It's my first season for onions and am wondering how to best store them. I planted a pound of yellow onion sets. From the wind and rain, almost all the green is on the ground, but still green.
Should I wait for the tops to wilt? How about braiding onions? Are they braided while the tops are still green?
Thanks.
I just rinse the dirt off and store them in a basket in the kitchen at room temp. Refrigeration works too but I've found they get moldy faster.
Wilson mate,
Ideally I think you should wait for the tops to wilt, then loosen them up from the ground and let them bake themselves dry in the sun.
But here (UK, South East) we have had such a bad wet summer, that I have already lifted them before they completely wilted cos I was fearful that they would rot in the ground. I now have them laying on wire trays in the cold frame to dry out. I have removed all the soil and any powdery looking white stuff from each one and am leaving them on the wire trays upside down so that they do not touch each other. Kinda like you would dry off dahlia bulbs.
I don't think I will braid em either cos if one gets infected then I think that will rapidly extend to the rest on the rope. So, after they fully and totally and absolutely dry, I will just shift then into the garage on the wire frames, keeping them separate all the time.
You got hot sunny weather?
Ed
Not enough to spare. lol. Mostly fog, drizzle and such with occasional rain. Today makes 2 days in a row with sun and we had one good week in the middle of July. Otherwise, night time lows haven't stayed above 61F yet. Hope this bit of sun makes a run for it.
I grow in 6 3'x10x9.5" beds, so I have a little control over moisture - probably drier than if I was in the ground proper.
Wilson babe , u gotta decide on wot to do based on ur local climate. Wot r ur neighbors doing? Any clues there? Last thing u wont is for em to rot in the ground!!
Ed
Onions ideally need long warm dry conditions for best storing. When they are getting towards the end of the season, the best way to get them ready for storing is to bend the tops over (without breaking them) and they then sort of dry out and the bulb plumps up. That's not a great description, but you might get the idea. Depending on your conditions (ie if it's wet and you're not getting long sunny days) you might need to harvest then on the greenish side and just use them up quickly and hope for a better growing season next year. I don't plait, just rough them up with my hands to get the loosest bits of skins off and then chuck them all together in a plastic bucket.
sometime in the recent past FarmI posted this:
I'm going to use some right off at the end of the season to make salsa depending on how many tomatillos I get, but I can see with our weather that I'll need to harvest them and dry them on a rack until I can trim the tops back. Braiding sounded like fun, but I'll probably just put them back into onion sacks.
Thanks all.
This is my first year growing onions too. I bought a "unit" of plants and wound with 100 a month earlier than expected. From the googling I did -
Let the stems/tops turn brown
Pull them up and harden them off for several days - this just means putting them in some basket or container that will let the air circulate and keep the out of direct sun. This causes the outer layers to dry out and form the skin that protects the rest of the onion.
Brush off the dirt, trim the tops and roots.
Put in mesh bags and store in a cool dark place.
- Mark
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