[philskin]

just wondered if i had done something wrong i lifted my onions last year and had a lovely crop as you can see below                                          
              [/IMG]

the onions were left to dry then bagged up in onion sacks ,but the whole lot went bad and after talking to other gardeners they have lost theres as well .so my question is   (A is there some sort of onion disease about or (B have i done something wrong or (C her indoors said the frost has got them      ,they were stored indoors but the door is only a kevlar cloth screen so the misses reckons the frost could get through but i wouldnt off thought so ,thanks for looking any advice would be a bonus thanks

[DD.]

I'm wondering if they were actually ready for lifting? It doesn't look as though the stems have flopped over of their own accord yet.

[philskin]

thanks dd is that important ,i just lifted them to make room for more crops .So its a slap on the wrist for me then lol ,a wise man learns through his mistakes a idiot doesnt

[Salmo]

DD is probably right. It is best to wait for all the tops to flop over before you lift them.

If you want to lift them early then ease them with a fork but leave them in place until the tops wilt. Then lift them and lay them somewhere to dry. I like to leave them out in the weather for the initial dying off and only bring them in to finish them off.

Onions always take more drying than you think.

[nwalch]

Mine havn't kept well this year and I did wait until the tops had died down (there was very little of the tops left when i lifted them). I had them in the greenhouse for a week or so to dry out as well as it wasnt a very dry period when I lifted them (when was it last year :-(

[Clampit]

That's interesting, I didn't realise that about lifting early.
My onions this year suffered terribly with some mildewy fungusy thing on the leaves. All the leaves went blotchy and slimy and died off early, but i'm suprised to say that my onions have lasted in storage so far.

[Trillium]

While letting the onion tops flop over before lifting is important, it's not the only affecting factor. If the summer was too wet then the whole bulb is simply too 'juicy' to last long in storage and will eventually go soft or moldy. Another factor is the temperature where you store it and its humidity. Also, the variety you're storing will determine storage length. I find the softer fresh eating onions like whites and reds just don't keep as well or long as the winter keeping hard onions. yellow spanish types will keep a bit longer than whites but not as long as the winter keepers.

[crowndale]

Mine all went bad too but I suspect the damp in the shed contributed to it so will maybe store them indoors next year, or in my new superdooper shed that i am planning to build this year (if I get it built anyway!)

[dugless]

This is the last winter onion planted a year last October.
DD is right let the tops die down then make sure they are truly dry. I keep mine in old cardboard fruit boxes so they stack.
 keep space between each of them cover with vermiculite and put in a dry place. works for me

[pushrod]

If they are thoroughly dried (and they are not ones that bolted ie produced a flower stalk) and they are a variety that should keep well, then even frost shouldn't have too much effect on them.
When i want to lift mine i bend over any tops that haven't fallen, leave them a week, then lift them slightly with a fork to snap the roots - leave them another week - then lift them and store them upside down on the greenhouse staging for at least another couple of weeks. Sometimes mine are just left their permanently  :oops:  
Water has frozen in the greenhouse recently but all my onions are still fine  

[nwalch]

Mine look fine on the outside but when you cut them up they are rotten inside. I suspect it was the damp summer. I dried them out in the greenhouse but didnt have them upside down. What does that do?

[pushrod]

I dried them out in the greenhouse but didnt have them upside down. What does that do?

probably nothing at all   i just push all the leaves through the gaps in the staging and it holds them in place. I suppose if they have any moisture in the leaves it could drain out, but i suspect the fact that the air can circulate all around them might be more important.

[sawnee]

Some of mine have started to grow again, new green leaves :shock:

[peterjf]

you didnt leave them long enough to dry out , when you think they are dry enough give them another 4 weeks , hang them up in bunches , NEVER IN SACKS,  in sacks they produce heat ,

type in address bar  ONION STRINGS shows you how to tie onions just like frenchies lol ,

[peterjf]

give them a good hard squeeze , if your fingers go through then they are not eatable lol, lol , lol