Harvesting & Storing Onions, Shallots. Planting Brassicas – Top Tip!

This year is a good one for the onion crop. That’s a bit strange because the garlic crop was pretty poor. Still, be grateful for the wins in life.

Onions Drying on Rack

Onions Drying on Rack in the big shed

The leaves were starting to bend over so ideally I would have levered them to loosen the roots with a view to lifting the crop a couple of weeks later. However, the weather was changing from hot and sunny to cool and wet just at the wrong time.

Onions need to take on water to swell the bulbs but you want them to lose moisture prior to harvest so they dry well and keep. I looked at a few 10 day weather forecasts and decided it was best to lift them now.

I’ve a couple of drying racks that I normally set out on the patio. The sunshine, warmth and breezes then dry the onions effectively for store. Since the weather isn’t playing, I’ve set the racks up in the big shed. Under the racks the greenhouse fan heater is running on the fan-only setting to help move the moisture away.

I did try using a greenhouse for this one year when the weather was poor. All went well until a sunny day shot the greenhouse temperature up and cooked the crop.

Storing onions here is difficult, it’s a humid environment being near the coast and a wet area of the UK. The humidity causes moulds and rots and there’s not a lot we can do, unless I install climate controlling dehumidifiers in the store. Not exactly cost-effective!

Once they’ve dried out, the onions will be strung into bunches and hung in the store from hooks.

Shallots

Shallots are another story, they do tend to keep well even here. We’ve had 18 months from them in the past. I think this is due to them being smaller, small onions tend to keep better than large ones which supports this view. Rather than string shallots which would be very fiddly, they just go into net bags after trimming the dry foliage.

Since they arrive before the onions and last longer, they compliment the main onion crop very nicely.

Planting Brassicas

The cabbage family can be difficult but once you get the knack, reasonably easy to get good results. Planted out savoys, Ormskirk Rearguard and a last bed of calabrese Zen. I’ve still got some Hispi cabbage and Galleon cauliflowers in pots to go out but they’ll hold for another week or more.

Caterpillar Eggs

Caterpillar Eggs on the underside of a leaf.

Top Tip!

The seedlings were in a coldframe with the lids open so they’re sheltered but not overly warm. As the plants go out, check under the leaves. It’s easy to just turn them upside down at this stage. Six of them had butterfly eggs! They’re easily rubbed out at this stage but if they hatch into caterpillars, losing the plant is probable.

Last year I had some smashing savoys in a raised bed until a pair of ewes got into the plot. They made a nice meal for them. This year we’ve improved the fencing so hopefully no sheep problems. That just leaves us with rabbits and butterflies to cope with. Once planted up, the beds are netted which should keep them out. Fingers crossed!

Posted in Allotment Garden Diary

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