When do I Harvest Overwinter Onions?

[iGrowVeg]

This is the first time I have been growing overwintering Onion sets (Red Cross). I can see the tops appearing above the soil and they are fattening up quite nicely and they have quite thick foliage although it was straight its now collapsing everywhere with the heavy rain.

Please can someone tell me is there something I should be looking for to tell when they are ready for harvesting?

Thanks
Tracey

[Two_Sheds]

I am eating mine now because
1) I'm hungry
2) I need the space for something else

They won't store long, so eat them as soon as you feel they are big enough

[zazen999]

I've been harvesting mine since the start of May. I'm down to the last 1/3 now. They are quite big now. I've harvested alternate ones to let the others grow on and where I have space, I've put the next crops in [tomatoes mainly].

[Alice]

They don't store well GrowVeg so you are as well to eat them as you go along. I'm eating mine now. They're still quite small so I take every second one and use it like spring onion in the salad. Eat all the green part too.

[iGrowVeg]

Thanks Alice, do you know what type of onions you can string up and store? I wanted to try growing them so I can store for longer.

Thanks to two shed and zazzen999 for your replies.

[snake the squadie]

i am eating mine aswell but i grow enough to last me untill the normal ones are ready so there is no need to store them sorry but i have no idea if you can buy ones to store but there must be some as you can do wonders these days with the type of things you can grow

[zazen999]

Thanks Alice, do you know what type of onions you can string up and store? I wanted to try growing them so I can store for longer.

Thanks to two shed and zazzen999 for your replies.

The ones that:
you buy as sets in the spring and plant out
you sow as seed in the autumn and plant out in the spring
you sow as seed in the winter and plant out late spring

Some do leave their autumn sown sets to dry out completely, but the problem is that you can only store ones that have not started to flower, which onions tend to do in their second year.