How to water onions with ammonia from onion flies

Onions have a place in every garden, but it is unlikely that you will be able to get a large and juicy harvest without paying due attention to this vegetable. The most common and universal remedy in the fight for a rich onion harvest is feeding it with a solution of ammonia.

Ammonia is an aqueous solution of ammonium hydroxide (aqueous solution of ammonia); it is a colorless, transparent liquid with a pungent “ammonia” odor. It should not be confused with ammonia - ammonium chloride and the mineral consisting of it.

The most common area of ​​use of ammonia is the production of nitrogen fertilizers, for example, ammonium nitrate. Gardeners and gardeners use so-called ammonia water to get rid of pests, and also as a source of easily digestible nitrogen.

Preventive measures

To prevent the occurrence of the pest, it is necessary to take appropriate measures in a timely manner.

Digging

Digging up the land will help get rid of the pest. Most often, insect pupae are stored in the soil; when digging in the autumn, the soil is disinfected with the help of frost.

Important. Onion fly multiplies quickly

She can lay eggs up to three times during the season.

Boarding time

Choose the right time to plant onions. All varieties of vegetables must be planted in the soil as early as possible, after it has warmed up to the required degree. Onions tolerate low temperatures well, and light frosts will be an additional method of pest control. Autumn is the right time to prepare the site for sowing, so it is necessary to remove all old leaves that may contain larvae.

High-quality planting material

The material for planting onions must be selected very carefully. You should not purchase onions from unverified places. The planting material may contain pest eggs, which, once in the soil, will begin to develop and after a few weeks will appear as a swarm of onion flies. Before planting, it is necessary to treat the seeds with a manganese solution.

Selecting a location

When planting onions, you need to pay great attention to the location of the site. The bed should be in a ventilated place with sufficient sunlight

Also, the crop planting site should not be in places with high humidity, which can lead to the appearance of diseases and pests.

Crop rotation rules

To reduce the risk of pest occurrence, it is necessary to follow the basic rules of crop rotation; onions should not be planted in one area for several years; it is necessary to regularly change crop planting sites.

Neighborhood with carrots

Proximity to carrots can protect onions from fly infection. Carrots repel the pest and do not affect the development and yield of onions. It is recommended to alternate onion beds with carrot beds.

Proper watering

Onions need to be watered as the soil dries out; excessive moisture can provoke the formation of rot on the bulbs. Weakened plants are susceptible to pest attacks.

In order to properly water the plant, it is necessary to use watering cans to distribute the liquid evenly, and moistening is carried out until the end of June, after which it stops.

Salt

The amount of salt per bucket of water makes one shudder when reading it.
Moreover, the would-be advisers are confused about what to water with such a concentrated solution: onion feathers or the soil? We'll give you a hint. There is no need to water anything with strong saline solution. Napalm! We need to burn everything clean with napalm! Or, just to be on the safe side, hit it with a nuclear charge. The effect will be the same: absolutely barren scorched earth.

Well, what kind of plant can live with such a concentration of salt in the soil? They recommend salting the onions, yeah. Moreover, it is recommended to water it with clean water in between “salting”. This means that the solution should penetrate the soil deeper, to be sure.

No doubt, there will be no onion flies in the beds. And nothing at all will happen for several years. Until the normal microflora of the soil is restored.

Advice. Gentlemen, use logic and common sense. Look for other methods of getting rid of the misfortune.

Folk remedies

These remedies are gentle methods of control. They are used for prevention and in cases where the spread of the pest is not critical. They are safe and can be used repeatedly without any harm to the plants. There are quite a lot of them.

  • Wood ash. When burning dry branches cut in spring, ash always remains. It is collected, sifted and used in the fight against various pests. It is enough to simply powder the beds to prevent the onion fly from laying eggs. You can prepare an infusion of ash - 2-3 glasses per bucket of water. It is used for root watering. Microelements contained in the ash will serve as additional fertilizer.
  • Vinegar. Containers with diluted acetic acid are placed along the beds. As vinegar evaporates under the sun's rays, it emits a pungent odor that repels insects.
  • Tobacco dust. This product, like ash, is scattered over the beds, dusting the plants. Can be used mixed with ash. For spraying, prepare a solution - 200 grams of tobacco dust per 10 liters of water. To ensure that the product adheres well to the onion feathers, add 30 grams of soap, or liquid soap. All ingredients are added to boiled water and then infused for two to three days.
  • Ammonia. A tablespoon of alcohol is diluted in 10 liters of water and the beds are watered. The pungent odor repels the pest. The method is used weekly, protecting the respiratory tract with a mask.
  • Table salt. The use of salt is a controversial issue, but many amateur gardeners claim that the method is very effective. Dissolve ordinary salt in water - 200 grams per 10 liters of water, and pour the solution on the onion at the root. The amount of liquid is just enough to wet the soil to the bottom of the bulb. Water once a week, but no more than three times per season. After 3-4 hours, the plants need to be watered with clean water. When using this method, there is a great danger of oversalting the soil, so it is better to use other means.
  • Manganese. A rich pink solution of manganese is watered over the seed bulbs immediately after planting. After 10 days, the procedure is repeated. The third watering is also after 10 days, it should guarantee complete victory over the pest.
  • Kerosene, turpentine or tar. When using these products, rely on a strong odor that should repel flies. The row spacing is watered 2-3 times during the pest breeding season. The method is questionable, as it can ruin the soil.
  • Dry mustard. It is mixed with wood ash - 1 part mustard to 3 parts ash - and scattered over the beds. The treatment is carried out 2-3 times.
  • Marigold. If you plant marigolds next to the onion bed, their smell will protect the plantings from pest invasion. The specific aroma of these flowers repels many pests. Marigolds bloom later than the fly begins to lay eggs, so they need to be planted as seedlings, which should be taken care of in advance.
  • Dandelions. An infusion of roots and flowers repels pests if you spray them on the garden bed. It is very easy to prepare. For a week, you need to infuse 200 grams of dandelions in 10 liters of water. You can pour the solution under the root. This is a good remedy that can always be found near your site.
  • Soda. Baking soda is mixed with salt and sprinkled under the root. It is believed that the mixture is lethal to the larvae, but makes watering very difficult. Together with the water, the mixture will fall into the ground, which will adversely affect it.

It is important to remember that folk remedies only repel the mentioned pest, and do not kill it. Insecticides are used to kill pests

They do this in extreme cases when it is impossible to deal with the pest in any other way.

Onion fly

Description and life cycle

The onion fly is small in size and looks very similar to an ordinary house insect. The body of the pest reaches 6 mm, the color is most often gray with a slight faded green tint. Therefore, the pest is practically invisible on the plant. Eyes are red or burgundy.

The insect appears in the beds at the end of April, mid-May, depending on weather conditions. The female can lay up to 15 eggs at a time, from which larvae appear after 3-4 days. Externally, the larvae are white and small in size. The larvae feed on young onion shoots and can sometimes accumulate in large numbers in the bulbs. After 10-12 days they pupate and fall into the soil for several weeks. After this time, new adults appear and spread throughout the area.

Appearance and life cycle

The onion fly is an inconspicuous, small (about 7 mm) insect of ash-gray or yellow-gray color. The pest belongs to the order Diptera and is very similar to the common housefly. The wings are transparent and may have two or three longitudinal veins or without them. At the edges of the wings there is a fringe of thin long hairs.

The onion fly is a small insect (7 mm), very similar in appearance to an ordinary housefly

The female lays from 40 to 60 eggs during her life, and from 5 to 20 at a time. Their size is about 1 mm. The eggs are white and have an elongated oval shape. Embryonic development is promoted by high soil moisture (60–80%). After about a week, larvae up to 10 mm in size emerge from them, which immediately penetrate into the bulb. They are legless and white. The body tapers towards the head, which has black mouth hooks. Larvae born from the same clutch stick together and eat away a single cavity inside the bulb.

The fly lays from 5 to 20 eggs at a time, from which, after a week, larvae hatch, which eat the bulbs and feathers

After 15–20 days, the larvae leave the bulbs, crawl into the ground and pupate there, forming a false cocoon. After 2–3 weeks, young flies of the next generation emerge from the pupae. This usually happens in July. In total, two generations of onion fly develop during the season; in the southern regions, under favorable conditions, a third generation may appear. The pest overwinters in the soil of those areas where the larvae developed, at a depth of 5–20 cm in the form of false cocoons.

The onion fly overwinters in the soil at a depth of 5–20 cm in the form of a pupa (false cocoon)

What harm does the onion fly cause?

The period of appearance of the onion fly depends on climatic conditions and varies in different regions from late April to early June. The main landmark for the beginning of the mass emergence of the pest is the moment of flowering of dandelions, lilacs and cherries.

As soon as the cherry blossoms, the gardener must be on alert - the massive flight of the onion fly begins

Adult flies do not eat onions; they feed on pollen from flowering plants. Their harm lies in the fact that females actively lay eggs during the season in the soil, on protruding parts of the bulbs or between the leaves. Fly larvae cause direct harm. They attack onions of the first and second years of development. In seedlings, the larvae damage the feathers. In onions of the second year of growing season, they crawl through the axils of the leaves into the bulb or penetrate it from the bottom, suck out the juice and eat away the pulp, as a result of which the bulbs rot and the plants die.

Causes of defeat

The fight against onion flies that have already appeared can be quite difficult and not always successful. To carry out timely and correct preventive measures, it is necessary to know the reasons for the mass invasion of the pest on onion beds. Among them are:

  • violation of crop rotation rules;
  • incorrect placement of crops in the garden (poor choice of neighbors);
  • late planting of onions;
  • lack of deep autumn digging of the soil;
  • use of infected and untreated seed material before planting.

Prevention and planting rules in pest control

To grow a rich onion harvest, you need to practice prevention. This is a troublesome matter, so be patient. Let's consider preventive actions in order.

  1. Crop rotation does not allow diseases and pest larvae to accumulate in the beds. Therefore, bulbous crops cannot be planted in one place every year. Planting can be returned to its original place only after 4 years. The optimal predecessors for onion plantings are cucumbers, tomatoes and cabbage.
  2. It is good to combine planting bulbous crops with planting carrots, parsley, parsnips, and celery. The insect cannot tolerate their aroma. Nightshade crops planted to the side will also repel flies. These are tomatoes and potatoes.
  3. When planting onions, you need to fill the rows with wood ash. It will scare away the enemy and serve as fertilizer. Adding peat before planting will reduce the number of larvae in the soil.
  4. Mulching plantings is another agrotechnical technique. Mulch will make it difficult for flies to access the soil and seedlings. Sprinkle the soil around the neck of the bulbs with tobacco dust and ash weekly.

Single specimens of marigolds planted in the garden will also repel the fly. They interrupt the onion smell loved by flies.

Planting rules for pest control

Proper preparation of planting material will also be important. This will serve as natural protection for the plants.

  1. Before planting, immerse the seeds in a weak pale pink solution of potassium permanganate (potassium permanganate) for 1 hour. You can soak the heads of the sets in an ash solution prepared from 100 grams of powder per liter of water.
  2. Planting time is another important factor. Seeds should be planted at the end of April, after the cold weather. By the time the fly starts flying, the head will already be stronger. A large onion is more difficult for a fly to damage.
  3. Once every 3 days it is necessary to loosen the beds with plantings. This makes it difficult for the larvae to access the bulbs; it is difficult for them to move in loose soil.
  4. After harvesting, the beds must be cleared of plant debris. You can dig up the ground shallowly to make it difficult for the fly larvae to overwinter. If the gardener is against digging up the soil (there are some), then you can simply loosen it.

It is important to remember that prevention, timely watering, fertilizing and loosening will be more effective and bring more benefits than the use of chemicals. Now the reader knows what kind of pest the onion fly is, how to fight it using folk methods and modern drugs, its life cycle, signs of a plant being damaged by a fly, how to prepare planting material and soil to avoid infection

Now the reader knows what kind of pest the onion fly is, how to fight it using folk methods and modern drugs, its life cycle, signs of a plant being damaged by a fly, how to prepare planting material and soil to avoid infection.

Fertilizing garlic and onions with ammonia: instructions

We figured out how useful it is for and, now let's figure out how to use it

How to dilute ammonia for garlic

In order to protect the crop from pests

, and sprayed with an ammonia solution, but diluted in certain proportions along with.

To prepare the composition
for spraying, grate 100 g of 72% laundry soap or any other soap, but without fragrances, on a fine grater. Pour a liter of hot water over it and stir until dissolved. The resulting solution is slowly poured into a bucket of water, stirring until the soap is completely dissolved. Now you can pour 25% product into this mixture in a volume of 50 ml. That's the whole process explaining how to dilute ammonia.

The resulting mixture should be used immediately by spraying the plants. The procedure is carried out every few days. Subsequently, after such spraying, the green part of the plants must be washed well before use.

The product is also used for fertilizer.

In this case, the dosages differ slightly depending on the purpose of the solution. So, if plants show acute signs of nitrogen starvation, pour a tablespoon of 25% product into a liter of water. This is the maximum dosage that, in principle, can be used to feed plants with ammonia.

If the leaves of the plant are not thin, rich green and even, the product can be used as a preventive measure.

To do this, it is diluted in an amount of 30 ml (2 tablespoons) per bucket of water.

Important! It is advisable to spray at sunset or in cloudy weather so that the sun does not burn the leaves after treatment.

Fertilizing onions with ammonia

The question of how to dilute ammonia is solved a little differently. But even in this case, everything depends on the purpose of using the solution. To combat a pest such as, dilute 5 ml of the product in a bucket of water and water the soil around the plant with this solution. The pungent odor that spreads will repel the insect.

Dilute 10 ml of the product in a bucket of water and water the plants with it. For a secretive proboscis, you will need 25 ml per ten liters of water. Plants are treated at the beginning of summer once a week.

Fertilizing with ammonia is carried out with a solution in the ratio of a teaspoon per liter of water. This will ensure

To get a good harvest of vegetables, gardeners can use the most unpredictable means. These include the use of ammonia as a fertilizer for bulbous plants. The medicinal product effectively fights onion pests and is a source of beneficial microelements.

Why is it useful?

Ammonia has a positive effect on the development, productivity and quality of onions, as well as on the soil in which it grows.

Nitrogen source

Ammonia, also known as 10% ammonia, is actively used in growing vegetables, including onions, due to its nitrogen content. This chemical element is one of the most necessary for plants. Its deficiency can lead to slower growth and development of plants. And also to diseases. Most of all, onions need nitrogen in the spring, after the winter awakening of the soil.



Repels insects

The big advantage of using ammonia is that its fumes can repel most pests. It is effective even in small concentrations, when a person does not smell it at all.

Most often, 10% ammonia is used to control the following pests:

  • ants;
  • aphid;
  • mole cricket;
  • wireworm;
  • midge;
  • secretive proboscis;
  • onion and carrot flies.

Getting Rich Feathers

By treating onions with the prepared product, you will be able to preserve and even activate the growth of feathers and achieve an increase in bushes. Feeding will make the color of the feathers rich green, and the taste bright and juicy.

Plants should be sprayed immediately after the first shoots. It is best to carry out the procedure in calm and cloudy weather or after sunset. In this case, they do not use special sprayers, but watering cans with small holes. Ammonia is a volatile substance, and when sprayed with a sprayer, you will not get the expected result; it will simply evaporate on the way to the plants.

Reducing soil acidity

Onions are quite sensitive to soil acidity levels. It should be slightly acidic or neutral. Even a slightly increased level of acidity will negatively affect the plant. To solve this problem, 10% ammonia is also suitable.

Long lasting effect

The effect after a course of treatment with ammonia lasts about a month. Therefore, after this time, the treatment is repeated again. The result is visible already on the 4-5th day. Onion bushes acquire a richer, deeper color, become denser and grow quickly.

Improvement of soil structure

10% ammonia has a positive effect on soil structure. It makes it more fertile, saturating it with the beneficial substances that onions need.

Preparation of the solution

In order for feeding onions with ammonia to bring the best possible results and not cause burns on its leaves and turnips, you need to adhere to the solution preparation technology and proportions.

When using ammonia at a concentration of 25%, the working fluid is prepared:

  • for feeding onions at the root - 3 tbsp. pharmaceutical ammonia per 10 liters of water;
  • for foliar feeding - 5 tbsp. for 10 liters of water.

To ensure the prolonged action of ammonia-based medicinal fertilizer, a special substance, an adhesive, is added to the working fluid. It can be purchased at any retail outlet that deals in fertilizer compounds.

Alternatively, home remedies are suitable for these purposes:

  • Laundry soap. When using ammonia, it is effective to add grated laundry soap (100 g) dissolved in hot water (1 l). This amount of adhesive is calculated for 50 ml of ammonia.
  • If fertilizer is used to water onions grown for feathers, then it is not advisable to use laundry soap. Instead, dry mustard powder in the amount of 2 tbsp is added to the working solution of ammonia. l. for 10 liters of water.
  • Shampoo. This is one of the most budget-friendly products added to a solution of ammonia. This method is suitable if the greens will not be used for food.

Precautionary measures

This useful product can become hazardous to health if you do not follow the safety rules when using it:

  • it is necessary to work with ammonia using rubber gloves;
  • Avoid contact of the solution with the skin; to do this, wear closed clothing before working with it;
  • to avoid inhaling ammonia fumes, wear a mask;
  • Do not mix the solution with active substances such as chlorine;
  • do not use for people with hypervascular dystonia;
  • Store ammonia in a carefully closed container, out of the reach of children.

Onion fly - how to fight with folk remedies?

The fight against onion fly with folk remedies is very effective; it is worth trying those tested by grandparents for many years. One of the most ancient is ash, it needs to be brewed. It’s extremely simple to prepare: pour one part of the ash with three parts of boiling water, let it sit under the lid for a day and water the beds.

Other proven methods:

  1. Potassium permanganate. A saturated solution is prepared, which is used to water the onions every 10 days. It is recommended to process late in the evening.
  2. A mixture of ash, tobacco dust and ground black pepper. Mix a glass of ash and a teaspoon of other ingredients. You need to sprinkle the beds with it in early May, when the pests begin to lay eggs. Serves as a good fertilizer.
  3. Dandelion root tincture. Pour boiling water over 200 g of raw material and leave for a week. Water once every six months.
  4. Laundry soap. The bar is dissolved in 10 liters of water and sprayed on the plants.
  5. Manure. Both in pure form and in mixed form, they are diluted with ash and tobacco dust; hot pepper can be added to enhance it. Apply before planting onions. You can replace manure with peat.

Onion fly salt

An equally simple and accessible method to everyone is treating onions with salt to prevent onion flies. It will cost pennies, but the efficiency is very high. Feathers are treated with the solution after planting and when the onion begins to grow. It is not recommended to apply more than three times a year to prevent the soil from becoming too salty.

The concentration depends on the “age” of the onion:

  1. The first spraying is when the sprouts have reached 5 cm. Dilute a third of the package of salt into a bucket of water.
  2. Second spraying, after 2 weeks. Half of the packaging is already in the bucket.
  3. Third treatment, after 3 weeks. Two thirds of a pack per bucket.

Ammonia for onion flies

Gardeners also praise such a method as treating onions against onion flies with ammonia. It not only protects against pests, but also strengthens the onion and promotes the development of feathers and bulbs. A solution is made that is used to water the beds in the morning or evening. After processing, you need to add cold water.

Ingredients:

  • water – 10 l;
  • ammonia - 3 tbsp. l.

Application

  1. Dilute ammonia in water, water the soil under the plantings, which is between the rows.
  2. Repeat three times, a week apart.
  3. Make sure that the liquid does not get on the feathers, only under the bulb.

Tar from onion fly

Since ancient times, peasants have used such protection as birch tar against onion flies. Before planting, the bulbs were soaked in a solution of a liter of water, two handfuls of ash and half a grated bar of tar soap. The solution was infused for a day, then the bed was watered. When the feather grew to 10 cm, it was necessary to treat it with a special solution.

Ingredients:

  • soap – 20 g;
  • tar - 1 tbsp. l.;
  • water – 10 l.

Application

  1. Mix the ingredients, water the beds, at the root of the plant.
  2. Re-cultivate the soil after 2 weeks.

Kerosene for onion flies - how to water?

In search of an answer to the question of what kind of pest the onion fly is and how to effectively combat it, some gardeners find recommendations to use kerosene. The beds must first be watered with clean water, and only then with the solution. But you can use kerosene against onion flies only once, so as not to burn the plant.

Ingredients:

  • kerosene - 1 tbsp. l.;
  • water – 10 l.

Application

  1. Dilute kerosene thoroughly in water.
  2. Immediately carefully water the beds at the rate of 1 bucket per 4-5 meters of garden.

How to use tobacco dust against onion flies?

A good, proven remedy is tobacco dust for onion flies. Previously, every owner grew tobacco, but today there is no such need; the product can be bought at any hardware store or market. It is used dry or in infusion; the ground must first be loosened. Experienced gardeners say that two treatments are enough to get rid of the pest. In dry form, simply sprinkle on the beds, or mix with lime. The solution is prepared in advance.

Ingredients:

  • tobacco dust – 200 g;
  • water – 10 l.

Application

  1. Dilute tobacco in hot water and leave for two days.
  2. Spray the plantings once a week.
  3. The treatment is carried out in the evening.

What water to use

It is possible to grow a good harvest of onions with large heads and long-lasting ones only in the area where there is a special outdoor storage container. This could be, for example, an ordinary tank welded from sheet metal in the form of a box. This design should be installed in the garden at the highest place.

We suggest you read: When to cut cabbage according to the lunar calendar

Using such water to moisten the beds ensures better growth of the heads and reduces the risk of infection by all kinds of fungi and bacteria. This is explained very simply. When watered with warm water, the bulb tissue does not experience any stress due to the sharply changing ambient temperature.

Onions are usually watered quite abundantly. The exact amount of water used depends on the age of the plants. In any case, after watering, the bed should be saturated just enough so that everything, even the longest roots of the heads, “work.” Grown onions are usually watered at the rate of 10 liters per 1 m2 of bed. The soil under the plants should be wet by about 15-20 cm. For newly planted onions, you can use less water.

Some gardeners use salt water to irrigate their beds. Liquid with salt is usually used to protect seedlings from dangerous pests that can attack the plant.

Before using the solution, you need to familiarize yourself with the main features of its use. Salt water is used at least three times per season:

  • First time. You can use a solution with salt for the first time when young seedlings grow to 7-8 centimeters in height. In this case, a liquid is used that is prepared from 8-9 liters of water and 350 grams of table salt. Salt water is poured very carefully so that its drops do not fall on the green feathers.
  • Second time. Next time you need to use salted water after 2-3 weeks. In this case, the bushes are filled with a more concentrated solution, to which not 350, but 450 grams of salt are added.
  • Third time. The last time the beds are irrigated with salty liquid is in mid-summer. To prepare the solution, 550-650 grams of salt are dissolved in ten liters of heated water.

How to care for onions: 5 rules

How to save a bow from an onion fly? First of all, you need to provide it with proper care so that the plant is healthy:

Rule 1. Observe planting time. Onions are planted in the ground in mid-April, in dry but not hot weather.
The size of the bulbs when planting should be 1.5–3 g. Small planting material will give a small harvest, and from a large set the onion can go into arrows.

The distance between the bulbs in a row is 7–12 cm

Rule 2. Apply fertilizers Before planting onions, the soil allocated for it must be fertilized with rotted manure and mineral fertilizers, this will help the onions to develop better

Rule 3. Remove weeds To prevent onions from getting sick, you need to periodically loosen the soil under it and weed out the weeds

Rule 4. Water If there has been no rainfall on the site for a long time, the onions need to be watered generously 2-3 times a month.
Excessive watering is also harmful to this crop, as is drought.

A month before the onions ripen, watering should be stopped, then the bulbs will fully ripen and will be well stored

Rule 5. Harvest on time You need to remove onions from the plot after they have turned yellow in dry weather.
It needs to be dug up and left in the sun to dry.

Bulbs should be stored in a cool, dark place.

The video explains in detail how to care for onions. These measures will help protect it from diseases and pests, including onion flies:

How to get rid of onion fly

If the pest has already been noticed on the site in previous years, preventive measures should be taken immediately after emergence. To do this, the surface of the bed, especially near the bulbs, is sprinkled with ash, hot pepper, and tobacco dust.

The drug "Zemlin" helps a lot. It has a low hazard class and is quite effective against many insects that live in the soil - wireworms, mole crickets, cabbage fly larvae. The drug is scattered over the beds, after mixing with sand. 2-3 granules can be added when planting the seedlings directly under the root.

Onion beds need to be loosened regularly. This makes it difficult for the insect to reach the bulb.

Folk remedies

When the first signs of onion fly damage appear, the plantings are treated with drugs that are safe for humans but repellent to the pest. If the extent of the damage is small, you can try to get rid of the insect without chemicals. Experienced summer residents spray or water their plantings with various decoctions and infusions:

  • a decoction of bitter plants or those containing natural insecticides - tansy, Dalmatian chamomile, hot pepper, carrot tops;
  • solution of ammonia in the proportion of 3 tbsp. l. on a bucket of water;
  • birch tar diluted in water (1–2 tablespoons per 10 liters).

Water the onions with diluted ammonia so that the liquid does not get on the green leaves. Otherwise, burns will form on them after processing. All of the listed substances are completely safe for plants, soil and humans. They can be processed quite often without fear of harm.

But you shouldn’t get carried away with saline solution. Salt is effective against many pests and microorganisms, but it worsens the condition of the soil. The fertility of soil to which salt is regularly added decreases sharply, since beneficial organisms suffer along with harmful ones. Soil bacteria and worms that decompose organic matter do not survive in saline environments. As a result, the soil loses its humus layer and structure, becomes dusty and infertile. Air exchange processes are disrupted in it and mold fungi begin to develop.

If possible, salt treatment should be limited and it is better to replace it with other substances that do not affect the quality of the soil.

Chemicals

If the infection is severe, folk remedies are ineffective and there is nothing left to do but save the onion from the onion fly using insecticides. When using them, you should remember that you cannot cut a green feather for food from a bed sprayed with pesticides. Stop spraying 20–30 days before harvesting.

The following drugs are used against onion flies:

  1. Alatar is a broad-spectrum insecticide. Helps against many garden pests. To treat onion plantings, 5 ml is dissolved in 4 liters of water. This amount should be enough to spray a whole hundred square meters. The drug is convenient because it is not washed off from the leaves by precipitation for a long time and retains its effect for 10 days. No more than two treatments are carried out per season. The last spraying is permissible no later than three weeks before harvesting.
  2. Karate Zeon is used in dry weather, when the likelihood of precipitation is minimal. Otherwise, the drug may enter the soil and contaminate it. The chemical can be combined with herbicides or fungicides, but it must be used immediately; the diluted product cannot be stored.
  3. Bazudin is effective against a variety of soil-borne insects and guarantees long-lasting protection. The effect appears within the first hours after treatment and lasts up to 6 weeks.

The use of comprehensive measures to protect onions from flies will help you get rid of this unpleasant pest for a long time and get a rich harvest of large and healthy bulbs every year.

Fragrant infusions

Very good recipe. You can use as much as you like, even throughout the season. The frequency of treatments is once every 8-9 days. They start from the moment the first onion shoots appear and end 20 days before harvesting the turnips.

The recipe itself is incredibly simple. We go out to the site or for a walk nearby. We look around carefully. We are looking for plants that have a strong scent of their own. These are tansy, valerian, fir, pine, mint. We tear a medium-sized bunch. We drag all this stuff home and throw it into an enamel bucket. Next, pour boiling water to the top and cover with a lid.

As soon as the mixture has cooled to room temperature, feel free to strain it and pour it into a garden sprayer. Then we generously water the onion beds.

Don't have a sprayer handy? No problem! The old fashioned way, a bucket and a broom. And they went to save their crops from the pest. There was no broom and you don’t know what to replace it with... Sir or madam, you are clearly not of Russian origin! Our relative will always find a way out of the situation. Instead of a broom, he will pick a bunch of shepherd's purse or yarrow and calmly spray the beds with it.

Advice. Tomato tops have identical properties. When making an infusion, its specific aroma perfectly cancels out the onion smell.

How to get rid of onion fly

Folk remedies for onion flies

If you use chemicals such as insecticides to kill insects, you will most likely ruin the harvest, since harmful substances when cultivating the soil get inside the bulb and remain in it. Over time, poisons accumulate in the fruit and can affect the health of the person who eats such vegetables. Unlike drugs, folk remedies are completely safe both for the land and for summer residents, so you can use them to treat crops without fear for yourself and your loved ones.

  • Karate Zeon;
  • Bezudin;
  • Aktara;
  • Metronidazole;
  • Fly eater.

Preventive measures to combat onion fly

Rather than trying to fight insect pests that have already established themselves on a crop, it is better to take care in advance to prevent their occurrence. How to protect onions from onion flies:

  1. It is worth doing crop rotation regularly.
  2. The location of the plant should be changed annually.
  3. In the fall, it is necessary to dig up the garden (the fly remains in the soil for the winter and falls asleep at a depth of 20 cm).
  4. After harvesting, you need to remove all organic debris from the garden, leaving no food for pests.
  5. It is necessary to spray the garden with saline solution three times a year (when the sprouts grow 5 cm, then after 2 weeks, and the third time after another 20 days). After treating the soil and plants with a spray bottle, wash off the salt from the sprouts, and three to four hours after the procedure, you need to water the onions with plain water.

Reasons for use

In what cases should you use ammonia:

  1. Ammonia is considered a quick option for feeding onions. Therefore, if you need to quickly take action, then use it.
  2. Yellowness of the stem or feathers of the crop. These signs require an immediate reaction, so ammonia is used.
  3. The onion stem has a whitened appearance. This symptom also requires treatment with ammonia.
  4. Feathers that are too small, growth retardation or growth arrest are another reason to use the product.
  5. A thinning and breaking onion stem may indicate a lack of nutrients, including nitrogen, which is replenished with ammonia.

Useful tips

After treating the onions with ammonia, you can sprinkle these areas with soil. This way the substance will evaporate more slowly.

It is better to resort to maximum doses of ammonia only in extreme cases. Usually, significantly smaller dosages are effective in fertilizing.

If the acidity of the soil increases significantly, ammonia is not used. Although it is capable of moderately reducing soil acidity, in such a situation this is not enough. In such cases, nitrate nitrogen is used. All fertilizing using ammonia is carried out only after watering.

Some information about ammonia

At any pharmacy you can buy a bottle of ammonia (ammonia - aqueous solution), which many know as a remedy against fainting and loss of senses.

This drug was not ignored by gardeners who appreciated its properties as an excellent nitrogen fertilizer.

Usually the bottle of alcohol indicates that it is an ammonia solution (10%). Therefore, it is worth distinguishing between ammonia itself, a gas, and ammonia, which is an aqueous solution and has the form of a liquid.

The production of this alcohol under production conditions goes through several stages, when a hydrate is first obtained from ammonia, and then it is dissolved in water to obtain the desired composition (ammonia).

ON A NOTE! Ammonia, ammonia and ammonia are different substances, although they all have an unpleasant, pungent odor (due to ammonium salts). But in ordinary life, very often, for shorthand and convenience, alcohol is called ammonia.

To care for plants, it is alcohol that is used - a clear liquid with a pungent odor, used as a source of nitrogen. Among garden crops, onions and garlic perfectly absorb ammonia nitrogen.

It is recommended to feed the plants at the root; you can also irrigate the onion feathers with a special composition containing ammonia water. It is better not to use sprayers, since the beneficial volatile compounds in the composition will not reach the plants in the required volume. Watering cans with nozzles with medium holes are suitable.

Signs of need for treatment

We know that there is almost no overdose of ammonia in vegetables; you can feed them all summer long, but it wouldn’t hurt to know the signs that indicate that onions or garlic simply need fertilizer:

  • Yellowing of feathers.
  • Thinning of plant stems.
  • Lack of flowering on plants.
  • Poor fruit growth.
  • The tips of the feathers began to curl and turned white.
  • The stems have turned white, in which case fertilizing is urgently needed.

But if the color of the greenery has not changed, but only the tips of the feathers have turned slightly white, then no additional feeding is needed. This is the normal state of an already ripe vegetable. You can only water between rows with copper-based fertilizer.

If the soil turns out to be too acidic, then it can be mixed with ash, lime or dolomite flour, which will slightly reduce the acidity, since onions and garlic prefer low-alkaline soil. Therefore, at the beginning of summer, it would be useful to water the entire bed with a solution of two glasses of wood ash and a ten-liter bucket of liquid.

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