onions in the barn

[yopper]

Pulled the onions 4 days ago a head of the rain. An average crop some big and some small but most 4-5 inches.It has been dry here as of late so they should keep in storage pretty good. They are in the barn on the drying rack to cure out will trim the tops and roots for storage later.Had frost night before last glad the onions were in the barn!! HOW WAS YOUR ONION CROP ? YOPPER

[Worth1]

My onions are doing great the farm workers are doing a good job of pulling them and the store is keeping them in stock for me.
They even keep the bad ones culled so I only see good onions when I go to collect some for the house.
It's been a great setup this year so far.

Worth

[fortyonenorth]

A decent harvest this year - I'll report separately in the multi-planting thread about my experience with that method. I planted and harvested twice as much as in past years, but we've burned through virtually everything already to make/freeze red sauce and salsa. Guess we'll have to double up again for 2012.

[matereater]

Worth, I'm having the same results up here in Michigan!!

(love your humor dude!!)

[salix]

Ours still in-ground, too small to harvest! It has been a cold, rather wet season and only a couple of light frosts. We have a good stretch of warm weather ahead so hope they bulk up and with the drier weather hope for good storage ability as well. Garlic was wonderful this year, just now cleaning it up for winter use.

[fortyonenorth]

I generally harvest when the necks get soft and the tops fall over - even if they are small. I've often wondered if there's a benefit to leaving them in the ground longer. Do they continue to size-up after they fall over?

Originally Posted by salix

Ours still in-ground, too small to harvest! It has been a cold, rather wet season and only a couple of light frosts. We have a good stretch of warm weather ahead so hope they bulk up and with the drier weather hope for good storage ability as well. Garlic was wonderful this year, just now cleaning it up for winter use.

[salix]

41N, they seem to do so. Actually, our onions never 'fall over'. We PUSH them over (gently) near the beginning of August to sort of trigger them to get their act together and bulk up. If it were up to me, I'd just leave them to the mercies of Mother Nature, but my gardening partners insist it should be done and it seems to work just fine. Our onions right now are about 3", I'd like them to get to 4-5" at least.

[tjg911]

you had a frost? holy cow! i find that amazing.

my red wing results were posted in http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=19601

i thought i had a thread for my copra but i can't find it so..

despite my comments on the copra not being as big as the red wing they were nice sized. i dug the copra around 8/7. 2/3 of my onions are copra and the other 1/3 is red wing. they are all drying in the barn. i'll weigh them when i trim the tops and roots in early october. i'm guessing i have 60-70 pounds which is the normal yield for my 4' X 12' bed, i used to get about 90 pounds when i had a 4' X 16' bed.

tom

[salix]

Don't you just feel rich when you look at all of your cleaned up onions, shallots and garlic at the end of the growing season?

[tjg911]

definitely and add to that winter squash, cabbages and anything frozen or pickled.

tom

[Farmette]

Grew Mars, Candy and Ringmaster onions, shallots and a variety of garlic for the first time this year with great results. Definitely going to try Copra next year for some longer storing onions. When I look around here and see all the onions, shallots and garlic I am amazed at all of it...and I do feel "rich".

[tjg911]

i gave up growing mars tho i liked it they often have rot problems in the garden, in the curing in the barn and in storage. i switched to red wing and not only is that issue gone they store even longer. fyi.

i think copra and red wing are the longest storing yellow and red onions. it's all i grow now.

tom

[Farmette]

No rot problems with Mars here, in fact they are looking great. Will try red wing next year if Mars doesn't store well.

[tjg911]

mars stores well if there's no issues.

for whatever reason mars would get rotten, soft, just go bad, this would effect about 15% of them. it happened growing, while drying or in the basement after curing. no idea why, this would happen to them year after year where the other varieties i'd grow would never have the problem. this is why i dropped them.

they did store well but i think red wing stores longer if not much longer.

tom