onion harvesting questions

[Sunsaver]

frayed knot! Nice word play! Lol

 

[cityfarmer]

It is better to harvest them after a few days of a dry spell if you can. They are ready now and won't grow any bigger, but you've still got a lot of green in those tops. I think you could get away with waiting until that rain passes (Unless it hasn't been raining already? Then just cure them inside. Avoid humidity/dampness, it will cause some to rot.) I like my tops to be good and dry before I cut them off. Cutting them off green leaves more opening for rot to get into the bulb, especially under humid conditions. Small onions don't keep as long, but you could chop them up and freeze or dehydrate them. I'm using up all my small ones in my canning recipes.

OK #1, do I store onions in like, a burlap sack, a tupperware tote, braid and hang?

#2, I thought adding onions to canned things caused concerns for spoilage?

I stored my garlic in clean panty hose legs. I bought the cheapest pair I could find and cut off the top. I tied a knot in between each garlic head and hung in my basement. Would this work for my smaller onion heads? Could I cure them this way? Right now they are curing on a card table in my living room but I might have to move to the basement where there is less light but maybe more humid.

 

[so lucky]

Cityfarmer, I guess that would work for smallish onions, but it seems to be a lot of unnecessary steps to take, both to store and to use, if you use onions very much. But...if you want to do it, shouldn't be a problem. I just keep my smallest onions in a decorative basket, and try to use ASAP.

 

[digitS']

Baskets are fairly good storage containers for onions and their relatives.

For the last 20 winters, shallots have survived just fine in our garage in a basket.

Shallots have great storage qualities, however.

Stev

edited because i forgot how to spell my name.

Stve

 

[journey11]

You guys crack me up!

 

[Jared77]

Journey are those tears of laughter or from all the onion talk?

 

[journey11]

Must be the onions...

 

[cityfarmer]

I am embarrassed to ask this question now--I don't think mine will take 2 weeks since I don't have the humidity that many of you do. How do I know when they have cured? I am so sorry, this question should have been part of my original post.

 

[digitS']

Worried about a humidity joke, CityFarmer ?

Let's see, yesterday it was 89F at mid-afternoon and the humidity was 16%. No joke! It has to be quite arid country to have lower humidity even on a hot summer afternoon.

I still leave the onions on the board steps outside the greenhouse (where I can almost walk past without falling over them ) for a couple of weeks. I really don't want to see any green on them.

Some people use the northside of a board fence for curing onions. You don't want them in direct sunlight - not for any length of time, anyway. The northside of my picket fence won't work, I'm sorry to say.

Steve

 

[cityfarmer]

Worried about a humidity joke, CityFarmer ?

Let's see, yesterday it was 89F at mid-afternoon and the humidity was 16%. No joke! It has to be quite arid country to have lower humidity even on a hot summer afternoon.

I still leave the onions on the board steps outside the greenhouse (where I can almost walk past without falling over them ) for a couple of weeks. I really don't want to see any green on them.

Some people use the northside of a board fence for curing onions. You don't want them in direct sunlight - not for any length of time, anyway. The northside of my picket fence won't work, I'm sorry to say.

Steve

Maybe a little worried about a humidy joke Your temps and humidity are similar to ours. I think we may be spiking to 30% because of the monsoons.

So the key is not to see green on the onions. Now I know what to look for. Thanks!