u/AllShadesOfBlue

Harvested 75 onions and 98 shallots so far! Can’t believe almost 100 shallots came from 6 I planted last fall.

Kinda shocked I was even able to get a bouquet with both of these guys! But to be fair, these are my first dahlias to bloom and the last of my ranunculus. (I actually already dug up half of my ranunculus last weekend). Still stoked though!

For anyone curious, this is how I dig up and store my corms each season:

1. First, you should wait until the foliage has died back before digging. If there’s still a good amount of green on the plant, it’s still storing energy into its root system and if you pull up too early, you won’t get blooms next year.
2. When the soil is dry, gently lift the corms out. If you’re having a hard time doing this, it’s best to use a garden fork instead of a shovel, so you don’t slice through the corms.
3. Lightly dust off as much soil as you can. If you’re worried about rot, you can skip step four and go immediately to step five.
4. I personally like rinsing off the corms. I’ll take each one and spray it with a hose until pretty much all of the dirt has come off.
5. Trim off excess roots and excess foliage. If you rinse with a hose, I usually leave the corms to dry on a towel for one to two hours after this step. You can also divide at this step by gently prying corms apart.
6. Leave them to dry completely for a few days. Don’t be tempted to put the corms under direct sunlight; this can dry them out too quickly and make them brittle to a point where it can kill them. I usually place all of mine on a wire rack in a dry room of my house, with an oscillating fan next to it. This way they get plenty of airflow, which is essential to prevent rot.
7. Store the comes once they're dry. They should be shriveled up and look just like what they did before you soaked them earlier in the season. There should be no moisture, any amount will cause rot. Store in paper bags in a cool, dry place. I personally store them in my basement where it's 55F, 50% humidity in the winter. 50-65F should work too, and just be sure than humidity is between 35-60%.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

I’ve noticed this on a couple of my ranunculus stems. It makes the flower curl downward and rots the inside. Does anyone know if a bug is burrowing through? I’m in central PA zone 6b. Thanks!

Some of you probably saw my posts from last week - I picked a bouquet for my MIL and that was everything I could pick in my ranunculus patch. I came home 5 days later to this!! Everything absolutely exploded! I can’t even begin to describe how elated I am.

These guys sure are a pain in the butt; alternating between frost and shade cloth was annoying. But they are so worth it! If you’ve been debating growing these, I’d highly encourage you to do so!