How to grow nigella onions: planting and care in open ground step by step

Nigella is not a variety of onion, as some beginning gardeners think. This is the name given to the black seeds of ordinary onions, from which sets are grown.

If you have never grown your own sets from seeds, then this material will be very useful for you. In this article you will learn how and when to plant and harvest onions obtained from nigella.

Variety selection

Growing from seeds beneficial for several reasons:

• varieties are presented in a large assortment;
• plants obtained from seeds do not produce arrows and are less susceptible to disease;
• The cost of seeds is low; you can plant several varieties and then choose the most successful one.

When choosing a variety, be guided by the climatic conditions of your region, ripening time and taste of the bulbs.

Unpretentious and easy-to-care varieties are suitable for open ground: Strigunovsky, Bessonovsky, Stuttgarter Riesen.

Globe, Exhibition, CarmenKabas show higher yields, but you will have to put in more effort to grow them.

Here is a brief description of popular varieties for open ground:

1. Hybrid Esaul. High-yielding mid-season onion. The heads are round, medium size - 150 g. The pulp is juicy, the taste is semi-sharp.
2. Exhibition. A popular variety of Dutch selection. Large-fruited and high-yielding. The weight of the bulbs is 600-800 g. Resistant to diseases and temperature changes. The pulp is juicy and sweet, good in salads.
3. Strigunovsky. Mid-season variety with medium-sized bulbs, weight - 80-100 g. Keeping quality is good. The pulp has a pungent taste with bitterness.
4. Bessonovsky. An unpretentious small-fruited variety. The average weight of the bulbs is from 45 to 55 g. The shape is round, the flesh is juicy and sharp. Stores well for up to 9-10 months.
5. Black Prince. A productive variety, burgundy-colored bulbs. The heads are small - 60-70 g. The pulp is juicy with a bitter aftertaste. Suitable for winter storage.
6. Moldavian. Unpretentious and disease resistant. The average weight of the bulbs is 50-80 g. They store well and are suitable for growing for commercial purposes.
7. Siberian annual. Cold-resistant, produces a harvest already in the first season. Medium-sized round heads - 120-130 g. The taste is semi-sharp. Keeping quality is high.

You can collect onion seeds yourself. To do this, several large bulbs are planted in the spring. Black seeds are collected from flower stalks formed in summer in autumn.

Sowing dates depending on the growing region

The timing of sowing onion seeds depends on the chosen growing method (direct sowing or through seedlings) and the climatic conditions of the region.

In Siberia and the Urals, seeds for seedlings are sown in early March. Plants are transplanted into open ground in mid-May. They sow directly from the beginning of May.

In the Moscow region and Leningrad region, nigella seedlings have been planted since the end of February. Seedlings are planted in a permanent location in early May. Direct sowing is carried out from the end of April.

For the southern regions, growing seedlings does not make sense, since nigella has time to ripen even when sown directly in open ground.

Preparing for sowing

The preparatory stage consists of processing the seed and preparing the soil.

Processing of planting material

Before planting, nigella seeds are disinfected to protect against diseases and germinated to speed up the emergence of seedlings.

First, the seeds are poured into a fabric bag and soaked in water for several hours. Then they are immersed in a solution of potassium permanganate (0.1%) for 20-30 minutes. Treated seeds are washed with running water.

After this, germination begins. The seeds are transferred to a cloth moistened with Epin solution (1 drop per 200 ml) and kept until the first roots appear. At the same time, make sure that the fabric does not dry out.

Soil preparation

The area for sowing, selected taking into account the predecessors, is dug up and leveled. If a lot of manure was added to the soil in the previous season, then additional humus or compost is not added. Ready-made kits intended for bulbous crops are used as fertilizers.

Landing technology

Nigella seeds are sown early in the spring, so it is better to prepare the site in the fall. The soil is loosened, leveled and sowing begins. Delaying sowing times threatens late ripening and reduced yields.

Advice. Sowing nigella on a layer of snow allows you to evenly distribute and at the same time harden the seeds.

Seeds are planted 1.5-2 cm deep on heavy soils and 3 cm deep on light soils. The surface of the earth is compacted after planting.

The distance between rows is 18-20 cm. Immediately after germination, thinning is carried out. If nigella is grown to produce sets, then 5-6 cm are left between seedlings, if to obtain a full harvest (annual onion) - 8-10 cm.

Attention. Sowing nigella in the fall guarantees the ripening of annual onions by next autumn and their high-quality storage in the winter.

Pre-winter sowing of nigella is often used by experienced gardeners.The planting technology in this case does not differ from the spring one. In winter, the bed is insulated with a layer of snow. When it comes down, sprinkle the soil with a 2 cm thick layer of humus or peat.

Features of growing in seedlings

The seedling growing method is used to obtain a full harvest of turnips from seeds in one season.

Nigella seedlings are sown in February - early March. To do this, prepare a container with a mixture of turf soil and humus, or purchase a ready-made soil mixture. Sow both dry and sprouted seeds. Sowing sprouted nigella accelerates the emergence of seedlings.

The prepared soil is moistened, the seeds are laid out, sprinkled with a layer of humus and compacted. The box is covered with film until shoots appear.

After the greenery has germinated, it is placed on a lighted windowsill. The optimal temperature for seedlings is +15-16°C. Further care of the seedlings consists of regular watering with warm water.

In mid-April, the seedlings are transferred to a greenhouse or to a balcony, ensuring a temperature of about +6-7°C.

Transplantation into open ground

Nigella seedlings are planted in open ground in early May. Ready seedlings look like thin feathers 15-20 cm long.

The size of the finished onion depends on the distance between plants. It is optimal to maintain 8-10 cm when planting seedlings.

Further care

Caring for nigella plantings consists of thinning the crops, watering, loosening the soil and removing weeds, and applying fertilizer.

Thinning

Young plants begin to thin out when 1-2 leaves appear. It is permissible to do this in several stages as it grows, then the grown feather is used for greenery.

Attention. The thinning stage is especially important when growing annual varieties.If you do not remove excess sprouts in time, the bulbs will grow small.

When pulling between adjacent plants, leave the same distance as when growing regular onions - 8-10 cm.

Watering and loosening the soil

The bed with nigella is kept moist until germination. Subsequent watering is carried out as the top layer of soil dries. Water the nigella with warm, settled water.

The next day after watering or rain, the soil is loosened, simultaneously pulling out weeds. Stop watering three weeks before harvesting.

Fertilizing

If the bed for nigella has been prepared and fertilized before sowing, then there is no need to additionally feed the onions.

Otherwise, after the first thinning, the plants are fed with mullein (1 part to 5 parts water) or slurry diluted in water (1:3).

Diseases and pests

Nigella plantings are not immune to diseases and pest invasions.

Among the diseases, fungal diseases of the feather (peronospora, Alternaria, rust), fungal diseases of the bulb (various rots), viral and bacterial diseases (mosaic and bacterial rots) are common.

Feather diseases are characterized by the appearance of dried tips, spots and plaque on the leaves. Onion diseases - rotting of onion scales.

They begin to fight the problem when the first signs are detected, otherwise you can lose the entire harvest. For processing, both folk remedies and chemicals are used.

Attention. If you plan to use green feathers for food, do not use any chemicals to control diseases and pests - this is dangerous.

Treating the seeds and soil before planting, following the rules of crop rotation, and timely thinning and removing weeds helps prevent the development of diseases.

The most dangerous pests for nigella are the onion fly and nematode.

The onion fly affects onions, garlic, and bulbous flower crops. Fly larvae eat plant tissue, leading to its death. The stem nematode is a small worm that lives in the soil and eats bulb heads.

Advice. Plant marigolds, calendula, and mustard around the perimeter of the onion bed. These plants repel pests.

Dusting the beds with tobacco dust, wood ash, and ground pepper helps protect plantings from insects. And if you cover the crops with covering material, the onion fly will not be able to lay eggs in the beds.

Among the chemical control agents used are the drugs “Mukhoed”, “Zemlin”, “Sochva”. Solutions are prepared in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions.

Harvest and storage

The harvest is removed from the beds as the bulbs ripen. The main sign of turnip ripeness is the lodging of the feather. If the percentage of lodging is 60-80%, then it’s time to dig up the onions.

Another sign of ripeness is the formed cover scales of the heads with a characteristic color for the variety.

Turnips are harvested in dry, sunny weather. It’s good if there was no precipitation 1-2 weeks before harvesting. Then the bulbs will not have to dry for a long time.

Need to know. Only late varieties are stored for long-term storage. Early and mid-season onions are eaten immediately or used for harvesting.

If the harvest time has come and the necks of the plants have not yet dried, they are trampled down to speed up ripening. After harvesting, the onions are thoroughly dried and stored.

Self-collection of seeds

To independently obtain seeds in the spring, several large, even bulbs without defects are planted. In the summer they will produce flower stalks, in which black seeds will ripen by autumn.

These seeds are collected, cleared of debris and dried. Store nigella in a dark, cool and dry place. The germination rate of ripened seeds, subject to proper storage, is 80-90%.

Advice from experienced gardeners

The key to successfully growing onions from seeds is a competent choice of planting material. Experienced gardeners recommend taking into account the following criteria:

1. Maturation terms. Early onions ripen in 3 months, mid-ripening ones in 4, and late ones in 4.5-5 months.
2. Head size. Depending on the chosen variety, the size of a ripe bulb can be from 50 g (small-fruited) to 500-600 g (large-fruited).
3. Taste qualities. According to taste, varieties are divided into spicy, semi-sharp and sweet. Spicy and semi-sharp ones are good for preparations and soups, sweet ones are good for salads.
4. Number of primordia in the nest. Onions can be low-budded (1-2 bulbs in a nest) and multi-budded (up to 5-6 heads in one nest).
5. Before purchasing seeds, carefully read the information on the package. Save it after planting and be sure to note where each variety is planted.

Following these recommendations will help you choose the optimal variety, taking into account personal preferences and growing conditions.

Conclusion

Planting and caring for nigella onions in open ground is a completely accessible procedure for every gardener. Growing from seed makes it possible to select a variety taking into account your own taste preferences and climatic conditions of the growing region. And if you plant annual varieties, you can get a full harvest in one season.