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
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
I grew T&M's 'banana shallots' from seed successfully last year, will start some more off for this year soon.
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.
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.
Quote from: petefj on December 27, 2011, 08:12:54
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
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
Have you seen this page on growing shallots? http://www.growyourown.info/page122.html
I have had good success with growing shallots from seed.
thanks for the link RF :)