· To new gardeners, rolling downoniontops may seem like a questionable thing to do, but many gardeners think foldingoniontops before harvesting onions is a useful practice. Click this article to learn all about it. Be advised that although it’s definitely false that breaking, cutting, or stepping on the tops of onion plants causes them to grow larger bulbs, foldingdown the tops of onions is a different process. · Fold or bend oniontops when the onion begins to turn yellow and fall over on their own rolling downoniontops encourages the onion to turn brown and stop taking up water, thus boosting the final process of ripening. When should you fold over the tops of your Onions to encourage them to start to ripen in readiness for pulling? Well, the answer is, when they start to do it themselves anyway. Once the bulbs are big enough and the tops are heavy then the plants will naturally start to bow their tops over. FoldingOnionTops: Why Do You FoldDown The Tops Of Onions M Ke 1.08K subscribers 3 · If you plan to use the onions right away, foldingoniontops isn’t really necessary. However, if your goal is to store the onions for the winter, rolling downoniontops encourages the onion to turn brown and stop taking up water, thus boosting the final process of ripening. Oniontops naturally tip over when the bulb matures, but some gardeners force their onions to stop growing by folding the oniontops over. Folding the oniontops makes the stalk turn brown.