[beesrus]

Talk of potatoes and frost on another thread got me thinking.
I've noticed in the past that an early warm Spring spell like we've just been having, followed by a frosty cold snap can render quite a few Japanese onions liable to bolt.
Does anyone here take precautions of fleecing their Japanese onions in a cold snap or would that be a bit pointless ?

[BabbyAnn]

I don't recall Japanese onions bolting that much after a frost unlike spring planted sets - you could put fleece over if you wanted

[gavinjconway]

Pointless - Japanese onions are designed to over-winter so why are you wanting to molly coddle them? Just leave them to grow.

[beesrus]

You're probably right there Gavin.
Just the usual pre season sorting out of my head I guess.
I just remember the early March warm spell we had a two or three years ago, followed by a good couple of weeks April frosts. The Japanese onions virtually all bolted in May and I assumed that perhaps the cold weather after the lovely early warm spell  fooled them into thinking sommat was up and Winter was coming again, regardless of the day length thing. My Summer onions had only just got going by then and were unaffected by the large temperature swing.
 

[sunshineband]

On our plot over the years, Japanese onions have survived long periods of snow, icy conditions, drought and now this year floods.

They are still growing away quite happily.

I shall give them a little feed at the weekend to boost them on their merry way 

[BabbyAnn]

I just remember the early March warm spell we had a two or three years ago, followed by a good couple of weeks April frosts. The Japanese onions virtually all bolted in May and I assumed that perhaps the cold weather after the lovely early warm spell  fooled them into thinking sommat was up and Winter was coming again

one reason for bolting is lack of water - during the warm spell, was it not also very dry? (easy to forget in spring after all the winter weather)

[jondav14]

mine are looking really nice this year, and the one or two that have fallen over (have been replanted), are showing signs of a nice bulb developing, tempted to try one, just to make sure