Onions Whats Going On ?

[newmannewy]

Ok so I grew some onions and got quite a decent harvest with them..

So I read up on some stuff and was told to dig them up and put them on racks or hang them up in mesh in order to dry them out for storage and usage. I think the term used was to CURE them.

So I hung them in appropriate mesh bags for 2 weeks or so. And now lots of them have started sprouting green shoots..

Why is this ? Why have they sprouted ? I thought they would turn brown on the outside and be ready to eat

[PAULW]

Its a weather thing, it should have turned cold and the bulbs would go dormant but it keeps flicking from warm to cold to warm and the bulb thinks the winter is over and starts to grow again, also if these are last years over wintering onions they will start to shoot this time of year.

[zazen999]

It's because they are biennial so they want to continue growing and produce flowers.

They will hang onto any moisture in the air, and grow roots and shoots if they can.

[rustylady]

When did you harvest your onions? You say you hung them in mesh bags for two weeks, where have they been since then?

[newmannewy]

I I harvested about 2 weeks ago and hung them up in the garage, nice cold and dark..

Guess I need to chop them up and freeze them ?

Hey Paul if they are last years over wintering onions.. How do u get to "cure" them then ?

[rustylady]

Right, you don't "cure" onions by hanging them up in the dark. You harvest them when the leaves have fallen over and gone brown and you spread them out on wire racks in the sunshine to dry thoroughly.

Were they overwintering onions? When did you plant them?

[PAULW]

The overwintering onion crop are supposed to be a stop gap, onions that are to be used before the main crop are ready the main crop are the keepers

[newmannewy]

Well They had 2-3 days in greenhouse to try and dry them out a bit.. Trouble is there has been nooooo sunshine !!

I watched some youtube vids and this guy left them in the sun for a few hrs and then put them on racks in the garage. Well I dont have room for racks so hung them up in mesh sacks.

Im gonna chop n freeze em all.

- thanks

[rustylady]

OK, chop and freeze it is. A few hours is nowhere enough to dry onions for keeping. You still haven't said whether yours were overwintering or spring planted sets.

[Kaiya]

Two weeks in a warm blowaway in July and then hung individually in a garage and some of my overwinterings still aren't truly dry (milky when cut), although they are predominantly storing fine (not growing, not rotting). Drying takes aaaaaages.

[solway cropper]

I would agree that drying onions properly takes ages, especially in a year like this one. I had to harvest mine early because some were getting neck rot and I had them on the wire racks of a blowaway inside the greenhouse for well over a month before they were ready for storage. It's like Zaz says, when the air is constantly damp they refuse to stop growing!

[newmannewy]

hey solway cropper.

how do u know when they are "really" ready for storage ? Do u just wait for the outer leaves to turn brown ?

I only left them in the greenhouse for 2 days because i didnt want them sweating & rotting.

Once dug up how do u know when they are ready for storage ?

[Tripmeup]

Hi

As others have said, they need to be dryed for quite a while... You will know they are dry as the outer skins become papery and can be rubbed off easily...Also the neck of the onion should be dry too
...
2 days in the greenhouse is not long enough to dry them...I left some of mine in for over 2 weeks...If you store them on a rack or similar to allow some airflow around them, there is no real danger of them sweating or rotting... (unless you have onion rot or similar)

[Kaiya]

Plus a greenhouse isn't necessary - it just needs to be somewhere well ventilated and (with the weather we've had) sheltered from the rain. They air dry rather than heat dry, if that makes sense. You're right to worry about them getting too humid but it's air movement that will help with that (albeit less and less as it gets wetter and wetter).

As for when to pull them up - when the foliage turns brown and starts to fall over technically, however if you get rust or rot or if you need the space etc. you might want to harvest earlier, in which case you just pull them up as required, though you'll need to dry them longer (and eat them quicker as they are perhaps less likely to store as long). Or if like me you don't go to the allotment for a few weeks you may just find they've decided to shut up shop for the year themselves and you find neat dry little onions, looking all the world like they've been prepped for storage already, sitting in the soil, waiting to be taken home.

As RL asked, were they spring or autumn planted? It makes a difference to when they would be expected to be ready, and their storage life expectancy among other things.

[newmannewy]

Thanks folks I think I get it now.. Next year I will do better

thanks for all your input.