Shallots from seed

[petefj]

I've had such rotten luck with Garden Centre purchased shallot sets that I thought i would try some from seed.

Could I have a few recommendations as to variety and timing please.

Peter

[petefj]

[Tee Gee]

Sadly,choice of varieties seem to be somewhat limited.

I have grown the variety "Prisma" with some success.

Main problem is they only grow as single bulbs,not numerous bulbs, like their sett counterparts.

The following year I tried growing them on from saved bulbs but did not have much success.

But in fairness that same year I did not have much success with the traditionally ( setts) either so it might have been a seasonal thing that they did not perform as well as I would have hoped.

I hope you find this useful and it does not put you off!

I think they are worth a go.

This link might help; http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Shallots/Shallots.htm

Let us know how you go on

[Deb P]

I grew T&M's 'banana shallots' from seed successfully last year, will start some more off for this year soon.

[Ellen K]

Another vote here for T&M's generic Banana Shallots - nice bulbs with good keeping qualities.

Tried Long Red Florence last year - did well but didn't keep.

And Ambition (Unwins) - not many seeds in the pack but did well and good keepers.

Have packs of Camelot and Zeebrune seeds from T&M to try this year.

Peeps on here have suggested starting seeds off in modules, a few seeds per module then plant out module to give bunches of onions a la shallots from sets.

But Shallot has become a culinary term meaning fancy small onion, possibly that is what we are growing here.  But they are all good eating.

[Ellen K]

Forgot to mention: there is a variety called Matador (you can buy the seeds on ebay cheaply) which did well in the recent Gardening Which? trial IIRC.

[petefj]

I've had such rotten luck with Garden Centre purchased shallot sets that I thought i would try some from seed.

Could I have a few recommendations as to variety and timing please.

Peter

OK thanks for all the replies.  That gives me something to try.  It's off to the Garden Centre today.

Peter

[RSJK]

I grew Matador from seed last year they were brilliant.  Where I went wrong with them was that i expected them to multiply and set them about 8" apart ended up with shallots about 3" in diameter. This year I shall sow 5 seeds into a 1" cell and plant them out about 5" apart

[realfood]

Have you seen this page on growing shallots? http://www.growyourown.info/page122.html
I have had good success with growing shallots from seed.

[davejg]

thanks for the link RF  :)