When is onion ready

Do yourself a favor and get a high quality, forged garden fork. My favorite company is Dewitt. Sturdy garden tools save you time and money. They do the job more effectively and will last years after you would have thrown out and replaced lesser tools multiple times. As long as the weather is dry and no frost is in the forecast, you can lay your onions right out in your garden for a day or two to help them dry further.

Many people allow them to lie exactly where they were planted:. If you have a slug problem, you may want to get them up off the ground. Virtually anything can hold them for a couple of days while they start drying. The onions below are drying on a garden bench:. Otherwise, take them to a sheltered spot, like a covered porch or a shed, to start drying. Any you want to eat fresh can be brought inside right away. The first step to storing onions is to cure them. This allows them to fully dry out and causes the outer wrappers to tighten into a protective layer that will keep them from going bad.

To start the curing process, lay out your onions in a single layer somewhere warm and dry with good air circulation. Onion drying racks are a popular option. A drying rack, even a simple DIY one, can dramatically improve your ability to store onions for later. While you are laying them out, you can clean large clumps of dirt and slimy leaves off your onions, but leave them as intact as possible. Once they are dry, you can tidy them up a bit more before storing them.

The curing time for onions depends a lot on conditions like humidity, temperature, and onion size. Typically, bulbs will be fully cured in weeks. You can test one by cutting off the stem about an inch above the bulb. If there is moisture or a green color, they need to cure for longer. Watch for the tops on the onions to get weak and flop over if you don't feel the soft spot on the plants. The National Gardening Association recommends looking for about 80 to 90 percent of the crop with bent tops to indicate the crop is ready for harvesting.

Grow the onions for up to two more weeks after the tops begin dying for maximum maturity. Pull the onions before the two weeks if a heavy rain is expected, as the rain can damage mature onions. Based in the Midwest, Shelley Frost has been writing parenting and education articles since Her experience comes from teaching, tutoring and managing educational after school programs.

However, if there is a heavy rain in the forecast, go ahead and pull up the onions before two weeks as the rain can damage mature onion crops.

Learn more about harvesting onions. This is my first time growing onions not sure if ready to harvest the tops are so long and high is there any way you could video chat me on this. Your email address will not be published.

Notify me of follow-up comments by email. You can sow onions direct outdoors from late winter until mid-spring, once your soil is drying out and beginning to warm up. Sow seeds 1. Thin out seedlings first to 5cm 2in apart, and later to 10cm 4in. Closer planting will result in more bulbs and a larger overall crop, but smaller individual bulbs. Water in prolonged dry spells every 14 days, and give an occasional feed with a general liquid fertiliser.

But stop watering and feeding once the onions have swollen in mid-summer. Watering spring-planted crops after mid-summer can mean they store less successfully.

Try to avoid overhead watering, as this can encourage fungal diseases. This not only enhances growth but can also suppress premature flowering. Alternatively, use dry poultry manure. Plants grown from sets are also less likely to be affected by disease. However, they are more prone to bolting when a flower is produced instead of a bulb. To reduce the risk of bolting, choose heat-treated sets. Sets are readily available in early spring and late summer in garden centres and from online suppliers.

They are usually planted in spring, from mid-March to mid-April. Autumn planting is not suitable in heavy soils prone to waterlogging, as the crop is more likely to succumb to disease. This will help add nutrients, improve the soil structure and hold moisture in the soil. Avoid using fresh manure. Firm the soil around them and water well. Another planting option is to cover the ground with black weed-suppressing membrane, then plant the sets through slits.

There is then no need for weeding, which both saves time and avoids any accidental damage to the bulbs when hoeing. A soil-borne fungus that can cause yellowing and wilting of the foliage above ground, while rotting the roots and invading the bulb beneath the soil.

A white fluffy fungus appears on the base of the bulb and later becomes covered in small, round black structures.