We haven’t had much success with onions in the past, so this year we tried something a little different. We’re still learning, and I want to jot some notes for the record so next year our harvest will be even better.
We pulled a few before I did the research and learned that they should be left in the ground until the tops are dry and brown. There are many out there yet, so we’ll wait on the rest.
The biggest so far - -
Notice the green top – since it wasn’t dried up we shouldn’t have picked it, simply because it will dry better in the ground where it grew.
Since these leaves were not bent over, they were still growing. Oops. Guess they’re done now, huh?!
We planted these about 3” apart and thinned them a long while ago so we could use them, leaves and all. Well, in researching when to pull these, I learned that the bulb only grows to the size of the leaves. So where we planted them closer together, the leaves simply didn’t grow as big as where we spaced them further apart. Hence, the bulbs didn’t grow big. Live and learn.
A few leaves were starting to brown up; we won’t pull any more until they all look like this or drier.
BUT on the positive side, NOT ONE ONION was moldy or rotted. Which is a huge improvement over previous years of which I have bad memories of cutting and sorting through piles of moldy horribly smelly onions. Which is NOT FUN in case you wonder.
So. Hopefully in the next week or two these will continue drying without molding and we’ll be able to start bagging them up for winter storage. According to those who know, if cured (dried) properly, these will keep until March or so!
We’ll see….
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