Hanging / Storing Onions

Hi folks

Would you agree with the comment below?

You hang onions initially to let any remaining nutrients in the leaves drain back into the onions. That increases the time they can be stored. (So many people this year have dried theirs on wire mesh with the leaves hanging down below the onions, which allows nothing to drain into the bulbs and weakens the bulb.)

Then, when all the green has gone from the leaves, either plaiting them together or tying them to string to hang in a cool dry place will allow them to be stored for the longest time.

How do you "hang the onions initially"?

Put the alliums under 'A' and zebrunnes under 'Z' ?

How do you "hang the onions initially"?

The picture I saw they were hanging them from a rack

I don't pull them up while the leaves are green - so I don't really understand the "comment".

When the neck has gone soft lift them and dry them. That's what I do.

When the greens start turning yellow/brown I bend them over for a week or 2 allowing the bulb to draw up any more nutrients then I lift them and hang in the poly tunnel to dry. As I don’t close the tunnel door I have air circulating through the tunnel.

Doesn't make a lot of sense to me that they could somehow draw significant amounts of nutrients down from fading greens. What's the evidence for that? There's a lot of myth in gardening, so I tend to doubt things that are presented as conventional wisdom. I've come across quite a lot of people who actually harvest the greens to use as a crop in their own right, and then claim to have no issues with onion storage. I wonder if it's just come about because the foliage dying back indicates that the bulbs are likely as big as they are going to get, so it's time to lift the bulbs? However, if you are willing to accept slightly smaller bulbs then you could take the green tops before they die back and then potentially get a bigger crop overall. Or perhaps leaving the greens attached reduces the risk of fungal infections before the bulb is fully cured? I suspect there will be some basis to it but I really find the idea of the nutrient draw down hard to believe.

I tried to search for actual evidence on the subject (as opposed to anecdote) but need to find some better search parameters as I'm getting pages about tying raw onion slices to your feet to draw out toxins... Happy to say that one is definitely nonsense! I will have another search when it's not silly o'clock at night.

My onions have toppled and are getting wetter by the day. I'm waiting for a sunny day to lift them.

Maybe Broadway could give us a link to the original comment?