Growing them isn't enough — you also have to manage to keep them! And here we have a few important tips on how to preserve your onion and garlic harvest.
When to harvest garlic
Winter garlic should be harvested as early as around July 20th — as soon as the flowers on the scapes start to open. This means the vegetable is fully ripe and there's no point keeping it in the beds any longer. Garlic planted in spring, on the other hand, is best harvested in late August or even early September.
A sure sign that garlic is ready for storage — fully formed skins.
After you dig it up, the garlic should be carefully stood upright, heads down, in a dry place. After a month the vegetable will be finally ready for winter storage. Only at that point should it be carefully trimmed, leaving 3–4 centimetres of stem, agronomist Lyudmila Shubina advises the portal NGS.ru.
After this, put the garlic in a box or carton with ventilation holes and store it in a dry, cool place.
How to store onions properly
The earlier you planted — the earlier you harvest. If you planted onions in the beds around the May holidays, you can start harvesting by late July.
Lyudmila Shubina advises watching the state of the leaves: when yellowing appears and the neck thins out. If you put off digging the onions up, they will start growing again. New greenery will appear, the root system will resume developing — and such a harvest will no longer keep.
After digging, onions can be dried right in the bed: spread them in a single layer and turn them over from time to time so they dry evenly in the sun. For winter storage, onions are best kept together with their tops: you can braid them into a plait, put them in a nylon stocking, or simply place them in a ventilated box. Onions feel best in a cool place where the temperature does not exceed 17 degrees.
