So I am once again facing a bed of onions which are not done growing (as far as they are concerned) but freezing weather and snow are in the forecast for next Wed night. Typically in this situation I bend over the tops which have not fallen on their own so far (about 90%), then dig them just before the real cold hits and dry them in the barn.
In looking online, I see that some folks not only bend over the onion tops, but “lift” the bulbs too, to break the roots some. Still leaving them outside for a few days. Just curious if anyone here has used that method and if you found it worked better than just bending the tops over? (I might add that it’s going to be sunny and dry before this storm hits, highs ~60F and lows ~26F)
I pull mine and dry them for 2-3 days in the sun as soon as I’m ready to deal with them. Then air dry them in a shady area. Sounds like you are (weather forced) ready to deal with them. Best of luck with them!
Steve, I’ve never tried the partial lifting, seems like it would take awhile to affect the plants. But I often have some full green ones when I harvest, usually wanting to get them out because of cold or rain and they do fine eventually drying down, it just takes longer. But if you might have better weather coming you could just throw a blanket over them. I know what a gamble that “better weather” is though! Sue
Thanks. Decided to give pulling the onions as well as bending over the tops a try. Will leave them out on the beds, as it is supposed to be very sunny, windy and dry for the next few days. In theory, having their roots out of the the ground should help a bit with the drying.
I will gather them to the barn before the snow and really cold weather hits. Covering them thru this wet/cold spell isn’t really an option, as it will likely get really cold (~15F) and will be quite windy, so keeping the covers on would be a trick, especially if it doesn’t snow much. And at 15F with wind, the cold air would likely get under whatever covering and freeze things.
I will see in a few weeks how these onions dry down this way.
15F!! Yes, I would pull my onions, too! I was thinking upper 20’s cold. Hope they dry down OK. Looks like we’ll be getting our first good frost this weekend but hopefully not that cold. Funny year weatherwise.
I plant onions all over and often miss one or two. I’m in 6a. I usually know the next year when they start growing again. At that point I let them go and harvest seed, then the onion!
Normally I leave my onions in until tops all dried up. Then I pull them and let them dry right on the ground. After a few days I move them to my patio and let them finish drying. This year was so wet that after a week with lots of rain they still were not curing well on my covered patio. I moved them into my garage as warm and dry. 2 weeks curing there and they were done. Got a whole bushel now in my basement and storing well so far. I grew Patterson this year.