Topic: will my shallotts and onions be ok?

[RenishawPhil]

I have had my onions since October and put my shallots in two weeks ago.  The onions have been growing well.

Will they be ok? As it us the first time I have planted Japanese onions and shallots

[green lily]

If the snow gets heavy they could break the shoots. Mine are under enviromesh tunnels  to keep cats, birds and snow off. Low temps won't hurt so don't worry about frost.

[Aden Roller]

Japanese onion sets should be fine so I guess the shallots will be too.

My shallots will go into very deep trays or individual cells in an unheated greenhouse to start them off (when I have bought them). I wait until they have a little forest of green shoots and a good root system before taking them to the plot. That wont be until a warm sunny day in March if all goes to plan. 

[RenishawPhil]

If the snow gets heavy they could break the shoots. Mine are under enviromesh tunnels  to keep cats, birds and snow off. Low temps won't hurt so don't worry about frost.

This is my main concern. I am hoping this snow fall hadn't caused any problems.  But I suppose they are grown through winter. If the shoots are damaged will they recover?

[elvis2003]

Japanese onion sets should be fine so I guess the shallots will be too.

My shallots will go into very deep trays or individual cells in an unheated greenhouse to start them off (when I have bought them). I wait until they have a little forest of green shoots and a good root system before taking them to the plot. That wont be until a warm sunny day in March if all goes to plan. 

I did that with our shallots last year,and they rocketed away compared to the ones i sowed direct

[Chrispy]

I have to disagree with green lily about covering about protecting from snow.

If you cover, you run the risk of the cover collapsing and the full weight of the snow and cover falling on top of them.

If you don't cover, then the snow will make it's own protective cover, protecting your plants from the worst of the cold and wind.

Covering to protect for cats, well that's different matter.

[gazza1960]

I can only go by last years bumper harvest of shallots and onions having planted the sets in oct, I just left them to the elements.....sun, rain, snow .....didnt affect there growth,all I did was weed the beds now and again plus the required watering...and by june we had some great results.

GazNjude

[green lily]

Well Chrispy you could be right but its still up so far.... Last year the cats walked right over the top after the snows and broke a cane but this year so far so good. Being in the dry east we usually don't get quite so much snow as some others. My covers are on wire and canes not poly tubing so I get to poke the ends pretty deep which helps. Mind you I've never started shallots inside. I'll have to give that a go.. ;D

[Aden Roller]

Well Chrispy you could be right but its still up so far.... Last year the cats walked right over the top after the snows and broke a cane but this year so far so good. Being in the dry east we usually don't get quite so much snow as some others. My covers are on wire and canes not poly tubing so I get to poke the ends pretty deep which helps. Mind you I've never started shallots inside. I'll have to give that a go.. ;D

I started mine off inside a couple of years ago - it was mostly to let my 94 yr old (as he was at the time)  dad take part in our allotment growing. He happily plonked them into trays and we let them get on with it in the greenhouse.

Weeks later I planted them out on the plot - turned out to be a brilliant crop so I repeated this the following year but using large cells to minimise root disturbance. Again a crop to be proud of which was good as I had so little time to get down there that year.