Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: mpdjulie on November 04, 2009, 10:17:27
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Last year I paid quite a bit of money for some yellow moon shallots from Marshalls. The results were fairly disappointing. Most of them only had about 3-4 shallots from a bulb and none of them were that much bigger from when I planted them.
What are your thoughts on planting shop bought shallots?
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several things spring to mind from this post
1, when did you plant them? (they need a cold spell to encourage splitting into more bulbs)
2, did you feed the soil before planting?
3, did you plant them firmly?
4, did you keep the weed population down?
5, did we have a good allium season last year?
rgds, Tony.
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It`s been years since I have grown them with optimism(white rot here)
But when I had clean soil I bought the best I could find(and buy as soon as they appear as `shop` conditions are not the best for storage) and then kept some for planting the following year.
Mail order is a bit of a lottery--but Marshall`s are usually OK--let them know if you were unhappy
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I did ring Marshalls and let them know that I wasn't satisfied with the quality of the bulbs when I received them - alot of them were covered in green mould. They sent another pack free of charge.
Nearly all my onions planted from sets and again from Marshalls suffered from white rot this year and the shallots were in the beds surrounding the onions.
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ah ha!! so you have the dreaded white rot on your plot? that makes one heck of a difference!!
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They sent another pack free of charge.
I would have hoped/expected that from Marshall`s .
White rot is serious and you have my sympathy--it takes years and years to go.
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Would it be best if I stopped growing onions and the like for a few years?
Also, in my greenhouse I sowed some winter hardy white lisbon and senshyu. They currently are about 3-4 inches tall. What should I do with these because I was going to plant them out?
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Would it be best if I stopped growing onions and the like for a few years?
Part of me says yes`--and 15 years?(at least)
I discovered I had white rot in the soil when we moved here in 1993 and no aliums had been grown for at least 10 years before that.
Spring onions are OK--and for the last five years so too leeks.
Next season I`ll try onions and shallots again as a trial with shallots gave a clean crop
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Would it be best if I stopped growing onions and the like for a few years?
Also, in my greenhouse I sowed some winter hardy white lisbon and senshyu. They currently are about 3-4 inches tall. What should I do with these because I was going to plant them out?
how about making a long raised trough type container, then full with clean topsoil/ compost.
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you could solarize the soil
http://www.ehow.com/how_4037_solarize-soil.html
this should kill just about every infectious agent in the soil.
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I wonder whether it works. I notice the page says nothing about latitude or weather, both of which would have a large influence on the temperature reached. One comment adds a little, but I'd expect it to be addressed properly.
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how about making a long raised trough type container, then full with clean topsoil/ compost.
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I was thinking about this myself, whether I could buy or make something for at least the onions I have growing in my greenhouse.
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Found this from Robinsons :
Onions can be grown on the same ground for many years; our own onion bed is now 140 years old and has grown onions continuously for this time. However a strict health routine must be followed if you require using the same ground again and again. If any onions are suspect always remove not only the plant but also a small amount of soil from where the onion was growing. Hopefully this will remove any unwanted bacteria in the soil. The ground will also benefit from a watering of Jeyes Fluid after the crop has been harvested; this again will kill any unwanted bacteria or fungi.
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Glads the subject pf shallots has shown up.
We grow them every year, can't seem to grow onions very well but shallots and leeks do very well. This year we harvested 22 pound shallots of I think the best size ever But................ here is the problem, they just didn't /don't seem to dry properly. Although they look good after the initial coat is removed
there is a very wet layer,. This is not all but quite a lot of them.
They were treated exactly the same way as previous years.
Any ideas why this is happening, or what can be done about it.
Don't ask me what variety they are as I have no idea....
Thanks for any help. qahtan
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y58/qahtan/shallots.jpg)
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when do you harvest, qahtan?
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some when around 5 th August. I know Gerry said he had better put them in the garage as they had fallen over and he was worried they would get sun burnt,,, It rained one day and was stinking hot and humid the next kept going like this for ages...... maybe it was the humidity it has been high...
hate it,,, qahtan
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Some shop bought shallots have been treated to prevent them sprouting, and are therefore no use to grow your own. In addition, they will not be certified stock and may carry disease which could infect your soil.
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These were saved and planted from last years harvest, the same procedure as we do every year.....
I know what you mean about treated so they do not grow. Genetically Modified
Several years ago while on a visit to UK we went into Harrods Food Halls, and in there were some lovely looking shallots the long ones,. can't remember the name. but we bought 6. brought them home, smuggled.
and next season planted them, nothing, not a whisper, I/we didn't expect Genetically Modified and that was obviously what they were from there.
this years crop grew, but did not dry off inside.. qahtan
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These were saved and planted from last years harvest, the same procedure as we do every year.....
I know what you mean about treated so they do not grow. Genetically Modified
Several years ago while on a visit to UK we went into Harrods Food Halls, and in there were some lovely looking shallots the long ones,. can't remember the name. but we bought 6. brought them home, smuggled.
and next season planted them, nothing, not a whisper, I/we didn't expect Genetically Modified and that was obviously what they were from there.
this years crop grew, but did not dry off inside.. qahtan
A long French variety is quite easily found over here. One is called Jermor which i think Marshalls stock.
Am I right in thinking that you think you bought GM shallots in Harrods? I very much doubt it. There are very few GM crops grown in Europe due to public resistance. Some GM products do get in from outside Europe usually as components of food products.
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Deffo not GM if fresh in this country..... treated with anti=sprout
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I don't like chemicals at all, but the Jeyes idea sounds good. I get the odd one with white rot; I rotate and it's never got any worse, but if I water the spot with Jeyes or Armatillox when I find a dodgy one that may help.
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Whats anti sprout????? sounds like modifying of sorts. qahtan
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It is just a chemical to stop the shallots sprouting and growing as they will do if left in the warmth for any length of time. That will be what the shops want so they have a long shelf life. I think a lot of potatoes are sprayed with a similar chemical for the same reason. Another good reason for growing your own.
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I wonder whether it works. I notice the page says nothing about latitude or weather, both of which would have a large influence on the temperature reached. One comment adds a little, but I'd expect it to be addressed properly.
A second article here:
http://landscaping.about.com/od/weedsdiseases/qt/killing_weeds.htm
Wondering if using black plastic may increase the temperatures achieved or whether it is necessary to let the light through.
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you could solarize the soil
http://www.ehow.com/how_4037_solarize-soil.html
this should kill just about every infectious agent in the soil.
I wonder whether it works. I notice the page says nothing about latitude or weather, both of which would have a large influence on the temperature reached. One comment adds a little, but I'd expect it to be addressed properly.
The aim is to raise the soil temperature to between 45ºC and 50ºC in the top 10 cms of soil for a period of 4-6 weeks, we would have to have a very good summer to acheive that. It was always claimed that the pathogens were killed off yet the beneficial microbial life was unharmed to a large extent. This claim was discredited in a recent study which demonstrated just how much stress microbial populations & enzymatic activity were put under during the solarisation process. They also demonstrated how those detrimental effects could be lessened by adding organic amendments before solarising the soil.
The results of the study was published as:
Soil solarisation: Effects on soil microbiological parameters, by Scopa and Dumontet, it was published in the Journal of plant nutrition, Volume 30, Number 4, April 2007.
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Bare soil is always likely to produce a crop of weed seedlings, especially if it's been dug over. Any mulch will deal with these, apart fron a few species - goosegrass is one - that can grow through anything other than plastic or paper. Solarisation seems to be an American idea, and if it works at all, I suspect it'll be less effective in a cool maritime climate like ours.