Grow Your Own Magazine

I planted some onions (probably japanese ones, I think) in the autumn and they've been happily sitting there all winter. The thing is, I have absolutely no idea when they'll be ready or when they should be lifted. A neighbour suggested that they should flower first but having seen the other post on that I'm guessing that's not what I should wait for. Any ideas?

Normally you wait until the leaves fall over and turn yellow. Then lift on a dry day and let them dry out for a couple of weeks before storing them. I was told that Japanese onions do not store well but I think (and maybe someone could tell me if this is right or not) that the over winter onions that we plant these days are not Japanese. Anyway once the onions have reached a good size I dig up an onion when I want one whether the leaves have fallen over or not.

Lesley, that's fantastic - thanks for your help. So do you think they might be ready soonish then? I'm trying to decide what to put in the plot afterwards but don't know how much growing season I'll have left.

I've already taken my up - I needed the space and although they aren't as big as they could be the leaves were just starting to turn and I got impatient

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The autumn onions that I planted last year are still small but I blamed the dreadful weather for that. This time last year I had fantastic, huge winter onions so if yours are a good size use them now.

I lifted mine today. They were quite a good size, in fact i would say they were big, but an awful lot had gone to seed and for that reason i saw no advantage in leaving them in the ground any longer. Also lifted my garlic which was also a good size with just two gone to seed. All in all, considering the wet winter and spring we had i,m quite happy.