Onion - a vegetable, without which cooking dishes of many cuisines of the world is not possible, so in any garden and cottage area there is always a place for a garden plant intended for growing this plant. Onion care does not require special care, since it refers to unpretentious plants. However, often pest onions are vexed by pests that significantly reduce the yield.
The enemy must know!
Most often, the protection of onions from pests is reduced to combating the onion fly . These insects are light-gray in color, reaching seven millimeters in length, winter is carried out in the ground in the form of false-colored cocoons of a yellowish brown color. In May, when the cherry and dandelion bloom, the flies fly out of the false echelon and begin to actively lay eggs on the onion feathers. Three to eight days later, larvae emerge from them, which immediately rush to the bulbs in order to enter them. The bulb, of course, begins to rot, and the feathers fade, turn yellow and dry out. After pulling the decayed bulb, the larvae again go into the ground, pupate, and the pupae give life to second-generation flies, which again hit the onions in July with their larvae.
The struggle with these pests of onions is reduced to the agrotechnical cultivation of the soil. Onion flies are scared off at a time when they begin to lay eggs. For this row with onions should be sprinkled with tobacco dust or a mixture of tobacco dust with lime in equal proportions. Ten square meters will require up to two kilograms of the drug. Note that such treatment of onions from pests should be carried out twice to neutralize both generations of flies! There is another means - planting carrots near the onion beds. This vegetable contains phytoncides that scare off onion flies.
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Another enemy of the harvest of onions is a weevil or onion secretive . These three-millimeter bugs head extended and resembled proboscis. Weevils in the beds appear in April. They eat onion feathers, leaving them dots of light color. The vegetable itself is not interested in beetles, but because of the wilting of the damaged leaves, the head develops very slowly.
That is why the earlier you manage to process the onions from these pests (pruning, burning leaves, loosening rows), the more likely to collect a good harvest of onions.
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A round thread-like worm stem nematode inflicts no less damage to the onion. These worms penetrate into the bulb, they feed on the plant juices, dooming it to softening the tissues, decaying and dying. The biggest danger is that during the resting phase, these worms can be up to five years old, and if they get into a favorable environment, the pest activates again.
To save the onion from this pest, it is necessary to soak the water of room temperature before planting the planting material for three days.
If the mature bulb that you just yanked out of the soil, crumbled in the hands of the trash, it means that the plant was hit by a root onion mite . These small arthropods, which do not exceed one millimeter in length, live in fleshy bulb bulbs, penetrating as they grow into a bulb. When they eat the flesh, the mites turn the vegetable into dust.
Protect the onion from the root tick can be by spraying with decoctions and infusions of tomato, potato and peel leaves.
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Decoctions, infusions
The effectiveness of natural non-chemical agents is certainly lower than that of special preparations, but onion, processed with decoctions and infusions, does not contain harmful substances. If you insist two kilograms of potato leaves in ten liters of water for ten hours, then after sprinkling on the onions there will be no root and spider mites. Spraying with infusion of onion husk (0.2 kg of husk per 10 liters of warm water, insist for five days) will save onions from aphids and ticks. A onion ear will leave your crop alone after sprinkling with tobacco infusion (0.4 kilograms of dry tobacco leaves pour for two days with ten liters of warm water).
As you can see, you can save onions from pests both before planting, treating the soil, and during growth, spraying beds.