BULB CROPS.
All bulb crops are hardy, liking cool seasons and moist rich soil with
a loose top. As a rule they are seed-bed crops, but are sown early in
the open field. They grow from seeds or bulbs and may be raised as main
or secondary crops and treated like onions. Their tops are often used
for seasoning.
LEEKS.
To the average American, there is but one important bulb crop, the
onion, but the foreign-born use garlic, leek and others also. Of these
the leek is the mildest flavored and the best worth knowing. It is
grown from seed sown in the early spring, and requires the whole season
to reach full development. It produces soft bulbs and thick leaves,
both being used for seasoning. The leek is stored green, as celery is,
being set in earth in a pit or cellar.
GARLIC.
The garlic is the strongest of all the bulb family in flavor. It is
grown from “cloves,” as the separate sections of the bulb are called,
and is planted early. It does not fully mature until the end of the
summer or early fall.
SHALLOT.
Shallot is much like garlic, only it is milder, and is grown in the
same way. There is one interesting difference, however, between the
two. The “cloves” of the garlic are all encased in one outer skin,
those of the shallot grow separately.
CIBOULE AND CIVES.
The Ciboule or Welsh onion, and Cives, are grown for their leaves which
are used for seasoning. The Ciboule is the most like the common onion
and grows the same way and requires the same cultivation. Cives grow
in dense tufts and are propagated by separating the tufts and planting
a section. They are perennial, and make a good border for the garden
walk, combining grace and toothsomeness.
ONIONS.
It pays to grow onions intelligently. They take lots of care, but they
repay the time and trouble.
You cannot get the best results from onions by beginning now, at the
moment you start your garden, to sow your seed. Onions require that
you should begin last year, so to speak. The ground should be well
plowed in the fall, after having been in use with good tillage all
the previous season, and the surface soil must be in super-excellent
condition. The onion is practically a surface feeder, and as the seed
sprouts slowly, and the baby plants are delicate and slender-rooted,
conditions must be absolutely right for a good growth. In fact, no
other vegetable crop, grown on a large scale, requires such fine
surface soil. Hard or baked soil is sure to give a poor crop. The
surface must be kept loose and in good tilth, and low, level land is
the best place for your onion patch.
When the ground has been plowed, go over it carefully and break up all
the clods or lumps, and remove all stones and weeds. Do not use coarse,
fresh stable manures, as that leaves the ground too coarse in texture,
and moreover increases the probability of weeds, and weeds are death
to onions. Only fine, old, well-rotted stable manure may be used, and
this must not be plowed under, as it is the surface soil which must be
rich. Commercial fertilizers, especially the sorts rich in potash, are
of great value in growing onions, and, because of their potash, wood
ashes make an excellent top dressing for the onion patch. Keep the soil
finely pulverized and you will then have ideal conditions for planting
your crop. Next get good seed. Good onions often give poor seed, but
cheap seed always means poor onions, so buy the best seed always.
Reclaimed marshes, freed from roots and peat, and thoroughly
fertilized, are ideal places for growing onions. The rows or drills,
which must be 14 inches apart, must also be perfectly straight, else
the necessary cultivation cannot be given. The crop often needs
two weedings by hand when the plants are very young, and frequent
cultivation by the wheel-hoe. Now the wheel-hoe cannot do good work on
rough or uneven ground, and its best work is none too good for onions,
so you see where you are at.
The onion crop is divided into two classes, the early crop and the main
season crop. Early crop onions are immature, green, and are tied in
bunches for market; main season crops are dry and are a staple product.
Early onions may be grown from seed, but are usually grown from bulbs.
There are three kinds of bulbs for planting: “top” onions, potato or
“multiplier” onions and “sets”; the first two are distinct types,
but “sets” are only partly grown onions. “Top” onions are really
small bulbs which grow on the top of the plant instead of fruit;
“multipliers” are onions with several hearts or cores, each of which
may be planted and will give rise to another bulb, which, in its
turn, will develop two or three more cores. The process is continued
indefinitely.
“Top” onions start quickly and soon give edible onions. If the bulb is
planted out the following year it will send up a stalk and produce a
new crop of tops.
To raise “sets,” seeds are sown thickly on dry, light ground, where
they soon crowd each other, and by midsummer anyway, the tops die for
lack of room, food and moisture. The bulbs, which should then be from
one-half to three-quarters inch in diameter, are picked, cured and
stored as ordinary onions are. When planted in the spring they start to
grow again and soon produce eatable bulbs.
The new early onion culture is growing onions from seedlings raised in
the hot-bed or forcing house, and transplanted as soon as the weather
permits. By this method the large, quick-growing Southern varieties,
Gibraltar and Prize-taker, come to perfection in the North. Our season
is too short for this by the ordinary open planting. This “New Onion
Culture,” which is not so new, after all, except in the middle East,
is fully described by T. Greiner, in his book published by the Orange
Judd Company, N. Y.
In the main season crop, earliness is not so necessary, and less
fertilizer will do, so long as it is the right kind. Seed is sown as
early as possible, as the onion likes a cool season. In the garden, it
is sown thickly because the onion often fails to sprout, but in the
field, it is sown more carefully, waste of seed and the thinning in the
big field being expensive.
On some land the onion runs to tops, particularly where there is too
much moisture, or the ground is too new, or coarse manures have been
used. If the tops are still rank and green in late August or early
September, it is a good thing to break them by rolling a barrel over
the rows, that the growth may go to the bulbs.
The trouble with onions does not end with growing them. They are a
difficult crop to handle and store, unless the fall is warm. After they
are pulled they must dry a day or two, either in the field or under
cover—cover is more expensive but the bulbs have a better, brighter
color. The bulbs must be free from dirt and the tops cut off about a
half-inch above the bulb, neither more nor less, else the bulb will
suffer in marketable value. It must be a clean cut without ragged ends,
and the outer skin or covering must not be broken. If the crop is
uneven in size, as is quite apt to be the case, sort them over, because
one misshapen or under-sized onion in a dozen, will materially lessen
the price received for the crop. There are so many good vegetables
on the market today, that the consumer is growing finicky, and wants
only the best looking as well as the best tasting. Be careful to give
him what he wants, and he will give you what you want—good prices—in
return. The sorter may be a very simple contrivance, consisting of a
rack or trough with a slat bottom through which small onions will drop.
When raised to a convenient height on a slant it is easy to work the
bigger onions over the end of the rack into boxes or baskets below.
Most farmers prefer to sell their onion crop in the fall, because it is
difficult to house it. Mature onions will not stand freezing, unless
they can be kept frozen all winter and allowed to thaw gradually in the
spring. But this is a risky process and often results in heavy loss.
They need a steady warm temperature, and many store houses are heated
to ensure safety from frost.
It takes an ounce of onion seed for 150 feet of drill, or from 3½ to 5
pounds to the acre. A good crop for an average farmer is from 300 to
400 bushels per acre, but an average crop for a good farmer is 600 to
800 bushels per acre; and some have grown as high as 1100 bushels to
the acre. You can choose your own class.
The root maggot is the worst enemy the onion has, and there is no
really successful method of fighting it. Infested land should be used
for other crops that the root maggot will not feed upon, until he is
starved out. Rust and smut which also affect onions, may be practically
cut out, or at least held in check, by the use of Bordeaux mixture, but
rotation is the best remedy for smut.