VEGETABLES > ONIONS > harvest
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ONION GUIDES
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memorize how to harvest and store onions in the right room is essential for domicile growers .
Onions are a popular and utile garden crop , but it is significant to make as much as you could of your onion production .
This ask making sure that you have it away how to reap and store your Allium cepa aright .
You do not want to clothe all the hard work involve in growing onion , only to waste those onions when it is metre to take them from the ground .
In this clause , we will assist you ensure that you correctly harvest and store the onions you raise .
We will verbalize through a range of topic : from choosing the correct onion plant in the first place , to maintain your crop for as long as potential .
We ’ll aid you avoid waste and make the most of your homegrown produce .
Choosing Onions Which Store Well
First things first , it is important to remember that not all onions will store well .
When choosing which onion plant to grow , you should always think about how you care to use them , and how long you would like them to stay in - store .
Some onion might be grown and used up aright out . While others can be stored to let you to eat your own onion right through the winter months , and maybe even longer .
In this article , we will focalize on traditional bulbing onions .
springiness onions or spring onion are treated in different ways , and there are obviously also different considerations when it fall to perennial genus Allium variety show .
Bulb onion are generally either mild or pungent . This consult to their flavor .
But whether an Allium cepa is mild or acrid can also give you a cue about how well they will hive away .
If you are not sure which case you are growing , cut into them – if the onions make you cry out when you edit them , they are high in sulfurous compounds.1Why does chop an onion make you cry?(2019 , November 29 ) . The Library of Congress . regain March 21 , 2023 , fromhttps://www.loc.gov/everyday-mysteries/food-and-nutrition/item/why-does-chopping-an-onion-make-you-cry/
The chemical compound that make us battle cry also inhibit rot .
So these are biting onion plant and they will incline to put in better , and can be stored for long than soft onion plant character .
Typically , the milder the onion , the more quickly they must be used .
place aside milder types to practice up more rapidly , and set your most acrid onion apart for traditional memory .
How And When To Harvest Your Onions
Another important matter to remember is that it is important to harvest onion at the right time , and in the veracious means .
Even the most pungent onions will not put in as well if they are harvested too early .
Onions will store best if they are fully fledged .
However , leaving the harvest too lately can also be a trouble – if you impart onions in the ground too long they may be more likely to succumb to pests or diseases .
To harvest healthy onions :
“ One of the question I get asked constantly is how retentive do onion take to grow ? ” read Dan Ori , Master Horticulturist .
“ The timing will vary by kind and uprise shape , but it is normally from 80 day for works turn from exercise set and up to 170 24-hour interval for plants grown from seed .
“ The best advice is to start checking from 80 sidereal day , when stems turn yellow and are amply bent over , you are good to glean . ”
Onions will also store less well if they are damage when you harvest .
You need to glean your onions carefully to make indisputable they are unblemished and in crown - top character for storage .
comfort your onions from the ground with a ramification or other horticulture implement , rather than trying to push them out of the ground manually .
Lay them down softly , and do not throw them around .
As you harvest , check each onion plant over cautiously .
Brush the dirt gently off the bulb , and look for any signs of damage or any other problem .
Set any damaged bulbs aside to use up more quickly , since they will not put in successfully for as long .
Curing Your Onions
To verify you’re able to traditionally salt away onions for as long as possible , there is another point to go through before your harvested onions are ready to store .
cure your onions simply have in mind take out wet , and allowing the outer layers of hide and halt to dry out out .
The dry layer supply a protective roadblock around your onion plant bulbs , facilitate to keep them fresher for a longer period of time .
As the stem point dries out , this seals off the inside .
Ideally , onions should be cure at 25 - 30 ° C . They should be send somewhere that is warm and dry , with relatively good ventilation .
you could hang up the onion , or place them on a rack or shelf .
If you have a greenhouse or polytunnel , this can be a good position to put them to heal . A sunny porch or veranda can also be a good situation .
At the very least , keep them incubate , and up and out of the dew , in a sunny office .
depart your onions to cure until their neck opening have become taut , stems are wry , and the outer skin are papery and tight around the bulbs .
Once your onions have cured , you could then think about moving them to a position suitable for storage .
Where To Store Onions
onion should ideally be put in :
The ideal spot to hive away onion is in an one-time - fashioned theme root cellar or cold store/ pantry .
Of course , we do not all have access to such a quad – so if you do not have a root basement or a pantry – then even cellars , garage or sheds , or even a cool spare elbow room in your home can also be ok .
As well as imagine about the general environmental conditions for storing onion , you should also think about storage solutions .
store solution for onion that can work well let in :
Braiding onions involves wind the stems together just as you would braid hair .
If you have trouble doing this , or the base are too scant or too brittle then there is also another method to try :
Make a loop of string or twine long enough to fit your onions , then take an Allium cepa and , at the al-Qaida of the loop , wind it in and out between the two side of the loop in a figure of eight pattern – then repeat until all your onion plant are attached to the twine or drawstring .
Preserving Onions
If you do not have a suitable berth for traditional onion plant storage , there are a few other ways to uphold your onions so you could keep and use them over a longer geological period of time .
These other methods can also be better for milder onions which will not last as long as the memory board methods mention above .
Freezing
Your first pick is to block some of your onion .
This can be a good pick , especially , for milder onion type where you have some deep freezer space available .
The best and easiest way to suspend your onion is but to slice them .
Then you could seal the un - blanched , raw , chopped pieces in jars or other freezer - cogent evidence containers .
In gild to foreclose the frozen pieces from sticking together , and for easy recovery , you’re able to freeze slice first on a tray .
Once frozen , these piece can then be transferred to containers .
This makes things easier because you may tip out only as much you need for a meal without give birth to deice all the onion plant .
Of course , you could also cook up your onions and freeze down them in a orbit of recipe to revel later in the year .
“ I favor a milder onion , ” says Dan .
“ I have found the variety ‘ Ailsa Craig ’ to be particularly reliable and to my taste .
“ I glean all my ‘ Ailsa Craig ’ quickly when quick , dice them up and placing them in the freeze in modest bags as you’re able to make onions from frozen .
“ This think of I enjoy my harvest time all year ! ”
Dehydrating
If deep-freeze blank space is limited , another traditional way to memory onions is by dehydrating them .
Drying onion is another effective mode to make indisputable they will last as long as possible .
you could dry onion in an electric or solar dehydrator , or dry them in your oven on a downcast heat .
in full desiccate Allium cepa can be proceed in sealed jar , to use as needed .
Or they can be powdered and turned into an onion gunpowder , which can be very useful in your entrepot cupboard .
Canning
Finally , one other way to lay in onions long term is to can them .
Canning onion plant chutneys , onion jams and other preserves , for example , can be a large way to verify you do not waste any of your onions , and can make use of your harvesting over as long a menstruation as you could .
Just make trusted that you follow a canning formula from a trusted say-so to make certain it is as safe as potential .
