Found out my grandma's seed saving method was rotting my onions in the basement

I had been storing my garden onions the same way my grandma did for years. Hang them in mesh bags in the basement, right? Turned out my basement stays too damp for that. Last fall I lost about 15 pounds of onions to rot before I caught on. Walked down there one morning and the whole room smelled like a trash bin. Dug around online for a few hours and found a site run by some guy in Nebraska who catalogs different veggie storage conditions by region. He said onions need low humidity and airflow, not just any dry spot. So I moved them to my garage loft, spread them out on wire racks, and none of them went bad. Anyone else think their family's old methods are foolproof until they're not?

2 comments

2 Comments

oliver24215d ago

Have you considered that maybe your grandma's method worked fine in her specific setup and you just changed the location? I mean, storing onions in a mesh bag is a solid technique if your basement actually has proper airflow and climate control. It's not that her method was wrong, it's that you applied it to a space that doesn't match what she had. That's sort of like blaming a good recipe because your oven runs hot. I bet if you built a little dehumidifier system or found a better spot in your basement it would have worked just fine. Sometimes people jump to online solutions too quick without trying to adapt the old ways first.

brian_ward5516d ago

Yeah, the "grandma knows best" trap got me too. I spent two winters wondering why my potatoes were sprouting like crazy before realizing her root cellar was way colder and drier than my basement. What's the weirdest old timer tip you've had to abandon?