Onion "Batun": useful properties and cultivation

It is very hard to find people who have never seen a batun bow. Pleasant in appearance and taste of the leaves are formed from him much faster than the classic "turnip".But in order to grow a tasty and healthy vegetable, you will have to get to know him better.

According to the classification generally accepted in botany, the onion of the batun belongs to the family of bulbous cultures. Although biologically a perennial vegetable, yet most people grow it for one year. All the subspecies of the plant differ in a clearly underdeveloped bulb and survive the cold weather well. Naturally the Russian batun leads in frost resistance. Vegetable can be found in gardens and gardens almost everywhere on the planet.

When they talk about "Tatarka" or about fist onions, I mean all the same plant. Everyday names are due to the presence of special cavities inside the stems. The bulb is close in shape to the cylinder, at the end it is replaced by a systematically deceptive stalk. Although the batun has been introduced into culture for many centuries, yet wild species are found:

• in Siberia;
• in China;
• in the Far East;
• in Japan.

Onions give a lot of stems for the second season, then it blooms and gives seeds. When flowering thickets batun attract all sorts of pollinators. All arrows have individual ball-shaped inflorescences, but the appearance of small flowers will not cause admiration. After ripening, the seeds become black in color, and they are suitable for autumn and spring sowing. The batun forms the green part earlier than the vast majority of vegetable crops, and feathers can be used until early autumn.

Willingness comes in May or June, subsequent charges are made once a month. Each leaf left leads to the formation of a stem ending in a flower. A batun can grow in the same place for 5 or 6 years, and over the years the productivity of the green part increases. The winter variety of onions is suitable for any regions of Russia, the cultivation of the plant has been officially produced since 2001. Mid-season plant produces the fruits of technical ripeness approximately 30 days after the leaves.

The “winter Russian” variety reaches a height of no more than 33 cm, with a bush diameter sometimes up to 0.95 m. The land part of the plant has a white color with a yellowish sheen, the foliage is colored in a delicate green shade. The taste is sharp, but its severity is small. The use of foliage is possible in the composition of the first dish, in a salad and raw. The concentration of substances is as follows:

• proteins and carbohydrates, as well as nitrogenous compounds - 10.5% (the minimum level);
• all types of sugar - 4.3%;
• ascorbic acid - 550 mg per 1 kg of wet weight.

The one-year mode of cultivation involves planting in the early spring by the seed method with harvesting vegetables in the fall. A perennial plant is able to give a valuable green part for 6 years in a row, after which it is simply updated. "Russian winter" - a variety of powerful fecundity. With simultaneous cutting from the bush, you can collect 1.5 kg of green onions per 1 square. m. Seasonal figure can reach 3.5 kg.

Vegetable calmly experiencing winters, regardless of the amount of snow. Allowed to cut early leaves in April, as well as planting seeds at the very end of autumn. The best time to divide the bush - spring. When planning to develop one place for several years in a row, it is worth using a nesting planting (4 or 5 seeds per well). It is recommended to cultivate the Russian winter species of batun on peat bogs and sands, but a deficit of mineral components can destroy the plant.

The April harvest is grown only for the sake of the pen, not the bulbs. The readiness of greenery is expressed in the fact that it grows to 200-250 mm. It is at this moment that the juiciness and tenderness of onions are greatest, and the concentration of useful substances in it is of record importance. When peduncles form, leaf development becomes slower and soon stops altogether. Coarse leaves become worse in quality and less valued.

If we talk about the April variety, this is an early ripe culture intended for salads. Sheets are distinguished by bright greens, richness and tenderness. The taste is sharp, on average the weight of the plant reaches 0.3 kg.It can be cultivated both in one-year and in multi-year regimes. Sowing is done in early spring immediately after ground readiness, in increments of 0.2 m between individual plants.

According to experts, the common home of all types and varieties of modern batun is mountainous areas in China. It is there that reveals the most ancient evidence of its development. Interestingly, farmers in most countries of the world have appreciated the merits of batun rather late. Even today, the Japanese, Korean, Indonesian and Vietnamese plantations of onions of this type far exceed in scale its production in Europe.

Seeds retain the ability to throw seedlings 3, with a favorable situation for 4 years.

Knowledge of general biological information, the origin of the batun and some features of its cultivation is important. But more importantly, this plant has a number of beneficial properties for human health. Although enthusiasm for vitamin C has subsided somewhat in recent years, it is still highly rated by experts. And in batun, the concentration of ascorbic acid is much higher than in other representatives of the onion family. In addition to reliable protection against vitamin deficiency, it is also a good appetite stimulating effect.

Consumption of 0.15-0.2 kg of greens of one plant allows covering up to 50% of the need for vitamins A and C, as well as 20% of the daily intake of calcium and potassium. The description of useful components does not end there. According to biochemical studies, in batun are found:

• folic acid;
• 4 vitamins of group B;
• vitamin K;
• zinc;
• iron;
• phosphorus and a number of other elements.

Importantly, the green feathery onion retains most of its "natural pharmacy" even after drying. Extracts from it have long been used as part of drugs that increase the tone of the vascular walls, reducing blood pressure. A marked stimulation of the general body tone is noted, manifestations of rheumatism and renal disorders, gout, and hypertension are reduced.

The undoubted use of feathery onions does not allow to forget about certain contraindications. Excessive consumption of vegetables can increase the acidity of gastric juice. This increases the risk of diseases of the digestive system, there is a threat of exacerbation of existing disorders. It should be borne in mind that the batun in excessive quantities can cause excitation of the nervous system. Because portions of it should not be made excessive in case of nervous disorders.

Growing from seed is not the only option; you can propagate a ready-to-use shrub, splitting it into pieces. Each fragment is treated with wood ash and dried. You can also use the seedling method, when you want to get an extremely early harvest, and the landing at the end of autumn was missed. Another advantage of the seedling option is its impressive reliability. After all, at the same time, the risk of the occurrence of pathologies is repeatedly reduced, it is possible to “get ahead” of the invasion of the main pests.

Sowing seeds for seedlings often try in the tenth of April. It is sometimes possible to do this before, with the landing on the ridge made in the tenth of June. This technique allows you to harvest in the first month of autumn. Collecting it is possible with false bulbs.

Success is largely determined by the quality of soil preparation. In most cases, homogeneous lobes of sod and humus are combined, for every 10 kg of such composition 0.15-0.2 kg of wood ash is added. It is also useful to add 80-85 g of nitroammofoski there. All this should be mixed as thoroughly as possible.

Having prepared the soil, it is laid out in tanks, whose height is at least 150 mm. The bases of the tanks must have drainage holes, and a layer of pebbles is laid at the very bottom. Its size reaches 1 cm. When all these preparations are completed, the seeds themselves need to be prepared for sowing. They are soaked for a day in the thawed or rainwater, which is changed twice during the exposure.

Seeds removed from water must be wrapped in a soft cloth. Then it will be correct to send them for 48 hours to the lower tier of the refrigerator. When cold processing is finished, the seed is dried, laying it on dry rags until it becomes flowable again. After that, you can plant seeds in boxes or other pre-selected containers. When sowing, the seeds are buried in the substrate layer by a maximum of 15-30 mm.

It is recommended to make the grooves in boxes with indentation of 50-60 mm. When ready-made drawers do not appear, they will be a great replacement for pots with a size of 60-70 mm in diameter. This method of work is called bouquet, but it requires care and accuracy from gardeners. Sown seeds cover with fresh ground mass, which must be loose; then level the surface and roll it in to seal it. Over this surface, add 20 mm of river sand, which is pre-washed.

Only when all these manipulations are completed, the seedlings are watered. For this purpose it is strictly forbidden to use banks, especially watering cans. It is recommended to use sprayers - only these tools ensure that the treated layers will not be washed out and the seeds will not tolerate. The rate of irrigation in spring for seedlings is 1 l per 1 square. m. It is recommended to take for this melt water or rain collection. Watered plants cover with a film (glass) and transferred to a room with a temperature of 18-21 degrees.

Noticing that the seedlings sprout, the film or glass is immediately removed. The tanks themselves with landings rearranged to the southern window sills, provided that there is not too warm. Best of all, if the room warms up to a maximum of 10-11 degrees. When the day passes, in the same room during the day the temperature should rise to 14-16, and at night fall to 11-13 degrees. When it is not possible to rationally warm up so accurately, you can only open doors and transom, but you will have to follow closely to eliminate drafts.

Before crops of seedlings are strong enough to be able to transplant them into the ground, you need to grow a baton with enhanced illumination. It is designed to compensate for the reduction in the duration of daylight. The ideal duration is 14 hours. The light source above the seedlings is fixed so that the distance is 260-280 mm.

So that the planting material does not just grow, but also gives a decent result, along with the light, watering is very significant. It is carried out often, but each portion should be small - dryness and waterlogging for feathery onions are equally harmful. Top dressing is done a week or so after raising the seedlings above the ground. First, make 1 square. m aqueous solution of 2.5 g of superphosphate. The second time you need to feed the batun with a similar solution of potassium sulfate.

When the first true leaf appears, the seedlings are thinned to a distance of 3 cm. Hardening is performed approximately 10 days before it is time to plant the blanks in free ground. The first step is the frequent and gradually extended opening of the vents and doors. On the third day, if there is no risk of frost, the batun seedlings are carried out first during the day and then at night outside.The transfer in the tenth of June is guaranteed to exclude the onset of recurrent cold.

The approach to planting seedlings in a free ground for onion batun does not have fundamental differences from the same procedure for other vegetables. Holes are dug in the ground, the depth of each of them varies from 11 to 13 cm. Under the aisle, 20 cm is allocated, it is recommended to inject tree ash into the base of the ridge, moisten the soil and plant the seedlings strictly vertically.

Planted batun watered and mulch 10 mm of humus. If we turn to the botanical reference books, we can find that in the “historical homeland” feathery onions prefers moist lowlands. But since in such places almost inevitably accumulation of melt water and precipitation, arrows will quickly form, and the harvest will not work. The ideal improver for acidic lands is wood ash, which is applied at 0.25 kg per square meter. m. Such processing should be made at the latest six months before using the seedlings, it can be replaced by autumn liming for digging.

When spring comes, the beds with late autumn plantings are partially opened. By removing the humus, it is required to immediately block the ground with polyethylene. Then due to the greenhouse effect, the growth rate will increase significantly. If you do everything right, the batun of autumn sowing will begin to germinate. After 7 days or so, the sprouting plants thin out.

Initial loosening takes place at approximately the same time. In total, it is necessary to loosen the soil around the batun 5 or 6 times during the vegetative season. To simplify the work, farmers can easily combine such a manipulation with cleaning from weeds. It is possible to reduce the labor intensity of work with a batun even more, using humus for mulching. When determining the amount of water for irrigation and its timing is required to take into account the natural rainfall.

To be less likely to encounter a situation when a feathery onion grows poorly, it is very useful to use top dressings. Immediately upon planting, the bed is fed with a weak solution of cow or chicken manure. Its amount should be from 25 to 30 g per well. But on the lands rich with useful substances sometimes a handful of ashes will suffice. After that, additional feeding is carried out again, but no more, since the batun abundantly absorbs nitrates; Processing should be done 10-12 days after the first time.

Cut greens allowed from mid-summer. For onions of the second year of development, this can be done already with the appearance of green mass. Stop harvesting costs about 40 days before the cold, then the bulb will be able to winter without problems. The right time to cut comes when the green growth reaches from 180 to 230 mm. It is incised strictly on the ground itself, with bundles of leaves, which are placed in a refrigerator in a plastic bag.

Categorically it is impossible to pull out shoots of a batun with a root. If you plan to get the seeds, you need to leave a few leaves, so that later flower stalks appear. Achieve maximum juiciness and a mild taste of the crop can be, if for 48-72 hours before cutting cut a bed.

With all the benefits of batun and its saturation with useful substances, this culture, alas, is itself susceptible to a variety of pathologies and can be damaged by attacks of gnawing insects. The greatest danger among them are:

• covertly (type of beetle);
• onion flies;
• root mites.

To cope with them is quite simple, you just need to do the processing of modern insecticides. Unfortunately, preparations of previous generations have already managed to develop adaptive reactions in pests, and almost do not give results. Therefore, it is worth complementing chemical treatments with such an insurmountable solution for all twists of insect evolution as spunbond and other protective materials.

Downy mildew is manifested in the fact that the leaves are covered with a bloom of gray. In disrepair, the diseased foliage is covered with rusty stains and gradually rots. Affected beds are required (with intervals of 7 days) to process:

• "Fitosporin";
• chlorine oxide at a concentration of 1%;
• Bordeaux composition;
• copper sulfate based on copper.

Neck rot is manifested at the storage stage when a thick bulbous neck begins to rot. The decomposition of the vegetable is accompanied by the appearance of a bad aroma. There is no measure of struggle, you can only carefully select the most good bulbs for the winter and throw away the affected fruit.

Smut also attacks the collected batun, but this disease has a fungal nature. It is expressed in the fact that black stripes are found among the husks. Prevention is limited to the selection of first-class seed and careful sorting of the crop.

Fusarium or bottom rot still provokes softening and rotting of onions during storage, accompanied by the appearance of fungus on the bottom. Spray vegetables before drying, you can "Fitosporin-M".

White rot is expressed in that the foliage turns yellow, most of all, this process affects the ends of the feathers. Most dangerous is the mosaic virus. It attacks the inflorescences and leaves, while feathers can be covered with stripes or specks. Sometimes you can see the "corrugated" type of leaves. In addition to a thorough assessment of planting material, systematic pest suppression helps to avoid infection.

If a mosaic struck an onion, all diseased plants must be burned. The virus is able to live in the land for many decades. An additional guarantee against it is given by the strict implementation of the norms of crop rotation. Black mold (or aspergillosis) affects bulbs stored at a temperature of 18 to 25 degrees. It can be avoided by collecting only the 100% ripe crop and thoroughly drying the fruits in the sun before laying in the cellar.

The fight against disease once again returns to the topic of pests. After all, the batun’s landings spoiled by them are much more susceptible to all ailments than completely healthy greens. That is why the fight against insects can be considered as disease prevention.

Vegetables after infection almost inevitably die, as is the development of their foliage. You can reduce the danger if:

• strictly follow the basic principles of crop rotation;
• consistently place onion and carrot beds;
• try to sow feathery onions as early as possible;
• use peat for mulching;
• process crops with a combination of ash and hydrated lime in equal proportions;
• spray planting tobacco infusion at a concentration of 4%.

A serious opponent of the gardeners turns out to be a covert trunk. This pest attacks feathers, the leaves serve as a “home” for parasitic larvae. Developing, she invariably eats soft tissues of onions. Suppress the infection can be due to processing (proportions indicated on the bucket of water):

• from 15 g means "Fitoverm";
• 60 g "karbofos";
• 35 g "Agravertina".

After the auxiliary loosening of the ground mass, the inter-row is saturated with these solutions with the introduction of natural reagents. They are ash from pure wood, crushed pepper paste and dry mustard powder. Onion hover embryos fall inside the bulbs and mechanically deform it. This invariably ends with the rotting of the vegetable. In addition to careful selection of seeds for crops, it is necessary to separate current and last year’s planting areas with carrots.

Additional protection is provided by peat mulch placed between the rows. Noticing the laying onion hoverfly, problem plants are treated with fine sand, 10 parts of which take 1 part naphthalene. An alternative to this mixture is a uniform combination of hydrated lime with wood ash. Then the treatment of the beds with the same compositions is repeated weekly. Unfortunately, the infected onions will have to be disposed of, and in the fall, the soil is dug as deep as possible.

Tick ​​root through the bottom of the bulb lays moves deep into the fetus. Soon, the infected batun begins to rot, so you need to warm it up to 40-45 degrees for 60 days before planting seedlings for 15-16 hours.

Medvedka living in the ground, "loves" young bulbs, but also not averse to eat roots and stems. At the time of landing is to bury nearby luring her drug in the aisle. Biological addition to "Medvetoksu" are fresh alder twigs.

The onion moth is dangerous both in volatile form and in the phase of caterpillars that eat leaves from the inside. Be sure to comply with the norms of crop rotation, systematically loosen the soil and add mineral dressing. At the stage when the caterpillars turn into butterflies, Karbofos should be used.

Small stemming nematode worms cause major damage to the bulbs and leaves. As a result, the vegetable shrinks, swells and deforms. Disinfection of seed is achieved by heating in water at a temperature of 45-50 degrees for hour. Potato and winter shovels (or rather, their caterpillars) attack shoots and near-earth parts of young plants, forming large cavities in them. Leaves are also threatened. Chemical protection is provided by "Fitoferm-M" or "Karbofos." To reduce the danger, lime is injected into acidic lands, and the deformed plants are immediately removed.

Onion tobacco thrips creates spots of silver color on the foliage. Feathers are covered with insect feces. Prevention is the same as in relation to the leaf nematode. The fight against the pest itself is carried out with the aid of the Iskra DE insecticide, 1 tablet of which is dissolved in 10 liters of water.

Seed germination occurs at a temperature of 3 degrees. And the plant itself develops best at 18-24 degrees. Shelter film helps to bring the time of harvest for 14-20 days. Sowing is done with a distance of no more than 60 mm, the maximum row spacing is 200 mm. There is no need to strive to increase them, because on a densely planted garden there is a greater chance of getting tender, thin and lush foliage.

You can force the emergence of seedlings by soaking seeds for 20 minutes in potassium permanganate. After washing, they are placed for 2 days in warm water, which is changed after the same two days five times. Before the emergence of the seedlings to the surface, the crust must be carefully destroyed, otherwise they will remain in the ground.

In winter, the batun can be grown on greens, moving it to a heated greenhouse or house. Only plants of the second and third year of life, which give up to 20 kg of feathers from 1 square meter, are suitable for this. If there is a high probability of winter with reduced snow cover, it is worth using varietal varieties such as "Tenderness", "April", "Salat-35". For the "April" baton is characterized by intense branching.Already in the last spring month, large leaves of dense grass color are formed. Of the autumn varieties, Maisky gives a good result, which also forms quite a few branches. Harvest can be before the beginning of June, the plants are resistant to cold.

If the yield of the batun falls (this often happens in the fourth year of growth), it is recommended to replant it or update the crops. "April" variety is the most productive when cultivated in the annual regime. Fertilizers preferred for him are potassium chloride, ammonium nitrate and superphosphate. They make 20, 30 and 40 g, respectively, per 1 square. m. In the spring it is recommended to harrow.

See how to sow many years onions batun, see the following video.