A traditional forest plant prevents yellow onions from sprouting and rotting

Storing yellow onions in city apartments or summer houses until spring is challenging—warmth leads to drying and sprouting, while dampness triggers rot. To keep the harvest firm and juicy through April without refrigeration, gardeners can use a traditional method involving dried eagle fern (Pteridium aquilinum) as a natural preservative. Preparation: Curing and Selection Long-term storage begins with the harvest. Onions should be dug up only after the foliage has completely fallen. Following this, the bulbs require a quarantine period of 10–14 days under an open-air canopy. The curing process is complete when the neck is fully dry and the outer scales rustle. Alexey Danilov, open-ground vegetable crop specialist: "Bulbs with thick, juicy necks or mechanical damage are categorically unsuitable for storage. Leaving even one such onion in the bulk mass can trigger rotting within a month, which quickly spreads to healthy produce."