Storage
How to dry and store onions and garlic
The short answer
Dry onions for about two weeks and garlic for two to four, in the sun or somewhere airy, until the skins and necks are papery. Then store them somewhere cool, dry and light, in net bags, in a single layer on trays, or plaited and hung up. Keep only perfect bulbs. Softneck garlic keeps up to a year, hardneck four to six months.
Onions and garlic are the easiest crops to store and the easiest to spoil in the first fortnight. Curing is the step that decides whether they last into spring.
Curing after harvest
- Onions: about two weeks, on racks in the sun, or under cover if it is damp.(RHS)
- Garlic: two to four weeks, in a single layer, depending on the weather, avoiding heat above 30°C.(RHS)
- Store once the foliage is papery.(RHS)
- Handle gently: bruising cuts storage life, and damaged onions should be used straight away.(RHS, RHS)
Storing
- Net bags, trays in a single layer, or plaits hung up.(RHS)
- Somewhere light, cool, dry and ventilated. Not in the dark, which encourages sprouting.(RHS)
- Garlic at 5 to 10°C, cool and dry.(RHS)
- Keep them away from potatoes, which can absorb moisture.(Garden Organic)
How long they keep
| Crop | Keeps |
|---|---|
| Autumn-planted onions | Until early winter |
| Spring-planted and seed-raised onions | Well into the following spring |
| Shallots | At least six to eight months |
| Hardneck garlic | Four to six months |
| Softneck garlic | Potentially up to a year |
Where the sources differ
When to lift them: onions and shallots and garlic.
| Question | RHS | Garden Organic |
|---|---|---|
| Where to cure | Onions in full sun on racks; garlic in the sun or somewhere ventilated, not above 30°C. | Its advice page: a hot, dry place for a few weeks. Its news article: on trays in a cool room. |
| Storage temperature | Garlic 5 to 10°C; onions cool, no figure. | Onion family ideally 2 to 4°C, protected from freezing. |
Know what you grew, and what it gave
Log what you pick, and how much, bed by bed. Vercro keeps the record, so next year you know what was worth the space.
Keep going
Where this comes from
The growing advice on this page comes from the published sources below, each linked beside the point it supports. Where two good sources disagree, we show both rather than choosing the convenient one. Reviewed 19 September 2026.
- Onions: grow your own, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.
- How to grow shallots, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.
- Garlic: grow your own, Royal Horticultural Society. Read 19 September 2026.
- Harvesting and storing vegetables, Garden Organic. Read 19 September 2026.
- Bust a glut: how to harvest and store your veg (news), Garden Organic. Read 19 September 2026.