Curious as to when and how you should plant your spring onions? When growing this crop, there are several factors to consider. From crop rotation, soil types, and position, to frost tolerance, spacing, sowing time and harvesting.
Andile Matukane, founder of Farmer’s Choice, and Devroll Legodi, founder of Devroll Herbs, joined a recent session of Food For Mzansi’s Gather To Grow on twitter to discuss the cultivation of spring onions in Mzansi.
When you plant is very important, the experts say.
A key benefit of producing spring onions at great speed, as noted by Legodi, is that they require little maintenance. There’s also not a lot of upkeep or fuss involved, which are major pluses.
“When I started growing, I could see the magic. I never thought that it will grow so quickly and [as big as it did] within like two weeks,” Matukane says during the session.
Why market research is essential
According to Matukane, the failure to do market research before planting spring onions is one of the most common errors made by farmers.
She elaborates by saying that if you haven’t done your market research, you would be so eager to get into the market that you’d accept whatever price your clients may suggest.
“So, it’s much important for each and every farmer to do their market research based on the crop that they want to plant and know who they’re going to sell it to,” Matukane says.
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On this session, speakers also look into:
- Spring onion planting season;
- Climate in which it thrives; and
- Planting top seedling varieties before producing spring onions.
ALSO READ: Opportunity in rising demand for spring onions
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