Onions Puzzled Pliny

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 220, 17 September 1938, Page 14 (Supplement)

Onions Puzzled Pliny

Garden Notes

The onion has been cultivated for food from times so far remote that even Pliny has to confess he could not discover that it ever grew wild. The ancient Egyptians not only ate onions freely, but some of them used to swear by the onion, calling it to witness as though it were a divinity.

Theophrastun discovered onions 200 yearn before tin* time of Christ. Palladius and l'liny both wrote of their culture. Asclepiades wrote of onions as causing strength and clearing the complexion, but other ancient physicians regarded the pungent roots as harmful rather than beneficial, and even in later

times, Uerarde considered that, "being r»we tliey nourish not at all, and but a little though they be boiled."

The usefulness and virtue of onions as a vegetable arc rarely questioned nowadays, but many who enjoy them wish, with n certain writer, that someone would invent "an onion with an onion taste but with a violet scent."

Hacon suggests that "the rose will be I lie sweeter if |ilante<l in a bed of unions," but lie does not state whether this penetrating and pungent odour of the jtniouti is mitigated by the proximity of Ale sweetened roses.

Although the onion has been a popular vegetable with all classes of the community since earliest times, it has never been appreciated more than at the present day.

During recent years, cultivation of large bulbed onions has been extensively taken up. This ha« led to great improvements in size, keeping qualities and

flavour. Tlie quality and flavour of well-grown, home-produced specimens are superior to those of imported bulbs. Fortunately, onions rarely fail in any soil or locality, provided sufficient care is -liven them. Another point in their favour is that the siime soil and position may l>e cropped with them for an indefinite period, provided that a reasonable amount of plant food is added each year. It must not be thought that all soilx and situations are equally suitable for their culture. Choose an open sunny position. This should be selected during early autumn, and a beginning should be made by giving it a heavy dressing of welldecayed farmyard manure. Failing this, use the compost heap or plenty of leafmould, adding a good application of bonedust. Trenching is best started when the ground is moderately dry, by taking out

a trench about two and a lialf feet deep and the same in width across one end

of the plot, and wheeling the excavated

soil to the opposite end of the site, just clear of it. Break up the bottom of the trench deeply with a fork, and place on it a six-inch layer of manure or compost, covering this with the top spit from the next trench. On to this, place another layer of manure, covering it in turn with the bottom spit. If this method is carried out carefully throughout the piece of ground, the whole of the bottom soil will be brought to the top and subjected to the sweetening and pulverising influences of the whither. Leave the surface in a rough, lumpy state until spring. Later the surface should be raked level; a well-worn wooden rake is preferable to an iron one for this work. The next point to be considered is the size of the beds. A great width is undesirable; from eight to 10 rows in one bed will l>e ample, with a ;<lley 20 inches in width between the beds. This permits all the necessary attention being paid to the crops in all kinds of weather, without treading about on the bed itself. It is necessary to have a firm bed for onions, but the surface must not be plastered. If the digging or trenching has been left late it will l>c necessary to firm the soil bv treading or rolling. Before raking, it is advisable to apply I a dressing of manure and. as onions ■ require a large supply of potish. an application of a dressing of wood ashes i can be given. In addition, apply a , dressing of a locally compounded complete manure, or of a mixture similar to the following: ' Superphosphate, three parts. ■ Sulphate of ammonia, two parts. ; Sulphate of potash, one part. September is the time to plant. Cut ! away any long roots and extreme leaf - tips. Do not plant deeply; only the > roots should be in the soil, bulbs resting I on the surface. When first planted they I may not stand upright, but this will not

matter as thev will soon put out fresh roots at the base and pull themselves upright.

To got good large exhibition onions it is necessary to give good cultivation and liquid manure. One need not treat the whole onion bed. A single row can he given this extra attention, to provide bulbs for show.

Soil must be frequently stirred with the hoe. Twice a week the plants shoukl have an application of liquid manure. If it is not convenient to apply liquid manure, a sprinkling of a complete manure should he applied once in 10 days and the plants "iven a quantity of clear water. Ho no* apply too much water, so that it runs off. One method of counter "ct ing this is to punch holes wit h a cr< whar or iron rod between the rows and pour your water into them.

Mildew has Itoeu so severe of late years that spraying is necessary if the plants are to be carried through safely. Best control appears to be a spraying with white oil, 1-80. followed by a dusting with flowers of sulphur. To be effective, the treatment must anticipate the disease, and the spray must be applied once a month, from three weeks after planting till nearly harvesting time.

Immediately the finest bulbs have attained full size and lwfore the outside skins l.ejjin to burst, bend over the tops :hkl partially raise the bulb to hasten ripening. The bulbs must not be bruised in the slightest. The finishing process should be done under glass if possible, as wetting and drying of the outer skin by dew or rain spoils the look of the bulbs, darkening and causing blotching; it also causes the skin to crack, and when the outer skin cracks the inner one dries and probably also cracks. A good specimen should hare the outer skin whole and of an even nutty brown colour, firm in texture and with a small neck.