How can onion sets be stored before planting?

Onion sets, which need long-term storage after harvest, do not always “survive” until the moment of spring planting. It is rare that all seed is lost at once, but culling can be significant. Of course, the dominant cause of this situation is improper storage.

The place where the sevok will wait in the wings should be well ventilated. The temperature there should be constant, without jumps, otherwise the onion will freeze or, on the contrary, overheat, and this automatically deprives it of its prospects.

Consider what is necessarily included in the preparation of onion sets.

• Seed selection. It is not always taken from its crop, it is often bought. When buying, you need to pay attention to the high density of the set, to the natural shade of its husk. The surface should not be deformed, with pits and depressions.
• No unpleasant odor. If it is rot, then it is immediately perceptible. These are either diseases, or insufficient drying after digging, or transportation problems: there are many reasons for rot. One thing is clear: such a bow is no longer used.
• Competent selection is possible only in natural light. If there is not enough light, you can miss one rotten onion, which will infect many others in the near future.
• If the sevok is grown on its own, after digging it, you need to shake off all the earth from it, and then dry it.. The roots must be absolutely dry, straightened. There should be no new shoots on them.
• Dry the onions in a room with normal humidity and good air circulation.. Drying temperature should not exceed 32 degrees. And it usually takes a week to dry.
• If necessary, after drying the seedlings You can also warm up at 40 degrees during the day.

+20-25 degrees can be considered the most acceptable temperature: in these conditions, the onion does not freeze, but it does not overheat either. At the time of disembarkation, he will be in normal condition. Well, if the humidity in the room is 50-75%. If the air is dry, the seeds will dry out, and an excess of moisture is fraught with rotting and spoilage of the set.

There are several of them, but mostly cold and warm methods are distinguished. Each of them is convenient, and if used correctly, it is also completely safe.

Before using it, the onion must be warmed up for a week and a half at a temperature of +35 degrees. Such onions can then be stored in the refrigerator (if space permits) in the vegetable compartment. If there is not much seed, and one compartment can be freed, then this is the best option. But it is better if the sevok is stored in the basement. As long as it’s dry.

The approximate temperature for cold storage is from 0 to +4. And you can just send the onion into a bucket, where a layer of sawdust has been previously poured. Sawdust is placed on top of the poured sevka with another layer. It turns out that the sevok from below and from above will be in a warm “fur coat”. The container is certainly closed with a lid, sent to an earthen pit, which is 20 cm higher than the bucket.

This is storage at home, at room temperature. But humidity is even more important here: the optimal indicator should be 50%. And very important avoid any sudden drop in temperature. For those who do not live in an apartment, but in a private house, and have an underground, it is better to send the seed there. It is usually poured into shoe boxes and placed in a dark and dry place. If there is no underground, but there is a pantry (and they are also in apartments), then the onion can be stored there. The main thing is that the pantry is also dry and moderately cool.

Another permanent place to store onions is under the bed. This is cunning and ergonomic, because almost always this space is idle, it is not occupied by anything. And the bow, which will be stored there before planting, will definitely not be in sight.

The method involves the merging of the two previous ones. Prepared and well-dried sevok is sent to any suitable warm place at room temperature, and it is stored there until the first frost. With the advent of winter, the bow goes to a new room or, if possible, remains in its own, but the temperature in it will gradually drop to zero. When spring comes, it is again smoothly raised to +25. When this mark has already been reached, you need to lower it again by 5 degrees and keep it that way until the onion is sown. Here are a few more nuances for the proper storage of onions.

• If you decide to keep the sevok in the refrigerator, it is not just poured into the vegetable compartment. It also needs to be wrapped in paper or even cardboard. In a word, into something natural and dense.
• During the entire storage period, the seedlings should be periodically inspected, because among the seed there may be a rotten onion that will have to be rejected.
• Good drying of the onion will indicate the rustling sound that occurs when a small onion is rolled across the table, for example.
• So that the onion does not germinate, it is better to choose a cold storage method. It reduces the risk of germination to zero.
• In the basement, the sevok is often stored in old stockings, and this “grandmother’s” method is really convenient.. Stockings are filled with onions, hung from the ceiling. If you put them on the floor, rodents can encroach on the seed.

Everything is simple here: from the moment of harvest (summer) to the moment of planting (spring). That is, the shelf life of sevka is one agricultural cycle. And the task of the gardener is to preserve the sevka in such a way that by spring it will be ready to go to the ground and give good shoots. In case of rotting of the set of material, you can take more than is required so that the surplus percentage covers the losses. But it is better not to create such a situation at all, because all the material can fall from one rotten onion.

Much also depends on the variety: if it is early, then the sowing will not be able to withstand more than two months. But such onions are usually stocked up in the spring, they are almost not stored at home.. White onions also belong to the types of onions that are not resistant to storage. It is the hardest to keep.

By the way, if the sevok began to deteriorate (rot), you can still save it. It is necessary to separate the deformed and rotten husk from it. If the lesion is severe, the entire skin should be removed completely. During the shelf life, the onion will still be covered with husks, and the seedlings can be planted in the spring. But if rotting has affected almost all of the seed, the process of saving it becomes too laborious: you don’t need to do this, it’s easier to find a new seed.

If there were problems with the sets in previous seasons, it is possible that the wrong variety was selected. The most reliable in terms of storage is yellow spicy onions. To store onions was not a problem, you need to follow some recommendations:

• if the onion is moldy, you can also remove the skin from it, try to save it, but the storage location must be changed;
• instead of boxes, it is better to use a basket, wicker or metal: it is well ventilated, there should be no mold on the set;
• if a plastic container is used, then it must have holes for ventilation, otherwise the onion will “suffocate” and begin to rot (there are such special containers for onions on sale);
• it is impossible to store sevok with a layer above 15-20 cm, as this also leads to a lack of ventilation and subsequent decay;
• if the onion is small, up to a centimeter in size, there is practically no chance of saving it until spring (but it can be planted late in the fall to get a crop of winter onions).