How to raise seedlings for spring-sown Welsh onions? Master these key technical points
The Welsh onion is a type of onion and can be divided into four types: common Welsh onion, Tillering onion, Rakkyo, and Tree onion. The Welsh onion is pungent in taste and slightly warm in nature; it disperses pathogens and unblocks yang, detoxifies and seasons food, induces sweating, inhibits bacteria, and dilates blood vessels. It is mainly used for symptoms such as wind-cold common cold, aversion to cold with fever, headache and nasal congestion, cold pain in the abdomen, dysentery and diarrhea, internal accumulation of parasites, failure of lactation, and difficult urination and defecation. The Welsh onion contains volatile oil, whose main component is allicin, and also contains diallyl sulfide and calcium oxalate. In addition, it also contains fat, carbohydrates, carotene, vitamin B, vitamin C, niacin, calcium, magnesium, iron, and other components. It is a perennial herbaceous plant, with cylindrical leaves that are hollow in the middle, fragile and easily broken, and green in color. In East Asian countries and various Chinese communities, scallions are often eaten as a very common spice, seasoning, or vegetable, and occupy an important role in Eastern cooking. In Shandong, there is a way of eating Welsh onions dipped in sauce.
The Welsh onion is an essential item in the daily kitchen. In the north, Welsh onions are dominant; they can not only be used as a seasoning, but can also prevent and treat diseases, making them truly a fine vegetable and good medicine. According to the length of the white stalk, they are further divided into two types. Welsh onion plants are tall, and the white stalk is pure white and sweet, and it is cultivated more in the north.
Welsh onions are mostly used for pan-frying, stir-frying, boiling, and deep-frying; the south mostly produces small scallions, which are a commonly used seasoning, also called fragrant scallion, and are generally used raw or in cold dishes. Common Welsh onion: many varieties, good quality, and large cultivation area. According to the length of the white stalk, there are long white-stalk and short white-stalk types. Long white-stalk types are spicy and thick, and famous varieties include Liaoning Gaiping Welsh onion, Beijing High-legged White, and Shaanxi Huaxian Valley Onion; short white-stalk types have short, thick, and fleshy white stalks, and famous varieties include Shandong Zhangqiu Chicken-leg Onion and Hebei Opposite-leaf Onion. Tillering onion: leaf color is deep, the white stalk is pure white, tillering ability is strong, the spicy taste is mild, and the quality is good.
Scallions have the effects of benefiting the lungs and unblocking yang, inducing sweating and releasing the exterior, promoting lactation and stopping bleeding, and relieving pain and healing injuries, and are used for dysentery, abdominal pain, arthritis, constipation, and other conditions. Scallions have a unique spicy flavor, which comes from the volatile sulfide allicin, and can stimulate the secretion of saliva and gastric juice and increase appetite. The malic acid and phosphoric acid sugars contained in scallions can excite nerves, improve and promote circulation, and release the exterior and clear heat. Eating scallions regularly can reduce the accumulation of cholesterol on blood vessel walls.
How to raise seedlings for spring-sown Welsh onions?
1 Selection of superior varieties
For Welsh onions, choose new seeds of the current year with fast growth speed, toughness and no lodging, thick and long white stalks, a short growth period, no tillering, and good marketability for planting, such as Zhangqiu Big Wutong, Zhonghua Giant Onion, Jinzhen Giant Onion, and Hebei Giant Onion, whose comprehensive traits are outstanding and suitable for planting in our county. Generally, plant height is 160-180 cm, white stalk length is 80-100 cm, thickness is 4-5 cm, and fresh onion yield per mu is 7500 kg; high-yield plots exceed 10000 kg.
2 Land selection and fertilization
For the seedling field, choose loam or sandy loam with deep soil layer, fertile soil, convenient irrigation and drainage, and loose soil texture, and a plot where no Liliaceae vegetables were planted in the previous crop. Combined with land preparation, apply 5000 kg of high-quality farmyard manure per mu and 50 kg of diammonium phosphate, plow carefully and harrow finely, mix soil and fertilizer thoroughly, and make beds 1 m wide and 10 m long to facilitate field management operations.
3 Sowing
For spring-sown Welsh onion seedling raising, the time from sowing to transplanting is short, so early sowing at the right time is crucial. In our county, sowing is in mid-to-late March. The sowing rate is generally 3-4 g of pure seed per square meter, and the sowing rate per mu is 2.5---3.0 kg. Broadcast sowing is adopted. Before sowing, first irrigate the land to create soil moisture; after the water seeps down, mix the seeds evenly with an appropriate amount of plant ash or fine dry soil, and broadcast repeatedly several times to help the seeds distribute evenly, then cover with 0.3 cm of fine soil; alternatively, first scatter the seeds, rake shallowly several times with an iron rake, tread firmly with feet, and then water. Both methods finally cover with plastic film, which can both increase temperature and preserve moisture and also promote early emergence. Generally, seedlings emerge 6-7 days after sowing, 1-2 days earlier than in open fields.
4 Raising strong seedlings
When 1/3 of the scallion seedlings have emerged, uncover the plastic film to avoid scorching. After full emergence, thin out clustered and crowded seedlings; where scallion seedlings in the beds are found to be relatively dense in patches, thin them early to ensure that each scallion seedling has the same nutritional area. During the growth period, adopt the management method of “promoting as the main approach”, water frequently with small amounts, apply less fertilizer more often, keep the soil moist, and ensure nutrient supply. As the temperature rises, the scallion seedlings gradually grow larger, and the demand for fertilizer and water increases, so the amount of watering and topdressing should also increase accordingly. Generally, each watering is 30-40 cubic meters per mu, and 5 kg of urea is applied as topdressing. The seedling-raising period is also a time when weeds grow abundantly, which can be removed manually or chemically controlled with the herbicide Shitianpu, while also paying attention to controlling root maggots. Ensure that the scallion seedling population grows uniformly and neatly, with thick and strong individuals. Stop watering 7 days before transplanting to harden the scallion seedlings, which helps them recover after transplanting to the field.