As the season draws to a close it’s time to harvest your onions. Discover nine tips that ensure you’ll have a successful onion harvest this year!
Onions are a staple ingredient in a variety of dishes, making them a beneficial plant to add to your garden. When it comes time to harvest your onions, it’s important to know when they’re ready, what tools to use, and how to properly cure and store your bulbs so they last months past the harvest. Discover nine tips you’ll need to master your onion harvest
this year!
You can grow onions from sets or start from seed
in the spring. Whichever method you choose, once you’ve sown the onions in the ground, it’s approximately 100 days to harvest. When onions are planted in the spring
, this places harvest time at mid-summer. Make a note on your calendar for 100 days after you plant your onions. This is when you should inspect the plants, looking for signs that they’re ready to be harvested.
Knowing the rough time to inspect your onions is a great start, but since different varieties
take more or less time, you need to look to the plants themselves for the final clues. Onion tops turn yellow and flop over when they’ve finished maturing.
When ¼ of the onions in your crops’ leaves have flopped over, use your hands to bend the remaining stems or stomp them into the ground. This will signal to the remaining onions that it’s time to finish maturing, allowing you to harvest all your onions simultaneously.
If your onions have bolted
and started flowering, it’s a sign that they’ve stopped growing below the surface. Harvest these onions immediately, and use them as soon as possible to prevent them from rotting in the ground.
When the onions’ leaves have begun to fall over, it’s time to stop providing water to the plants. This prevents the plant from focusing on new growth in the leaves, so it sends its remaining energy down into the bulbs. This way, the bulbs can finish maturing. Withhold water for a week before harvesting your onions.
Once all your onion tops have flopped over and turned yellow, it’s time to harvest! Using a garden fork, gently loosen the ground surrounding the onion. Be careful not to bruise or cut the onions, as their skins are very fragile at this stage. After you’ve loosened the soil, grasp the leaves of the onions in your hand and pull the bulbs from the dirt. Gently wiggle the onion back and forth to help free it from the soil.
If you’re having difficulty pulling the onion out of the ground, go back to your garden fork and loosen some more soil. Take your time. Being gentle at this stage prevents harm to the onion, extending its storage life.
After pulling the onions from the ground, leave the leaves attached. You can drape the leaves over the onion bulbs to prevent sunburn on sunny days. Leaving the leaves and little roots attached to the curing onion plant prevents the onion from rotting; it allows the bulb to form a thick, dry husk of connected skin and leaves to keep out any moisture. You can trim the onion leaves back, but keep them at least 12 inches long.
Plan for your onion harvest during nice, dry weather with no rain in the forecast. If you can’t avoid the rain, place your onions in a dry, well-ventilated location after harvest to allow them to cure. If the temperature is over 90 degrees Fahrenheit during this period, drape the leaves over the bulb to prevent sunburn or put them in a shaded location.
The purpose of curing is to remove as much water as possible from the exterior of the onion, so good airflow is essential. Curing helps dry the surface of your onions so they don’t rot. It takes a bit of time, but when done right, it drastically extends the storage life of the onions.
To cure the bulbs, let your onions sit in the garden on top of dry soil for a few days. Separate the bulbs as you set them down to encourage good airflow and ventilation around the onions. Next, move them to a dry, cool, shaded area, leaving all the dirt, skin, roots, and leaves attached.
Let the onions cure in this environment until the stems and skin are brown, dry, and papery. This usually takes two to three weeks.
As the onions cure, check on them periodically and remove any that have begun sprouting or growing moldy. These are signs the onions haven’t cured properly. Discard these onions when you come across them.
The key to storing onions
is to keep them cool, dry, and well-ventilated. There are a few ways you can do this. One method is to braid together the leaves of the onions, hanging the braided bunch from the ceiling of a cool, dry room to ensure airflow on all sides. This is the only method that requires you to keep the onion tops after they’ve cured.
For all other methods, cut away all but the top 1 to 2 inches of onion top and trim the roots after curing. You can then place them in a box in a single or double layer. Alternatively, you can use a mesh bag or nylon stocking to hang your onions in a dry room. Basements and cellars work well to store onions because it’s easier to keep them in the 40 to 60-degree Fahrenheit range storage onions need. Stored this way, onions will keep for up to three months.
Sweet onions spoil faster than pungent onions because they have higher water content. To avoid this, use a nylon stocking to store your onions. Place them inside one at a time, putting a knot between each onion, preventing them from touching.
Not every onion grows a large bulb, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be put to good use. If you have onions too small to be used — ¾ of an inch— let them cure, leaving the roots and stem attached like you would the larger bulbs. Keep them attached instead of separating the roots and stem when it comes time to store them. You now have your own onion sets you can plant in the ground the following spring, allowing you to grow onions from onions!
Onions are an excellent addition to your garden. Consider timing, look to your onions for signs they’re ready, watch the weather, and use gentle tools when harvesting your onions from the ground. As long as they cure well and you store them properly in a dry environment, you’ll have onions to eat months after harvest!