Kitchen Garden Forum

we have had a good year for onions , in the past ive never grown a lot but this year we have had more than ever before, I pulled them all up in august put them in our greenhouse which was empty at the time to dry them ,when the roots turned crispy I tied them all up and put them in the garage to store over winter, problem is a lot of them are going soft some are sprouting what have I done wrong or is it the type of onions I have grown

Weather too warm and damp?

I think weather being too mild as well!

Westi

I agree...it's quite mild/dampish at the moment. I don't tie mine up though. Once they're dried, I store them in a net bag, in our downstairs loo...the coldest place in the house!

Perhaps they were not completely dry when you hung them up, Robo. I find drying them in the unheated greenhouse works, upside down, with the tops between the slats, until they are completely "strawy", then take the tops off.
I must admit my advice refers to shallots rather than onions (I only grow the overwintering onions which don't keep anyway), but the summer-grown shallots, stored like above, always keep until May/June (when the first overwintering onions take over).

I too, dry my onions...and shallots... in the greenhouse. I kept the shelves from an old plastic covered greenhouse and spread the onions out on them. They are ideal for getting air all around the bulbs and they dry out nicely.

I did dry them in our greenhouse the roots where crisp and broke off when I rubbed my thum over them

Hello Robo. Maybe your garage is warm-ish, which will encourage them to sprout. It's also quite damp and cool at night so giving the bulbs the opportunity to sweat, then being tied up, any trapped moisture will not be able to evaporate freely.

Have the onions which are sprouting/going soft got thick necks? These don't usually store well and need using up before the others.

Try splitting them up and putting them in several net bags, with not too many in each...or the legs of old tights....and hang them up. Use up the ones which are sprouting and any decent soft-ish ones and make sure only the 100% sound ones, with narrow necks are stored.

Other than the unseasonably warm weather, or onions with thick necks, I can't think of anything else which might cause it.
Hope this helps.