Dutch Crop tour onions - week 13
First onion plot sown, but nothing more for the time being
The first plot with sowing onions from the Boerenbusiness Dutch Crop tour was sown last Wednesday morning (March 27). Participant Klaasjan Boer hesitated for a moment whether to sow with the high expected rainfall, but reasonable temperatures are expected and the soil fell nicely. Elsewhere in the Netherlands, some seeds have been sown every now and then, but it is not much. The next opportunity for sowing onions seems very far away.
A total of 5 hectares of onions have been sown, which includes the Crop tour plot in Kortgene. The precipitation this morning (Thursday, March 28) is the spoilsport and prevents further sowing, says Boer. In total, about 6 millimeters fell. "I would have liked to do more and I could have prepared more land in advance, but they gave up on rain and it has fallen. That's why I'm glad we didn't have more land ready for sowing, otherwise you can't use it at all for the time being." no more."
Despite the fact that the surface was wet, the conditions were quite good according to Boer. He saw several growers in his region sowing onions last Thursday. "It hasn't rained that much here lately. On the other hand, it didn't dry quickly, which was also disappointing. The surface was still wet, but because the ground is so stiff you don't sink into it. And The soil on top is nicely weathered, so sowing went quite well afterwards."
Reasonable temperature expected
"I have been in doubt for a while whether or not we should sow with the expected rain in sight. When it dries up after a lot of rain, you have a hard crust. On the other hand, they may already be above ground by then. "With the reasonable temperature they expect, everything is fine. It certainly won't be cold, so that's positive. In addition, I sowed shallowly and the seed is in moist soil."
Looking back on how the seeds were sown and the ground fell, Boer hopes to sow his other hectare this weekend. "The wind is blowing nicely now, so maybe we can do something on Saturday before it rains. But that very much depends on the weather. On Thursday morning, preparing the land and sowing, it had also rained 2 millimeters and I could then handle the blow. Only that dried up quickly with the wind and is different from the several millimeters that fell this morning." When the wind decreases, Boer wants to carry out the first weed spraying with Stomp.
Elsewhere in the Netherlands it is quiet
She explains that Farmer has sown his plot, so it is quite quiet elsewhere in the Netherlands. Onion grower René Haaijer indicates that he has done some sowing in the northeast of the country, but there too the hectares are not too bad and "it doesn't really matter" how things sometimes go. Furthermore, some sowing has been done occasionally on the lighter sandy soils, but even there it remains limited. The first plots are also available in Flevoland.
In Limburg, where nationally speaking the seeds go into the ground a little earlier, it is also still very wet and there is little activity. For example, Hubert Linders, onion grower in Nederweert, Limburg, has not yet sown. Also hardly in his environment. "It is very wet here, so we cannot sow. So we mainly just spread some manure."
With the weather forecast for the first two weeks of April, in which relatively a fair amount of precipitation is expected, it will take some time before the next opportunity for sowing onions presents itself. We are then halfway through the month of April and before any work is done, it still has to dry. Growers indicate that the millimeters still have to actually fall. If the weather forecasts come true, a repeat of last season is very close.
Jesse Torringa
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