How to Keep Onions Fresh? The Latest Technical Methods and Tutorial Are Here
Onions are mainly grown for their underground bulbs, so after harvesting, to store onions well, they need to be kept in a suitable environment to stay fresh without aging or losing water, and to avoid sprouting during storage. Through long-term growing experience, our working people have also accumulated a lot of experience and methods for keeping them fresh. Next, let us learn together about what freshness-keeping methods there are and what to pay attention to when keeping them fresh.
1. Heap storage method
Store in a dry, ventilated empty room. Find some straw and spread it on the ground, place the sun-dried onions on top, do not cut off the dried aboveground parts of the onions, and stack them in alternating layers. You can stack several layers, and cover the top with a mat to keep them warm. In high temperatures, ventilate; in low temperatures, add more straw. Before winter, they can be stored outdoors first, and once winter arrives, move them indoors.
2. Basket storage method
When harvesting onions, harvest them with the leaves. After harvesting, tie them into bundles and stack them into ricks, then place them with the leaves facing down and the stems facing up in a cool, well-ventilated place to dry. After the bulbs are dry, remove the leaves, put them into baskets, and then store them in a cellar to keep them fresh. The low temperature of the cellar can relatively suppress respiration.
3. Stack storage method
Find a high, dry place, place wood on the ground, then spread straw on top, put onions with leaves still attached on the straw in alternating layers, and stack them layer by layer, about 3 to 4 layers is enough. Finally, cover with mats and tar felt, and cover the surroundings with mats as well. Finally, tie them securely with rope and seal them with mud, making sure the seal is tight. After rain, you can check them, open them up to replace the straw, wood, and mats, and let them air out.
4. Hanging storage method
Dry the onions with their leaves in the sun, then braid them like corn and hang them in a dry, very well-ventilated place where rain cannot reach. This way they can stay dry continuously, so they will not spoil or sprout. Note that one braid should not exceed 1 m, and one braid should have about 80 bulbs, not too many. You can set up a rack to hang them.
5. Chemical treatment
Within the two weeks before harvest, spray 0.2% maleic hydrazide, about 80 to 100 jin per mu. If heavy rain occurs after spraying, spray again to replenish it. Do not water within one week before spraying, otherwise the effect will be poor. The main purpose of spraying this chemical is to suppress the respiration of onions so they do not sprout during storage.
Many methods are used to keep onions fresh, but all of them require keeping them dry, with no humidity. The main purpose is to suppress the respiration of onion bulbs and prevent them from sprouting during storage. So each method actually has the same goal, but the effects are not exactly the same.