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Onions rotting while hanging in storage

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  • 27-01-2017 3:04pm
    #1
    Bricriu
    Registered Users Posts: 281 ✭✭


    I had a good crop of organic onions last year. I had had a lot of rot the year before when onions were drying, so got advice to thread them through netting, upside down, so that they dry well.

    I even went as far as to hang them in a spare room in the house, and when they were dry (or so I thought) I hung them in a metal shed. This is the result:

    I got a plague of small black flies in the room. When I transferred them (after I thought they had fully dried) to the shed, I lost over half of them to rot.

    Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

    Thanks


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    #2
    Marhay70
    Registered Users Posts: 1,915 ✭✭✭Marhay70


    I presume it is neck rot? A few reasons why this can happen, damage, dampness etc. but the usual one is a soil borne disease While the rot may develop in storage, the onions are infected while they are actually growing. Did you grow them in the same ground as the year before? If so, that's probably the answer.


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    #3
    Bricriu
    Registered Users Posts: 281 ✭✭Bricriu


    Poster here: thanks, never thought of disease. I had rotated them.


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    #4
    Marhay70
    Registered Users Posts: 1,915 ✭✭✭Marhay70


    Bricriu wrote: »
    Poster here: thanks, never thought of disease. I had rotated them.

    Before you hang them, leave them lying on their side on the ground to dry for a week or two, cover them if it rains. Don't hang any which are damaged or have thick necks.
    It's possible you have bought diseased sets or seeds.
    Next year buy good quality sets and plant well away from this year's crop, if you get neck rot again ( it is neck rot, yes?) then it's down to the quality of what you are storing.


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