Onion Harvesting 2020

Our onions that we planted back on January 19th are ripening.  Over the next couple of weeks we will completely harvest all of them as they are ready.  The onion below is still growing.  You can tell because the tops are standing straight up:

When the neck becomes soft and the tops fall to the side like below, you know they are ripe and ready for pulling.

I gently pull them up and lay them on the side of the row.

I got a length of hurricane fence and stretched it out and placed the onions on top with the greens hanging beneath to dry.  This was working well, allowing good air flow, until we got a big thunderstorm that rolled through.  Tricia and I ran out in the pouring down rain and brought all of the onions under the patio.  It was a good plan while the weather held out, but you want to keep your onions dry once you harvest and cure them or they won't hold up.  They'll get soft and mildew and rot.

We cut the tops off the onions, leaving about an inch and a half of the neck and then cut off the roots.  We placed them on a shelf with open wire racks and then positioned a fan underneath to constantly blow air over the onions.  This apparatus is set up under the patio and should dry them.

I would estimate about half of the onions are drying like this now.  We're hoping we're successful in curing and storing the onions.  With our high humidity in South Louisiana, it is hard to cure onions and garlic without them getting soft and going bad.  Our garlic will be ready for harvest soon and we'll use the same process in curing them as well.