Gathering a good onion crop is always very profitable. After all, this particular vegetable is used in preservation, salads, and dishes. Planting it is a whole technology. But knowing how to pick onions is no less important. After all, the preservation of the vegetable until spring depends on the harvest.
When to stop watering
Before you start harvesting onions, you need to carefully examine it. Since mid-July, the vegetable does not need watering. Excess moisture only harms it, especially during storage. Experienced summer residents and gardeners advise starting in July to cover the plot with onion film. This approach will protect the vegetable from unnecessary rain. At the same time, it will be of good quality and will lie for a long time.
The question of how to properly remove the onion is very important. Anyone who wants to have a crop needs to possess a maximum of information about its harvest. From mid-July, it is advisable to remove soil from the bulbs so that they can receive solar heat and warm up.
Suitable weather for harvesting
If a person does not know when to pick onions, then he can skip the right time. Which will significantly reduce the storage period. Gardeners argue that early harvesting is bad, and late - nothing good. Therefore, you need to know how and when to pick onions. Doing this is worth the end of July. The most suitable weather is hot and dry. If you miscalculate the harvest, the vegetable will not lie for a long time.
The main thing is to cover the growing onion in time from unnecessary moisture. Harvesting is best in the very last days of July. When you remove the bow from the garden, you should not pull it much. It is best to dig with a sharp pitchfork or a well-ground
bayonet shovel. So it is less likely that the bottom and scales will be damaged. If the weather is warm and sunny, it is better to leave the dug onions on the site. It will lie until the evening and dry thoroughly. But before dark, you need to collect the vegetable and take it to a room that is well ventilated.
Onion pruning
There has long been a "method of ancestors." Our grandmothers never cut the feathers of the bow. You need to wait until the vegetable dries well. Then weave all the feathers tightly into a braid. It is very convenient to store onions, it can be tied up and hung under the roof in the attic. Big space savings. Now you know how to properly remove the onion and how to prepare it for storage.
Nowadays, many gardeners cut feathers. Their length is from ten to fifteen centimeters. You can’t cut the feathers to the bulb itself, as pathogens of various diseases can get inside the vegetable and spoil it. Accordingly, it will not be able to be stored for a long time. The place where the onion will dry for a certain time should be well ventilated. Vegetables that have thick tubes are best used before. They will not lie for long.
Preparation for the collection
To determine when and how to properly remove the onion, you need to calculate the maturity of it. From the date of landing should be added from seventy to eighty days. Here you also need to take into account the climate of the region. If summer time is hot and dry, then the ripening period will be less. If it is rainy and cool, then quite the opposite. Before harvesting, you should pay attention to the appearance of the onion. If the stalks are bending to the ground, the feathers are yellow, then it's time to dig it out.
You need to clean the vegetable, as already noted above, in warm weather. But knowing only when to pick onions is not enough. It is worth having an idea of how to prepare for cleaning. If the stems of the plant did not fall to the ground, then they need help. This is done so that beneficial substances do not enter the root system.
Culture drying
When the onion is removed from the ground, then you can not tap it on a hard surface. It’s best to remove the earth with your hands. Onions are very sensitive to damage, especially mechanical damage. Therefore, you cannot pull it by the tops. It is necessary to dig up the vegetable and carefully remove it from the ground.
Then the onion should be laid out on a flat surface. Bulbs should lie on one side and feathers on the other. Vegetable should be laid out in one layer, in rows. Within two weeks, the onion should dry in the sun. The term can be shortened, for this it is worth turning the crop daily. The sun is an excellent disinfectant.
Hands can determine whether the vegetable is well dried. When tedding, rustling should be heard. It is worth considering that it is also impossible to dry the onion. Otherwise, it will crack, the scales will separate. As a result, very little time will be stored. Onion roots should be cut with a sharp knife under the very bottom. But you need to do this very carefully so as not to damage the bulb.
How to harvest a crop in rainy and wet conditions
Sometimes the soil on which the onions are grown is very moist or too nitrogenous. Then one drying for successful storage will not be enough. Infectious vegetable diseases such as cervical rot or powdery mildew may develop.
The vegetable must be dried at least twice. At a temperature of 40 degrees, it must be kept for about 8 hours. You can also crush onions with chalk powder. After all the procedures performed, a vegetable grown on moist soil is completely ready for long-term storage. If you follow all the above steps, then the juicy and tasty onions lie until the very early spring.
There are cases that in late July, it rains heavily. The vegetable must already be harvested, and the weather is not at all suitable. Then the onion should be dug out of the moist earth. It must be well washed and peeled, husked, roots and tops. Then put the onions in a row in a well-ventilated area for three weeks. After this period, the vegetable will have a young flake. Bad weather culture will also be stored very well. The main thing is to perform all the actions correctly.
Onion turnip harvesting time
Another question that interests all gardeners is when to pick onion turnips? Basically, these dates fall at the beginning of autumn (September). It is necessary to have time to harvest before the onset of the first frost. Turnip should be removed when the feathers of the vegetable turn yellow and lie on the ground.
Bulbs are dried in the sun, while regularly turning them over with a wooden rake. If the weather is dry, the vegetable can be left in the open. If it rains, then it is better to build a canopy. Often, turnip onions are used as planting material. Then the roots do not cut. Before winter storage, it is worth drying the vegetable again for two weeks at a temperature of 30 degrees.
What month is the onion set harvested?
Also, let's find out when to remove the onion sets? Of course, the timing of collection depends on the date of landing, weather and climate of the region.
By the end of August, the green leaves of the onion sets begin to dry and turn yellow. The neck of the vegetable becomes thin and soft. If such signs are visible, then it is time to dig it out. When to clean the onion sets, every gardener should know. It is impossible to delay the harvest, because the plant may begin to let go of new roots.
It is better not to pull the bulbs out of the soil, first you need to pry them with a pitchfork or a sharp shovel. Put the vegetable on the beds and leave to dry. At night, put in a well-ventilated area. There, onion sets should be aged for about ten days.
For long winter storage, it is worth following all the above recommendations. Then on the table there will always be a delicious and healthy onion!