»Pre harvesting, harvesting & post harvest of onion«
During the harvesting period care must be taken to ensure that harvesting is done at the right time depending on the target market and enhance the quality of onion bulbs.
There are usually two stages of harvesting and these include harvesting for immediate sale and harvesting for storage. Signs of maturity: bulb exposure, soil cracking, leaf tip drying, basal leaves drop. For quality management After harvesting maintain optimum conditions to reduce metabolic activities. Always handle and pack onions with care to reduce mechanical injury and quality deterioration.
Pre practices
Near to harvesting time you should always avoid watering onions to effectively cure bulbs. Also push down onion leaves to avoid pest and disease attack. However, do not delay harvesting when leaves wither to avoid exposing onions to direct sunlight.
Harvesting process
During harvesting time gather, transport onion bulbs under shade or store and spread them thinly on floor on arrival to store to avoid heat build up. Additionally, Cut off the leaves at neck region to avoid excessive bulb drying. Furthermore, Withdraw watering 5-10 days before harvesting to help in formation of outer scaly leaves and ensure proper handling during transportation to reduce physical damage. Also store produce on raised pallets under dry ventilated area. Lastly, regularly monitor, sort bruised, rotten bulbs and sprouted bulbs.
Quality indicators
Good onion bulbs should be firm, compact fleshy scales with good aroma, size and shape and free from damage.
