GARDEN AND SHRUBBERY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19578, 26 August 1933, Page 11

GARDEN AND SHRUBBERY

WHERE ONIONS THRIVE Onions succeed best in an open situa tion. Good crops of anions can be obtained from soils of very different texture and quality, with the aid of suitable manures and by judiciously varying the modes of cultivation according to circumstances (says the Auckland “Herald's” garden contributor). For the spring crop the ground should be ridged up before winter as roughly as possible. It should not be disturbed in wet weather nor while it is saturated with moisture, but when it is so dry that its lumps will crumble rather than stick together it cannot be too much worked.

If the soil is light it should in the first place be finely dug to ensure an equal looseness throughout in order that by subsequent treading or rolling it may be rendered uniformly compact. In such soils good crops can be obtained in wet seasons, but it is not merely the quantity that has to be taken into consideration the quality, in such seasons more especially, is of still greater importance. If onions are not well ripened they cannot be expected to keep well, and of course they will become better ripened in a dry, light soil in a cold wet season, than in soil of a contrary description. Fowl and sheep manure are excellent manures for onions. Well decomposed farmyard or stable manure thoroughly mixed with the soil previous to planting are also excellent. Superphosphate is good, especially in moist seasons, or where the soil is damp; so is bonedust. Salt, soot, and lime are useful as manures and also for preventing attacks of the onion maggot and other instets. Wood ashes and charred rubbish are also good along with the other manures. Some market gardeners sow salt and soot with their crop, and the resultant crop is usually very fine. As soon as the crop is well under way the hoe should be used frequently. At no time should the onion bed be allowed to become a mass of weeks. The hoeing should be shallow. The deep loosening of the soil beneficial to other crops, is not good for onions. The best-formed and soundest bulbs are grown where the surface is rather firm than loose.