THE INFLUENCE OF HARVEST MATURITY, CURING AND STORAGE CONDITIONS UPON THE STORABILITY OF SWEET ONIONS

Abstract

Granex onions were harvested during three seasons at three levels of maturity of either early, optimum or late,cured for three durations of either 24, 48, or 72 h and stored in an air-conditioned environment of either a high or lowhumidity under a common temperature. Storability was measured by the rate of decay of onions in storage. When storedin an air-conditioned room, sweet onions eventually decayed, but their rate of decay was influenced by the treatments.Overall storability: diminished more rapidly beyond 10 weeks than before 10 weeks; was higher for early harvestedonions; was enhanced by 48 h of curing; and was enhanced by an environment of low humidity. Storability by harvestmaturity: was not enhanced by curing beyond 24 h for late and 48 h for optimal harvest onions, but for early harvestedonions storability was enhanced by curing as much as 72 h. Of all treatments, harvest maturity had the greatest influenceupon storability. Even though onions of an early harvest maturity had a higher storability than other maturities ofharvest, the onions had not reached their highest quality nor their maximum yield and so the optimal harvest maturitywas a compromise between yield, quality and storability.