How To Harvest Onions & Make Your Own Drying Rack

It’s Mid August and my Onions ‘Hercules F1’ are all huge. It’s been a fantastic growing year for not just Onions but all types of Root Vegetables.

The Onion leaves are now laying flat against the soil as they have bent at the stem near the top of the bulb, which means they are ready for harvesting.

🧅 How To Tell when Your Onions Need Harvesting.

If your Onions leaves are still green, you will need to Dry your Onions until the leaves go brown and crispy and then the leaves can be cut off a few inches above the top of the bulb and they can be stored in a cool, dark place.

How To Harvest Your Onions – with Video

You will need:

  • A hand fork or a trowel,
  • A Drying rack (see DIY method below)
How to Harvest Onions – Video

Step by Step Instructions

  • 1. Use your hand fork to dig out the onion from the ground. Take care not to pierce the onion with the hand fork.
  • 2. You may need to wiggle the fork as shown in the video above, to get the prongs under the roots to release their grip on the soil.
  • 3. If your Onions still have green leaves, they will need to be dried on a rack in a cool and rainproof place, until the leaves go brown and crispy.
  • 4. You can eat the onions now or when you need them.
Onions Harvested from Raised Bed

How to Make Your Own Onion Drying Rack

A drying rack needs to have air flow around and through it so the Onions and leaves dry and do not go mouldy.

Some examples of drying racks are:

  • Wooden Trellis,
  • Expandable willow trellis,
  • Shoe rack, with slats or bars,
  • Wire mesh sheet.
Drying Onions on rack in the sun

Why Do You Need to Dry Onions?

The purpose of drying the onions is so they can be stored for months inside without rotting or going mouldy.

Any presence of moisture in the plant (not the bulb as it is protected by an onion skin) will turn an onion bulb mouldy inside a bag or storage pot inside your house or garage.

With green leaves, there will still be moisture in the plant cells that make up the stem and leaves.

To remove the moisture, Onions are dried in a place with good airflow to evaporate the water from the plant cells.

When the Onions leaves have gone from green to yellow to brown and crispy, there shouldn’t be any moisture left in the stem, so it can be cut just above the onion bulb to store inside.

Onion Drying Locations

  1. Raised Bed – You can leave your harvested onions in the raised bed to dry out in the sun for a few days (make sure no rain is forecasted).
  2. Drying Rack – You can have drying racks laid horizontal or vertical to dry your onions on in the garage, shed or other storage area where it is dry and cool.
  3. Braiding Onions – You can Braid Onions by tying up their stems with string and hanging them up to dry. Here is a YouTube video on How to Braid your Onions.

My Onion Drying Rack

All Credit is due to my husband who kindly made me my Onion drying rack which now hangs vertically down the side of our shed.

Onion Drying Rack in Shed

It is made of willow expanding trellis and is hung on two screws drilled into the top panels of the shed so it can easily be lifted on and off of the shed wall.

As the willow expanding trellis has diamond shaped holes, the onions can be hung by their leaves through the holes. As you work your way up, the onions will be staggered so they have air flow round them and are not touching one another.

The Onion Series

Part 1 📕 – Start Growing Onions in wet weather in cell trays with Planting Video

Part 2 📗 – How to Plant Onion Sets in the Ground that have been grown in Cell Trays with Video

Part 3 📘 – Onions from Sets – How To Tell when Your Onions are Ready for Harvest

Part 4 📙 – How To Harvest Onions & Make Your Own Drying Rack



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