1148 



PB ACTIO AL GUIDE TO GARDEN PLANTS 



ONION 



ONION (Allium Cepa). — Notwith- 

 standing its pungency and odour, the 

 Onion is one of the most popular and use- 

 ful crops in the kitchen garden. It be- 

 longs to the same order as the Asparagus 

 [LiUacece), and several of its near relatives 

 have already been described under the 

 genus Allium at p. 830 as beautiful flower 

 garden plants. The cultivated Onion, 

 however, is more highly appreciated for 

 its bulbs, which are cooked in various 

 ways and used for many purposes. 



Soil, Manure dc. — Onions prefer a 

 light rich and rather sandy well-drained 

 loam, but flourish in any good garden soil 

 which has been well dug or ridged up 

 and heavily manured during the autumn 

 or winter months. 



About June and July, as the bulbs 

 are beginning to swell, they may be 

 assisted in the process by dressing the 

 soil with soot. A fine sprinkling of 

 nitrate of soda (see p. 71) or sulphate of 

 ammonia (p. 72) is also useful. Com- 

 mon washing soda as sold by grocers is 

 also an excellent manure for Onions. It 

 may be sprinkled over the soil, after 

 crushing into a powdered state, and then 

 watered in. Where only hard water is 

 available the action of the washing soda 

 will soften it considerably and thus 

 render it more acceptable to the roots. 

 Liquid manure, such as the runnings from 

 stables &c., may be used diluted with 

 clear water during the same period, and 

 is on the whole superior to artificial 

 manure. 



Seed-sowing in spring. — When 

 Onions are required for summer or autumn 

 use, seeds are generally sown about the 

 middle to the end of February. The soil 

 is previously forked over, levelled and 

 made firm by treading. Shallow drills, 

 about 1 in. deep and 1 ft. apart, are drawn 

 with the corner of the hoe to a line, and 

 in them the black and flattish seeds are 

 sown as thinly as possible. Before sow- 

 ing, the soil may be well dusted with lime 

 and soot as a precaution against the mag- 

 gots of the Onion Ply and other pests, or 

 if not too much trouble the soil may be 

 watered a day or two before with boiling 

 water, which will not only kill the maggots 

 but also the seeds of weeds, which are 

 often a great nuisance to young Onions. 

 In any case seed-sowing is best done 

 when the soil is in a dry and friable 

 ■condition. 



Thinning out dc. — When the young 



plants are 2 or 3 in. high, they should be 

 thinned out from 4 to 6 in. apart in the 

 rows, any gaps being made good by means 

 of the uprooted plants. Those left may 

 be used for salads. Weeds of course are 

 destroyed at the same time and onwards 

 during the season, the soil between the 

 rows and enlarging bulbs may be stirred 

 from time to time with the smaU hoe 

 specially used for Onion hoeing. Care,, 

 however, should be taken not to draw the 

 soil up round the bulbs. 



Harvesting. — From the middle of 

 August to September, when the cylindri- 

 cd/1 and hollow leaves are turning yellow, 

 the Onions may be pulled up and spread 

 out to dry with their roots facing south. 

 Every day or two it will be necessary to 

 turn them over so that the bulbs may be 

 equally and properly dried. This being 

 accomplished and the withered leaves 

 cut off within a few inches of the bulbs, 

 the latter may be stored in cool airy lofts 

 or cellars, or strung up in the bunches to 

 ceilings. 



Seed-sowing in autumn. — From the 

 end of July to the middle of August seeds 

 of Onions may be sown in light dry soU 

 in shallow drills as recommended for the 

 spring sowing above. The seedlings may 

 be thinned out from 4 to 6 in. apart in 

 spring, or better still should be trans- 

 planted, as experience seems to prove that 

 not only are better and more shapely 

 bulbs eventually produced, but they also 

 keep in good condition for a longer period 

 than those of plants which have not been 

 transplanted. In the case of large 

 varieties like Ailsa Craig and Giant 

 Bocca every alternate bulb should be 

 pulled by May or June, so as to leave 

 about a foot between the plants, which 

 are left to mature as the maincrop. Mild 

 showery weather should be chosen for 

 transplanting, and the work should be 

 performed as early as possible so that the 

 plants become well established before the 

 approach of the hot weather. When 

 transplanting some good gardeners cut 

 2 or 8 in. off the fistular leaves for the 

 following reasons : the injured roots will 

 have less work to perform until established, 

 and perhaps a more important reason is 

 that the leaves when cut wiU not topple 

 over and tempt the worms to draw them 

 down into the soil, and thus uproot the 

 young plants. This practice, however, 

 is condemned by other good gardeners. 

 The bulbs will be ready for use about the 



