Timing for harvesting onions for storage. Harvesting onion sets, preparing onions for storage

Onion sets

Any gardener dreams of a good onion harvest before winter. This vegetable is simply irreplaceable for marinades, meat, soups and salads. It is very difficult to properly prepare the soil and plant onions. However, it is much more difficult to do it correctly. The main thing is not to make a mistake with the timing and to harvest the onions correctly so that the onions occupy one of the main places on the table. And so let’s move on to the question of when to put away onions for storage during the winter.

When to Harvest Onions

The question of when to harvest onion sets and turnips and how to properly store them after harvest worries almost every gardener. Therefore, in order not to miss the onion date, it is worth remembering when the bulbs are fully ripened. This can be calculated. Take the planting date and add to it the time required for full ripening. In general, the ripening period is 68 – 83 days. Also, when calculating, it is worth taking into account climatic conditions your region.

If the summer was cool and rainy, then it will take longer to ripen. If the summer, on the contrary, was warm and dry, then the timing will be minimal. You can also navigate not only by the calendar, but also by appearance plants. If the onion stems begin to dry and the leaves turn yellow, the plant lies completely on the ground, then you can start harvesting. IN middle lane In our country, onions can begin to be stored for storage at the end of July.

How to prepare onions for harvesting

Now it's time to remove the onions from the garden for the winter. You should not wait until the vegetable is completely ripe in the ground. After all, in about 8 to 10 days it will begin to grow again. As a result, it will be difficult to preserve the onions until winter. It is possible that the crop may die. Therefore, it is worth preparing the onions for harvesting. If the stems do not fall to the ground on their own, they should be laid down. This will block the access of nutrients to the root part of the plants. After such preparation, you should stop watering the onions. This is a necessary condition. Otherwise, it will not be possible to save the harvest.

When is the best time to harvest onions?

Choose a day on which it will be better to remove onions from the garden for the winter. It is best to work in sunny and dry weather. If it is too damp, then the collected onions for storage in such weather may become unusable, since the vegetable, having been saturated with water, will be susceptible to rotting.

First of all, carefully dig up the bulb, and then carefully remove it from the ground with your hands. Do not shake off the soil from vegetables. It's better to wipe it off. This way you won't damage the bulbs. Experienced gardeners advise letting the onions dry in the sun. If this is not possible, then you can spread the crop in a warm, well-ventilated room. After a couple of hours, you can trim the top, leaving 10 centimeters, and the roots, always leaving a couple of centimeters. After trimming, you need to put the vegetables to dry for another 6 days. This will prevent rot from occurring.

How to store onions in winter

Having harvested onions for the winter, you need to take care of how in the best possible way store onions in winter. The place where the onion harvest will be stored for winter should be warm and dry. It will be better if the vegetables are protected from sunlight. Wooden boxes, baskets and cardboard boxes are perfect for storage. As for the temperature, it is better to maintain it no higher than 20° and no lower than 15°.

If there is onion, it will become absolutely tasteless. This makes the onion unfit for consumption. Previously, onions were braided into braids. They look simply great. You can decorate your kitchen with these braids. If you decide to store onions in this way, then you should not cut the leaves short, and the bulbs should dry well. Only in this case there will always be fresh onions on your table. Smaller bulbs can be used as planting material.

We hope that ours helped you and you now know when to properly harvest onions and store them for the winter.

Onion sets are an important planting material. The onion yield next year depends on its quality. The set is obtained by sowing nigella seeds. Onion sets are sold in stores and on the market, but experienced gardeners grow them themselves, from seeds.

To get a high yield of onion in the future, you need to be able to correctly determine when to remove onion sets from the garden. It ripens 85-95 days after sowing. But this does not mean that after this period you should immediately start digging it out of the ground.

Harvesting of onion sets is carried out depending on natural conditions region and weather factors during the harvesting period. You shouldn’t start cleaning too early, but you shouldn’t delay it either. The usual harvesting period is from late July to early September. We need to do this before the rainy season.

If dew begins to appear on the grass in the morning, and the nights become cooler, then you should not delay harvesting the onion sets.

There are certain signs that show that the onion set is fully ripe and you can remove it from the garden:

There is no need to wait for the leaves to lodge. When harvested too late, ripe onions begin to sprout new roots. Such bulbs are stored worse, and when planted next year they will begin to bolt.

If the summer is rainy, you should not wait for the bulb to fully ripen. It is better to collect early and dry to avoid rotting and disease. To speed up the ripening of onions, you can trim the roots 10-15 days before harvesting with a knife or hoe 5-6 cm below the bottom.

Onion sets left standing in rainy weather will grow, will not be stored well, and when planted in the spring, mass flowering may begin.

Cleaning and stopping watering

You should start digging in dry weather. It is not advisable to dig up the seedlings with a shovel or pull them out with your hands. It's best to dig it up with a pitchfork. You can leave the onions in the garden until the evening so that the soil dries out. Then free the bulbs from adhering soil.

You cannot hit the bow on the ground. It is better to peel the bulbs with your hands, shaking them lightly. The sevka must be handled very carefully. Even the smallest scratches and damage can lead to disease and rot.

Some people, when it comes time to harvest onion sets, to reduce the time, first cut off all the dry leaves and then dig up a bed. But experts recommend cutting the tops as late as possible in order to prevent pathogens from penetrating inside the bulb.

The closer the onion is to ripening, the more attentive you need to be to its condition. Onions require careful care. During the growing season, it must be weeded several times, fertilized, and watered.

All onion plants require regular but moderate watering. They are watered immediately after planting, then every 7-10 days during May, June and the first ten days of July. Then you should repeat this much less often. 20 days before harvesting, watering stops.

The right moment can be determined by the condition of the bulb. By this time it was completely formed. If you continue to water, the onions will continue to grow, but the onions need to mature before harvesting, not continue to grow.

Another sign that it is no longer worth watering is the yellowing and complete lodging of the leaves - it’s time to start harvesting.

How to dry onion sets

After finishing harvesting the onion sets, you should dry them for a week or two. During this time, the bulbs have time to absorb all the beneficial substances from the leaves and dry out. And the leaves finally dry out. To do this, spread the onion in a thin layer on a dry surface. From time to time you should stir the scattered onions to dry evenly.

Usually dry in a well-ventilated and sunny place: under a canopy, on a veranda or attic. Best in a draft. If weather permits, the first stage of drying can be carried out directly in the garden bed.

Insufficiently dried onions do not store well. It is susceptible to various diseases: downy mildew, neck rot. This initial stage drying. After it, you need to cut off all the leaves, leaving a neck of 2-3 cm. You should also cut off the roots right under the heel of the bulb, without touching it.

The second stage of drying requires a room with a temperature of 25-30 C o. At the end of drying, the temperature is raised to 40 C and the seedlings are left for another half a day.

This kills all bacteria, allowing you to better preserve the crop. You cannot over-dry, otherwise the scales will begin to peel off and crack. Properly dried onions have a solid, hard husk, rustle in your hands, and have no foreign odors.

Preparation for storage

The main task of the gardener is not only to harvest the seedlings on time and dry them correctly, but also to preserve them until spring. After drying, the onions should be sorted and sorted. For planting, bulbs 1.5-2 cm in size are selected. Healthy ones are selected, without damage or rot. One rotten spot can ruin the entire harvest.

To sort the sets, use a calibration sieve with different sizes holes. But you can do this manually. Typically, onions are divided into three types:


In order to reap a high harvest next year, some gardeners plant very small seedlings in the ground in the fall. Unlike home storage, such seedlings are preserved very well in the soil. In spring it quickly emerges, does not send out flower stalks, and forms large number large bulbs.

Although the selection produces larger fruits, its overall yield is much lower than that of a standard set. Sometimes a large set yields an arrow. Medium-sized sets are considered the best and most proven. It provides the largest harvest.

How to store onion sets

You can store the collected seedlings in the basement, room or pantry. The room should be dry and cool. In a room with high humidity, onions begin to rot. The first sign of rot is the appearance of midges. In this case, you need to sort out the onions, dry them well and move them to a drier room.

To preserve the harvest, boxes, fabric (preferably gauze) bags or baskets are used. Some gardeners use nylon stockings. You can sprinkle a thin layer on a shelf or basement floor. Place onions in a 6-7 cm layer in boxes, and pour no more than 3-4 kilograms into bags.

Storage temperature from 10 to 25 C, humidity - no more than 65%. There are varieties that require lower temperatures. But temperature fluctuations should not be allowed. As a result, the onions begin to deteriorate and when planted, they begin to sprout flower stalks.

Very good way onion storage - underground:


Onions remain fresh until spring. In the spring, such onions from a bucket cannot be stored for a long time; they must be planted within a week, otherwise they cannot withstand temperature changes and begin to deteriorate.

Conclusion

Onion sets are very unpretentious and produce a good harvest both in open and closed ground. It can also be grown in greenhouses.

To obtain consistently large onion yields, the gardener needs to plant seeds and get a good onion set. And next year, grow large onions from this set. To do this, it is important to be able to grow, collect onion sets according to all the rules and store them until next spring.

The recommended measures give complete confidence in the quality of the seed, that it was stored properly and is not contaminated with diseases. Our own material is grown on our own site and adapted to the composition of the soil.

In addition, even the most experienced gardener will not always be able to select the right seeds on the counter and be confident in their quality.

Therefore, only onion sets grown with your own hands guarantee a high yield of onions.

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Determining the time when to remove onions from the garden is very simple. After the onions begin to turn yellow and lie on the ground, the onions can be removed. The main signs of ripe onions:

feathers become yellow and begin to dry out,

the stems lie on the bed (they can lie like the entire bed onions, and part of the landings).

Typically, for central Russia, the time to harvest onions from the garden begins in the last days of July, after July 20th and continues until mid-August, provided the weather is good. If the weather in August is rainy, then you need to harvest the onions earlier, without waiting for the rains.

It is better to dig up or, more correctly, pull out onions in clear sunny weather. Pull the onion out of the garden in the morning and leave it to dry in the sun until the evening, shaking it and turning it over from time to time to help it dry better.

Then move it to the attic, to the barn, or, in extreme cases, to the balcony and dry it in a ventilated, dry place for several days. If the weather is dry and sunny, and you live in the country, then you can dry the onions after harvesting in the garden for about 7-12 days. At night, cover with film or covering material.

How long does it take to dry onions? You need to look at the neck. When it is dry, then you can put it away for storage. We must remember that what better onion dried, the better it will be stored, the less it will rot during storage.

Onions are harvested when the leaves of most plants fall off and lie on the ground.

* Onions harvested early do not have time to form covering scales, the neck remains thick and open. Through it, even in the garden, pathogens of the most dangerous disease - neck rot - easily penetrate into the bulb, which ultimately leads to large losses of products during storage. Late harvesting also negatively affects the keeping quality of onions, since overripe bulbs crack and dry scales fall off, roots re-grow, and this reduces resistance against disease.

* Sometimes, in order to speed up the ripening of onions, the tops are mowed a week before harvesting. This operation leads to crop loss. It is better to cut off some of the roots with a shovel or lift the bulbs with a pitchfork, limiting access to moisture from the ground. Undermining the roots will speed up the ripening of the onion, and from the dying leaves nutrients will have time to flow into the bulbs, and the harvest will not be damaged.

* Bulbs dried after harvesting become shelf-stable and resistant to neck rot. In dry, warm weather, drying is carried out directly on the beds. The plants are pulled out and left on the ground for 5–7 days. At the same time, the tops dry out, the bulbs ripen, and dry, tightly fitting scales form on them. If the weather is cold and rainy, then drying is carried out under a canopy or in a heated room. Your hand can easily fit into a heap of well-dried onions, but you can’t push your hand through an under-dried onion. You should not overdry the onions: in this case, the dry outer scales crack, separate, and bare onions appear, which are poorly stored.

* After drying is completed, the dry leaves are cut with scissors, leaving a neck 3–4 cm long. Such bulbs are stored.

* Temperature conditions are very important for storing onions. It depends on the purpose of the product: onions for food are best stored at -1–3°C, onion sets, from which turnips grow the next year, are also stored at the same temperature (then they will not shoot). You can also store the sets warm, at a temperature of +18–20°C. Mother onions are kept at a temperature of +5–6°C. At higher temperatures, diseases develop on it.

* Relative air humidity when storing onions for any purpose is maintained at 70–80%. If the humidity is high, the onion does not leave the dormant state in a timely manner and begins to sprout. In addition, in humid air, the upper scales of the bulbs become damp, the neck becomes moist and the onion rots.

* It is especially important to maintain low air humidity when storing onions that are not fully ripened, because they are less resistant to neck rot.

Those gardeners who are on the site every day during harvesting can dry onions directly in the garden for about 7 - 12 days. To properly dry a vegetable, it must be laid out on a flat surface so that the bulbs lie in one direction and the feathers face the other. It is recommended to lay root vegetables in rows and in one layer. The sun can best disinfect your crop, which needs to be turned over periodically.

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Kira Stoletova

Does any plant have its own timing for planting, growing and harvesting? Moreover, everything must be done in a timely manner, because this is the only way a gardener or gardener can get a good harvest. As for root vegetables, you can say exactly when to remove onions from the garden based on a number of specific conditions. Here the priority will be what type of onion is grown: batun, regular onion or green.

Therefore, those varieties that belong to the category of early ones need to be harvested earlier than late ones.

More important factor there will be a climate zone. That is, in Siberia, dry onions are harvested from the garden later than in the Moscow region.

The last thing you should pay attention to before the harvesting and drying of onions begins is what kind of summer it was in Russia: hot and dry or cool and rainy.

Key points of onion harvesting

The first and main sign that the bulb is ready for harvesting will be the massive lodging of feathers or the above-ground part of the plant, because by this time the stem becomes softer and then completely withers, but all the necessary substances and elements pass into the underground part (head) of the root crop . It is worth considering that the cultivation of such products involves long-term storage. When to start harvesting, the gardener decides for himself, because there are certain prerequisites for this:

  1. Time for ripening, which is necessary for this crop. Depending on what the summer will be like, the approximate harvest period is calculated.
  2. If the field is located in a temperate climate zone, rainy weather is replaced sunny days, and therefore, the plant will be able to receive everything it needs for normal development. With sufficient light and warm days, harvesting time occurs much earlier.
  3. Another important factor is the amount of moisture. The bulb does not plant too deep, so the roots are close to the surface of the earth. And if the vegetable is grown in a region where it rarely rains, you should make sure that the plant receives as much water as it needs. One of the options for solving the problem is to create an irrigation system, because in addition to the main one, additional watering must occur: the amount of harvest depends on this, therefore there is a downside, when it rains for a month or even more, the onions rot due to excessive moisture. Such situations also have their solutions.
  4. The characteristics of the land (soil) also play an important role in this process. If it is too salty, it is necessary to further prepare the land before the onions are planted.

Harvest dates in different regions

Many gardeners wonder when to remove onions from the garden and how to properly harvest onions. Each region has its own harvesting characteristics. This primarily concerns the time frame.

Moscow region

When to harvest onions in the Moscow region? In regions located in the middle zone Russian Federation growing onions begins earlier, it follows that the harvest date falls at the end of July, but if weather conditions this year do not allow harvesting the beds with the harvest, the date is postponed by a week or two, and this will already be in August. If the summer is very dry and hot, the harvest will ripen earlier than expected (around the beginning of July), and if the season is rich in rainy weather, the harvest time shifts to the middle of the last month.

Siberia

When to harvest onions in Siberia? Onion harvesting in the northwestern regions and Siberia occurs at approximately the same time. Readiness to carry out this process can be identified by observing the development of the plant. On average, the harvest time is August-September, they fall at the end of the last summer month - the beginning of autumn. This period is also called the most favorable, since after it the season of prolonged rainy weather begins. And as you know, rains can not only water plants, but also bring them to a rotting state. If the summer is dry, the onion harvesting dates shift to an earlier time.

Ural

When to harvest onions in the Urals depends entirely on the latitude of the field. If this is a region located north of Chelyabinsk, then harvesting onions can begin in August: this perfect time, since the root crop is ready to be dried and the location of further storage determined. But again, in hot weather the timing is pushed back to 2-3 weeks of the month. Despite the circumstances, in the Urals the timing of the harvest is such that it will be completed around the 20th. Regardless of the location, you can calculate when to harvest the onions; the main thing is to know the main points of plant development and weather conditions.

Lunar calendar as an assistant for the gardener

According to most manufacturers, harvesting onions according to the lunar calendar is the best solution. Even agricultural forums claim that onions need to be harvested when lunar calendar predicts favorable lunar phases.

If you do not have such a schedule, you can listen to the recognized opinion that proper harvesting of onions is carried out during the full moon. So there is confirmation that during this time period the fruit has the highest nutritional value.

Collection rules

If the time comes when you need to remove onions from the garden, then you need to study the following information:

  1. How to properly harvest onions according to the lunar calendar.
  2. When to remove the onion head.
  3. When to harvest onions.
  4. How to dry onions after harvesting.
  5. How to store different types onions: green, onions, etc.

Onions, like garlic, have external signs by which you need to determine the level of ripening of the fruit. The first sign: the gardener observes dried tops on the plant. Second, the dry peel is clearly visible from the ground. Third - the neck of the onion begins to dry out.

Features of onion harvesting

Every gardener who has been growing onions for more than one year knows how to remove onions from the garden and how to store them correctly:

  1. First of all, it is worth noting that it is pulled out (pulled out) from the bed, and not dug out. If the soil is overdried, one of the parts of the root crop may simply remain in the ground, and literally after a while it will begin to deteriorate, especially if the harvest has not yet been harvested and good weather is replaced by rains.
  2. To prevent this from happening, you need to remove the onions when the weather is exceptionally good and help yourself with a pitchfork. This is the only way the finished crop collected from the garden will not spoil. Using a fork, the soil is raised, and then both the roots and the bulb head are pulled out of it.
  3. 10 days before the start of harvesting for the winter, you can bare the vegetables from the soil. You just need to do this somewhere up to half the onion, using a small spatula while working.
  4. Another effective method- this means cutting off the roots at a depth of slightly more than 5 cm. It involves the use of a shovel or other tool suitable for this task. The procedure is carried out about a month before the moment when the planted onions need to be harvested.

Many gardeners make one big mistake. A week before removing the onions from the garden for storage, they destroy (mow down) the tops. But this leads to negative consequences, to a significant loss of harvest, because through cut but not dried holes, various viruses and microorganisms enter the fruit, which begin destructive processes inside the plant. As a result, the root crop becomes unsuitable for storage, because it simply rots.

Processing vegetables after harvest

You need to remove onions from the garden when they are ready before further processing. We have already managed to sort out the timing and other nuances regarding the procurement process; now it is important to understand how to store the finished product, because if you do not approach this process as responsibly as possible, you can lose a significant part of the collected goods. How to properly process onions after harvesting in the garden?

  1. To do this, the first thing you need to do is prepare a place where it will be stored in the fall and winter. It is best if it is a dry, clean room into which no moisture will enter.
  2. If it rains while harvesting onions, then they must be dried immediately. Initially, the root vegetable is collected, then you need to trim the feathers and put the vegetable in a warm, ventilated and dry room with an average air temperature of at least 18-20°C.
  3. Onions are dried after harvesting for at least 1 or 2 weeks after the vegetables have been collected from the garden. After this, the same scales appear on the root crops as on those collected under normal weather conditions. For drying for the winter, one week is enough, and a maximum of 9-10 days can be dried. Drying onions after harvesting is carried out unconditionally, regardless of the weather.

A little pro tip: “To keep the bulbs in the best possible condition, they should not be placed on damp ground while drying.” This applies to all varieties of onions, including the most unpretentious and beloved family variety.

After the drying period ends, it is necessary to cut off the dried tops from the vegetables, and it is for this reason that when harvesting begins, you need to stop watering the plant, then the tops dry out faster and are easier to remove.

Selection and distribution of the finished crop

Initially, the manufacturer checks the readiness of root crops for the winter period. You can find out all the information on this matter without even using any specialized devices; a simple inspection is carried out.

  1. If the rules for harvesting onions were strictly observed, then it will rustle when touched by hand.
  2. The palm fits into the assembled bun without much difficulty; this cannot be done before drying begins.

Onions that meet these criteria will be well stored even until the onset of spring, and it does not matter at all when the harvest was: in early July, in August or autumn, during drought or rain.

The selection of root crops is carried out before they are sent for storage. Each of them is distributed based on size. Professional manufacturers highlight the following main directions for the assembled product:

  1. If the fruit is less than 1 cm in size, then it is used as a seedling, that is, it can be planted as a winter variety. The planting day is determined based on the onset of frost and the condition of the ground.
  2. Root crops that measure from 1 to 2 cm are also used as planting material. It must be stored in a dry place with an acceptable temperature, but it should not be high, so that the seedlings do not take root and feathers before the planting period, this will happen next year.
  3. Bulbs with a diameter greater than 2 cm are used as winter reserves. It is best to sort them by size before storing them for greater convenience and additional safety.

Harvesting green onions

For harvesting green onions specific date no, since everything depends entirely on weather conditions. It will be better when the rain changes with the sun. The harvest may fall in the first days of August, and even in mid-September. If there is a severe drought, then for a larger harvest it is necessary to organize watering of the garden.

Tips for Harvesting and Storing Onions. (30.07.16)

When to remove onions from the garden for storage? How to preserve onions?

Harvesting onions

Only professional gardeners know how to harvest and how to properly dig up onions of this variety.

Batun is not an annual plant, so this crop bears fruit for several years in a row. There are certain rules for harvesting, and it is best to familiarize yourself with them in advance before breeding this variety.

  1. The first year - the tops are not cut off, since the roots are not yet sufficiently rooted and their readiness to withstand various unfavorable factors is not yet high. It’s better to wait a year to determine as much as possible effective ways processing and harvest after a while. This variety of root crop bears fruit maximum for 6 years.
  2. Regarding leaves, before checking their readiness for consumption, you need to visually assess the height of the tops. They can be cut off only when they are taller than 12-13 cm. Smaller feathers are not collected required quantity vitamins and elements, plus they should not be allowed to outgrow the 15 centimeter mark, then the feathers will become stiff and the cost of the product will be much cheaper. A few days are enough for collection.

Conclusion

Onion harvesting involves various ways and working methods. One variety needs to be collected and sold immediately, the other needs to be dried, and it will last until the next season. The main thing is to know all the rules and nuances of collecting and storing this root vegetable.