Hi + Onions sets & snow

HELP!!!

Hi all, I am new to the forum and I have found some really useful information already so I decided to sign up. I am from the UK but live in Germany at the moment. My wife and I got an allotment last year (~350sqm) and at the beginning we were pretty clueless. We got it in March and there was a bit of work to do to get it into shape so we never really caught up last year. We did learn a great deal though and ended up with a really good crop. This year we sorted everything during the winter so now we are starting on the right foot.

Anyway, the main reason for my post is that last weekend we had a warm few days so I decided to plant a load of onion sets out. Last night however, it dropped to -5C and today it's snowing heavily. Tonight and tomorrow night the temperature is set to drop again to -6C and -7C but it should then warm up again for the next two weeks according to the forecast. I have read that onions are pretty hardy and tolerant to a bit of frost but this weather is worrying me a bit. I planted the onions fully covered so maybe they will be OK but I'm not sure.

Should I be prepared to buy more sets and re-plant or do you think it should be OK?

Thanks in advance for any help.

The most likely side effect is that more of the sets will bolt than usual. Onions have a two year life cycle, growing a bulb in year one and flowering in year two. Exposing the sets to a hard frost will make more of them realise it's year two and they'll try and flower.

You won't really know until it's too late to buy/plant any more!

If the onions do bolt, it's not the end of the world. Be vigilant looking for flower stalks and remove them immediately. The onions can still be eaten but they won't stored well.