Title:
Grow It Yourself: Onions Are Nothing to Cry About
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
See text below
Text:
Onions come in different sizes, shapes, colors and
flavors, from mild and sweet to hot and strong. A
full-grown onion plant has roots, bulbs and leaves.
The leaves are long, thin and hollow. They stand
straight up and thicken at the bottom to form a
bulb. Onions are biennials; their life cycle is two
years long. But they are usually picked during their
first year after flowers form and the bulbs stop
growing. Onions grow best in loose, fertile soil.
They can grow in many different climates. In cooler
climates, onions may need fourteen to fifteen hours
of daylight to start forming bulbs. In warmer
climates, onions can begin developing bulbs with
fewer hours of daily sun. Organic material like
compost or leaf mulch can help onions grow in heavy
soil. Barbara Fick is an extension agent at Oregon
State University in the northwestern United States.
She says a faster way to grow onions is to plant
small bulbs known as sets instead of seeds. Onions
can be harvested once their tops have dried and
fallen over. You can store onions for months. But
Barbara Fick says stored onions need to be cured
first. "Curing is a way of making sure those leaves
on the outside are nice and dry." Here are some
directions from editors at the National Gardening
Association. First, dry the onions in the sun for a
day or so. Then bring them out of direct sun for two
to three weeks. Spread them out in any warm, airy
place that is covered. Or cover the onions with a
light cotton sheet held in place with stones along
the edge. The sheet will keep the sun from burning
the bulbs. Don't worry about rain. And do not use a
plastic or canvas sheet. Heavy coverings will trap
moisture and keep the onions from drying fully. Turn
the bulbs a couple of times to help them dry evenly.
After curing the onions, you can hang them indoors
in mesh bags to dry even more. There should be no
wet spots on the onions when they are put in
storage. Editors at the National Gardening
Association say the longer onions are cured, the
better they will keep. Some people cut off the top
leaves before curing onions. If you do that, do not
cut the leaves any closer than two and a half
centimeters from the bulb.For VOA Special English,
I'm Alex Villarreal. For more stories about
gardening, including more advice about growing
onions, go to voaspecialenglish.com.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
