When shall I harvest the onions?

[October]

Would be grateful for advice/opinions - I put in some onion sets at the start of April - now they are big onions - the size you would buy in shops - bigger than Tesco value ones but smaller than the big Spanish ones. [Though one or two are almost that size.] Their tops have flopped over - just the top few inches - and are looking less green; they have not run to seed at all. I thought I saw somewhere that they should not be pulled until August - is this right? I don't want them to rot in all this wet weather - no floods, but lots of rain. Thanks for any advice.

[sewer rat]

Your onions will be fine in the rain, fear not. When it dries up (and it will at some point), lever them just out of the ground with a fork and leave them in the sun to harden off and let the foliage completely dry up. If however, it does start to rain after this, take them into a greenhouse or shed or similar and put them on wire racks to dry. Then stiore in nets or plait them a la Onion Johnny boys

[October]

Thanks Rat! I'm very pleased with them and didn't want to mess up.