- Pull any onions that send up flower stalks; this means that the bulbs have stopped growing. These onions will not store well, but can be used in recipes within a few days.
- When onions start to mature, the tops (foliage) become yellow and begin to fall over. At that point, bend the tops down or even stomp on the foliage to speed the final ripening process.
- Loosen soil around the bulbs to encourage drying.
- Be sure to harvest mature onions by late summer, and do so in dry conditions. Onions harvested when wet do not cure well and may rot in storage. Mature onions may spoil in cool fall weather.
- When tops are brown, pull the onions. Handle them carefully, as the slightest bruise can encourage rot.
HOW TO STORE ONIONS
- Clip the roots and cut the tops back to 1 or 2 inches (but leave the tops on if you are planning to braid the onions together).
- Let the onions cure on dry ground for a few days, weather permitting, or in a protected place such as a garage or barn.
- Once cured, hang onions in a mesh bag or nylon stocking, layer them (up to two layers) in a box, or braid and hang them in a cool, dry, well-ventilated area. The ideal temperature range for storage is 40 to 60°F (4 to 15°C). Do not store in a refrigerator, as conditions will be too damp.
- Check periodically for sprouting or rotting onions and remove them.
- Don’t store onions with apples or pears, as the ethylene gas produced by the fruits will interrupt the onions’ dormancy. Onions may also spoil the flavor of these fruits (as well as potatoes).
- A pungent onion will store longer than a sweet onion. Eat the sweet varieties first and save the more pungent onions for later.
RECOMMENDED VARIETIES
Onions are sensitive to daylength, so varieties are generally classified into three categories: Long-day, short-day, and day-neutral. The border between long- and short-day varieties lies roughly at 36 degrees north latitude (aka, the 36th parallel)—north of this line, plant long-day varieties; south of it, plant short-day varieties. Day-neutral varieties can be grown with success anywhere!
Long-day Varieties
- ‘Yellow Sweet Spanish’: large, round shape; yellow-white.
- ‘First Edition’: high-yielding, stores well, flavorful, creamy-yellow
- ‘Red Wethersfield’: flat bulbs that store well, white flesh, red-skinned
- ‘Aisa Craig’, ‘Walla Walla’: huge bulbs
- ‘Buffalo’, ‘Norstar’: produce crops quickly, but don’t keep very long after harvesting
- ‘Copra’, ‘Southport Red Globe’, ‘Sweet Sandwich’, ‘Yellow Globe’: store very well
- ‘Red Florence’: produce bulbs with an oblong shape
Short-day Varieties
- ‘Stuttgarter’: sold in sets, early maturity with slightly flat shape, yellow
- ‘White Bermuda’: extremely mild, with thick, flat bulbs; white
- ‘Red Burgundy’: good table onion with mild, sweet white flesh, red-skinned
- ‘Crystal Wax White Bermuda’: a great onion for pickling when harvested at “pearl” size
- ‘Hybrid Yellow Granex’: sweet, Vidalia type
- ‘Southern Belle’: ruby-color flesh and skin
- ‘Texas 1015-Y Supersweet’: stores very well
Day-Neutral Varieties
- ‘Candy’: golden, thick flesh; jumbo bulbs; stores well
- ‘Red Stockton’: large, red-ringed, white-flesh bulbs
- ‘Super Star’: large, sweet, white bulbs
WIT & WISDOM
- To make onions taste milder, soak them in milk or pour boiling water over the slices and let stand for 20 minutes. Rinse with cold water.
- In the Middle Ages, it was believed that onion juice could cure baldness, snakebite, and headaches.
- A generation or two ago, children were treated with a poultice of mashed onions applied as a paste to cover a wound.
- A whole onion eaten at bedtime was prescribed to break a cold by morning, and sliced onions were placed on the soles of the feet to draw out fever.
- Early settlers made a cough syrup by steeping raw onion slices in honey overnight.
- A raw onion rubbed on a bee sting or insect bite will relieve the pain and itching.
