Signs Your Onions are Ready for Harvest
Leaf Count
One way you can tell your onion plants are nearing harvest is to count the number of leaves on your onions. While 13 leaves is a “perfect” onion, some varieties may mature with fewer leaves than that are still perfectly good onions. When your plants reach at least seven leaves, you can start watching them carefully. Look for these three key signs that your onions are mature and ready to be harvested.
Three Signs Your Onions are Ready for Harvest
1. Soft Neck
When the area right above the neck (the place where the leaves meet the bulb) starts feeling soft, the transfer of carbohydrates from the leaves to the rings has finished meaning the final cell division within the rings has occurred. At this stage, you should water less frequently to prevent sour skin and black mold occurring in wet soils.
2. Tops Falling Over
When some of the tops fall over, this reflects 100% soft neck, even though not all the tops are down. If you are planning to consume the onions right away, you can pull and enjoy them. There is good skin development at this stage and adequate green tops to prevent sunscald during drying.
When all the tops are down, the onion is finished pulling sugars out of the top and moisture out of its roots, but skin development will continue to occur. Our general rule of thumb is to wait for 85-90% of the tops to fall over before harvesting. If growing for storage, a light last watering should take place to allow onions to respire some moisture before harvest. For sweeter onions, give them a moderate final watering.
3. Last Leaf
Examine all the leaves, particularly the most recent one to appear (last leaf). The leaf sheaths mature and dry from the oldest to the youngest leaf. If you pull the onions from the soil before the last leaf is dry, rot could occur during storage. The neck cavity or top of the onion should not be sunken or soft before lifting the onions out of the soil.
It’s best to remove your onions in the morning before the worst of the heat and direct sunlight occur.
After Lifting Your Onions
Now that your plants are out of the soil, you’ll want them to last as long as possible. This requires thorough drying and curing. For more information on harvesting and curing, see our past newsletters by topic.
If you have growing or harvesting questions, please don’t hesitate to give us a call. Contact Customer Service at (830) 876-2430 or email customerservice@dixondalefarms.com.
None of my onions have started to fall over and they are getting bulbs at the top and going to seed. Should I pull them or wait a bit. We have had lots of rain this spring/summer.
They will fall over once they are completely done bulbing. If you don’t want to wait for them to fall over, you can go bend the tops over and that will signal the plant to stop growing and in turn will start the curing process (when the bulb seals off from the top).