Sorry to hear about the issues with your onions. First off, you should pull and discard any of the onions that are showing signs of rot or mushy layers. Make sure to throw them away and never put them in your compost. There are a few reasons why some of your onions could be turning to mush. One could be too much water this late in the growing season. If you did not amend your soil prior to planting, your soil may be too compact and leading to drainage issues as the growing season went along.
There are also a number of diseases that can affect onions during the growing season. If you planted onions in the same location last year, disease may have been able to overwinter in that area and is now affecting this year’s crop. It would be best to practice crop rotation next year and plant your onions in a different garden bed.
If your soil is in good growing condition and not oversaturated disease should be suspected. If your onions seem mature at this point (or close to it) it would be best to harvest them a little early to avoid any possible diseases from spreading to onions that are salvageable. Follow the instructions above for harvesting and drying before storage.
Hi Cathy,
Sorry to hear about the issues with your onions. First off, you should pull and discard any of the onions that are showing signs of rot or mushy layers. Make sure to throw them away and never put them in your compost. There are a few reasons why some of your onions could be turning to mush. One could be too much water this late in the growing season. If you did not amend your soil prior to planting, your soil may be too compact and leading to drainage issues as the growing season went along.
There are also a number of diseases that can affect onions during the growing season. If you planted onions in the same location last year, disease may have been able to overwinter in that area and is now affecting this year’s crop. It would be best to practice crop rotation next year and plant your onions in a different garden bed.
If your soil is in good growing condition and not oversaturated disease should be suspected. If your onions seem mature at this point (or close to it) it would be best to harvest them a little early to avoid any possible diseases from spreading to onions that are salvageable. Follow the instructions above for harvesting and drying before storage.
Hope this helps!