# Onion and potato storage



## mammabooh (Sep 1, 2004)

I know this has probably been addressed about 100 times, but I'm lazy and haven't looked! Anyway, I have a bunch of potatoes and onions from my garden that I need to store. I'm guessing that they shouldn't be stored together, but I'm not sure.

I have a little room under our outside basement steps (with access from the inside of the basement) that has about 80 percent humidity and stays around 50 degrees during the winter. Would that be a good place to store either the onions or the potatoes? If that is a good location for both, do I need to keep them a certain distance apart? How about a fan? Should I run one to keep the air moving around?

Thanks for any guidance you can give.

P.s. There are no windows so it is completely dark in there.


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

Good for potatoes not onions. Onions need dryer storage, dark and cool is good though. Many people used to braid them. I quit watering them, break the stem over let dry down some and then pull. Let set until the dirt is well dried and then tie together with twine and hang them in my shop....James


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## BobbyB (Apr 6, 2009)

I know this dont help the OP, but I wish I could have onions to worry about storing thru the Winter.

They come off here Early June and we just finished up what was left. And had to pick thru those for good ones. I thought we did good keeping them that long.


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## SueMc (Jan 10, 2010)

jwal10 said:


> Good for potatoes not onions. Onions need dryer storage, dark and cool is good though. Many people used to braid them. I quit watering them, break the stem over let dry down some and then pull. Let set until the dirt is well dried and then tie together with twine and hang them in my shop....James


I do this also except, much to his dismay, onions and garlic are hung up in DH's shop. It's not too warm in the winter and has an air conditioner in the summer. I'm embarrassed to say that I had some leftover garlic hanging since 2010 and some of it actually had small green shoots. I stuck those cloves in the ground with my fresh planting this fall and am curious to see if they produce bulbs.


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## PistolPackinMom (Oct 20, 2012)

I've seen people who knot their onions up in panty hose and hang them in a cool, dry place.


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## geo in mi (Nov 14, 2008)

mammabooh said:


> I know this has probably been addressed about 100 times, but I'm lazy and haven't looked! Anyway, I have a bunch of potatoes and onions from my garden that I need to store. I'm guessing that they shouldn't be stored together, but I'm not sure.
> 
> I have a little room under our outside basement steps (with access from the inside of the basement) that has about 80 percent humidity and stays around 50 degrees during the winter. Would that be a good place to store either the onions or the potatoes? If that is a good location for both, do I need to keep them a certain distance apart? How about a fan? Should I run one to keep the air moving around?
> 
> ...


About as ideal of a home condition that you can get for potatoes, but maybe a bit risky for onions. You don't say what kind of onions, nor how they have been cured. Long term storage onions might do okay, but the Spanish kinds you should be eating and using now anyway(and checking them for beginning decay) Usual temperature for long term storage of onions is right at 32degrees, while potatoes is about 40 degrees.

If I had a place like that I would put them slightly apart and not worry about ethylene--but I wouldn't combine them with apples. Contrary to popular opinion, onions are not really stored from the start in those mesh bags; rather, in bins in temperature controlled rooms. When they are neded for market, they are brought up to store temperature and put into the mesh bags, for shopper convenience.......

Commerical onion production and storage.(Storage is down near the bottom of the article):
Yellow storage onions (vegetable crop management): University of Minnesota Extension

Hope this will help.

geo


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## siletz (Oct 5, 2010)

Just like the others have said, it looks like that would be good storage for the potatoes. They like cool (but never freezing) and moist. So that would be a good place to try for them. The onions will rot if kept that moist, though. They like cool and dry. So, do you have a spare bedroom that's cooler than the other part of the house? That would be a better choice. If it's too warm, they start to sprout early and if it's too moist they rot. Since I rarely have had the perfect place for onions, I have found that warm and dry is better than cool and moist. If you can't give them exactly what they want, just give them the best you can and be sure to start in on eating them before they start to go bad.


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## eggman (Mar 4, 2007)

When my onions start to go bad I chop them up then freeze in gallon bags. When I need the onion I just cut off what I need-put the remainder back in the freezer. Saved alot of onions this way.


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