Detailed Guide to Growing Welsh Onions and High-Yield Cultivation Techniques

Welsh onion (Allium fistulosum), I believe everyone is very familiar with it, because it is a vegetable often eaten in daily life. Welsh onion is a fairly pungent vegetable, and because of its special spicy odor, it is often used for seasoning or to remove fishiness and off-flavors. Welsh onion grows easily and is a very easy vegetable to grow. Now let's learn about the growing methods for Welsh onion together with the editor!

Welsh Onion Growing Techniques

1. Seedbed site selection. Welsh onion is a vegetable that should not be grown in continuous cropping, and the seedling bed also should not be continuously cropped. The seedling bed should be chosen as high-lying land whose previous crop was not an onion or garlic type crop. Never choose weedy grassland, otherwise the seedling bed will be overgrown with weeds. Seedling raising should be assigned to a dedicated person.

2. After the previous crop is harvested, plow deeply and sun-bleach twice, and leave fallow for 20 days. The Welsh onion seedling period lasts as long as 50 days, so the seedling bed should be given 1000 kg of decomposed manure per mu. The bed width including the ditch is 1.5 m, made into a small flat bed with a net width of 1.1 m. Fine soil preparation. Open ditches well around the perimeter.

3. For export Welsh onion, the varieties are generally specified by foreign buyers, mainly including: Changbao, Changyue, Mingyan, Jinchang No. 3, etc. For every 100 grams of seed, 35—40 square meters of seedling bed are needed, so that the seedlings raised can be transplanted to 1 mu of field. Generally broadcast sowing is used, and sowing must be very uniform. The conventional sowing period is early April.

4. After sowing, water (with insecticide added to the water) to reach 60% soil moisture, and make sure not to water again before emergence. After watering, cover with 0.5 cm of fine dry soil; after covering with soil, do not water, to prevent the soil from crusting. After sowing and before emergence, plastic film can be used as cover, which helps raise temperature, retain moisture, and prevent rainwater from causing soil crusting. But be careful to prevent damage from high temperatures.

5. The fastest germination temperature for Welsh onion seeds is around 18°C. Seedlings can emerge 5—6 days after sowing. After 60% emergence, remove the plastic film promptly; if the film is removed too late, the seedlings will be thin and weak. After removing the film, to prevent heavy rain from washing them out, set up small hoop sheds; cover the small hoop sheds with film before rain, and remove the film after the rain, especially within the half month from full emergence to seedling establishment, otherwise after heavy rain damping-off will occur and a large number of seedlings will collapse.

High-Yield Cultivation Techniques for Welsh Onion

1. The planting time is generally from late May to early June.

2. Before planting, separate large and small seedlings, and remove diseased seedlings, weak seedlings, overly small seedlings, and obviously bent seedlings. Plant spacing is 35—40 plants per meter, row spacing is 1 m, and about 23,000 plants are planted per mu. During planting, avoid breaking the onion seedlings; the planting depth should be suitable so as not to bury the onion heart. Too deep is not good for seedling growth, and too shallow affects the length of the white stalk. When planting, the leaf surfaces should be arranged perpendicular to the planting ditch, which is good for dense planting and management.

3. For the planting tool, a garden iron rod or garden wooden stick with a diameter of about 1.5 cm can be used. When planting, first make a shallow hole perpendicular to the ground, then insert the seedling, then lift it slightly upward so that the root fibers spread downward and the onion seedling stays upright. If it is bent, then even at harvest time later the stem will be bent, and this becomes a substandard product.

4. Planting should be done on the same side of the onion ditch, which helps drainage after rain.

5. After planting, press down the loose soil on both sides of the onion plants, then water thoroughly.

Growing Conditions for Welsh Onion

1. Temperature: Welsh onion originated in semi-cold zones. Under cool and warm climates it has high yield and good quality. It has strong cold resistance and can endure a low temperature of -20°C. Seedlings can overwinter safely under -10°C conditions, and it can withstand high temperatures up to 45°C.

2. Light: Welsh onion does not have high requirements for light intensity, and its requirement for day length is neutral. As long as vernalization is completed under low temperature, it can normally bolt and flower regardless of day length.

3. Water: The leaves of Welsh onion are tubular and have a waxy coating, giving it drought resistance and the ability to reduce water evaporation and tolerate drought. The root system has no root hairs and poor water absorption capacity, so water supply must be met at every growth stage for it to grow robustly.

4. Soil: Welsh onion originally does not have strict soil requirements, but its root mass is small, it has no root hairs, and its fertilizer absorption capacity is poor. If high yield is desired, soil that is loose, deep, fertile, well-drained, and rich in organic matter must be chosen.

Growing Management for Welsh Onion

1. Timely watering: After transplanting, it is just the hot season, with high temperature and much rain, so generally no watering is done. Continuous rain will cause root rot and dead seedlings, so pay attention to timely drainage. If there is high temperature and drought, water to lower the temperature and promote growth.

2. Hilling and fertilizing: As the white stalk continues to elongate, hill up and topdress in time. The final ridge height after hilling is 70-80 cm, and the heart leaves must not be buried when hilling. Topdressing and hilling are done at the same time. The first topdressing should start from the Beginning of Autumn, applying 5000 kg of farmyard manure and 10-15 kg of urea per mu, then watering after application. The second topdressing is done at the End of Heat, applying 15-20 kg of urea and 50 kg of cake fertilizer per mu. The third topdressing is at White Dew; at this time the white stalk enters the peak expansion period, and fertilizer and water management are key. You can apply 1000 kg of human manure and urine, 15 kg of urea, 50 kg of phosphate fertilizer, and 5-10 kg of potassium fertilizer along the ditch, and finally water. The fourth topdressing is at the Autumn Equinox, applying 10-15 kg of urea per mu, then hilling and watering. Around White Dew, spray compound trace-element fertilizer, generally once every 5-7 days, for 2-3 consecutive sprays, with an obvious yield-increasing effect.

The above is the growing techniques for Welsh onion summarized for everyone by the editor. I hope it can be helpful to everyone! In fact, Welsh onion can also be grown at home; you only need a large pot to grow it! If your family often eats Welsh onion, you might as well grow some at home. When you want to eat it, just pick it and it is ready to use!