Onions and Garlic - Storage Question

[Rhona]

This is my first year of growing enough of a crop to need a proper area to dry/cure our garlic and onions. I so far have the onions laid out on the driveway but I can't be sure it won't rain for a few days. After a bit of a search and a think, I cleared out the outdoor mini store where we keep prams/pushchairs etc and have strung the garlic at the back. Do you think I could string the onions in here too (if there's room, there's about 100)? The garlic would be more or less in the shade at the back, which would be fine, and if I keep the doors open, then the onions will get whatever sunlight there is all day. The roof is waterproof.

I'm planning on trimming and plaiting all of them due course - will hanging them cause any damage/vulnerability as opposed to lying them out? We do have a shed but the shallots got there first.

Could some kind souls let me know if this is a decent enough system, or equally if I need to come up with something else? Thanks all.

[Capsid]

I reckon that'll work fine.

[Aberdeenplotter]

looks good to me.

[Rhona]

Brill. Thanks both. One other thing; can I tie the onions on using the tips of the long green tops, rather than string, or does that have any kind of detrimental effect on the curing/storing process? I want to hang them separately for now.

[Capsid]

You need the tops to dry completely otherwise they may rot, but dry stems can become very weak and break under the weight of the onions. A string is preferable. However, I don't string mine but just cut off the stems when dry and store the onions in a wire mesh basket.

[Aberdeenplotter]

if you want to store them separately, use old nylon stockings or tights, preferably clean ones . Slide a ripe dry onion down to the toe of the stocking/tights, then tie off behind it, slide in another onion and repeat until the leg is full then tie up until needed.

[VirginVegGrower]

Loving this idea AP!

[Creemteez]

Strangely, when I WEAR tights, it looks like I'm storing onions in them.........

[arpoet]

My onions are a few weeks away from stringing; they are just starting to bend over. What i do is, once lifted, I lay all the onions down in the coldframe with the top propped open to allow air flow but keep out any rain (remember that stuff), then once the stems are completle dry i tie a 2 foot string to somewhere high in the greenhouse and tie one onion at the bottom then knot 2 onions togeather by the stems and twist round the string from bottom to top. I do this several time on as many strings as needed then hang in the basement all winter and twist off a couple at a time as needed.. last years lasted me until May.
Roger

[Alison]

I'm still eating my overwintering onions which I don't store as they won't keep for long and my main crop won't be ready to bring in until the end of the month, they still have a lot of green on them and I don't lift them until the growth has died down. However when I do dry them I just lay them all out on trays in the conservatory for a couple of weeks and then store them in old tights in the garage. I hung them to dry once but it was too much of a pain and so much easier to just tip them onto a tray - anything to save me time