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Our 1st successful Onion Harvest since moving here to Dorset last year..........

Sturon,N Stutgarters and a few F1,s here and there,

Although the Red Radars were awful !!!!!!!..

Still,Happy Days....

GazNjude

Pray, why did you lift so early??

i was wondering that too, but  didn't like to ask!!!

My Sturon nearly ready, so I folded the tops over Friday... in couple of weeks , will loosen them from the soil , then when dry lift and put on racks upside down in GH , as tops/roots  dry i'll trim and bag up... I believe its important to get the oils from the root back into the bulb , so they keep...

well I recall my neighbours on our plot telling us once the main stem flowers, and you trim and save the seed heads... the next stage is the "Timber" stage where they lay down on the floor with the ends withering a tad brown.....and once this happens not much more goodness is consumed by the Onion bulb....so its something we have done for a couple of years ......they are all racked and drying in the greenhouse...until I can get busy making some plats.

yer please feel free to "cross examine" your honour as any learning curve that Jude and I benefit from is all good  !!!!!!

Thanks

Gazza

Oh dear I only dug up my shakespeare winter onions a couple of weeks ago look like I will be overun with onions still I lost most of mine to white rot last year so whatever I get I will be grateful for

They do look geat Gazza, by all means pick the big uns as you need them, but as said I'd leave them in the ground until the greenery has died off.   

Well that is interesting Gazza 1960.

Someone mentioned digging up garlic early and i have done it this year and I have been quite pleased with the results. At least the crop is properly dried out in the sunshine.

So I am not going to say it is wrong.  Personally I don't have a greenhouse to dry the onions in.  I did wonder how you store them to dry.  Are they hung from the green stem? or upside down with the bulb uppermost?

The RHS says at

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/grow-your-own/vegetables/onions#harvest

Not to lift until fully dried out.  So will be interested to see your finally dried bulbs.

regards
Bill

I lifted my garlic early, but only because it keeled over early.

Congratulations ! It looks a great harvest, whether you could have left for longer or not!
Here is my harvest-

Well done.  I am not doing well this year.  Managed to get last years Mayan potatoes in the middle of my onions, and since I hate onions the potatoes did not get weeded out.   I am very pleased with the potatoes!!!

They look great Gazza, lovely healthy onions.

They look smashing! We've finally had rain here, so I guess I ought to get mine lifted before they all split....

Adrian

I used to do just that kev when we had our plot at Heathrow but what with working long shifts I didn't always get over the plot and the ones that didn't get pulled would fall prey to wet weather and id lose too many that would split so we went along with
the idea suggested to us...that once 90% had fallen over and showed brown ends we would pull them all.

We decided once we saw the onions on Friday and with 3 days wet weather coming to Dorset that was it....up they come.

we lay them flat in the green house on wire trays Bill.

If anybody has the skill to show us how to do the Platting bit.....im interested to learn.

anyway thank you for your opinions,we are always learning in here that's the fun of growing."isn't it "...

GazNjude

There are many difficult plaiting instructions around, mine is just plain easy.  Like a plait in hair where you have 3 strands, start off with 3 onions and start plaiting - right over middle, left over middle, right over middle, left over middle.  Then comes the next strand.  Just add it to the middle, because it will be locked into place by the one on the right, which now goes into the middle. Add another onion in and lock the strand with the one from the left.  Continue until your plait is done, then tie the ends with string and use the free end of the string to hang your plait.  If they are too close together, just do another round of right over left, left over right etc until it looks right to add the next onion (or garlic).  If one of the strands looks thinner than the others, then be sure to add the next onion to that strand to keep them all about the same thickness.

I have just done a plait with our earliest garlic and hung it up in the conservatory for storage.  As you can see from the photo, I could have done the plait much neater but this will stay in place all winter and spring.  Later varieties are still growing at the moment, but I will do the same with them.  Then I just cut off a bulb or two for the kitchen as needed. 

As I said, you can do it much prettier (and I could have cut off the root bits), but this works (and I hadn't planned on displaying this plait  )     

Ok Gazza 1960 I follow the reasoning now.  The picture did not reflect that the stems had bent over.

In many respects I think i might give it a go this year, my onions are not as far on as yours.

Only problem is I have missed the opportunity with the shallots.

Thanks for the tip.
Regards
Bill

Thats all we do Bill,keep some air going through the grrenhouse but after a few warm days they dry lovely.

Oh and nice Plait Galina,so I guess its like the bread Plait ive done before just in vegetable terms...cheers me dears....

Gazza

They look great anyway, with me moving plots I never did onions, but have found some small uns in the new plot.