The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: AnnaB on November 04, 2014, 09:03:06 pm
-
Only the second year I've tried to grow onions
Lovely big onions but at least half of them are mouldy, I left them in the sun to dry and the leaves went brown, they look OK but when I cut into them they are brown from the top down
What am I doing wrong ?
Thanks
-
Whatever it is, I'm doing the same thing :( :garden:
-
That sounds like it could be onion rot to me.
Fungal infection which can stay in the ground for some time.
Best thing is to get as wide a rotation as you can and if possible don't return alliums to that area at all.
-
Thanks
New raised beds and grew them in a bed a long way away from last years crop. Put them in same shed as last years, could it have been from there ? On wooden rack with lots of air.
Will have to make lots of curry quick to use up .....rather a lot of onions :yum:
Not simple this veggie growing, my family are fed up of courgettes, black kale, tomatoes and as for cucumbers couldn't cut them of the plants fast enough ! Pity about the onions
-
I'm sure that you could cook them down and then freeze them in batches for further use. Or chop and freeze. I'm sure that it would be possible.
Whoops - re reading your original post I actually think its neck rot and not white rot as I had initially thought :innocent:
See https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=747 (https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=747)
White rot is usually from the bottom of the set and neck rot from the top.
Like white rot - the fungus of neck rot can hang about so good rotation, even and regular watering, buying new sets every year.
-
Thanks for the link CG. That's what mine have, neck rot. Looking through all the factors, the only thing I do wrong is at the drying and storage stages, if the sun doesn't shine - which it mostly doesn't. I also tend to get thick necked onions - I wonder how to avoid that.
-
I have given up on growing onions.... if it isn't neck rot it is white rot in mine.... cheaper to buy in large sacks from Lidl...
-
Maybe,despite drying in the sun the necks were still moist when put in store. After lifting them you could try tying 6-8 together and hanging them outside for a few weeks before pulling off any loose dry leaves then plaiting them. Hang the finished plaits of onions in dry cool and well ventilated area. I gather that in the past people hung onions outside under a roof overhang on the south side of buildings. Mine hang in the barn within easy reach!
-
We leave ours to dry in sun as much as possible then put in greenhouse upside down on slatted benches with stalk hanging down through slats. Helps to dry further, particularly with any large neck ones. Rotation of beds is always a plus point.
-
Onions are best grown well in good soil in fairly warm to hot sunny conditions
This year for most of the UK this sunny thing has not happened very much nor for very long .
Hanging onions in a glasshouse to ripen them can almost cook them if you get a single hot afternoon .
I managed about 15 pounds of onions that lasted nearly months , those big necks and others where the tops never really browned were eaten or used in soups & stews first.
None of my 3 inch dia white bub onions lasted more than a few weeks before rot or mould showed up . I reckon that three weeks of strong sun just before lifting is what we've all missed this year. Had we had that all over the UK and some gentle warm dry weather in the last week of August our crops would have been exceptional so would have the drying for storage.
Two weeks ago I put in 40 over wintering Japanese heat treated onions and 14 garlic cloves .
Now that they are about to break surface I'm hoping for a nice cold dryish but not " bloody freezing " winter.