When to store turnip onions: how to determine maturity?

Having grown a rich harvest, any summer resident will wonder when to harvest the ripe turnip? Some of them use the gardener's lunar calendar to determine the optimal harvest time. If it is not at hand, the gardener should know when to harvest the bulbs in different parts of the country, how to process them after harvesting, dry and store.

When to stop watering onions?

When signs of onion maturity appear, they stop watering it. Most often this happens 2-3 weeks before the expected harvest date. It is worth considering that the flow of moisture provokes the active ripening of the bulb, the growth of additional roots, which negatively affects the keeping quality of the crop.Therefore, in order for the bulbs to store well in the winter, they should be stopped watering as soon as the heads are fully formed. With such manipulations, the head ripens more slowly, the onion will be less prone to rotting.

When to remove onions from the garden?

Onions should be removed from the garden in dry weather. You can determine the readiness of the bulbs for harvesting by the characteristics of its maturation: the neck of the head begins to dry out, and the feathers turn yellow. At the same time, the bulbous heads begin to color the upper layer of their scales in the color characteristic of the variety. In general, harvesting begins at the end of July and continues until early September. Signs of maturity:

If the vegetable was planted before winter, harvest from the garden is required before the varieties planted in the spring.
When the bulbs are grown in central Russia, in the Moscow region, you need to harvest the vegetable in the last days of July. If the summer was hot, cleaning starts on the 20th of July.
The timing of harvesting ripe onions in Siberia, the Urals, in the northwestern part of Russia will be different. In these regions, it is recommended to harvest in August or early September.

To accurately determine the optimal time for onion harvesting, you need to pay attention to its vegetation. From the moment of spring planting and the formation of seedlings, this period is 70-85 days. To determine the best time for harvesting a vegetable, you just need to count the specified number of days.

How to dig?

After the summer resident has learned when to dig up the turnip, he should understand how to do it correctly. Harvesting should be done only in clear weather, and the onions should not be pulled out of the ground. It is better to start digging up the crop with a shovel, digging under the planting.

Empirically revealed the recommended time of day when to collect onions. It is best to do this in the morning and then leave the harvest in the sun until evening. Periodically, it needs to be shaken and turned over.

Harvesting in the rain

Like other onion plants, it is not recommended to dig out in cloudy weather. But if good weather is not expected in the near future, and the onion crop needs to be harvested urgently, harvesting is also allowed in the rain. Vegetables are pulled out of the ground with a small spatula.

To dry the bulb, you need to dry it in a dry room for 2-3 weeks. In this case, after digging from the turnip, it is required to cut off the tops and roots. Further, the head is completely cleaned of the husk. During the drying time, a new husk will form on the bulb, which will significantly extend the shelf life of the crop.

Onion trimming

To protect the harvested crop from pests and diseases, onions need to be cut. The bulbs are cut off before the vegetables dry. Most often, this process takes an average of 2 weeks.

After the onion is dug up, its roots, feathers should be cut off after drying under a canopy. This is a necessary condition for long-term storage of onions.

To store the resulting crop during the winter in boxes, you will need to completely cut off the roots, and leave a tail of 5 centimeters from the feathers. If the crop will be stored in baskets, boxes or nets, its feathers should be cut off, leaving a tail of 7-10 centimeters, and roots - 1-2 centimeters.

If you plan to store a vegetable in braids, cut the feathers so that a stalk of 10-15 centimeters remains. The bulbs are intertwined in pairs and then wrapped with twine. Such a crop is stored in a suspended form.

How to properly dry onions?

Drying the harvested crop is a necessary condition, during which all pathogenic microorganisms are destroyed on the surface of the vegetable. There are several types of drying, each depending on the weather.

Many summer residents dry onions right in the garden, leaving it there for 1-2 weeks. The complexity of this method lies in the fact that the left crop needs to be ted on a regular basis to prevent rotting.

Since the vegetable should be dried under the condition of good ventilation, the best option is its location in the fresh air under a canopy. The method of using drying under a canopy is good because no precipitation falls on the vegetable, optimal humidity is set outside (provided that drying is carried out in good weather).

If the weather is cloudy, rainy, the vegetable should be dried in a well-ventilated area with low humidity. In order for the onion to have good keeping quality, it should be stirred regularly. In order not to do this, you can dry the bulbs in nylon tights, hanging them in a dry, darkened room.If the onion grows in high humidity conditions, remove all the husks from it before drying, while leaving the neck of the bulb.

Onions can also be dried in shell nets, which provide excellent ventilation to the vegetable. This method is good because the crop does not require regular tedding.

To determine when the onion is dry, put it in a pile and stick your hand into it. If the hand passes freely, then the crop is ready for storage, and if it is difficult, the bulbs still need to be dried.

How to store onions at home?

Only ripe vegetables can be stored, so the bulbs should be sorted. It is recommended to use and not store those heads that have fragile scales, a thick neck, as these vegetables will deteriorate faster. Also, a vegetable overexposed in the garden does not differ in long-term storage. Such bulbs germinate, lose scales.

After the summer resident has selected bulbs suitable for storage, it is necessary to decide on the place of their storage. To preserve all the useful properties of the vegetable, as well as its suitability for human consumption, the storage place must be well ventilated, and the container must be breathable. Experienced summer residents consider the mezzanine, drawers in the closet, pantries to be the best places to store onions in the apartment. You need to put the harvest in wicker baskets, wooden boxes, cardboard boxes, stockings, fabric or paper bags, and tie them into braids. Container:

Wicker baskets are breathable. Also, their small size helps to avoid the appearance of rot. The use of baskets is inconvenient only because a small amount of crop is placed in them, and there is no possibility to put the containers on top of each other.
Wooden storage boxes are required to choose shallow. They should fit an onion layer no more than 30 centimeters thick. The advantage of using such storage facilities is that the boxes can be stacked on top of each other in order to save free space.
Another way to store crops - cardboard boxes. So that the onion does not rot in them, it should be poured with a 25-30 cm layer. Also, holes must be made on the bottom and walls of the box to provide additional ventilation.
Stockings or old nylon tights are an excellent material for storing the harvest. They are well breathable, preventing the formation of rot. Also, such items can be stored in a suspended state, without taking up the right place in the apartment.
Braids. One of the best ways to store onions at home is to form braids from the harvest. They can be stored in the pantry, and if desired, such an item can become a real decoration of the kitchen. They should be hung in places protected from sunlight, as well as characterized by good ventilation, low humidity.

When using boxes or sacks, do not pour the entire crop into them.Onions will be well stored if their layer does not exceed 30 centimeters. To extend the shelf life of the crop, it can be sprinkled with onion peel or chalk. To process 10 kilograms of heads, 200 grams of chalk will be required. This component will protect the crop from the accumulation of moisture, the appearance of rot.

During the winter, twice or thrice, all the onions that are stored at home need to be sorted out. This procedure is mandatory, as damaged or not fully ripe bulbs could begin to rot. If the harvest is not sorted out, rotting heads will infect he althy ones, which can cause all vegetables to lose their nutritional value.

Also, experienced summer residents sort out the crop in order to assess whether all the heads are completely dry, whether moisture accumulates in them. Damp bulbs need to be rotated for re-drying. You can dry such an onion right in the oven, placing it on a baking sheet, heating the oven to the minimum temperature.Then the device turns off, its door opens, and the bulbs are dried until the device cools down completely.

In order for the onion to be stored for a long time, it must be placed not only in optimal conditions, but also properly grown, removed from the garden in a timely manner, dried, cut roots and feathers. Such processing of the crop will allow save it throughout the winter, while the nutritional qualities and benefits of the vegetable are preserved in full. Also, before planting onions for further storage, you need to select a variety suitable for this.