"How to correctly harvest and store onions from your garden plot: tips for dacha owners"

Growing onions in a backyard garden is a great way to save money (as in the industrial sector, onions are one of the most profitable vegetables) and to obtain your own healthy produce, since vegetable gardeners limit the use of pesticides.

In this context, knowing the specifics of growing onions allows you to choose the right strategy based on weather conditions during different stages of growth. Of course, we cannot control the weather, but we can adapt to it.

Harvesting onions for storage after a rainy and cool season has its own peculiarities. Firstly, it occurs considerably later than usual, and secondly, the sunny and warm weather in September, known as "Indian summer," allows onions to be stored for a long time after harvesting.

Harvesting onions in a comfortable "Indian autumn" allows the bulbs to grow more mass, especially when it comes to spring onions, which store better than winter varieties.

Since onions are no longer watered at the end of summer, by early September most bulbs should have acquired a natural brown color and fallen over. If some plants still have upright leaves, you can bend them to the ground to signal to the onion to enter a dormant state.

Then, use a hoe to gently remove the soil from the roots on both sides of the row, allowing the roots to dry for at least three to five days. If desired, you can lift the bulbs closer to the soil surface using forks. This simple technique greatly facilitates harvesting because when grabbing dry and weakened stems, the live and strong roots will keep the onion in the soil, and the leaves will simply detach. Pre-drying the roots will help avoid the need for a second digging-up of the onion.

On a dry sunny day, carefully dig up the bulbs, remove dirt with a soft brush or cloth, and lay them in rows under a shelter on a homemade wire mesh pallet placed on bricks. Avoid laying them on plastic, tarpaulin, or other non-air-permeable materials; it is important to ensure airflow from all sides. If you don't have a wire mesh, an old sheet will suffice. Just turn the onions over a couple of times a week.

The drying process on the pallet will take about three weeks. The onions should be dry, the roots brittle and stiff, and the leaves brown. When the roots and tops are completely dry, remove the stems with garden shears. The root hairs will likely fall off on their own if rubbed in a gardening glove. Some outer skin layers peel off along with the stems during handling, resulting in a clean and smooth bulb.

If you find bulbs with flower stalks, do not store them for long. Even after cutting the flower stems, they still contain a lot of moisture and can be stored for no more than a month. Bulbs with bruises or spots from which the skin has peeled off are also not suitable for long-term storage. The smallest bulbs can be kept for planting next year.

Store sorted onions in a cool, dry, dark, and well-ventilated place. Use brown paper bags, netted nylon sacks, woven baskets, or wooden crates with gaps between the slats. Line the inside of the crate with hessian to provide ventilation without closing the box, and place it as far away from potatoes as possible.

The recommended temperature for long-term onion storage is between 0 and 7 degrees Celsius, but should not exceed 20 degrees. Hanging onions in braids in the kitchen may look beautiful but is not suitable for long-term storage, as an increase in temperature and humidity can lead to sprouting.