Help somethings been bashing my onions!

[Incy]

My onions were doing great and I've been watching them grow with pride as it's the first time I've tried from sets and seeds really didn't work for me.
Imagine my horror when I went out yesterday to find that a 3rd of them have been knocked flat
My question is whether I need to pull them up now or can I leave them in the ground with their broken/bent over greenery?


p.s. I'm not pointing the fingers but have my suspicions as to the culprits.....Our 2 kittens have just discovered my vegetable patch in the last 2 days. Say no more

[TEB]

They do that, the onions that is, you can lift them and leave to dry (I put on a rack), what is the foilage like - is it brown and starting to whither.

[HayleyB]

ROFL Poor kittens having the finger unjustly pointed

Like TEB says, onions do dat......... You can let them dry out in the ground until the stems have all gone brown or lift them and dry them now.

[Incy]

No it's still green. Definitely been knocked flat rather than naturally falling over.

You can tell by the way some of the stems have been broken.

[HayleyB]

Mine final batch are green still and have laid themselves down with a plonk some stems do break literally on hitting the ground it's about the right time, kittens may still be safe....

[Incy]

Ok so here's some pics of the damage including one of the kittens hanging around suspiciously close to the crime scene

[TEB]

still looks normal to me

[Incy]

really, so they could just be getting ready to harvest?
Even though not all of them are fallen down?

[sarraceniac]

They look just like mine did just before I harvested last week. I think you should buy the kittens a mackerel supper each in apology.

[Incy]

They look just like mine did just before I harvested last week. I think you should buy the kittens a mackerel supper each in apology.

lol. They're too little for mackerel. I'll give them a nice big bowl of milk instead

[HayleyB]

ROFPMSL, those kittys' crime scene looks like my onion patch, onions don't all decide at once they're gonna fall some are left out of the fall notice that they pass around prior to passing out, sardines for dinner then little'uns

[Incy]

If you'd seen them flying around rolling over each other play fighting you'd understand why I thought it could be them. lol

[Florence Fennel]

Justice for the kittens - they haven't been near my onions and they look exactly like yours - getting ready to harvest! The kitten is really cute.

[sarraceniac]

Take a piece of garden twine about 5 or 6 feet long (1.8 metres if your modern). Tie the ends together and hang it from a hook so it doesn't trail on the floor. Take your first onion and push the leaves through the middle of the two pieces of string then weave the end (no, not the onion end, the growing tip end) round and round the string in a figure of eight. pushing the end through the middle as you go. For the first one do this about 7 times. Get another onion and position it attractively against the first onion then push the growing tip through in the same way (figure of eight) about 3 times. Take another onion and place it attractively against the first two onions and weave through again (and for every onion) about 3 times. When you have enough onions on your string (usually about 16-20) cut off the sticking out growing tips, but not too close.

If you don't have a rack then this is the poor man's way of drying them. I am sure a French onion seller would turn in his bicycle clips but this is a lot easier than weaving the growing bits.

[zazen999]

That's what I did to make the string below.

I made another one after this, but this time I left the onions much longer until the necks had totally dried; then when you do the figure of 8 thingy, it weaves much easier - like weaving string with string. The one below is mainly autumn sown sets, so the necks weren't as dryable as the later autumn sown seed onions.