Onions not dieing down

:confused:Hi there... i am new to gardening and especially new to veg growing. This is my first year with a small veg plot. Most things have been ok, i have had tatties, red cabbage, peas and starting to get some red tomatoes. However my onions are a cause for concern. They have not started dieing down and in fact are still looking very green and upright. Does anyone have any ideas? Will this be a problem especially as the weather now seems to have turned and is not likely to get much better to allow them to dry out. Can i just leave them in the ground and eat them when i need them or do they need to be dries and stored? Sorry lots of questions, any advise would be greatly appreciated. :thumb:

 

Microbabes16

Where you live is very relevant because down here, we often get a warm dry spell in September and October. In the past, this has given me extra vital weeks for ripening the onion crop.

I suspect your onions might not store well whatever you do now if you have to lift them before they're really ready. It might be worth leaving some of them e.g. 25%, in the ground just to see what happens. You might be lucky.

Above all, keep a gardening diary and record what you do now so you'll be ready for next year. You might need to plant them earlier?

 

Great thanks for that. I lifted them all last night and put them in my greenhouse to dry. I guess i will wait and see what happens. I have only got about 20 onions so they should get used up pretty quickly.
What i find wierd is that my mum planted hers at the same time and they have all died down nicely, maybe there is not enough nutrients in my soil as it is new topsoil and i didnt really feed them. Oh well i will know better next year.

 

Microbabes16

Now that is weird! If your onions were short of nutrients, I'd have guessed they would have died down or bolted sooner rather then later. Other factors might be involved e.g. amount of sunlight, water or just a different type of onion.

There's always next year...!

 

I put my lifted onions in the airing cupboard for a week (the heating is off) They seem nicely dried now, and the ones with thick necks will get used first.
Was this a good idea? It's not very hot in there, but it is very dry.
Any opinions from onion experts out there?

cheers,
Dave

 

All my onions are still growing bolt upright outside.

I'm not worried in the slightest as It's just because they've had so little decent weather this Summer (LOL) that they still think it's Spring.

Once mine fall over then I'll just shove 'em in the polytunnel to dry and they'll be fine.

The same happened last year and I only lifted them mid Sept and once they were dried properly they kept 'till May.

That's the key,getting 'em properly dried.

My tunnel has both doors open all the time so I get a good drying breeze through and given this impending Indian Summer we're going to have they should be OK.