[penninehillbilly]

Some of my stored onions are going a bit soft, with brown from the tops and down thru the rings. so far the bottom half is usable
I am presuming this is neck rot , can I compost the brown top halves?

[fatbelly]

I think you can compost because it is not a disease, just down to rot which is a natural process and happens in the compost bin.

[Kleftiwallah]

I think this is due to rainwater getting down between the (technical name witheld on account of ignorance) ! onion 'rings'.   Try bending the stems over as soon as the leaves start to die off.

Over to you others for your analysis.     Cheers,   Tony.

[JayG]

The neck is the hardest part to dry out especially if it is a fairly thick-necked variety or started to go to seed before harvesting.

I also find that my shed, although rain-tight, gets quite damp in winter (as well as cold!) which certainly seems to find out the ones which weren't dried out enough.

(Shallots are even worse if the main bulb has sub-divided into smaller bulbs; each smaller bulb has its own skins but can't be separated from the others and I for one can't dry them sufficiently to prevent early rot!)

Moral; dry, dry and dry some more, find somewhere as dry as possible to store them, and use the thick-necked specimens first.

So long as the onions were healthy when stored the rotting bits will be OK on the compost heap, which will be full of moulds and fungi already!

[Trillium]

We get that problem only in years when we've had a lot of summer rain. Onions don't really need that much water, and when they get it this is how they react - ring spoilage. Sometimes you can get it from inadequate drying when they're pulled. All you can do is check for soft onions and use them up first. I usually slice them up as needed then pop out the nasty rings.

[penninehillbilly]

Thanks All
they were brought into conservatory to dry, but admittedly not spread out very well (space!)
conditions were very wet when harvested and they had been left to bend naturally (OK a little bit of help here and there).
Anyway at least I can compost them

[savbo]

I bought (and read!) John's book the other day and he recommends not bending them...

[hightide]

Went this afternoon to get some onions from store and found all useless due to rot I am pretty sure this was because I dried them off upside down after lifting. 

They were all dry and looked really good with nice shiny brown skins when I put them in a box in the garage.

[mumofstig]

Went this afternoon to get some onions from store and found all useless due to rot I am pretty sure this was because I dried them off upside down after lifting. 

They were all dry and looked really good with nice shiny brown skins when I put them in a box in the garage.

sounds like you did the right thing..........could they have frozen in the garage?

[Trillium]

A lot of folk are complaining about frozen onions and spuds in sheds this winter. Once frozen, they're both compost fodder.

Hightide, it really doesn't matter if they were dried upside down or rightside up. We dry ours as you did, until the skins were brown and crisp. And we find we have a lot rotting this year, as I mentioned earlier in this post, due to excessive rain this summer. The dried onions will keep only for a short time before the rotting process begins if they're affected with over watering.

In future seasons, if you find you're getting too much rain, you can cover them so the ground stays drier, then uncover so the onions can get sun and air. Onions can take only a small amount of water before they develop internal problems.