Grow Your Own Magazine

Yesterday I started laying over the foliage on my onions (white and red) ready for drying out (ha ha) and lifting. To my horror, I discovered that the stems have all gone squidgy and when folded over liquid squirted out. The bulbs themselves still feel firm. Should I be worried? Should I lift them and try and dry them out (the foliage is still green on most, although on some it is going brown and some are black on the ends)? Cut off the leaves to try and stop the rot from spreading?!

Hi,

A lot of mine where like this when I dug them up on Sunday. I am hoping that they will still dry out properly. If the bulbs are ok, then I assume they will still be usuable. Mine are all hung in the garage as there hasn't been a dry day in weeks.

Hopefully, some more knowledgeable members will comment too!

Clareg

PS Can you imagine what 120 onions hung in a garage smells like???? Well, if you're anywhere in Lancashire you can probably smell them!

Yes my onions were a bit like that too. Although after being laid out in the greenhouse for a couple of days they have dried a lot.

But...yuk yuk ....mine were covered in slug eggs, all of them.....never seen so many.

It could be a number of problems. I suggest it is likely to be downy mildew in this weather....are leaves covered in a grey mould? If so they will store very long.

More seriously, it could be shanking ( Leaves die off from centre) or white rot ( mould with black spores on nose)

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Paul

Paul, was this a typo? Do you mean they will not store for very long?

There is no noticable 'mould' on the leaves, some of the very ends of the leaves are going black though. Otherwise they don't look diseased until you actually touch them and feel the squidginess!! I really hope it's not something horrible as I have quite a large crop and not much storage space - I was hoping to let them stand as long as poss - d'oh!

Yes CuteC, I'm a Poour Ytpist I'm afraid, I mean that only perfect onions will store.

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Paul

I had a terrible time with my overwintering onions!

First they all bolted during the dry hot april, I cut off all the flower heads in the hope of saving them. Then they wilted and started to develop squidgy middles during the wet weather!!

All is not lost, I dug them up, chopped them and rescued the useable bits which are now nicely sliced and frozen ready to use as we need.

I'd definately recomend freezing to anyone who has onions that won't dry and store.

Hi Liz, and welcome to the vine!

I agree with you about freezing onions even though it is more traditional to dry them (hahaha!). We have had trouble with eelworm at the Hill, so any which looked a bit dodgy (about a third of them) were hoofed up, peeled, chopped and frozen.

This is our first year, but this has seemed to work for us!

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Hazel
www.hazelandjanesallotment.blogspot.com
update Sat 15/11/2008......there's gold in them thar...compost bins!......

It's probably some kind of neck rot Katie & as the others say the onions probably won't store very well. I'd try & dry them out a bit, trim off the worst foliage & then any which still look soft around the necks I'd use or freeze straight away.

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Into every life a little rain must fall.

I had the same problem, lizdocs - I put loads of onions and garlic in for overwintering - but they have scarcely grown, then bolted a bit, then gone dormant again before finally turning to mush... Most of the onions - and all the garlic - have ended up on the compost heap.

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Hi
I thought my shallots were fine but I noticed that some were going mushy in storage so I cooked 1 kilos of them a la Nigella Lawson. It's a good recipe to use up softening onions etc, she calls it onion mush, you slice up the good bits, put 1 kilo of onions/shallots in a big pan with a tablespoon of butter and 3 tablespoons of olive oil, sprinkle with salt and add 100ml marsala (I used sherry) and 75 ml boiling water, press down and cover with foil then put on the pan lid. Cook over a very low heat for about 3 hours just giving it the odd stir now and then.
When it is all very soft, turn up the heat to boil off the excess liquid. Then weigh out in 50g amounts, bag and freeze.
Each 50g = 1 onion for future recipes. Gorgeous stuff that adds extra flavour to your cooking. I've made it before and it's great to have on hand.
best wishes
Sue

Thanks for all the advice. The freezing idea sounds good, and I love the sound of the Nigella recipe! All is not lost.......

Bad Idea I think Daddy Pig, I have been told that you shouldn't put any onions on the heap but particularly diseased ones.

Dexterdog came up with a great onion marmalade recipe a month or so ago if you scroll back

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Paul

Many of my onions had squidgy necks too but no other sign of rot. I thought I'd chop, blanch and freeze to make some kind of "lazy onions".

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