What to do with Onions and Garlic

[lottielady]

I have harvested all my onion and garlic and am now drying them nicely but do I need to cut the stems off and just dry the bulbs or dry the whole lot and whip the stems off when they are dry, any advice would be gratefully received.

[nikkijy]

I trimmed all my father in laws onions last year and he told me to not cut them too short and leave a good inch and a 1/2 so they dont rot so easily. hope this helps

[HeyWayne]

Last year I didn't do anything with my onions apart from lift them and dry them. Pulled off the dead foliage - but gently enough not to cause damage. They lasted well enough.

My first year with garlic.

[lottielady]

Many thanks I have trimmed my garlic down and that seems quite wet in the stalk so another few days drying I think.

[vegmandan]

Personally I dry the whole lot,stems and roots left on, then when the tops have completely shriveled cut it off leaving about an inch or so and trim the roots off.

Try to have your bulbs bases facing the sun so they dry out well too.

[Winged one]

Last year (and I am repeating this year) I dried them with stalks on and eventually plaited up those which were decent enough to store longer. Those with no stalks or which had split etc, I put in a net bag to use up first. And the otehrs, I plaited into bunches of 10 and hung in the shed.

This year, I am cutting off the roots as the onions have dried, as they did get annoying and held onto lots of dry dusty soil all winter. So I should have a couple of plaits of overwintered onions in the next couple of weeks, and the spring sown sets should be dried and plaited up for winter use later on (I hope to lift them in late august).