We are going to plant calçots, one of the most interesting varieties of onions to eat on the grill or on the grill, the famous calcotada. Typical of Catalonia, these onions are characterized by a different sowing and planting process than other varieties of onions, as we will see.
This variety of white onion, known as variety of Lleida, is characterized above all by its cultivation process. That’s what. As the name suggests, it involves “mounting” the bulbs instead of burying them. Although the name in Catalan is the most famous, it is also called calcots in Spanish and sometimes (although this is a fairly common misspelling) calsots or calzos.
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Sow calçots
In our case we will start directly with the bulbs already planted, but if we wanted to sow calçots from the seed, we would sow at the end of the year and we would obtain the bulbs the following year which we would replant once harvested. But the most common, as we will see in this article and in the video, is to buy these bulbs and plant them directly.
If we wanted to get seeds from this variety of onion, we would just let it continue the full cycle, as we have already seen in several articles and videos where I explain the steps to get onion seeds of our crops.
How to plant calçots
As we said, we will see how to plant calçots from the bulbs that we have purchased. We must bear in mind that for each bulb that we plant we will obtain between 4 and 12 calçots. It is good to know not to abuse the quantities, even if you can always offer them, use them to cook or make a calçotada with family or friends.
Let’s start by looking at time and basic needs.
When to plant calçots
Calçots begin to be grown from late summer to mid-autumn, that is, from late August to late October in Spain or the northern hemisphere. It is therefore at this moment that we will begin this process of planting the calçots.
where to grow them
The area is important, but in the case of calçots they do not need to be very sunny, so we can plant them in almost any area of the garden. What is important to know is that as it is a culture that takes about 4 months, and it is good to keep this in mind because we will not be able to rotate the culture during this period.
In my case, I will do it on a terrace, but it can be done perfectly at ground level.
Usually I
Speaking of soil for planting calçots, the ideal is for it to be loose soil rich in organic matter. To loosen the soil we will use a hoe or a double-handled fork and to enrich it with organic matter we can use compost , manure That is earthworm humus.
Plant the calçots step by step
We will make a deep furrow at least twice the size of the bulb we are going to plant. More or less would be around 20cm. If we are going to plant more than one row, we must make a separation of at least 70 centimeters between one and the other. It is not for the needs of the culture itself, but it is done so that the bulbs can later be knocked off when the white stalk begins to rise.
The position to plant from the bulb is with the tip, from where the stem will sprout, always upwards and the small roots or the base of the onion always downwards, touching the ground.
We will plant them simply by supporting them and lightly pressing the ground, but we will not bury them. We just put and press a little.
It is also not necessary to cut the bulb as recommended in some places, we leave them as they are, we will also not cover them, but leave them as they are.
Irrigation
Irrigation, unlike other types of onion crops that we are going to use for canning or garlic, they need a little more irrigation. Depending on the climate in which we find ourselves, we water more or less. If we plant them at the end of summer, we will need to water abundantly at least twice a week. In autumn, if we live in a rainy region, we can reduce the risk.
We will add soil to them as they grow and they will start to germinate more or less 20 or 25 days after we have planted, when we will see the first stems come out.
We will see more videos and articles about growing calçots as we go through the process. We’ll walk you through how to go shoeing, a process we’ll do 3 or 4 times more or less during the harvest time.
And finally, when they reach a height of about 15 or 20 centimeters, it will be time to harvest.
But we are not going to get ahead of ourselves. We will see it as our culture of calçots develops and if we see that our readers and followers on YouTube and other networks ask us for it.
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