Onions are sown much earlier than in previous years

Many arable farmers have been out on the land in recent days to prepare and sow their plots. This also applies to the participants in the Boerenbusiness Crop tour 2025. Due to the dry and often sunny weather, the yellow seed onions are being sown a lot earlier than last year. 

De Boerenbusiness Dutch Crop tour will also follow in 2025 another ten plots of yellow seed onions spread throughout the Netherlands. The participating growers share their experiences during the growing season and the development of the crop. At the end, the balance is drawn up and the yields are compared with each other via a harvest estimate.

Jacky Dieleman from Philippine (Z) was busy sowing onions last Friday.

Philip Kroes was busy last Saturday in Flevoland milling beds on the 2.25 meters. He indicates that he wants to try how that works.

Arjan Jacobs from Wezup (Dr.) prepared the land on Saturday. He ploughed one half and dug the other half to test what works best.

Klaasjan Boer from Kortgene (Z) was sowing on the Gewastour plot on Monday. The soil is falling nicely, but it is difficult to get the seed into the solid ground.

At the top, the ground is already starting to dry out and a bit of rain is welcome, says Klaasjan Boer. A bit deeper, however, the ground is still quite wet, as evidenced by the turning track.

Arjan Jacobs from Wezup (Dr) was sowing.

David de Wit from Lepelstraat (NB) was also sowing. Just like Klaasjan Boer he found it difficult to get the seed into the solid ground. A shower this weekend would be good.

The early spring of 2024 was quite spoiled by wet and chilly weather, but the dry weather of the past few days has attracted growers to the land to prepare the plot and sow the onions later. Growers in the south of the country are the first to do so. Jacky Dieleman, grower in Philippine in Zeeland Flanders, was already sowing onions last Friday (14 March). According to him, it went 'beautifully'. "The topsoil is falling nicely this year."

A shower is welcome
Klaasjan Boer, onion grower in Kortgene in Zeeland, prepared the land last Saturday. He was sowing the Gewastour plot that is being monitored this year on Monday 17 March. The soil is falling quite nicely, Boer notes, although it is not easy to get all the onion seeds into the solid ground. "The topsoil is starting to dry out again. A bit of rain is welcome." David de Wit, grower in Lepelstraat in West Brabant, agrees. He started sowing last Monday evening and sowed the Gewastour plot on Tuesday. He is also having trouble getting the seeds into the solid ground. "A shower this coming weekend would be welcome", with De Wit referring to the current weather forecast. 

Growers in Drenthe are also not sitting still. Arjen Jacobs, a grower from Wezup, was also sowing the Gewastour plots on Monday, March 17. Rene Haijer, grower from Veelerveen, also in Drenthe, was also sowing the onions on Monday. "On beautiful sandy soil it is going well," Haaijer indicates. The grower also immediately laid hoses for drip irrigation in the sandy soil on the first plot.

Sowing starts much earlier
The growers are well ahead of last year with the current sowing activities. Then came the average sowing date of the ten Gewastour plots in the Netherlands on 19 April. The first plot in the south was not sown until 27 March, almost two weeks later than now. In the 2023 growing season, the average sowing date was even later, at 24 April.

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