SOWING ONIONS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 82, 7 April 1934, Page 13

SOWING ONIONS

USE OF MANURES. For good onions there is always a demand, a supply being required all the year round, and it is the usual practice to make the main sowings for transplanting purposes during the next few weeks. Ihe seed beds are always best in an open situation, and sowing preferably in drills, the operation of weeding being then more quickly and expeditiously performed. Poultry and sheep inanuie have long been recognised us excellent manures for onions, but these manures should be well dug into the soil before sowing. Superphosphate and bonedust are also good, especially where the soil is naturally moist. Sait, soot and lime are useful as manures, and also for preventing attacks of the onion maggot and other insects. Wood ashes and charred rubbish are useful mixed with other manures. Some market growers in onion-growing districts sow salt and

.>oub niui ine secu, ana incir crops oi onions are usually fine. The best formed and soundest bulbs are grown where the surface is rather firm than loose, and if the soil is of a light nature it should be-well trodden before sowing, and the seeds cannot be too near the surface, providing they arc just covered, and as soon as thc seedlings appear hoeing and weeding- should be practised as often as necessary to keep the beds clean.