Onion bulbs in South Gondar zone of northwestern Ethiopia are produced in large quantities during the dry season using irrigation. High storage losses usually compel producers to sell their produce immediately after harvest bringing about a market glut during a season, while price climbs up at another time when there is shortage of supply. The use of appropriate pre- and post-harvest handling practices including harvesting time and curing techniques helps to improve shelf life of onion bulbs without significant deterioration thereby helping to stabilize market price. Furthermore, bulbs for seed purpose could be stored long till the next growing season. This study was therefore initiated to determine appropriate harvesting time and curing techniques (duration and techniques of foliage drying) for good storability of onion bulbs.

Combinations of treatments of different harvesting stages, foliage drying periods and drying methods were evaluated for bulb keeping quality. Immediately after foliage removal retaining only one cm long neck with the bulb, healthy and non bruised bulbs were kept on wire-mesh and wooden made shelves in a DLS and evaluated weekly for rotting, sprouting and physiological weight loss. Mean result on onion bulb storability revealed that almost all interactions with the exception of harvesting stage and year were insignificant (P< 0.05). The effect of drying techniques (method) on shelf life of onion bulbs was also found insignificant. On the other hand significant difference on onion bulb storability was recorded from different stages of harvesting and foliage drying periods. In general, harvesting at 25 percent foliage fall over, and drying and curing harvested onion bulbs with foliages for two weeks on wire-meshed and wooden shelves in a DLS at ambient temperature and relative humidity (or in a partially shaded condition) was found appropriate for good storability of onion bulbs.