We need to store our HUGE onion harvest

[@jackfrost3573]

I am in Dallas, I harvested a total of 24 pounds of red, yellow and white onions. I only had 4 bolt and I collected the seeds. 3 red and 1 yellow bolted. 10x8 onion bed. My best year yet!

[@GardenerScott]

Amazing harvest! Great video!

[@louisehunter9121]

Love your giant squeaky onions! I’ve grown pickling onions this year (intentionally) so I’m quite chuffed with myself but I definitely now have French Onion Soup envy 😅

[@mrgrumblebum7613]

I had quite a few seedlings left over once I filled my onion bed so just crammed the remaining 30 or so into pots on the patio and they only grew to about an inch across being so tightly spaced while the ones in the bed are 4-5'. Now I have two pots of pickling size onions, I've no idea whether Ailsa Craig onions are good for pickling but I'm going to find out by trying.

[@eliandkate]

That’s what I do… spare just get used as spring onions 😁

[@eliandkate]

Oh exciting. That’s something I’ve never done

[@jean-eriksylvain7659]

Fantastic harvest! This inspires me to try to grow these next summer. Thank you for this video!

[@eliandkate]

Glad to give you inspiration Jean 😁

[@bwolf0003]

Great onion harvest. My favorite is obviously the Red Baron variety!!!

[@eliandkate]

Obvs!! 😂😂😂😂

[@christinamoxon]

Love the look of those onions, Eli. Fabulous. It has been a very cool, dreich summer so far. Even down here in Sussex, it's not very warm. We have just had our hosepipe ban lifted, which is a plus! The only onions I've grown this year have been spring onions, although they're huge and gorgeous and quite strong. I love them. Definately growing more. I'm looking forward to seeing what you have planned for your winter garden. I am pricking out viola and pansy seedlings, along with some ornamental cabbages (first time for those, very exciting) ready to replace summer plants.

[@eliandkate]

There prob won’t be much winter growing this year, we’ll not like previous years anyway. I just haven’t had time to organise anything

[@larrymills1487]

Great harvest. Just shows you how close you can grow onions and still get nice sized bulbs.

[@eliandkate]

Exactly. I didn’t need giant veg!

[@janeneharris7271]

WOW what a fantastic harvest of onions. I have lifted mine today they are now in the garage drying out. Last year most of mine bolted as well so i'm very happy this year x

[@eliandkate]

Same as me. Much better this year

[@carolinebown8686]

What an absolutely fantastic onion harvest .... brilliant ...they all look so healthy too ❤❤❤❤

[@eliandkate]

Fingers crossed they all store well

[@karenshields1878]

Great humor from Kate wonderful personality 👏

[@eliandkate]

Always there with a quip 😃

[@ninahannum1894]

Great harvest! I've got my onions drying all over my basement floor on racks, with a fan. We are warmer here, but get too much rain to leave them outside.

[@eliandkate]

The rain is just blooming inconvenient isn’t it

[@annickaprevander9863]

Congratulations. I have also succeeded this year with the onions. Got a tip, picked weeds and nettles. Let it soak in a bucket for a couple of weeks. strained poured it on a spray bottle and spray the blast. I have had soil mixed with sand, for those other years as well. fertilized with horse manure in early spring before planting. I use green onions. ❤

[@eliandkate]

I add homemade compost to my beds every year, other than that I don’t fertilise the plants. Feed the soil, feed the plants 😍

[@moonwrasse]

Great crop. Very healthy, I grew shallots this year for the first time this year. Turned out well

[@eliandkate]

We are all basking in allium success just now 😃

[@samanthahoos9827]

I was going to pull my onions planted from seed in January today (8/7) but it’s raining. I’ll maybe do it tomorrow, but there aren’t yellow leaves yet. Love that you’re getting a wonderful harvest this summer!

[@charlotteinnocent8752]

Congrats great harvest!

[@eliandkate]

Hoping it’ll last 😂😂😂

[@ninemoonplanet]

Grown from the small starts bolted, makes sense if we think about it. I have yet to grow decent sized onions, but now I know I should have started them much earlier. Thank you, enjoy your French onion soup. Yummy 😋

[@ninemoonplanet]

Home grown onions are much more potent, have far better flavour. I was going to say cut the up outside, but I think you'll be ok. Unlike me who used a blender, indoors, to grind horseradish. I fumigated the house and had every opening wide open. 🤣

[@eliandkate]

😂😂😂😂

[@eliandkate]

I wouldn’t have expected the starts to have bolted quite so easily… maybe stress? Maybe not enough water?

[@BeFree-BeFrugal]

Great harvest , will keep them in the shed until you use them

[@eliandkate]

Unfortunately that’s just not practical. The shed is in use every day but also over winter there’s no heat at all in there so it’s not a good place to store them

[@GardenDiscovery]

Eli, you're such a great teacher. You explain things so well and make things make sense. Thank you.

[@eliandkate]

Aw thank you Kelley, I’m glad it’s helped

[@skygazer1024]

What a fantastic harvest. Well done!

[@eliandkate]

Brilliant harvest, I’m chuffed.

[@tennesseenana4838]

Massive, great looking onion harvest! Have you ever tried to chop up and freeze your onions with their green stems? I saw that on a video but have never tried it myself.

[@eliandkate]

Yeah we did it last year. We had so many that had bolted so wouldn’t store, so we froze them. We were still chomping on them a few mjnths ago 😁

[@mrgrumblebum7613]

My onions (all Ailsa Craig) are still standing tall and firm, Northern England, and doing very well with an average size of of 4-5'. My upcoming problem is finding room to cure them as I may have gone a tad overboard by planting 150 of them, many will be given away of course. I'll be lifting them in batches as and when the necks weaken and my hope is I can cure them in rotation even if I have to leave some in the ground for an extra month or so. I've grown onions for three years now and always from seed, my neighbour has grown onions longer and always from sets and every year complains that some, all or most bolt while seeded onions just don't do that being a biennial plant that overwinters before flowering the year after it is seeded, I've no clue why he perseveres with sets when growing from seed in trays indoors is as easy as can be.

[@eliandkate]

I get it. It’s so much easier to grow from sets, heaps more convenient. I don’t have the option to grow on a windowsill so for me it means rigging up a way to keep them happy in the greenhouse, where as with sets you just hung ‘em in the ground in spring. I’ve been told heat treated sets don’t bolt so I’m tempted to try them

[@dustyflats3832]

Nice harvest! Mine were already on top of soil. This year they were done about 2 weeks early. They probably had enough of this extreme drought. Onions should not bolt if grown from seed only sets, at least that’s my experience. I recently seen a video suggesting to cut a trim tops😮 that is not a good idea because you let in bacteria. You won’t notice the damage until much later in storage because they rot from the inside. I dry mine in a shade covered greenhouse. I had to harvest also because we were get spots of rain, nothing substantial, but enough that ripe onions can rot. Hog wire works well to bend the neck over each square to dry.

[@2galsfarmworks]

Awesome job ladies. ❤❤ such an inspiration. 🎉

[@eliandkate]

So pleased with this harvest, I think it’s easily 3 times what we got last year.

[@misspiggywig]

Brilliant harvest. Mine arent quite so big. But first year growing from seed and first year i have any at all. 👍☺️

[@eliandkate]

So a celebration then!!!!

[@misspiggywig]

@@eliandkate absolutely ☺️ tomatoes just beginning to ripening, strawberries where good. First year for raspberries but look healthy fingers crossed for a cauliflower. So I tried a few different things this year. What do you put in your beds now for over winter?

[@eliandkate]

I haven’t decided yet

[@cpoco]

Brilliant. I'm optimistically looking forward to my onion harvest this year. I have some I direct sowed that are clearly bunched too close together (I guess I can use them as spring onions?)... I have others that I've grown in pots etc that I'm able to plant out with better spacing. My garlic is doing well... I'm just hoping the onions take as well as they did and I can have my first ever crop of home grown onions :D

[@eliandkate]

Exciting!!!! Yup spring onions still counts as a harvest

[@Oktopia]

Ah, I can imagine the smell of those nice bulbs.

[@eliandkate]

Ha ha ha I’m on it. We’ll get the recipe added to our website asap 😍😍😍

[@cindynielson4231]

Great onion harvest. Would Kate share her french onion soup recipe? I have seen others can onions but that may not be possible for you. TFS 🥰🧅👍

[@eliandkate]

I’m sure she’d be happy to. I’ll ask her to add it to our recipes on our website 😍

[@cindynielson4231]

@@eliandkate Thank you!

[@peggydove8756]

That's great! I had 6! 🤣

[@eliandkate]

Hey 6 is 6

[@SoniaFennell-r5c]

I really struggle to get red onions of a good size, tho not with brown. I can multi sow Alisa Craig and get bigger bulbs than singly sown Red Baron! Can’t work out where I’m going wrong. Going to try to source some red mammoth seed for next season. Last year almost all my sweet onions bolted ( plus a good number of red and brown ones). Straight after harvest I sliced them all, caramelised them in my slow cooker and froze them in curry containers - just the right amount for quick caramelised onion soup for two and minimal effort. Yum.

[@eliandkate]

I was warned about red onions too… apparently they need A LOT of water and nutrition so can be quite small

[@stephenelderkin5022]

Hi. I grew about 100 onions from seed this year. The first time that I have tried grwoing them from seed. I grew three varietis: A Redwing, Kelsai and a Walla Walla. The Kelsae and the Walla Walla are sweet onions. Does that mean that those two varieties will not store as long as the Redwing variety? Thank you for your fantastic lesson on harvesting and curing onions. Mine had recently fallen and I was wondering if it might be time to harvest them and cure them. I too need to cure them indoors as it has been raining a lot this summer in Southern Ontario. They are huge this year.

[@eliandkate]

That’s it exactly Stephen. They will store but just not long term, so make those your first choice 😁

[@chicosgarden]

Wow, what a harvest! Look at the size of those Red Baron! I may space mine further apart next year lol

[@eliandkate]

Im really pleased with the red baron…. A couple of years ago, Steve from Greensideup told me air was really difficult to grow red onions and you’d struggle to get any that were a decent size. Wish I could show him.

[@Carol-oc7mx]

@@eliandkate I'm sure Steve knows how well you did with your onions 🧅, a big smile on his face

[@chicosgarden]

@@eliandkate Awe, he would be so proud of you. You grew them in the raised beds? I grew mine in grow bags (chock a block lol)

[@seanjamescameron]

What timing, am bent over the kitchen sink cleaning my onion harvest. Quite good this year.

[@eliandkate]

Now that’s great timing. Feels like this year has been a great one for the root crops but more of a battle for all our tomatoes,’peppers etc. July has just been wet and cold 😢

[@seanjamescameron]

@@eliandkate My seaweed says a heatwave is coming and could last 2 months (well in London), maybe a second Spring.

[@eliandkate]

Oh how good would that be??? Fingers crossed we get some of it

[@oreopaksun2512]

Awww! @6:17 your teeny tiny baby onion would be a champ in my Florida garden! The others, esp. Red Barons, look like UFO voodoo dolls; I want to know what moonlight rituals you and Kate did to get those monsters! Congratulations on a beautiful harvest!

[@eliandkate]

😂😂😂😂 I want to know what a info voodoo doll is???

[@oreopaksun2512]

@@eliandkate You know, Afro-Caribbean witch doctors make them with a bit of your enemy, and use them to cast nasty spells on said enemy. In your case, it was probably some spell to keep pests out of your beds or something. LOL!

[@pamjones5594]

Ok. Could you put them on a heated or sun loving green house too? And could you eat the green ends too? I’m growing Walla Walla sweet onions and they haven’t fallen over yet but I’m in the states. Our august here is hot still and September as well. Recommendations on how to dry my sweet onions? It can rain here too as I’m in Washington state. Love your videos!

[@eliandkate]

You don’t want to try and store them somewhere warm, best to keep them cool and after that initial couple of days, out of sunlight. With sweet onions you store exactly the same way with other onions…. They’re just less likely to store for quite as long

[@JohnWood-tk1ge]

Boy this brings up bad memories. I planted a bunch of onions last year and did I baby them! I pruned them several times,gave them regular blood meal feedings and they were going great. THEN the storm rain gauge filled to over flowing, over a foot of water in the basement,roads washed out and every onion top broken over. What can you do none stood backup so had to start using them.

[@eliandkate]

Nooooooo 😢

[@saxylizbeth]

I missed the video when you planted them out - how far apart did you put them? My onions were a bit meh this year...

[@eliandkate]

I gave them about 5 or 6 inches between

[@saxylizbeth]

@@eliandkate Splendid, ta! This was my first year growing them from seed, after seeing your video. I’ll give it another go next year :)

[@eliandkate]

The other two videos are linked at the end and in the video description…. Might be worth bookmarking for next year 😁

[@saxylizbeth]

@@eliandkate definitely :) Thank you for the inspiration!

[@PhilC74]

I left the comment before finishing the video. Sorry

[@eliandkate]

That’s ok, I figured you commented in your excitement to plan for next year 😁

[@PhilC74]

What type of onion are they please?

[@eliandkate]

Keep watching Phil, I tell you each variety as I’m harvesting 😊

[@Garden-of-weeden]

I was counting your onions then you did😂😂😂

[@eliandkate]

Did I get it right… you know what my brain is like!?

[@Garden-of-weeden]

@@eliandkate you did! But I had to chuckle😂

[@elizabethshelby5613]

I’m late finding your channel. Complete novice unless growing weeds counts…. Did you do a vid on how to make those raised beds? Are they built on the soil or on concrete? If on the soil did you do anything in particular to the ground before you filled the beds? TYIA

[@eliandkate]

Heya Elizabeth Lovely to have you with us and yup there are a few different videos in the raised beds and planters. The beds are on soil, just broke up the soil and them filled the beds with compost. The planters are on concrete Try these videos for a starter kzbin.info/www/bejne/sKe2ZWx_jat3hqM kzbin.info/www/bejne/jXuxp4VspZxob80 kzbin.info/www/bejne/apnLiGx7ea6Fm5o kzbin.info/www/bejne/jGWliXR_gdihiqc

[@elizabethshelby5613]

@@eliandkate Thank you

[@lesliescully3544]

“Inappropriate touching by onions”. 😅

[@eliandkate]

😂😂😂😂

[@jihad.haidar]

Very impressive harvest. Thankfully, I harvested a few onions from my balcony but nothing this fancy. Here, it seems we only know onions by color, so I cannot tell the name of the variety, but they were brown and elongated rather than round (perhaps because they were in clusters?!). I cannot help but think of all those green leaves as wasted potential food. Is it crucial to keep all the leaves while curing the onions?

[@eliandkate]

Ah that sounds like shallots rather than onions maybe? Like a small onion? You could use the leaves if you wanted too…. This practice is all just about how to make them store for as long as possible, but you can actually just use them if you don’t want to store them for months

[@Tamsins_Potager]

I've got onion envy ❤🧅😂

[@eliandkate]

Oh no!!!! Next year!