Onions and Storage

[grahamR]

Last year I planted 6 rows of Centurion sets and two rows of Marco grown from seed. The Centurion sets grew into large, slightly flattened onions and stored until the end of April this year — no special care: just hung on strings in my garage. The Marco grew to become hard round globes approaching the size of a fist. We used the last one in early June. Encouraged by both the growth and the lengthy storage I decided to only grow Marco this year. Sadly, it looks as if the resulting onions will only be big enough to pickle!
Anyway, I've been trying to research the best storing onions. It seems that I did exceptionally well last year, certainly in my choice of varieties. I came across a site for commercial growers that had a long list of varieties but there were only three that I'd heard of or seen on sale. Hytech and Santero were there and a red onion. The Hytech and Santero didn't measure up to most of the other varieties, however, although there was one called Wellington which scored well and I think Dobies sold it once as part of their Grosure range.
I'll go with Centurion sets again next year and probably trial another variety.

[Snoop Puss]

I'm growing late Valencians (Valencianas tardías) as my storage onions. They grow to a decent size and last really well in storage. You can get seed in the UK from assorted places. I know MoreVeg sell them.

However, as a cook, I don't actually like using storage onions that much. They're very hard and need poaching really. I prefer to grow types of onions that keep till February-March or so, and then I start on the overwintering ones, even if they're not full size.

[Penellype]

I grow Sturon (from sets), which are globe shaped, firm without being hard, and pleasantly sweet (I don't like really strong onions). I harvest them mid-late August and string them when dry then hang them in my garage. I ate the last one from last year at the beginning of this month. Some do sprout, but most are perfectly edible into June or later.