Each year we purchase onion sets from Dixondale Farms in Carizzo Springs, TX. I always order Yellow Granex, White, and Creole Onions. This spring I planted three and a third rows of onions. That was the least amount we've ever planted. I think next year we'll go back to our normal order of 300 sets. In this photo below, Some of the onions are telling you that they're ripe and ready to pull.
This is how they tell you. The neck bends over and touches the ground. When this happens, the onion is signaling to you that it's done growing. I pull them up at this stage, but I don't bring them in for another day.
I will pull them and lay them on their side and allow the sun to gently cure them or dry them out for one day. I only pulled the ones that have bent over. The rest of the onions will be left to grow until they bend over.
But we're not done. I bring them inside where I've converted the parlor into an onion curing room. I have a drying rack brought in and have the fans running at full speed. As the onions come inside, I'll cut off the "onion tails" and under the fan and lower humidity, the onions will begin to cure. We still watch them closely. Any that show signs of softening will be diced up and frozen for use in the kitchen later.
We'll go through these pretty quickly. That's why we're going back to 300 plants for next year.
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