Storing Onions and Garlic

Latest Update 16th April 2015.

Harvesting and Storing Garlic.  

These Italian Red beauties were harvested in warm dry weather in early summer just as the leaf tips began to dry out.  I eased each plant out of the soil carefully with the roots still attached.  They will come out easily in moist well fed organic soil, but shake the soil off the roots before it becomes too dry.  Bundle about a dozen plants together tied with twine.  I left about 500mm of twine free on each bunch so that I could hang them from the roof of my small shed to dry out and store.

If you have no choice but to harvest your garlic in wet weather, wash off any soil that sticks to the plants and lay them out to dry.  When you dry them avoid exposure to direct sunlight. 

Harvesting and storing Onions.

Onions are harvested when all the leaves and stalks are fully dried out.  You can bend the stalks over at their base to speed up this process once the tips of the leaves begin to yellow.  When you have pulled them up out of the ground, leave them in a dry place out of the sun for a few days, remove any damaged or infected onions, and tie the good ones in bunches of a dozen or so.  Store them by hanging from the rafters in your shed or garage.