The assessment of the Bulb Size Impact in Onions Characteristics and Losses during Storage with Natural Ventilation

The effect of bulb size on storage behavior of onions was investigated in an experiment carried out in Korça region. This study was focused on evaluation of certain bulb characteristics during storage under natural ventilation conditions. The autochthonous cultivar of Miras was involved in the study and three bulb sizes were observed: small, medium and large, with diameters ≤ 3cm, 3-5cm and ≥5cm respectively. The sealed and dries bulbs were placed for storage in the building with natural ventilation. During the storage period, the weight loss, the damaged bulbs and the percentage of sprouted bulbs were estimated. The first two indicators were evaluated for the periods 30, 60, 90 and 120 days of the storage, while the last indicator after 60, 90 and 120 days.The results showed that during storage period, humidity gradually decreases. There were differences of bulb moisture content at different time periods after harvesting depending on their size and storage periods. After 120 days of storage, weight loss of large bulbs was about 23.827%, about 23.604% and 20.263% for small and medium bulbs size respectively. Results indicated that these losses are slightly affected by the size of the bulbs, while the storage period had the greatest impact, whereby the losses increase with the extension of the storage period.The findings raise the need of storage conditions improvement to reduce onions post harvest losses.