I've done much the same, David! That is, I've sown seed directly in the garden in the spring. Haven't yet tried transplanting out of the greenhouse. They may work as late-August sown, don't know.

Bulbs are harvested and saved in the garage for the next growing season.

I am blessed, BLESSED, that shallots like this environment and latitude! Good that you are finding the answers for your neck of the woods!

Steve

The simplest, bestest guacamole is made with a fair amount of finely chopped shallots, lime and lemon juice, dash of hot pepper flakes, and avocado.

/off to buy some avocados.

I'm surprised with myself!

I have never tried this. Saving seeds from the hybrid shallots:

(these smell so good! :o)

Steve

Why not try?

Funny, I picked up a small tray of shallot seed-bulbs from I think Skybird at one of Bonnie's swaps... and then never got around to planting them--they've literally been in my refrigerator and moved with me. TWICE!
Well, this year, I planted them, and they've bulbed up beautifully! I stuck them in the dirt in early spring, in one of my containers that has tomatoes in it also. I was looking at all of my bulbs the other day--some of my onions have bulbed and some would make a pearl onion laugh with derision, but the shallots are all beautiful! Glad I'm not the only one going to be enjoying a harvest this year, and I'm definitely starting some from seed next year!

Another likely futile attempt to post a pic using my 12 yr old camera. - row of shallots, on the far right side of the cattle panel, Candy onions. Ignore the walkway filled with weeds because this is one of those years where I fought the weeds and the weeds won.

This post was edited by david52 on Wed, Aug 20, 14 at 16:15

Two shallots with some 4 inch dia Candy onions -

You got Shallots, David!

Funny how this family is. For a 2nd or 3rd time, I'm growing Candy onions. They sure don't make it to 4" in my garden!

The fact is, there are onions that grow bigger and better than Candy up here. I'm wondering if this latitude is pushing the Walla Walla, also.

Steve

Candy is **supposed** to be day-length neutral.

I'm not so worried about size, more about how long they'll keep. Here, they start sprouting stuff in April-May, but I get some that last into June. I have no idea why.

My shallot harvest is pulled and drying on some racks with a fan blowing on them. The soil was sort of moist but it seemed time to get them out. I guess it's a fair harvest. I started from bulbs that I purchased at Nick's. I will definitely try from seed in late winter.

At this point in time I think I will try replanting some of the bulbs that I harvested. I have read that unlike garlic where the biggest bulbs should be planted better results can be had by planting smaller shallot bulbs. Well I have plenty of those.

Does anyone have experience with bulb size?

I suppose I could try 2 different beds. One with smaller bulbs and one with larger.

Greg, I did some thinking about this - always dangerous ...

The sets are not replanted in my garden after their July harvest until the following spring. Even the small bulbs, generally, make it through all that time. That's one reason I like them!

Big or small, they take off and grow well come spring.

Steve

I goofed last fall and planted shallots at the same time I put in my garlic. They made it through the winter in the raised beds and the ones I've harvested so far are golf ball sized. How do you store them over winter to spring plant? Hang like garlic or in the refrigerator?

The challenge will be to save some to plant. They are delicious!

Barb

More dangerous ideas ...

When I first grew shallots, probably about 1990, I just left the bulbs in the garage. That seemed to work.

For the next 20 some years, that's what I have done - left them in the garage, in a basket. It's hard for me to believe that I have gotten away with doing that. The garage has changed but that's what I have done.

Steve

If they set roots in the fall, and they're heavily mulched over moist soil all winter long, wouldn't they do like their fellow Alliums garlic, and start to grow in March? meaning that by early July, you have oodles of nice-sized bulbs?

They'd probably go to seed, I imagine.

Thats an interesting thought. Here, I'd worry about the plants drying out.

Maybe I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. - Next season I'll order the seeds as soon as they're available and try planting them in Jan along with the onions and leeks, hopefully setting out something the diameter of a pencil. I suspect that the bulbs will just divide, that seems to be happening now anyway towards the end of the season.

Oh, I should mention my 'experiment' with garlic planting last fall. I didn't time the planting well and the ground had dried to a bed of concrete clay and I sprained my wrist trying to dig planting holes and recruited my daughter, whose enthusiasm quickly waned, so we ended up just setting the cloves upright on the surface, just snuggling the root base barely in the dust, and mulched the whole thing with 6" of grass clippings.

They grew just fine, didn't lose any plants, and harvest was a breeze as the only thing under ground were the roots. The bulbs were marginally smaller than those planted deeper, but in the over-all equation of effort/getting kids interested in gardening, wrist sprains and do I really want a garlic clove thats 1 mm larger than another, I will do the same this year.

Okay, close to 4", maybe 3.5" . . . (the open knife is 6")

Once again, I've planted the Candy onions where they have had shade problems. You can just see the neighbor's grape vine leaves "encroaching" into the onions. The vines have been pushed back but need more than the tractor guy running over them with his rototiller in the spring.

Keeping qualities?! I'll be hoping for somewhere through the winter. I've got several varieties to test out but generally don't have much to expect from the Walla Walla's. It is enough that they store longer than the extension service claims they should. Ovation should be the best of what I have to harvest. They should get me to green onions and a few green shallots in 2015.

Steve

They look pretty good, Steve. I've mentioned before that Candy has good storage properties for me - I let them dry out with the stalk and roots, then snip that off, then hang them in old mesh bags in my greenhouse, which is relatively humidity-free with good air circulation. They easily last the winter, some start sprouting in March, but I've had them last well past that.

My neighbor who used to grow an acre of onions a year suggested that I bend the tops over on them a week or so before harvesting, and researching it bit, it seems that it may help in the curing process - but this seems more on the folklore side, not the ag science side. When I got around to pulling mine, about half had the stalks bent down on their own, and I bent down the rest. I have no idea if it helps.

We've a risk of heavy rain in here, so yesterday I pulled all the shallots. I'm pretty happy with the results - probably 25 lbs of the things with the leaves and all. Most have bulbed up, many had 'dead' stalks and mostly cured bulbs, but there were still 5% round stalks that barely bulged at the bottom. These later I'll slice up and dry with the dehydrator.

Whoa ... 25 pounds!

My 100 square feet of potatoes produced over 100# by late July, 2014. I can only justify the shallots taking a bed because they share it with other things.

First of all, a couple rows of lettuce and along in early July, either cucumbers or zucchini plants go in the middle of the bed of maturing shallots. (Of course, the potatoes do some sharing of their bed thru the season also but, we'll ignore that! ;o)

Low-production for me and DW says we should stop growing the French Red because of that. I can hardly bear the thought ... I've had them since the early 90's. Even after we ate ALL of the Dutch Yellow by mistake one winter! Still, the seed-grown shallots are worth the trust we place in them and are considerably more productive ... maybe I could start them February 1st and get them outta the way for the zucchini/cukes by the end of July. It would be certainly worth the try.

Steve

I dunno if it was 25 lbs, but I filled two boxes and they were pretty darn heavy - here's a pic of them curing in the greenhouse -

The ones at the far end are those that never formed bulbs.

Closer-up for size seeing.

/one happy shallot grower showing off. :-)

Where's the . .

. like . .

. button!

Steve

David52,I`m looking for Kings Banquet Bean seeds,Can You Help?Sorry for the change of subject......

Pappabell, I sent you an email via your page