What is the sowing date and sowing unit this season?

Most of the onion seed is in the ground and some of it is primed. However, the benefits of priming partially disappear due to drought first and later crust formation. How are the fields progressing and which sowing unit did growers choose?

Anyone who managed to sow their onions well before the precipitation at the beginning of April does not seem to regret it. The seed onions are not hindered by a crust and are now provided with sufficient moisture, although it is now drying hard. For the onion growers who have sown just before the precipitation, it is quite exciting how the onions get through the rind. In various places in the Netherlands, rollers and harrows could be seen to keep the crust in check.

Primed onion seed
The percentage of primed onion seed increases every year. This year, approximately 30% of the onion seed has been primed. Onion grower Dirk Binnema from Eenrum (Gr) is one of the growers who sow every hectare with primed seed. After trying it for two seasons, Binnema finds it a great advantage to have onions three or four days earlier. In addition, he has started to sow a little less and now uses 3,4 units per hectare. At the beginning of April, he still had to process 55 millimeters of precipitation on his plot, and the onions are having a hard time piercing through the crust.

For onion growers it is sometimes questionable whether primed seed will pay for itself in the kilos. That also depends on the type of season you have, but it can also be due to other things. For example, onion grower Reinder Hogenhout from Kimswerd (Fr) thinks that germination is also variety-dependent. Last year he sowed two varieties on the same day on the same plot, Centros unprimed and Kamel primed and the Centros were on the top anyway. This year he is again sowing primed seed of the Hyroad variety at 4,0 units per hectare. 

In addition to his own plots, René Haaijer from East Groningen also sows for others. He reports that about 20% of his sown acreage is primed: "The primed seed is almost only red and some yellow, but here on the sandy soil priming is not really necessary." On our own plots we sow around 3.8 units of yellow and 3.5 units red. Pink onions, on the other hand, primed four units."

Due to the good weather conditions, the average sowing date is relatively early. This means that in the Crop Tour, sowing was done about a week earlier than 2021 and more than a week compared to 2020.

As expected, unprimed seed has a higher sowing rate as it is recommended to sow slightly less with primed seed. What is striking is that despite primed seed, Hogenhout opts for a sowing unit of 4,0. He indicates that he grows in 8 rows and is not afraid that too many onions will grow.

Robin Winter

Intern at the Boerenbusiness Dutch Crop tour

r.dewinter@boerenbusiness. Nl

© DCA Market Intelligence. This market information is subject to copyright. It is not permitted to reproduce, distribute, disseminate or make the content available to third parties for compensation, in any form, without the express written permission of DCA Market Intelligence.