Shallot sets

[Shelle]

Planning on buying some shallots this weekend, either online or in a garden centre/shop.

I only have a small bed available for them (as I grow everything else in containers) so need to work out how many I need to buy. I noticed on one website that it said a yield of 4 or 5 from each set,but the other websites dont mention that. If I buy say 15 shallot sets, do I get 15 back, or is actually more, which presumably means that I need more space per set?

If I run out of space ( I had actually hoped to try both autumn and spring planting for comparision), can I grow in containers?

[Snadger]

If you put 15 shallots in, at a conservative estimate you should get 60 out.

It depends on whether you want a few big shallots or a lot of little shallots!

If big shallots are your aim, plant little shallots, conversely, if you want small shallots plant large shallots.
Large shallots will usually give you 4 to 8 pickling shallots from each planted and small shallots will usually give you from 1 to 4 onion sized shallots!

That is the theory of it according to the books, but you must realise, shallots can't read books!

PS Forgot to mention, I plant mine at 6 inch spacing in 9 inch rows and YES you can grow them in containers using a similar spacing!

[Shelle]

As usual snadger you are a gem

Actually, you may be able to answer this as well.

After posting tonight, I was given some bulbs that were from a kit intended for this years planting but not used. They were spring planting shallots, onions, asparagus and rhubarb. The shallots and onions look reasonably ok, although one or two are sprouting quite a bit. The asparagus and rhubarb, I cant quite make out what they look like in the bag with bits of soil etc. Are they ok to be kept until next year so should I get rid of them now?

[Alice]

Hello Shelle, there was an earlier discussion about shallots on here, with some good links. You might want to search for it. I think the theory roughly went if you planted small shallots you got a few giant ones, and if you planted giant shallots you got lots of little ones (I stand to be corrected on this)
I planted small shallot sets last year in a container. I was pleased with the result. Each little bulblet gave me about 4 huge shallots.
I wanted to keep some big ones to replant to see if the would produce lots of little ones, but they didn't look as if they were going to store well, so I've eaten them. I'll just go with planting small ones and look forward to big ones next year.
This is some of this years crop. They all came from one little bulblet.

[borage]

I planted 15 red sun and 15 golden gourmet in February and my harvest in total was 196 shallots various sizes. As it was the first time I have grown shallots I was very pleased with the outcome.

[skegblade]

Can shallot sets be planted in autumn, or are they planted in the spring? I ask because it's my first time growing them.

Phil

[Alice]

I planted mine in the spring Skegblade and got a good return. See my post above.

[Snadger]

They can be planted in the Autumn as well but certain varieties will do better than others. Amasingly there are hundreds of varieties of shallots!

[skegblade]

Thanks Alice and Snadger, much appreciated

Phil

[Cutecumber]

You know how I like to be contrary - I planted red sun shallots and got a very low yield. Some sets only produced two new bulbs. Some of the sets produced enormous bulbs - like a medium sized onion - which, when peeled, had two or three segments. Others were tiny. I tried to work out why it was all so strange, but found no good answer - the original sets were the same size.

So, I say, expect the unexpected.

[PAULW]

Jermor is a good shallot for autumn planting.

[hawthorns]

i have just put 1 large red sun shallot in the ground it says to plant in feb but just interested to see what happens.

[Cutecumber]

I think varieties like Red Sun tend to bolt if planted too early because of the temperature.