The Almighty Onion

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While they are lying in the row, they may be cleaned by a rain. They will certainly begin the curing process, and the tops that weren't already brown will begin to dry up. When I am ready to take them out of the garden, I put them into baskets and put them on the porch. They don't stay in the baskets for long. Sometimes I dump them out on the porch right away and spread them out a little. The only thing to be concerned with here is tops that are not yet dry; they have the potential to support mold or other spoiling organisms. The reason for knocking the tops down earlier is to avoid having green tops after harvest. It's your choice. But either way you go, you don't want any moisture in the midst of stored onions that isn't encased in the onion's protective wrapping.

The specimens with thick necks are put aside for onion soup. Some of the most beautiful ones with tops suitable for braiding are set aside for that purpose. Handling during this process generally rubs off most of the soil that may have clung to the onions, as well as some of the loose wrapping and tops. One of the twenty-five or fifty-pound bags is set on the floor in a cold corner of the kitchen. The other is set on the floor in an unheated room.

Onions are biennials, which means it takes them two years to produce seeds. It is easy to see how some of them planted from sets can get confused. While I have never tested this theory I suspect that the larger sets are the ones that go to seed. The seed stalk probably does take some of the energy from the bulb, but the real problem is that it doesn't tighten up as well as the others, so it won't store as long. The easiest solution I have found is to not try to store them at all. The most beautiful onions are braided around a piece of twine. If you have read that onions should be stored at 30°F and 70% relative humidity, you may wonder at the advisability of hanging them in the hottest place of a room that gets the widest fluctuations of humidity. Sure they sprout sooner, but they look cool and we will use them within two or three months.

From Harvest to Seed

The same storage variety of onions can be planted from seeds. Everything is the same except the seeds are planted a quarter of an inch deep. They come up smaller and more slowly. They will have to be thinned to four inches apart. They will make better scallions and provide them for a longer time than the sets. Depending on the length of the growing season, fertility, growing conditions, and variety, onions planted from seed may not get as large. There will be no large necks. Onions planted from seed are said to store longer than those planted from sets. That sounds reasonable. However, I have never had storage onions go bad on me. They start to sprout in the spring about the same time I am planting the next crop. I always figured they were just responding to longer days and that if I stored them in a dark, cold place like the books say I should, they would probably last a few more months. But what the heck, I've got fresh green chives coming in at this time; the next crop is in the ground; and I can still eat the onions in the bottom of the bag — they're just not as crisp and pungent.

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