Onion Growing 2025

The necks on my Kelsae onions are mostly bent over so will lift them before the predicted storm so they are nice and dry before storing. We have had basically no rain for about a fortnight.I want to at least try to save some to plant next year so they set seed. I have read somewhere they don’t store well, any tips other than the obvious cool and dry to get them through the winter?
Also do I save the big bulbs…..well big for me or better to store a few of the smaller one? Can you tell I have not grown these amazing onions before!

 

Well this is my first effort with Kelsea. I think they are not bad but those expert growers like @JWK will not be very impressed!
I grew a few in the greenhouse but don’t think I watered them enough as the outside ones ended up much bigger. We have had a pretty super summer so think any vague success is down to lots ofrather than anything to do with yours truly. 3 biggest weigh about 1.2 kg each.Quite proud of the results but won’t be winning any prizes!

 

As I have mentioned before I have had a huge harvest of onions which are just about dry enough to be stored.I am hoping the onions will store well as it is going to take months for me to get through them. I will freeze some that look a bit iffy/ have thick necks.
Normally I do not have the “problem” as often I don’t get a great harvest but have this year c/o fantastic weather.
I have about 15 of these stackable crates. They are plastic but allow plenty of air circulation. Would they be ok for storing or better to buy some mesh sack?

 

I tend to use old onion bags for long term and baskets for just the ones I'm using at the moment.
I think where you store them is pretty important also, you need a regular air flow, although on cold damp winter days it's difficult to find ideal places.

 

They shouldn't take up too much room if you tie them in strings, French style. Plait the tops or tie them with string. They should last quite a while if you have a dry shed. I never mastered the art of making neat tidy strings of them but at least they were able to dry out and last well into the winter. I have never tried freezing onions, I have seen them for sale in Supermarkets but never tried using them.
French Onion Soup? (Which I do not like)
Would they freeze already par cooked?
Roasted onions. I had one with my dinner last night, it made a nice change of veg.

 

Thanks @pete and @Goldenlily26. I have over 300 to deal with! I normally do plait them when the numbers are manageable ( learnt to plait horses tails which has come in handy plaiting a good number of onions together!) however, think I might lose the will to live plaiting this lot.
Would these be a good idea? They are 23ins x17.

 

Any bags that have air holes all over, the old string type bags would also be idea.
I don't fill the bags right up so they are not crushing one another.
I hang the bags from nails in the garage.

I've got some frozen onion in the freezer from last year, just chopped up and frozen, not tried it yet though.
I've used frozen garlic and that is OK.

 

Thanks @pete. Will buy some of these and do as you suggest. I already have loads of garlic strung up in the stables and they keep very well so presume onions will be similar it is just the quantity! I have chopped up and frozen a few onions which looked as tho they might have started to rot….that good old tell tale white mould starting near the roots. Not frozen onions before, according to what I’ve read on the net they are ok for stews mince etc. Will find out in due course!

 

My bumper harvest of onions have now dried out really well after about a month of still lovely warm weather. I have spent a considerable amount of time removing the dried leaves and roots before putting them in string bags.
Never having had such an enormous crop before, ( at least 300 maybe more like 400) annoyingly about somewhere between 5 and 7% have either rotted off are in the process of. Some have bits that are saveable others have gone straight in the bin. A couple had fat necks which I know don’t store well but the others didn’t. I think some have got the dreaded white onion rot, is there anything you can spray with to prevent this.? Maybe a certain % loss is be expected? I don’t normally grow this number as in a bad summer my onions are pants.
The ground these grew in has never had any type of vegetable grown in it for at least 23 years. It was manured in the winter before planting and limed but nothing else was added or sprayed on the crop. The crop when I lifted it looked really healthy so a bit surprised.I have loads so not a huge deal, just hoping the huge numbers I have hanging in the stables will not go the same way as dealing with this number has taken up a considerable amount of my time. As long as I can enjoy the onions over the winter it will have been worth it. If the lot turn to mush the air will be blue!

 

I think from your post of 18/7, that you may have harvested them prematurely ;ie your onions not then 'shut down'/not transformed sugars in the leaves to starch in the bulb. Personally wait until clear signs that the outer skin has dried/turned brown before uprooting, perhaps by breaking a few roots by rocking to bring this forward. A period of 3-4 weeks in airy warm conditions prior to storage in cooler but well ventilated space does it for me.
Hope that your losses do not increase....

 

I rarely lift mine until they wobble if you get my meaning, the roots are pretty much gone.
TBH I dont really lift them I go along and give them a gentle tug, if they come away fine, if not I leave a bit longer.
But I certainly wouldn't want them still in the ground now with all this rain.

I dont think Kelsae store well anyway.

 

Does anyone braid their onions? I do it with soft neck garlic. Otherwise it'll be string bags like normal

 

I hang mine from a length of baler twine, tie the first one on at the bottom and then just wrap the bulb round the string and over the stem. Then live in the shed which is warmer and drier than the garage; they keep better in shed than the garage.. They will last past Easter like this.
Did the same thing as a lad in Lincolnshire, hung from a string on the pole that held one end of the washing line, kept well despite the frost and rain.

 

Thank you. Maybe you are right and I should have left them longer. Most of the necks had bent over and I knew there was heavy rain forecast so decided I should lift some of them. Funnily enough the ones whose necks had not bent over I left for another week or so. It is those ones which were worst affected. What I will try next year is to leave some quite a bit longer and see if this makes a difference. No doubt it will lash all summer and the onions will be back to normal……dreadful. Still got a lot to bag up. Slightly loosing the will to live!

 

That’s how I store my garlic. They, despite it getting pretty cold and below freezing at times last well into about Easter. Any that are left by then start to sprout so freeze those.