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Urgent: Walking onions and freezing

 
Pearl Sutton
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I want to gather a bunch of the walking onion greens and dehydrate them, but I have too much on my plate till next week. With one night dropping probably to 20F in this microclimate, two two more nights to probably 27. It will warm up during the day to 40s and 50s before nights warm back up to 40s.
What are the odds I'll be able to pick good greens after that? Do I need to put it on my list NOW, or can they hold that long/ I know by full winter they'll die back, but I don't recall when it starts.

Please advise :D

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Judith Browning
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I never remember to take a last cutting before freezing damages them...thanks for the reminder!
I really don't know what temp finally does them in though?
We're expecting a couple nights in the mid twenties this weekend.


"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
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Jay Angler
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If you want to hold them, I'd really try to cover them. Maybe stick a couple of hot water bottles under the cover to be extra safe.

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The greens will suffer bad in 20 degree temps. They might still be edible in a soup or something but they will lose their texture & most of their color. If you really want them get them before the freeze.

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Larisa Walk
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I've never harvested the greens in the fall although we've grown them for over 40 years in Wisconsin/Minnesota. We use them for early spring onions and also dehydrate them then when we lift the clumps to divide and refresh the bed. But to illustrate how tough they are we used to harvest the topsests to feed to our sheep each year to keep them from "walking" all over the garden. One year I forgot about a bucket of the topsets and left them sitting in an open-sided shed without cover. In the spring they were greening up and ready to grow.
 
Pearl Sutton
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I made time to get out and cut a bunch. If the plants are still good after this cold snap, maybe I'll do another batch.

Gardens in my mind never need water
Castles in the air never have a wet basement
Well made buildings are fractal -- equally intelligent design at every level of detail.
Bright sparks remind others that they too can dance
What I am looking for is looking for me too!

 
steve bossie
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mine have gone though  a doz 25 f frosts and i just harvested some greens off them for a stew tonight. had to swipe away the 2in. of snow that fell on them last night. still bright green. they have survived -40 winters no problem. potato onions are equally hardy coming from eastern europe and russia where they still grow them regularly.. i also grow bunching onions and they too are very hardy. once established you never need to grow regular onions again.
 
Ebo David
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We have had very good luck using caterpillar-/low- tunnels, and a suitable heater <https://www.amazon.com/BioGreen-Palma-Grow-Greenhouse-Heater-Digital-Thermostat/dp/B06XCJGNJK>.  We were able to keep 90% of our Louisiana garden living through the Feb. 2023 Texas ice storm.

Just another potential solution.

EBo --
Master Gardener (Prince George's County, MD, USA)

 
Anna Fox
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It sounds like you made the right call, Pearl! Walking onions are surprisingly hardy, but those temps around 20°F can definitely damage the greens' texture. You'll probably still see some green regrowth after things warm up, though. I've found they bounce back fast once daylight increases. Dehydrating what you already gathered was a smart move, even if the tops get frostbitten, the bulbs and sets underneath will stay fine for spring growth.
 
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