Re: Onions

Rosie,

I'm afraid there isn't much you can do now to increase the storability of
your onions now. For next year, here are a few points to look into regarding
growing onions for storing over the winter:

1. Did you grow a storage variety? Sweet onions like Vidalia & Walla Walla
have virtually no storage life so make sure you chose a variety that was
supposed to store well over the winter.

2. Did your onions flower at all? When onions bolt like this, the flower
stock spoils storage potential.

3. Were all the leaves of the onion brown and dry when you harvested? At
harvest time, you need to stop watering for at least 2 weeks. By then, most
of the leaves will have fallen over and have browned. Next, you need to hang
the onions up, leaves & all, out of the sun & rain to cure. This is a really
important step.

4. Store your onions either hanging up or in onion bags to keep air
circulating around them and prevent them from moulding.

Any of these factors can affect onion storage so maybe next year you'll have
onions well into the winter.

Arzeena
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----- Original Message -----
From: rosie <rosie@glacierview.net>
To: <veggie-list@eskimo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2001 8:17 AM
Subject: Re: Onions


> Sorry I have to ask a basic question, but I've obviously been doing
> something wrong.  How do you prepare onions for long-term storage (i.e.
> until the next harvest)?  Is it possible?  Thanks in advance.
>
> I second this.  For some reason, many of my onions began rotting within a
> month.  Seems like one if every three or four are beginning to rot when I
> pull them out to use.
>
> Rosie
>
>
>
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