Let us do onions

As farmers are getting ready for the onion and garlic season, it is good that we talk onions.

Onion is one of the cash crops that you can grow all year round. You choose to either sell them as greens or dry them and sell when the marketing season is better paying.

Onion do well when the weather is cool. This is good for bulb initiation and formation, while warm conditions are favourable for physiological maturity.

The recommended planting time for onions is generally from January to March for some varieties. Other varieties do well from February to March.

The first stage is seedling preparations, make sure your seedlings are pencil size thick in diameter. They should have stayed in the seedling beds for between six and eight weeks.

The recommended spacing is from 0,5cm to 0,7cm inter-row and 0,25cm to 0,3cm intra-row. The expected yield is 20 to 40 tonnes per hectare, depending on variety, fertilisation and good agronomic practices.

As l always advise, a farmer should do a soil test first so that they apply the correct fertilizer ratios in their fields. The general recommendation for basal fertilizer is 1 000kg to 1 300kg Compound C per hectare.

Calcium nitrate can be used as a top dressing at the rate of 30kg/hectare starting at three weeks after transplanting. Another top dressing should follow at Week 5, 7, 9 up until the seventh and eight leaf stage.

Onion diseases