Onion Drying

We dried our onion harvest on top of window screens propped up with two sawhorses. They spent about two weeks outside under a sheet. It rained lightly a couple of times but the sheet wicked the moisture away and they dried quickly. The idea with giving them the air circulation is to dry out the roots and tops to prevent rot while they're in storage over the winter. We harvested about 45 pounds of onions for the year, but I think with all the sauces, salsas and chutneys we'll use considerably more than that this year. The onions pictured here are Copra - good for storage. We also had a few varieties of sweet onions for salads and eating. Next year I'll plant some red onions and more storage ones. We interplanted with lettuce, carrots and beets - but the ones interplanted with lettuce didn't fare as well (very small). The idea is to get the tops really established and green before day length starts to decrease so that the plant has energy to put into the bulb. Onions also like plenty of water and fertilizer, and do well in fairly sandy soil, all conditions we're capable of creating... and we love onions.