How to Grow Plastic-Mulched Onions? Latest Planting Techniques and Methods Tutorial

Plastic-mulched onions are a relatively popular onion planting mode in recent years. Plastic-mulched onions can improve the cold resistance of onions and help them overwinter safely. They prevent onions from suffering severe frost damage and can also effectively prompt onions to enter the regreening stage in spring. They can also improve the soil's water and fertilizer retention and increase onion yield. So how should plastic-mulched onions be planted? Today, the editor brings you the planting techniques for plastic-mulched onions. Let's take a look!

1. Sowing Time

The sowing time for plastic-mulched onions is very critical; they must not be sown too early or too late. If sown too early, the onion seedlings will grow to a relatively robust stage before winter. This will also cause vernalization, leading to early bolting in the spring of the following year. If sown too late, the seedlings will be too weak before winter and susceptible to frost damage. The time for entering the regreening stage in winter will also be relatively late, and the growth of stems and leaves will be very small, causing the bulb expansion to be hindered. Therefore, plastic-mulched onions should be sown in mid-September, which is the optimal sowing period.

2. Land Preparation and Fertilization

After sowing the onions and before mulching, attention should first be paid to doing a good job of land preparation. First, clear the weeds and straw from the soil, then carry out deep plowing and rotary tilling of the soil, crushing and leveling the bed surface to ensure the maximum diameter of soil clods does not exceed two cm. Then make beds and open furrows; the water furrows must be kept unobstructed with good drainage and irrigation. During land preparation, sufficient base fertilizer should also be applied, mainly diammonium phosphate, organic fertilizer, urea and other fertilizers. After evenly mixing the fertilizers, apply them into the surface soil layer of about 12 cm. Then, one week before mulching and transplanting, irrigate to preserve soil moisture, so as to prevent the onions from losing water due to large-scale transplanting and reduce the survival rate.

3. Sowing Methods

After the land preparation work is done, sowing can be carried out at the appropriate time. The sowing method is mainly broadcasting; mix with fine sand and scatter back and forth about three times to ensure uniform sowing, with the sowing rate per mu kept at about 5 jin. After sowing, cover with a layer of nutrient soil, then cover the soil with a layer of grain straw for shading, which can also improve moisture retention and the seedling emergence rate. Then water lightly; seedlings will emerge after about a week. After most of the seedlings have emerged, remove the covering, then spray an appropriate amount of pesticide for weeding and sterilization. When the seedlings are two months old, have three true leaves and one heart leaf, and are 22 cm tall, they can be transplanted. After transplanting, cover with plastic mulch, strengthen management, and do a good job of overwintering.

4. Water and Fertilizer Management

After transplanting, promptly water the roots well, then control the moisture properly to promote the sprouting of new roots. Also water well against frost to ensure the seedlings can overwinter safely. In addition, watering should be done well during the regreening stage, bulb expansion stage and other stages. Besides this, we should also do a good job of fertilizing combined with watering during the regreening stage and bulb expansion stage. During the regreening stage, apply an appropriate amount of urea, which should be broadcast before rain. Then during the bulb expansion stage, apply an appropriate amount of diammonium phosphate and urea, mainly by spot application. Finally, pay attention to the application of foliar fertilizer to meet the nutrients needed for onion growth and prevent premature aging of the plants.

The above is a brief introduction to plastic-mulched onion planting techniques. That is all for today's introduction. This article is for reference only, and we hope it can be of some help to everyone!