Pat,
Tremendous difference in weather, seldom any snow let alone 5'. Never-the-less, I have given up on potato onions and most shallots. The bigger ones don't keep any time at all and the little ones take too much time to peel. Even when there is a bag of peeled in the fridge. DW prefers the nice big Stockton Sweet Reds that I can grow.(Which she is asking for right now)
And, no, they are not as hardy as the top-setting onions.
Ken

One year's experience is too quick for me to make a judgement, but I must say I am surprised. I was expecting more prolific performance.

I guess there is a reason why seed-grown bulb onions are the standard. I'm going to get serious on starting them myself because buying plants is too expensive.

I've gone the other direction. With the exception of the Amish Bottle Onions, _all_ I grow are multipliers. They're just easier for me, because I can fall plant when there's not too much else to do in the garden, and they're pretty much maintainance free.

Sure, by and large they are smaller. But that doesn't bother me none.

I had no problem dealing with the potato onions size-wise. If we could handle shallots, we could handle them. My only problem was trying to get them to survive through the winters. Always managed to have a few survive but eventually that "few" turned out to be zero. They have long been known as the onion for the South and there really was a reason for that. They're simply not hardy enough for most northern winters.

Martin