Allotments 4 All

There's been a lot of talk on here lately about planting shallots now, I've always planted in early Feb is it me or am I missing something.  ???       ;D ;D ;D

I did mine early in the year last season and they didn't amount to that much. Apparently you can pop them in autumn time and that's what I've done.

I just love experimenting  ::)  :)

Ninnyscrops

Kev i don,t think you are the only one missing something. In the south Jan & Feb in the north March. Some plant in boxes early and keep them in the greenhouse, never tried it but its under consideration 

eric on our plot says on the shortest day,  :o

21ST December ;D

My old neighbour used to do his on boxing day.Tradition??

Or was that onions?

we've been told to start our giant onion seed in december, we're having a 'see who can grow the biggest onion ' competition (well, the lads are)  ;D

Quote from: manicscousers on October 28, 2008, 20:59:49
we've been told to start our giant onion seed in december, we're having a 'see who can grow the biggest onion ' competition (well, the lads are)  ;D

I set mine away the first week in November.

Quote from: davyw1 on October 29, 2008, 14:34:07
I set mine away the first week in November.

shhhh, don't tell them that  ;D

How did we get from Shallots to Onion seed

no idea  ??? ;D
our shallots are only coming this week so I'll have to decide when to plant them

I'll be keeping an eye  ;) on when youn plant them Scousers.    ;D ;D ;D

Here's a quote from http://www.self-sufficient.co.uk/Growing-Shallots.htm

"Shallots can be planted in the autumn or spring, but the best flavour and yields come from over-wintering shallots planted in late autumn for harvesting the following August. Shallots can also be planted in the spring (mid-February to mid-March) for harvesting in late August."

There seems to be little differnece in harvesting times - last year my autumn sown shallots were ready LATER than the spring sown ones - must have been the weird weather.

As long as your soil is well-drained, shallots will usually survive the coldest weather.
Some round varieties will bolt if planted too early.

trouble is, when is autumn ? We've had really nice, warm weather followed by snow and ice..I think I'll plant them next week, if the ground's ok
got picasso and yellow moon, from kings..never grown them before, it's nice to experiment  ;D
I'll let you know whan they go in, ck  ;D

Kev,  stick with what you know, mate, because if things go wrong you'll blame up all, >:( :'(
and because as you know onions suffer with,
root rot, if they are to wet,
bolt easy,
in spring time when they go leggy and floppy,
and you know in june --july time when they bolt  
then you will moan, and then say "why did i listen to what they said"  >:(

ha!!! ha!! ha!!

I think I'll wait, its the bolting I'm worried about, so thanks for all your input.     ;D ;D ;D