing with a sharp taste of the heads, mainly for commercial purposes. The authorship belongs to Moldovan breeders.

Origin and development

The birthplace of Chalcedony is the Republic of Moldova. It was developed by specialists from the Pridnestrovian Research Institute of Agriculture, and was included in the Russian state register in 1993. Growing areas: middle zone, central and southern parts of Russia, Moldova, Ukraine.

Chemical composition, trace elements, vitamins and beneficial properties

Onion contains folic acid (up to 8%), essential oils (10-11%), carotene. Vitamin PP in this onion variety is 0.2 mg, and vitamin C is 10 mg. There is also a lot of vitamin B1, B2, B6 in onion heads. And the onion peel contains about 17 microelements useful for the human body.

Ripening period

The variety is mid-season. The ripening period is approximately 110 days – 3.5 months after the appearance of the first shoots, you can harvest.

Productivity

This onion variety is famous for its high yield - from 1 sq. sq. m harvest from 3 to 8 kg. Weight of bulbs – from 90 to 130 g.

Reference. Bulbs grow well in one summer season, both when sowing seeds in a garden bed and when grown in seedlings.

Disease resistance

Variety susceptible to cervical rot and peronosporosis, as well as attacks from insects such as onion fly, stem nematodes and thrips.

Characteristics of the bulb, description of appearance, taste

The plant is an annual plant with a large turnip. The color of the bulb is copper, white in cross section. Sometimes her dimensions reach a diameter of 15 cm, and weight – 130 g. The green feather is from 16 to 45 cm high, juicy and not too bitter. The vegetable prefers fertile soil and abundant watering. Not afraid of frost, light-loving and unpretentious in care.

Regions for cultivation and climate requirements

Sow this vegetable possible in any region of Russia with a temperate climate. But the southern regions, where there is a lot of light and warmth, are best suited for it, in particular the North Caucasus and Lower Volga regions of Russia. Chalcedony ripens well in Ukraine and Moldova.

Important! In the south, Chalcedony can be planted directly in the garden bed. In colder regions, as well as in central Russia, it is planted using seedlings. In the latter case, the vegetable does not go to seed and has time to ripen even in a cold climate.

Advantages and disadvantages, differences from other varieties

The advantages of Chalcedony onion are obvious:

1. Almost the entire harvest (93%) is stored for a long time.
2. Dense plantings do not affect the high yield of the crop - 90% of good, mature bulbs.
3. The seeds of the plant can germinate even at a temperature of +3°C.For many onion varieties, this temperature is detrimental. Plants tolerate dry summers well, although they require systematic watering.
4. Has immunity to many diseases.

Lack of need for regular care and watering after the appearance of the first shoots during the first month and a half.

Features of planting and growing

Chalcedony needs fertile soil and plenty of light. The culture loves moisture, but does not tolerate stagnation of water at the roots.

Preparing for landing

Chalcedony grown both by planting sets directly into the ground and by seedlings.

With the seed method The seeds are poured onto paper and sorted. Those that are too small and damaged are thrown away. Further seeds place on a saucer, cover with gauze and add a weak solution of potassium permanganate. After 1-2 days, the seeds are washed in clean water and dried.

For growing seedlings It is necessary to stock up on fertilized soil. The prepared seedlings are placed in the soil and lightly sprinkled with earth. Until April, the seedlings are placed in a warm, well-lit place indoors.

Attention! In cloudy weather, onions need additional lighting with fluorescent lamps. It is advisable to ensure that there are no drafts in the room.

Soil requirements

For Chalcedony the land on the site should be prepared in advance, in the fall. Before digging the soil, you can add fertilizers to it - humus and compost (4-6 kg per 1 sq. m). You can also use wood ash - 300 g per 1 sq. m.

This type of onion does not tolerate acidic soils. Soil acidity should be close to neutral (6.4-7.9).

It is important to pay attention to predecessors Chalcedony. It is better to sow it after crops that have received a large amount of organic fertilizer.These can be cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkin.

Reference. For good germination of the vegetable and its successful ripening, it is not recommended to plant the crop in the same place for four years.

Dates, scheme and rules of planting

The plant is light-loving, so choose a planting site in an open, sunny area. Previously compost, humus or ash solution is added to the ground. Then they carefully dig it up, loosen it and make holes about 2-4 cm deep. The heads are placed there at a distance of 7-10 cm.

Sowing scheme – 5x25 cm, seeds are lowered to a depth of 10-15 mm.

Nuances of care

Plant produces green feathers at air temperatures not lower than +14…+26°С and abundant regular watering. However, it can be planted in open ground at +15°C.

Young plants can easily tolerate frosts down to -8°C and heat up to +35°C. But when grown in open areas, they require careful care at first.

Too dense plantings need to be thinned out and at the same time pull out the excess onions from the ground along with the roots. It is also advisable to loosen the soil every time you weed. In an area with Chalcedony, accumulation of melt or rainwater is undesirable.

Watering mode

Outdoors on hot days watered once a week, on cloudy days you don’t have to water at all.

Immediately after planting Chalcedony in open ground, almost throughout June, it is necessary to moisten the soil once every 7 days (9-11 liters per 1 sq. m), and in the first half of July, slightly reduce the amount of liquid to 7-9 liters per 1 sq. m. m.

Attention! Watering should be done at the root to avoid damaging the feathers. It is best to use water that has been left in the sun for this purpose.

Loosening the soil and weeding

Weed the vegetable already when the first shoots appear. To protect the ripening bulbs from mechanical damage, this is done manually. Loosening and weeding are carried out in parallel with watering the plant.

Top dressing

Fertilizing the crop start when feathers reach 10 cm. Fertilize the onions twice with a break of 14 days. Mineral fertilizers, as well as nitrogen and potassium supplements, are suitable for growing vegetables.

During ripening, the bulbs can be fed at the root with the preparation “Agricola for onions and garlic” or “Effecton-O”. The break between feedings is 12 days.

Reference. Before planting onions in a permanent place, it is not recommended to add fresh manure to the soil. Such additives will lead to abundant growth of green mass and deplete the bulbous heads. Turnips may ripen small and diseases will occur.

Disease and pest control

The variety is susceptible to neck rot and peronospora (downy mildew). To avoid rotting, when weeding, plantings are thinned out and the vegetables are not allowed to be flooded with water.. In order to disease prevention The ground in the area is sprinkled with chalk, and rotten onions are dug up and burned.

To prevent downy mildew (spots on leaves) onions are planted in well-lit areas. To combat it, spray with a 1% solution of Bordeaux mixture. “Polycarbacin” (40 g of product per 10 liters of water) and “Arceride” (30 g per 10 liters of water) also help.

Which insect pests can destroy crops Chalcedony:

1. Stem nematode. When infected, the bulb begins to deteriorate and gradually turns into dust. The pest can destroy up to 70% of plantings and spoil the harvest. It penetrates the storage and crawls from infected heads to healthy ones.
2. Onion fly. When damaged by insect larvae, the stems dry out, and the heads become soft and emit an unpleasant odor.
3. Tobacco thrips. The insect settles in the leaf axils. Later, whitish spots appear on the onion stem. Gradually the stems turn yellow and dry out. The bulbs become small and do not develop. Pests, along with the harvested onion harvest, end up in the vegetable storage facility, where they continue to eat the bulbs.

To combat insects, it is necessary to disinfect seeds and sets Before planting, carefully dig up the area, observe crop rotation.

Onion flies can be destroyed using chemicals such as “Aktara”, “Sochva”, “Alatar”, and folk remedies. For example, plantings are dusted with ash: every two weeks they are sprinkled between rows on moist soil and the ash is lightly sprinkled with earth on top.

To avoid tobacco thrips infection, it is important to pull out weeds in a timely manner, dig up the area deeply, alternate vegetable crops in the garden and not sow onions in infected areas and in the same areas for four years.

To combat stem nematode the ground is treated with saline solution: 2 tbsp. l. salt per 10 liters of water. The garden is watered with this infusion several times a season.

Karate Zeon and Fastak are used against tobacco thrips.

In the spring, to prevent infection of the crop, oil radish and white mustard are sown in the future onion plot. Then, when these plants bloom, carefully dig up the soil. You can also cope with pests if you add urea to the ground before planting onions (500 kg per 1 hectare of area).

Difficulties in growing

It is necessary to take care of the land for Chalcedony in time. It is important that there is enough sulfur in it. For this purpose the soil is fertilized with potassium sulfate and ammonium sulfate. It is also necessary to pour liquid into the grooves when watering the plant, and not by sprinkling. Otherwise, plants run the risk of developing downy mildew.

Harvest and storage

Optimal collection time ripe onions - from late July to mid September, three months after landing.

How and when to collect

Readiness for harvesting will be shown by the following signs::

• the bulb head has acquired a copper-brown color;
• the neck of the feather began to dry out and become thinner;
• almost all the feathers have dried out and turned yellow;
• stems spread along the ground.

In summer, in dry weather, it is advisable to immediately After harvesting, place the bulbs to dry in the sun in a week. Then you should put them under a shed to ripen for a few more days and only after that take them to the basement or barn for storage.

Important! After harvesting from the garden bed, the green feather of the bulbs is cut off, leaving a stump of 3 cm.

Storage features and keeping quality of the variety

The preservation of the bulbs depends on many reasons, but generally this vegetable tolerates winter well. To keep the bulbous heads as long as possible, the following rules must be followed:

1. They should be stored dried or completely dried. Do not put the bulbs in thick plastic bags - a greenhouse effect will appear and bacteria will develop. An old proven method is to braid the bulbous stems and hang them up.
2. Before storing, you must carefully inspect the vegetables and discard damaged ones.
3. In city apartments, the storage place for vegetables is a loggia, pantry, or balcony. The main thing is that dry air circulates in the room where the onions are stored, the humidity is no higher than 50-75%, the temperature does not rise above +25°C and does not fall below -5°C.

Tips and reviews from experienced gardeners

Useful Tips will be useful even for experienced vegetable growers.

Nikolay, Krivoy Rog: “Even in the first year of cultivation, I noticed that Chalcedony loves moist soil, but not too wet. After the summer rains, when the bulbs were already gaining mass, I tried to loosen the soil on the bulb ridge immediately after the rain. Thus, the moisture was retained longer, and the harvest was pleased with large and high-quality bulbs".

Love, Chernigov: “It so happened that my Chalcedony was attacked by tobacco thrips. The next year, I decided to calcine the sets at a temperature of +40°C in an oven. For two days I warmed the heads for 5 minutes, and when it was time to plant the onions in the ground, I planted them. Since then, my Chalcedony has not known this pest.".

Reviews about the variety, which has captivated the country’s gardeners for more than 25 years, confirm its advantages.

Tamara, Stavropol: “I like onions for their ease of care and quick ripening. If you follow simple rules for growing and harvesting, this variety of vegetable will remain almost completely until spring. Starting in summer, we also harvest green feathers for the winter. I freeze it in the freezer, and in winter I add it to soups and salads.”.

Ivan, Kirov: “Chalcedony is stored well and does not rot. I collect very large heads even in a lean year. I also like its taste - sharp, but pleasant. Our family loves salads with it, especially in winter, when the body requires vitamin C. I first planted Chalcedony onions through seedlings, now I decided to try growing them from seeds (nigella).”.

Conclusion

Chalcedony onion is chosen from many varieties for its frost resistance - the seeds germinate at +3°C, which is destructive for others.

Even with prolonged cooling, Chalcedony retains its taste. In addition, it is stored for a long time and is easy to care for.