Drying onions in moist autumn

Drying onions in moist autumn

If you have put this year's onion harvest for drying in an airy place a long time ago and then not really looked at them, it might be an idea to do so. Because I have looked at mine, and everything was not as it used to be.

After harvest and the first drying, I had put the onions in flat boxes and set them up on an unheated and well-ventilated ceiling.

When (and if) the sun is on, the temperature easily rises to a 30-40 °, which gives a fairly efficient drying. And when I just looked at the bulbs in late August, they were crunchy too. They are usually allowed to stay in the attic until sometime during the fall I get the time and desire to take them down, remove the dry tops, leaves and roots, and then put them in storage. They do not take damage from a few degrees of frost, so it is not urgent to get it done.

Today I had to put a few things in the attic, and in passing I put my hand down in the box with onions - and it was no longer as dry as it had been.

In this unusually wet autumn with a constant high humidity, the bulbs had absorbed so much that both tops and roots now felt downright moist.

Several of the bulbs had begun to rot, and a single specimen had indeed begun to germinate. All the boxes immediately came down from the ceiling, the onions cleaned and put in storage, where hopefully it is a bit drier. And with that, another item has been added to the list of this year’s uncommon miseries. # nevermereen2017

Written by Peter Norris