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Harvested Garlic and onions

wildatheart
10 years ago

Two days ago pulled up all my garlic and onions. With our wet summers I felt like the things were just rotting in the soil rather than doing the drying out I had seen recommended on youtube videos. None of them are very big at all, even though they were all at least laying over, if not turning brown (ready for harvest, right?).
So I brought them in, did not have time to do anything with them that night, so I stuck them in the fridge (they like the cool, right?). Tonight I took them out and laid them on a towel in my bathtub. My husband and I are not bath people, and with several children, it is hard to find any safe place for them, and with our wet summers there is no place to cure them outside.
So is this set up ok? I cannot make heads or tails out of the youtube videos I watched. Seems people assume a level of knowledge before giving out instructions, and alot of the advice conflicted (drying out in the soil, drying out outside, drying out in mesh bags in the garage--hot and humid!).
Y'all may just be laughing at me, but this is all I could think of. Also, these are just a few of them. There are more than are in the pic, and some are a little bigger.
Thanks for any advice! :)

Comments (7)

  • tomncath
    10 years ago

    I'm not the most knowledgeable when it comes to onions but I guess I'll chime in with my little experience since no one else has come along yet. You have to pull them now or they will rot in the ground during the rainy season. I pulled mine about three weeks ago just as the daily rains began, BUT I grow them in clay containers so they do tend to dry out quickly. I leave the stalks on and tie a string around bundles and hang them to dry in a shaded place on the porch where no rain can get to them. Many folks just leave them this way and use them as needed but here in Florida with our humidity I find they last longer if once dry I cut the roots and stalks off and put them in the vegetable crisper, where I can get them to last as long as 6-8 months. Hopefully other folks will come along and share their experience.

    Tom

    My Bloomin Onions 6/2, I ended up with about 90 from 5 containers :-)

  • thetradition
    10 years ago

    I'm no expert, but I believe all the drying business is only necessary for long-term storage in a root cellar. If you're eating them quickly, the fridge is probably fine.

  • wildatheart
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks to you both!
    See, I wish I had thought about the rainy season and drying out onions. I honestly did not know they even had to be cured until this spring and figured I'd just *know* when that needed to happen. lol!
    Yes, the drying, from what I gather, is only for storage, but since I am the only one in my family that eats onions, it may take me about a month to get all of them eaten. The garlic would be used more slowly over the course of a few months.
    Tom, I can't believe you got 90 onions from 5 containers! I would say I got 20-30 from about a 2x4 foot space (shared with garlic), and they were all pretty small. I did use several as green onions during the spring, though. When do you know the onions are dry? I agree with you on keeping my onions outside. Maybe when it gets cold here (we do get quite a bit of cold here in the hills of zone 8), and for about 5 months of the year I could see keeping them outside or in the garage, but not in the wet, slimy, hot other 6-7 months of the year. Maybe I'll just keep them in the crisper and hope for the best.

  • happy_fl_gardener; 9a, near DeLand
    10 years ago

    Tom - What variety of onion are you growing in those clay pots? Clay pots, what a clever idea.

  • tomncath
    10 years ago

    Tom - What variety of onion are you growing in those clay pots?

    Yellow Granex, I start the seed in rows in the same pots mid-September to the beginning of October. Once they are are up 6" I pull them and space at 3-4" intervals, usually late November, knowing short-day varieties won't start to bulb until we hit the Winter Solstice and daylight starts to lengthen.

    I'm no expert, but I believe all the drying business is only necessary for long-term storage in a root cellar. If you're eating them quickly, the fridge is probably fine....

    ...When do you know the onions are dry?....

    Guess I didn't clarify, after pulling them the dirt needs to be washed off before bundling them, so they are wet. I hang the bundles for a week to dry out, then cut off the roots and stalks and store then in the veggie crisper. Alternatively, I have just cut off the roots and hung the bundles inside in the AC in the utility room, and used them as needed but Cathy felt they were in the way when doing laundry or using the laundry tub/sink....

    Tom

  • wildatheart
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks, Tom! I think mine are dry now, and am going to try hanging them in our pantry--a closet in the A/C.

  • iluv2playindirt
    10 years ago

    I harvested these onions in early June. Last year, some of mine didn't look much bigger than yours. As an experiment, I let them dry out then stored them in the fridge. Replanted in the garden late September. This is my result. Can't say I'm unhappy :) Tried to do garlic the same way but I think I'm too hot.

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