Onion crops

Onion crops were grown from the ancient times in Slovenia. The evidence for that are autochthonous populations and slovenian cultivars of onion, garlic and shallot derived from autochthonous populations. Onion crops are among the oldest medicinal plants, since they prevent inflammations, act as natural antibiotics and increase the resistance of organism against different diseases. In Slovenia total area under onions increased in the period between 1939 and 1970 to 1123 ha and than decreased to 726 ha in 1998. Yield per hectare increased to 20,2 t/ha and total yield to 14 650 t in the year 1998. The largest area under garlic was 503 ha in 1990 and yields per hectare were highest in 1995 with 10,5 t/ha. In the year 1977 the marketable production of onion and garlic was organised in Koper and Primorska region. In the year 1999 main regions producing onions were Podravje, Ljubljana region and Gorenjska. According to the evaluations from 1999, onions, garlic and leek were cultivated for market on 182 ha. By the inventory in 2000 marketable production of onion, garlic, leek and shallot occupied 155 ha, from those 0,24 ha was produced under protected cultivation. Direct sowing in 70-ies intensified the onion production. At present growing onion from transplants means an improvement in quality of onion crop and better use of available land. In the year 2000 the world yields of onions were 46 962 thousand tons grown on 2 670 000 ha, yields of garlic 9 561 000 tons grown on 2 670 000 ha and yields of green onion 4 035 173 tons grown on 222 063 ha. The largest areas of onion and garlic had China, India, Europe. The highest hectare yields of onion had Spain and the Netherlands. The largest production of green onion have Mexico, Japan, Republic of Korea and Turkey. In this supplement breeding, variety list, growing onion, garlic, shallot, leek, welsh bunching onion, chive, physiological disorders, fungus, bacteria and virus diseases, pest, biotic plant protection, protection against weed and economy of production are discussed.