Topic: Planting Shallots Now

[Bill Door]

Anyone tried this at all?

I have prepared ground for garlic and I have loads of small shallots.  I was thinking of putting them in now rather than around christmas but I was worried that things could go wrong.  One concern was that they would/could bolt if they are started now.

Any suggestions will be helpful.

Thanks

Bill

[galina]

I share your concern that they could bolt.  However I usually plant shallots. together with garlic, at the end of October.  To root before the worst of frost, but not to put on too much growth.

Spring planted shallots are said to bolt far less.  It's your choice really, which is more convenient for you, but early October is probably a bit early unless you live in the Scottish Highlands or similar where you can expect wintry conditions quite soon.   

[Ellen K]

I've Autumn planted Yellow Moon shallots but not had much luck, they seemed to rot away over the winter.  Jermor shallots seem to be robust enough to overwinter but tbh I am coming to the view that overwinter onions and shallots aren't worth it, esp since the now widespread allium leaf miner gets 2 shots at them. 

Unless you live in a sheltered part of the South, I would just bung your garlic in and buy some enviromesh. Sad times :-(

[Bill Door]

Ok Thank you both. confirms my concerns.

I will net my shallots and plant them in December.  I will just have to get decent gloves again 

regards

Bill

[Tee Gee]

Just a thought!

I have loads of small shallots.

The word 'small' would concern me,if I was saving stock for the following year I never eat the best these would be the ones I would save.

When you consider that normally when you are buying stock of anything, you generally select the best so why be different here?

As I said it is only a thought!

Another thought could be is to plant  these small bulbs  into cell trays, one per cell, then grow them on in a coldframe then plant out what is effectively a plug plant in spring.

This method should ensure that the majority would survive the winter plus when you plant out you will have no gaps in the rows like you may do if you plant out and some of them fail.

[johhnyco15]

i plant mine around november its a little sheltered here but on the coast the north east wind is very cold but with the shelter comes the pests allium leaf miner is deverstating leeks on our site so i cover mine will do the sane with onions garlic and shallotts my whole plot get covered in white debri netting its ugly and horrible but it does a job and i get crops at the end of it but its getting like every crop now needs netting

[Bill Door]

Thanks Tee Gee.  I will try the module method as well.

I experimented early this year by close planting a load of shallots that I had "spare".   Strangely I got loads of small shallots (6 or 7 per clump) that filled the whole of the ground available.  I left 2 inches between each shallot (all ways).  There were no weeds and all the shallots are fine but smallish.  I was thinking of putting them 3 inches apart next time.

The next part of the experiment is to see if the small shallots produce large shallots in a large or small number.  I have seen various comments on the interweb that both work for a lot of people.  Anyway I have put most of the smallish shallots in a module tray and will plant them out in spring with the usual spacing to see what I get.  I will see if large shallots close together produce anything like the large shallots or not.

I have my normal sized shallots (Jermor) that will go in the ground around boxing day.

regards

Bill

[bombus]

I have grown Zebrune shallots from a February sowing, for the last 5 years now. They are a banana shallot and can be quite big. They keep very well, but I don't think they would be suitable for pickeling.

[ancellsfarmer]

Last year, was tempted to try an autumn planting, rather, it was first week of December. The previous crop didnt dry well and "shot" in storage. (These few were doing well but all bolted in May, probably too dry for them). To bolster the reduced planting, and increase the crop, I had in mind to add some new sets. Horrified at the price in the Blue Triangle garden centre £3.75 for 10 indifferent specimens, I headed to Tesco and bought 2 packs of culinary 'brown shallots'," produced in Worcestershire" for a total of £1.90 around 21st March.
Twenty eight made the plot, 3 were seized by the cook at point of arrival! In the main these established well and multiplied on average , by 7. A few did run to seed, but were topped without impeding their development.
This will definitely be repeated if stocks are depleted over winter.

[Clayhithe]

"Plant on the shortest day
To harvest on the longest day"

I missed 22nd December because it was raining again (still).
The weather is unseasonally mild,  so I tried today,  4th January.

They were stored in the loft after having been harvested in the Summer.
Each one is covered with a clay pot to keep the birds off.

[ed dibbles]

As is my usual custom mine went in pots in the greenhouse yesterday (3rd january 34 shallots). They will be planted out at the end of February, the planting area covered with plastic prior to dry/warm the soil.

They will be harvested within a couple of days of july 1st when the foliage begins to yellow, coming in the allium cropping season in order of overwintering onions, early garlic, shallots and elephant garlic. Shallots are six months growing and six months resting.

[Plot22]

I too have given up on Autumn planting onion sets. The spring planting ones are ready a few weeks later and I loose very few in the process.
As regards shallots for the last few years I have kept the biggest of my Longor shallots for planting the following year. The bigger the set the more productive they are although when I initially bought the sets some were really small. They have been pretty successful but I also believe that every couple of years I need to start afresh with new sets but they are so expensive. This year as well as Longor I am trying Figaro from seed which obviously only produce one shallot per seed.
I am trying to reduce my crops of onions (red and white ) and shallots because you can only use so many and I end up giving half of them away or throwing them away when they do not keep. At the moment I still have 9 mushroom trays of onions and 2 of shallots to use.

[Vinlander]

I have loads of small shallots.

The word 'small' would concern me,if I was saving stock for the following year I never eat the best these would be the ones I would save.

Yes. I made the mistake of starving my (normal) shallots one year and the resulting small bulbs were more trouble than they were worth - especially unwelcome to anyone in the kitchen who didn't go to the trouble of planting them, watering them, fertilising them (inadequately as it turned out), weeding them, digging them out, cleaning them, drying them, and bringing them home... (naming no names of course).

Anyway - rather than throw them away, I tried for years to encourage them to produce fewer (inevitably), but larger bulbs - I tried everything - spacing, watering, timing, fertiliser - no luck - though digging in a load of compost did seem to help a bit it was not enough to make them usable - every year I had ever more piddling little bulbs to plant, weed etc... (even after throwing out the majority that were even smaller than their parents).

Eventually I gave up, turned all the biggest ones into soup (nobody else would bother peeling them - naming no names) and tried some cheap banana shallot seed.

These only did well on the heavily composted area but they did really well, and I found it easy to collect seed from them (and even get a reasonable meal out of the ones I allowed to seed). So I've stuck with them ever since.

They don't multiply like normal shallots, and neither do the similar looking ones from the greengrocer (but how crazy would a farmer have to be to buy special long sets when the ones grown from seed look the same and taste the same?).

Cheers.

PS. Onion sets are a mugs game anyway; I worked out that I could buy a full-size onion in a 5Kg sack for less than the price I was paying for a single set. Buying sets at £1 a bag is a lot better - but only until you factor in the work... I switched to red onion sets for a few years but nowadays 5Kg of red onions costs only a few % more than white ones. Yes I know they aren't anywhere near as organic as my own but I can't tell the difference in a stew - and farmers now realise that impoverishing the soil costs them money, as does spraying with 'cides that don't really help onions that much... I still grow my shallots and Red Barons from seed and use most of them in salads. Pretty much everything else I grow tastes a lot better than shop-bought so I'm sticking with more of those and less onions. Stuff like parsnips are so easy I wouldn't dream of not growing them... but right at the other end of the no-brainer spectrum jerusalem artichokes are even easier and yet cost more than parsnips! Weird.

[Deb P]

Interesting your comments on the cost of growing onions. I came to a similar conclusion based more on my available allotment space, and now concentrate my efforts on growing salad onions instead of set or seed large onions particularly large red florence which can be used either as a a salad size or left to grow on to something more like a banana shallot.
I do grow some Jermor shallots from sets, they still usually do well and keep the ground occupied overwinter, I don't expect huge crops from them and rely more on banana shallots grown from seed for my 'maincrop' alliums. I'll be starting those of in modules today!

[Robert_Brenchley]

Mine have been in since the autumn, but I don't know what if anything they're going to do. I lost 95% to bacterial rot last winter, and the survivors were badly damaged. So all I had to plant was a few miserable little things. They haven't shown yet, but neither have a lot of the potato onions, so I'm not too worried.

[johhnyco15]

red sun all planted outside today and 5 charlotte  potatoes in 8 ltr bags in greenhouse it was a lovely morning and quite productive for a change