Congratulations! I should try bonemeal next year.

pulled the last of the downed whites and yellows, today. Ran out of room on the porch. I had some that were very large. Even those that bolted (about 1/3rd) managed to get decent-sized before halting.

I'll be planting earlier and feeding better next year, but not disappointed in what I harvested. Not too bad for my first time.

Congrats! While it wasn't my best year ever, it did rate pretty high on the list. After last year's 24" of rain in May caused many of the onions to rot, I was just hoping to get onions this year, and we got plenty. We still have three varieties in the ground: Red River and Highlander (long daylength types) and a cipollini type called Red Marble. Mine have been curing in the greenhouse to keep them out of the rain, and I've been using them in canning as we have far more than we'll ever be able to eat fresh.

It was raining again, this morning. I was out there pulling them. They're looking a little moldy, I think (in some ways). The skin is dark around the neck. They're not black or look moldy, they just look dirty. They are all on the porch. I tried to lay them out where they can get some air between them.

Should I put a fan on them or is it futile? I'd take a pick, but dang I'm too tired to go back out.

A couple of the big onions were splitting (not bolting). I'm guessing that was water. (I'm really glad I planted them in sand this year.)

Ours did great this year too. I would say the best year so far.

I talked myself out of being lazy

Oh Bon!!!! Can we scoot some of the onions somewhere else so I can sit with you in the porch swing?! Lovely harvest! Our are just now beginning to break over here...and now I've gotta talk myself out of being lazy and go see what needs pulled today.

I hope your treasures are awesome.

My Texas 1015's are rotting in the ground. I hope the other varieties don't.

It's my best year ever too! Although this is only the second year...haha...and last year, with all the flooding, was not good at all. I did buy Dixondale and some of their fertilizer this year. I've harvested a few for cooking, but the remaining are getting big and look good. I think I"ll pull them in a couple of weeks and plant seminole pumpkins in their space.

Bon, A fan won't hurt and might help. Often the mold is a surface issue and you find beautiful, healthy flesh underneath. Mine have been curing long enough that some are about done, so I need to get busy and put some in netting tubes for storage, and chop and freeze or can others. Onions are piled up everywhere, but I mean that in a good way. I'm getting ready to can onion relish, maybe this afternoon but more likely tomorrow. I keep trying to get to it, but the cabbage, green bean and plum harvests and preservation have been taking up a lot of my time, and onions can sit and wait much longer than the other things can.

I can see the necks of some of my long daylength types bending over now, and the cipollinis as well, so those will be harvested soon. I can't believe the last of the onions are almost ready for harvest already. I think they matured slightly more quickly than usual this year because they didn't have to deal with really cold weather setting them back after they were planted.

I do love your porch swing filled with onions. My porch swing usually has sleeping cats on it. Nothing says summer like a beautiful porch swing, no matter what or who is sitting on it.

Paula, I'm glad yours are about ready. I just love fresh onions in summer!

Robert, I'm sorry to hear that about your 1015Ys. They are one of my all-time favorite onions.

Y'all must have had too much rain at once. I lost a handful to rot even in a raised bed, but most of mine were coming out of the ground and going into the greenhouse for curing at about the same time the prolonged rainy period arrived. In fact, I remember hurrying up to finish the harvest of all the ones whose necks were down when I realized heavy rain was headed our way. I was worried the ones still in the ground would rot, but so far they haven't. We had almost 6" of rain last week, so if they doesn't ruin my remaining onions, I'll be harvesting them shortly.

Hazel, Isn't it so much fun to harvest? I love seeing the produce leaving the garden and coming up to the house, mostly so I can get the next crop in the ground. Good succession planting allows a gardener to get a tremendous amount of produce from their garden, and you know that I am all about succession planting. If I don't put the next crop in the ground promptly, Mother Nature just plants weeds there so I'd rather be in control, somewhat, and grow food instead of weeds.

Dawn

Pulled all mine. About 50 pounds. Not too bad for a $4 investment back in February. Dawn. I've never cured mine in the greenhouse. Usually just a shady spot. I have shade cloth but today it got to 98 in there. I have a fan blowing on them.

Mike, Under normal conditions, I cure them under the shade of the patio, but I've been curing them in the greenhouse this year because it has been raining here every day, the yard and patio are flooded with standing water, and the wildlife is hungry. Under those conditions, curing them in the greenhouse was the lesser of all the evils, and our daily high temperature in heavy clouds and rain was running in the low 70s, so it worked out well, even with doors and windows open and standing water on the greenhouse floor. I never saw the onions looking wet as if rain had blown in sideways through the doors and vents on the endwalls, which was a concern during the heaviest rain. I've never cured them in the greenhouse before and likely never will again unless we get similar weather in late May/early June, but this year it worked out just fine.

My onions have been curing a couple of weeks, except for the recently harvested ones from last Wed. All the ones that have been curing for a couple of weeks are cured and I'll bring them into the house tomorrow to split them up for food preservation----some to be put into the pantry for fresh usage, some to be chopped and frozen, and some to be canned in various ways. It probably got hot in there today, but they are so well-cured that one hot day won't hurt them. I do have heavy shade cloth on it and have been surprised how nice it has felt in there most days.

Today I left the house for a day out with Tim shopping and running various errands and eating a meal out that I didn't cook (!) and didn't give the onions and greenhouse a second thought, and hopefully I won't regret that tomorrow. Every now and then I have to get away from the daily grind of gardening, harvesting and food preservation, and this was one of those days. So, what was it that I did bring home from my shopping/errands day out???? Among other things, I bought some tomato plants for fall, some Bt for the corn, ingredients needed for several canning batches, copper fungicide and a biofungicide for everything else, spice bags for canning, and a new canning book because, you know, I needed to get away from gardening and canning. I failed at that, didn't I?

The nice thing was that I did not almost step on a copperhead today, and the only mud I had to walk through was in our own yard so I didn't even have to wear ugly muck boots. I got to wear real shoes. I didn't have to slap away at mosquitoes buzzing around me all day. I didn't have to pour water out of the rain gauge and mentally add its total to my running total for the week or month. It was just a nice change of pace.

In the meantime, hundreds of onions await the harvest kitchen beginning tomorrow. I'll probably pile up all the onions in the wheelbarrow and bring them all to the house first thing in the morning to get them out of the hothouse that the greenhouse likely will be tomorrow, and then I'll slog my way through the pile of them over the next few days. If I don't get with it, we'll be buried under onions because one-third of the crop is still growing out there in the garden. I'd like to at least work my way through the already harvested ones before I go out and harvest more. I probably planted more that I should have, but I wanted to have a lot for processing, and I do have that.

Dawn

They look great, mk!

This is not my best onion year ever but it ranks right up there. For some reason a lot of my onion tops were blown over or either a rabbit ran crashing through them and broke them over when a neighbors dogs came sneaking around. I pulled all the onions that were broke over last night and in spite of the tops laying over there were some very nice size onions. I left all the ones that were still standing to pull latter. We will chop all the small ones and put in the freezer and I will hang all the bigger ones on string under the shed and let them cure for a while.

Ok, I promise to save info on curing onions so I won't have to ask next year, but I can't find the info I'm looking for. I know not to cut the tops too close to the bulb. I have marked the ones that bolted and set them aside for use first. But do you trim the roots or not? Same with garlic? I have a university source that says to trim the roots, but in the back of my mind I was thinking someone said this would be an entrance for bacteria. I've already trimmed the onions, but this has been nagging at me.

I cut the necks about 3/4 to 1" from the bulb but only after all the foliage has withered and the neck itself has shriveled up and closed up tight the way it should while in storage. Then, I flip each onion over and clip the roots short, getting as close to the bulb as possible. I'm only clipping the actual roots with scissors, not the part of the bulb where the roots emerge. That is the difference. Some people slice the whole root area off the bottom of the onion with a knife, which is not recommended, and that's why bacteria get in---because the bottom of the onion then has a big open wound. I only trim off the roots so that if there is any moisture in them, it will not be able to start rot at that end of the onion, but it likely isn't strictly necessary to trim the roots. It also just keeps them neater and tidier while in storage cause you do have dirty little roots sticking out in every direction.

Thank you!