What can you pour on the onion so that the feather does not turn yellow?

When growing onions, gardeners often face the problem of feather yellowing. Experienced vegetable growers advise to figure out the reason and, if possible, water the onion with folk remedies so that it does not turn yellow. This approach will allow you to use greens for food, because chemicals can harm human health. The specialists of the site iground.expertexpro.com/en/ will tell you why yellowing of an onion feather is dangerous and will help you find and eliminate the cause of the problem.

Why is yellowing of onion feathers dangerous?

Noticing the first signs of yellowness in the onion garden, gardeners are in no hurry to fix the problem. Such negligence often leads to partial or complete loss of crops.

Careless summer residents often forget that plants receive nutrition through the deciduous mass. The leaves contain the green pigment chlorophyll, which is involved in the process of obtaining food - photosynthesis. Due to the yellowing of the feathers, the onions partially lose chlorophyll and can no longer store food. At the same time, the growth of bulbs is suspended, the quality of the crop decreases, and the productivity of the crop decreases. That is why it is so important to start the fight against yellowing onions in time.

Advice

Do not be alarmed if the onions begin to turn yellow and lie down in the middle of summer. The natural process of dying off of the tops speaks of an imminent harvest.

Possible reasons

There are several reasons that can lead to yellowing of the onion feather:

• pest attack;
• fungal diseases;
• deficiency of nitrogen in the soil;
• violation of the rules of care;
• adverse weather conditions.

To save the harvest, the gardener needs to find out why the onions in the garden turn yellow, and then make a lot of efforts to fix the problem. Do a thorough culture inspection first.

Pests

Onion pests include:

• onion fly;
• onion lurker;
• tobacco thrips;
• root onion mite;
• stem nematode.

Each of these tiny pests is capable of producing large offspring. The colony will quickly take over the onion garden, leaving the gardener without a crop.

Onion fly larvae appear towards the end of May and live in the soil. Through the bottom, they make their way into the bulb, feed on the pulp. This causes the onion feather to turn yellow and gradually leads to the death of the onion. The damaged planting material rots, giving off an unpleasant odor.

The onion lurker is a bug with a body length of up to 2.5 mm. The insect and its larvae damage onion feathers, feed on juicy greens. The lesions appear as streaks inside hollow onion leaves. If you cut a feather, tiny larvae will be found inside.

Tobacco thrips have a yellowish or brown body 1 mm long. Beetles and larvae feed on plant sap. Around the puncture site, leaf tissues die off, yellowness gradually covers the feather, which leads to its death.

Root onion mites penetrate the planting material through the smallest cracks in the bottom. Insect larvae feed on the tissues of the bulb, damage the root system. Because of this, the tops of the onion turn yellow, dying off. The bulb becomes covered with dust, becomes loose.

Stem nematodes are microscopic worms up to 1.5 mm long. The pest enters the planting material through the infected soil, in which it can live for up to 10 years. Damage causes yellowing of the onion, deformation of the bulb.

Chemicals

If the preventive measures did not help and the pests nevertheless appeared, gardeners resort to heavy artillery - they use chemicals.Some products are used for spraying tops (Confidor, Mospilan, Kreotsid, Karate, Tabazol, Aktara), others water the soil (Karbofos). It is important to observe the dosage and recommended processing times so that the crop does not harm human health.

Important!

During chemical struggle, you cannot eat juicy greens.

Folk methods of struggle

An alternative to insecticides is folk remedies for combating parasites. How to water the garden when pests appear? The most effective and safe recipes for the fight include the following.

• Saline solution. It is effective against onion flies. A glass of table salt is dissolved in 10 liters of water. For each onion, 100-200 g of liquid is consumed, trying to avoid getting on the leaves.
• Sunflower ash solution. Raw materials can be purchased at a specialized store. It is bred in a ten-liter bucket of water in a ratio of 1:50 (200 g of ash per bucket), left overnight, and in the morning the garden is watered.
• Infusions of fragrant plants. For cooking, dandelion, lovage, allspice tobacco, calendula, hot pepper, marigolds, and pine needles are suitable. Raw materials are crushed, 200 g of dry mixture are poured with ten liters of water. After 12 hours of infusion, watering is started. A spicy aroma for humans is not to the liking of most pests.
• Watering with ammonia solution. A bucket of water will need a bottle of ammonia with a volume of 50-60 ml. Multiplicity of processing - 3 times per season. The remedy will scare off the onion fly.
• Infusion of garlic is effective against all parasites, with the exception of the onion fly. Grind 200 g of stinging cloves, pour a liter of warm water. Incubate liquid for 5 days. After straining, dilute 200 ml in 10 liters of water. Use to spray the feather.

Advice

Traditional methods are effective until the first shower. After heavy rainfall, the event will have to be repeated.

Diseases

Yellowing of onions can be caused by fungal diseases. The danger to the plant is:

• powdery mildew;
• bottom rot;
• rust.

Diseases are manifested by the appearance of spots on the deciduous part, "powdered" with mycelium of the fungus. Rotting bottom leads to loss of turgor, yellowing and drying of the foliage.

The best way to fight is prevention. To prevent the feather from turning yellow, observe the crop rotation, select healthy planting material, burn plant residues at the end of the season. Effectively warming onions in the sun before planting, pickling in a solution of fungicide, potassium permanganate.

If the fungus attacked the planting, watering is carried out with solutions of fungicides ("Fitosporin", "Fundazol"), spraying with garlic infusion. Shown three times processing with an interval of 7-10 days.

Nutritional deficiency

Onion tops may turn yellow due to lack of nitrogen. The macronutrient is very important for building up green mass, laying down nutrients. Determining the lack of nitrogen is simple - most of the plants on the site take on a faded appearance, the leaves turn pale, the fruits become smaller.

It is enough to add nitrogen fertilization, and the onion will turn green again. Pour mullein infusion, urea over the bed. You can prepare an infusion of weeds, nettle (200-500 g per bucket of water), keeping it for 7-10 days. After straining, dilute 1:10 and water the onion beds.

Advice

The ammonia solution described above will also help eliminate nitrogen starvation.

Unfavorable weather

Unfavorable weather conditions can cause onions to turn yellow. Drought can be managed with supplemental irrigation. Water the garden bed with warm water under the root in the morning or evening. Frequency of watering in normal mode - 2 times a week. In dry conditions, it is permissible to water the onion daily, controlling the moisture level in the soil.

The construction of a polycarbonate canopy will help protect the garden from waterlogging. Remember that 7-10 days before the expected harvest, watering of the onion is completely stopped.

Having noticed the first signs of yellowing onions, hurry up to find and eliminate the cause of their occurrence. For the efforts made, the culture will generously reward you with a useful harvest.