What causes missing seedlings in onions?

When planting onions, it is very easy to run into the problem of missing seedlings, which leads to lower yields later on and therefore affects everyone's income. In fact, missing onion seedlings is mainly caused by the following reasons. Let's take a look at them together below.

1. Soil factors

Before planting onions, the soil needs to be treated, and if the treatment is not thorough enough, missing seedlings will occur. For example, if clods of soil are compacted together and the soil is not loosened well, when transplanting, the roots of some onion seedlings will struggle to penetrate into the soil layer, cannot absorb nutrients, and eventually the seedlings die, so naturally missing seedlings occur.

2. Temperature factors

Onions generally cannot be planted too late, otherwise they are prone to attack by low temperatures, and after some of the weaker ones die, missing seedlings naturally occur. If planting in spring, avoid planting too early and wait until the soil temperature has warmed up to a certain degree, otherwise the seedlings will freeze to death directly. In autumn, because planting may be later, the root system is not mature and its cold resistance is not strong, and the soil temperature drops relatively quickly, causing seedling death. This is also one of the more common reasons for missing seedlings, so temperature must be controlled well, and those using greenhouses should pay even more attention.

3. Seed problems

Onion seedlings also need some treatment before planting, to identify some of the inferior seeds, but this can only identify some of the more obvious seedlings, and some inferior seedlings are similar to normal ones and very hard to notice. Secondly, these seedlings may also be damaged due to storage reasons caused by human factors, so naturally fewer survive when planted. Seeds must be stored by scientific means to avoid suffering missing seedlings for nothing.

4. Insufficient nutrients

After onions are planted, they need both water and fertilizer, and they have a relatively large demand for nutrients, but the places where onions are planted also tend to have many weeds that are hard to clean out completely. This makes it very easy for onions to lack enough nutrients to supply their growth, and in the end missing seedlings naturally occur. Therefore, when planting, be sure to apply enough base fertilizer and carry out weeding treatment on the soil to reduce other ineffective nutrient loss.

The above are some of the reasons for missing onion seedlings. These can all be adjusted through human intervention, and everyone can take targeted preventive measures to reduce the occurrence of missing seedlings.