How to store onions after digging at home in the apartment?
Growing onions is done by almost all people who have gardens. After collecting onion heads from the site, many people think about how to store onions. To deal with the processing of onions for storage, you need to familiarize yourself with the basic nuances of harvesting and preparing the harvested crop for winter.
When to stop watering onions?
Before you store the onion crop and collect it from the site, you need to understand the peculiarities of watering the grown vegetable. Few vegetable growers know that onion heads are distinguished by high keeping quality, which were rarely watered before harvesting.
Before harvesting ripe bulbs, it is recommended to gradually reduce the intensity of soil moisture.Determining when to stop watering is quite simple. To do this, carefully examine the leaves of the bushes, which, after gaining mass, are lined on the surface of the earth. Most often, the period of cessation of watering occurs 2-2.5 months after planting onions on the site.
If you do not refuse to further moisten the soil in a timely manner, this will negatively affect the preservation of the crop. Experienced gardeners who know how to preserve onion crops at home claim that such vegetables do not store for a long time in winter.
When to remove onions from the garden?
It is imperative to decide on the most suitable harvest time. Often, gardeners dig up ripe onion heads in the first weeks of August or in the second half of July. However, such dates are not suitable for everyone, since when choosing the exact date, climatic features, weather and the variety of vegetables grown are also taken into account.
To accurately determine the time of onion harvesting, pay attention to the appearance of the plant. Be sure to inspect the upper part of the root crops, which, when fully ripe, dries up and peels off. You also need to pay attention to the stems of the vegetable. They should be dry and have a yellowish tint. For a visual inspection of the bulbs, you will have to dig the plant a little with a pitchfork.
Ripe fruits should be dry and firm.
Some people use simple math to determine when to prune and harvest onions. It is no secret that the average time for the bulbs to fully ripen is 60-70 days. When determining the collection period, it is enough to add these numbers to the date the vegetable was planted in the garden. However, using this method, one should not forget about the peculiarities of weather conditions. For example, due to a dry summer, the harvest is harvested 5-10 days earlier.
Digging and trimming
Having decided on the optimal time for harvesting and trimming onions, you need to familiarize yourself with the features of this process.However, before that, you should carefully look at the weather forecast for the coming days, since harvesting should only be done in sunny weather. In the absence of rain, the soil will be dry and you will not have to spend time drying the harvest.
Digging up bulbs is fairly easy, especially if they are grown in sandy or peaty soil. Most often, difficulties appear when digging up root crops in dense loamy areas. In such cases, pitchforks are used, as they are easier to dig into the dense earth.
When digging up the crop with a pitchfork, a distance of 5-10 cm from the bush is observed. The top layer of soil is lifted very carefully so as not to accidentally damage the onion head. Soil often sticks to the dug-out fruits, which is better to get rid of. If the ground is not cleaned immediately, then the bulbs will begin to rot because of this.
After harvesting, when all the onions are dug up, you can cut the collected fruits.During pruning, the roots are carefully cleaned of exfoliated scales and cut off from the leaves. At the same time, it is necessary to cut the leaves so that a neck 5-7 cm long remains on the head. Also, the bulbs are cleaned of roots, which are cut with a knife or ordinary scissors under the bottom.
Harvesting onions in the rain
Some face adverse weather conditions while harvesting onions for storage. In this case, it is better to familiarize yourself with the features of digging onion heads in rainy weather.
Digging up onions in the rain is no different than harvesting onions in sunny weather. You will also have to dig the soil with a pitchfork or a shovel and carefully remove the root crops from the ground. When the entire crop is dug up, the tubers are brought into a dry room, where they are cleaned of dirt with husks and roots. The peeled bulbs are laid out on the floor and dry out for 7-10 days.
Often a large number of onions are dug out of the ground, where the level of nitrogen is high. In this case, drying is carried out 2-3 times. Only in this way the harvested crop will be normally stored throughout the winter. It is very important that drying is carried out in a room with a temperature of at least 30 degrees Celsius.
How to properly dry onions?
Before proceeding to the issue of storing onions, it is necessary to familiarize yourself in more detail with the nuances of drying the harvested crop. The shelf life of the heads depends on the correctness and efficiency of drying.
If the weather is sunny and warm in the coming days, then drying can be done directly on the beds. To do this, all root crops are laid out in rows and periodically turned over during the week.
When it rains, the onions laid out to dry are covered with a hanging cover or brought into the room.At the same time, they dry better indoors if they are braided. Some have to dry the vegetable in the apartments. For this, heated ovens or gas stoves are used, over which the harvested crop is suspended. When drying the oven, you must be very careful not to spoil the vegetables. It is recommended to regularly monitor the temperature of the oven. Unpeeled onions must be peeled before being dried for storage.
How to store onions?
After collecting, cleaning and drying green onions, you can start storing them. To do this, you need to figure out in advance where it is better to store onions in the winter.
In the cellar
People living in the private sector prefer to store onions for the winter in the basement. To do this, they use linen bags, baskets and even ordinary wooden boxes. If there are no empty containers for storage, root crops are simply laid out on racks or shelves.
Some, after they have fully prepared the onion for storage, lay it in nylon stockings. For this, any tights or nylon stockings that no one is going to wear are suitable. 5-10 onion heads are carefully poured into them, after which the stocking is hung on a hook in the cellar.
Be sure to use nylon products to store vegetables, as this material is breathable.
In the apartment
Owners of suburban areas are often refused to leave onions in the country for the winter and therefore they take the harvested crops to apartments. Storage of heads in such premises is complicated by limited space. Unlike a cellar, you won't be able to use drawers or shelving in living quarters, as they will take up a lot of free space.
Some people braid their crops to save space in their apartments.However, only uncircumcised plants with leaves are suitable for this. How to store a cut onion so that it does not germinate? To do this, you can use grids for storage. In this case, it is recommended to use only nets, not bags, since fabric bags have poor air permeability and therefore the onions quickly fog up.
In the entrance and on the balcony
Sometimes people do not have free space in the apartment and have to leave the entire harvest on the balcony or in the entrance. Onion heads should be stored on the balcony in a special thermal box for vegetables. Without such a container, the crop will begin to rot.
Before placing the bulbs in such conditions, it is necessary to figure out at what temperature they are best stored. All frost-resistant varieties are well stored even at a temperature of 1-2 degrees Celsius. For the rest, the temperature in the room should not fall below 15 degrees.
Iterating and storing
To increase the shelf life of harvested onion heads, it is necessary to regularly sort out the crop.
Most often, bulbs that are in the cellar in winter are moved, as there are the most unsuitable conditions for preserving the crop. During the sorting of the bulbs, their appearance is carefully examined. If the head begins to darken, it is immediately disposed of, as it begins to rot. It is also recommended to remove vegetables with damaged heads during sorting, as they are not stored for a long time.
Conclusion
Vegetable growers who grow onions often face the problem of storing harvested heads. In order for the harvested crop to be stored for a long time, you need to familiarize yourself with the features of harvesting and preserving the bulbs.
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