Onions turn yellow in the garden. What to do?

In a normal situation, the yellowing of an onion feather occurs as it is ready for harvesting. However, situations are quite common when the onion turns yellow in the garden even before it is ripe. There can be a lot of reasons for such yellowing, in this article we will understand the main reasons, as well as how to deal with these ailments.

Onions turn yellow in the garden. Reason 1: improper care. What to do

Often the reason for the yellowness of the ends of an onion feather lies in insufficient care.

Lack of moisture

So, if the soil in the garden is dry, and the onion feathers suddenly turn yellow, perhaps the onion just needs watering.

A well-organized irrigation regime is as follows.

During the first part of the growing season, the onions are watered twice a week, then once. The exception is dry and sunny weather, when watering is done as needed.

To determine the amount of water, the following principle must be observed: for 1 m² of area, about 7 liters of water are required, with a temperature of 20-25 ° C. It is advisable to water the onion at the root, choosing the afternoon for watering. After watering (when the water is absorbed), the aisles need to be loosened.

Lack of nutrients

It is also a very common cause of yellowing onion feathers. Basically, onions begin to turn yellow due to a lack of nitrogen. If there is really not enough nitrogen in the soil, the feather will not only be yellow, but also short and too thick.

In this case, the onion needs fertilizing containing nitrogen. A mixture of mullein and urea is best. A bucket of water will need 1 tbsp. rotted mullein and 1 tbsp. l. urea. All components are mixed and infused for several days.

Why does the onion turn yellow in the garden. Reason 2: pests

The invasion of uninvited guests is the second most common cause of yellowing onions. This problem cannot be corrected just by adjusting the care system. We'll have to recognize the enemy by sight, otherwise it will be difficult to develop a strategy of struggle.

Stem nematode

Feathers affected by a nematode not only turn yellow, but also become wrinkled. To determine if your bow has really been attacked by this pest, break the affected feather and look for thin white worms that look like strings in it.

This is the stem nematode, the worst enemy of the onion. Fighting this enemy is pointless. If you find these worms in the feathers, most likely you brought them to the site along with the gardening bulbs.

The best way to combat in this case is preventive treatment of planting material. And the onion in which the nematode was found will have to be dug up and burned in order to prevent the further spread of the pest throughout the site.

Onion moth

A visual inspection of the pen is also needed here. Yellow-brown caterpillars are visible inside feathers infested with onion moths. An adult insect lays eggs at the base of leaves or in the ground, next to plantings. Several generations of this pest can hatch in one spring-summer period. And the pioneers are born at the end of spring.

To combat onion moth, insecticides are used (such as Spark), with which the soil is cultivated. To prepare 10 liters of the working solution of the Iskra preparation, you will need only 1 tablet of the active ingredient. In this case, the consumption will be 1 liter per 1 m² of the plot.

But the preventive treatment of seed in order to prevent the invasion of onion moth, alas, is not effective. This is due to the fact that the onion moth spends the winter as a butterfly.

Onion fly

Another well-known lover of your onions.

In a plant affected by an onion fly, the tips of the feathers turn yellow. And if you remove the bulb from the ground and carefully examine it, then in the area of ​​the bottom you can see small, but well-fed white worms-larvae of onion fly. As in the case of the onion moth, several generations of the pest are born in one season.

The flight of the first adult insects begins in the second half of spring. And visible signs of damage to plants on the face already at the beginning of summer. Bulbs affected by fly larvae at the point of growth stop their development and rot.

The best measures to combat an onion fly are preventive measures aimed at scaring off adult insects from onion plantings. For these purposes, such folk remedies are used as dusting onions with a mixture of tobacco dust and ash in a 1: 1 ratio, processing with infusions of plants containing a large amount of essential oils: tansy, wormwood, needles, fir, mint.

You can also use watering the onion with a salt solution. The strength of the solution depends on the length of the onion feather. So, if the length of the feather is 5 cm, then the solution is prepared at the rate of 1/3 of a pack of salt per bucket of water. After 2 weeks, the treatment is repeated. Now the concentration will be as follows: 1/2 pack for the same amount of water. The next time, the planting is processed after about 20 days. The amount of salt is brought to 2/3 of a pack per bucket. After a couple of hours after watering with saline, the earth must be shed with clean water.

Plants affected by the pest are removed from the garden and burned, or dipped into a container with water.

Onion lurker (weevil)

The larvae of this insect make holes in the feathers that are visible to the naked eye.

In these passages one can "meet" cream-colored caterpillars with a brown head, about half a centimeter long.

If you see adults of this weevil on onion plants, then in order to prevent the reproduction of pests, they should be collected by hand. It will also help scare off beetles by treating the soil around the plantings with ash, mustard powder, ground black or red pepper.

During the mass appearance of beetles, the treatment of the beds with Karbofos is also quite effective, according to the instructions.

Affected plants are best destroyed.

Onion (tobacco) thrips

This small (up to 1 mm long), but very dangerous pest is able to spoil not only the onion crop, but also other vegetable, berry and flower crops. A characteristic sign of damage by this insect is the formation of white spots on onion feathers, which subsequently become larger and larger, forming a completely whitish feather color.

In order to prevent the spread of thrips, it is necessary to pre-process the seed. To do this, you can soak the onions in warm water (temperature 45 ° C) for 10 minutes, and then rinse in cold water.

In order to scare off thrips from onion plantings, treat them with insecticides such as Spark or Confidor.

Get rid of damaged plants.

Because of what the onion turns yellow in the garden. Reason 3: diseases

Bacterial rot on onions

All sorts of infectious diseases can also cause yellowing onions. In particular, the feather turns yellow as a result of damage from the following diseases.

Bacterial rot

This infectious disease is usually a "side" effect of infestation by insect pests such as onion fly or thrips. They are carriers of rot.

This infection is characterized by wilting and yellowing of the feather, as well as rotting of the bulbs.

As with most things, disease is easier to prevent than to cure.At the planting stage, you need to carefully select the planting material. At the slightest suspicion of "ill health", do not take such bulbs for planting.

Before planting, you must also process the bulbs (keep in warm water, saline, potassium permanganate, or treat with fungicides such as Fundazol).

Bulbs infected with bacterial rot must be destroyed so as not to aggravate the development of the disease.

Rot of the bottom

This rot is manifested by yellowness and further withering away of the tips of the feather. White mold is visible on the diseased bulb in the area of ​​the bottom. With the course of the disease, the pink mycelium of the fungus becomes visible in the onion scales, and the bulb becomes completely unusable - it softens and fills with liquid.

As control measures, pre-planting treatment of the bulbs is used, and the affected plants are burned.

Rust

At the beginning of summer, yellowish spots can sometimes be seen on the feathers of onions, on which seals later form. These are the signs of rust. Over time, the onion feathers turn black and die off.

In addition to pretreating the bulbs, as a preventive measure to combat the disease, you can use the treatment of plantings with copper oxychloride with the addition of soap. To prepare the working solution, take 1 tbsp. l. copper oxychloride and liquid soap (you can also use grated laundry soap, but you need to slightly increase its amount) on a bucket of water. 7 days after the initial treatment, the planting should be sprayed again.

Rust on onions

Why does the onion turn yellow in the garden? Reason 4: changing weather conditions

Surprisingly, natural anomalies can also affect the state of plantings. Too dry and hot weather, too much moisture, and cold can lead to yellowing of the feather. Under these conditions, onions, leeks, and batuns undergo changes. There is no such variety, planting which, you will definitely get an excellent harvest in any weather.

There are varieties that are more resistant to drought, there are those that are resistant to certain diseases. A completely universal variety simply does not exist.

Conclusion

As a result, it should be said that, perhaps, the most important principles in caring for onions, and for any vegetable or flower crop, is the correct choice of planting material. And also various kinds of preventive measures aimed at preventing the onset and development of diseases, and not at combating it.