Shad,

It is not necessarily the soil moisture that makes a difference, although it can.

What really makes the difference in terms of shelf life is whether or not the garlic and onions are fully mature before they are harvested. If you harvest them before they have reached full maturity, they will not have as long of a shelf life as they would if you let them reach full maturity.

No matter how I try to rationalize it in my brain....I simply cannot imagine your onions and garlic are fully mature and ready to harvest while mine have not yet reached that point. I'm so far south in Oklahoma (a few miles north of Thackerville), that I'm almost in Texas (which borders me us closely on three sides) and my climate is considerably warmer than yours, meaning that all things being equal, my crops will mature before yours do in zone 6 probably 98% of the time.

Of course, it would depend on whether we're talking about short-day onions or intermediate-day onions, and whether you planted from small, hard onion sets that look like little dry bulbs, or seedling plants that are sold in bundles of 60-80 with dried roots and leaves attached. If you planted short-day onion types and you planted them at the earliest range of planting times, they might have matured by now. If so, their necks have softened and become limp and the leaves have fallen oven onto the ground, have turned yellowish-tannish-brownish and are drying. In actuality, the plants would look sort of like they they're dying. If that is the case, the onions might be ready soon to harvest and cure. With proper curing, they should have a decent shelf-life even if they come out of moist soil, assuming they do not have any diseases. However, most onions grown in our climate are not long-keepers like the ones grown further north so shelf life is not incredibly long anyway. They'll keep about 2 to 4 months in average circumstances and, in some great onion years with very careful and long curing, I can get them to store for 6 or 7 months or longer, but that is the exception and isn't necessarily common.

So, are you saying that your onions and garlic have yellowing or browning, drying foliage that is falling over and they seem to be drying down and becoming ready to be pulled and cured...OR....are you saying you have a pre-set schedule in your head where the onions and garlic "must" come out now even if the foliage is mostly green and still actively growing so that the sweet potatoes can go in? The answer to that question is of the utmost importance if you want for the onions and garlic to store well at all.

I have had some varieties of garlic that were planted the previous fall start showing signs of maturity in late May, but it depends on the variety and the weather and such. It more commonly starts looking like it is 'done' sometime in June and not necessarily earliest June.

Of course, they are your onions and garlic and you can harvest them whenever you please, but I suspect you're going to be disappointed in their shelf life if you harvest them on your schedule and not theirs, assuming that your schedule does not match theirs.

Have you grown onions and garlic before? I ask because most people, when growing them for the first time, are overly eager to harvest and harvest them too soon, most likely because they think that they can be harvested at any time. You can harvest them at any time you choose only if you're going to eat them all within a month or two, or will be preserving them by canning them, dehydrating them or freezing them shortly after harvest. If you're looking for longer dry storage, you need to harvest them when they are ready, not when you are ready to plant the succession crop. Also, a lot of folks who are new to growing onions will see that the upright green leaves are getting so tall that the leaves bend in half and the upper half is pointing down towards the ground or even touching the ground and will think that is maturity. It isn't. That's tall leaves flopping over, but it isn't maturity. When the onion necks look like they have 'broken' right down where the neck attaches to the bulb, that's a sign of approaching maturity but even after that happens, you need to wait a week or two for the foliage to dry down and change color before you pull the onions.

I understand the desire to get the succession crop of sweet potatoes into the ground, but that is not necessarily in the best interest of the onions and garlic if you're looking for the maximum dry storage life possible.

Dawn

Thanks for the response Dawn. I knew my onions and garlic weren't completely mature yet but I am getting a little anxious to plant my sweet potatoes that are arriving June 1 from Gary. I didn't realize the storage life would be affected so much by not allowing them to come to complete maturity. I guess I could just pull a select few of the garlic/onions (eat them first since they won't store as long) and plant the sweet potatoes amongst them. Do you see any issues with that?

Thanks for taking the time to help me out.
Shad

Shad,

You're welcome.

No, I don't see an issue with it. That's exactly what I would do. Just remember that when onion harvest time comes and you pull up the rest of the onions, you need to sort of pat down the disturbed soil around the sweet potatoes and maybe water lightly to settle in any disturbed soil around the sweet potatoes' roots. I've done this exact thing before in order to put in fall tomatoes in the onion bed in June when the intermediate day type weren't quite 'done' yet.

Dawn

My onions are still sending up new growth. Some of them are hitting the 13 leaf stage.

Busy1,

Some of mine, but not all, are still sending up new leaves too, especially the intermediate daylength ones. I think the short daylength ones are about done. They took a really severe beating in the worst hail storm that hit us about 6 or 8 weeks ago, and just didn't ever really get back on track from that.

Red Candy Apple, which has been a small, slower grower in my garden in the past, has about 10 leaves on most plants, which actually is better than in past years. As Dixondale suggested, I gave it a little extra nitrogen this year, and that seemed to help. I probably should have given it more than I did though. Most of the Candy plants have 11 to 13 leaves, so I think they'll produce good-sized onions this year. The one that's doing the best is Superstar. These vary from 11 to 15 leaves, and probably less than 20% of them have 15 leaves, but I'm not sure I've ever had any onion plants with 15 leaves before.

We've only had 11 or 12" of rain this entire year, and I think I watered them 3 or 4 times early in their onion life when rain wasn't falling. I probably could get larger bulbs if I was spending money on water, but I'm not.

Dawn

I took some pictures of some of my onions but will have to wait till next week to post them. Slow dial up here at home. have dsl at the store.

The candy are doing the best and some of the white bermuda will be nice size. when you see my dirt in the pictures, you'll wonder how anything could grow.