Territorial is based in the Pacific Northwest where winter may be 2 days in January. The person selling the potato onions obviously is experience in growing them in colder zones. I grew the yellow potato onions for a number of years. Even had some to trade a few years ago. Then lost all but a few one winter and the rest the following year. Definitely wasn't going to attempt battling a losing cause. Potato onions have long been the winter storage onion just for the South. Still are! Martin

sounds like you did a great job... except for the amendments ... which i wouldnt worry about too much ... I THINK.. its time to forget about them until late spring.. or when the soil NEEDS water .. the bottom line for me.. in clay ... is that in digging the hole.. you created a cauldron the has the POTENTIAL to hold water .... too much water ... i dont see what kind of trees you planted... some dont mind extra water... some will be offended by it ... fully dormant trees are very forgiving ... if there is a hole problem in spring.. we can address that then ... so i figure in mid dec. in z5 .. its time to stop worrying about them ... and stop watering them ... a lot of peeps in clay ... actually dig half a hole.. and plant the tree ... and create a berm to cover the rest of the roots .... ... and MAYBE you will need to do that in spring .... the biggest thing to do .. to succeed is perfect timing ... when the trees/conifers are dormant.... and you did that.. and i am going to assume success ... you should have little concern.. until the plants start coming out of dormancy ... and then your job will begin anew ... think of it this way ... a lot of wholesalers... dig trees in fall ... and put them into warehouse refrigerators.. and hold them until spring.. when they are shipped and potted for retail ... all that is important is ambient humidity ... think of your yard as such.. and relax ... ken

I have a large amount of Egyptian walking (tree) onions to trade for potato onions ("multiplier" onions). Any amount, hopefully large. Now would be a great time to be planting either. Egyptian onions are not a sweet onion and can be rather hot and they don't get huge but they multiply like crazy. First of all, the parent plant muliplies into a large clump of onions. Secondly, they produce clusters of babies at the top of the stalk and these babies make their own leaves and those babies even make their own babies. All these babies can be replanted. They are hardy even in Canada. I planted my very small bulbs last November 1 and they were sprouting leaves in 3 days. They survived our very frigid winter and made a huge amount of babies in spring 2010. You'll have onions and green onions year round no matter where you live. The grasshoppers ate them all to the ground this summer but keep on putting out new leaves. Here is a link that might be useful:

A great many of us here in the north plant multiplier onions in the spring, but tend to try to get them out as soon as possible (and plant as shallow as possible). They are hardy enough to winter over in your country easily; so you might want to plant now anyway and just let the bed set to winter over for next spring/summer. Most suppliers do not warn about short day/long day for these although they normally supply them for planting in the fall. That is not an absolute necessity either. My family never did for the multipliers that we had as family heirlooms in Iowa. In Louisiana multiplier onions are nearly all called shallots as opposed to the specific special names the French use; so there you would have to do some sorting but should have adapted varieties for your area, if you can sort them out. There are also Texas and New Mexico strains of a number of types of multipliers, survivors of the missions, such as I’itoi multiplier from the Pueblos. These little squirts have drawn raves from the desert SW to Minnesota, but although they multiply rapidly are not very big. As I understand it there are similar types across nearly all the areas where the Spanish monks set up missions, but you have to dig them out. Few nurseries actually stock many of them if any. There used to be a website heirloomonions.com that had a nice selection, except too often out of stock on many things. But it is gone now.