Pigletwillies Banana Shallot Seed update

[shirlthegirl43]

It could be the most pampered shallot in history

[Peter]

Have well over fifty, possibly breached the hundred from my single sowing.

When should I prick them out/
Sizes range from 1" to 2&1/2"

What is the best compost for pricking these out, soil based or soilless/

[Alice]

When did you plant them Peter ? I have some seed left, but concerned it might be too late in the year now to get a long enough growing season. Might just plant them and see how it goes anyway. Might bulk up the dozen I have from an early sowing.

[Peter]

Alice, look down the thread a bit.

23rd Feb.

[Alice]

Thanks for your help Peter. 23rd Feb it is.

[Peter]

Oh Noble Piglet, thanks.

Pricked out my "Piglet Willies" this afternoon.

From one hurried sowing in a single tray on 23rd Jan, I now have ninety-seven pots, ninety three with single seedlings and four each having an additional little sprout.

Either our porcine friend sent me the "good stuff" or me leaving the seed in the envelope on my bedroom bookcase from reciept to sowing "cured" its ripeness level up a bit.

[pigletwillie]

Your seed came out of the "communal" jar of seed Peter, so it isn't a case of preferential treatment.

[Peter]

In that case Piglet, I vote Communist.

[shirlthegirl43]

I sowed another batch on 24 March in the hope of some popping up to keep my solitary shallot company!

[pigletwillie]

Planting out

I have some 400 banana shallot plants now ready to go out.

The first 120 went into an 8 x 4 raised bed today, the rest will go directly into an area that has been worked to a fine tilth. The plants have nice root growth and are looking good but desperately need to get out now.

How are yours doing?

[shirlthegirl43]

I have only one I am afraid. Taking very good care of it but it doesn't look very happy, a bit smaller than the one in your picture. I will plant it in the onion bed with my red onion sets which will hopefully go out on Tuesday (we are due some much needed rain here tomorrow)

[Alice]

Mine struggled Piglet. It always seemed to be too hot or too cold for them. Whatever it was , it was never right for them and sadly quite a lot faded away by inches. The dozen remaining are fine healthy plants now, they seemed to perk up as the days got longer. I hadn't thought about planting them out yet, but I'll have a look at their roots and see what they're like.
I've got a second sowing on the go so I'll see how that goes. I don't think I'll be getting that tenner from you.

[Mrs Dobby]

We planted out about 24 of the banana shallots 2 weeks ago, which are doing fine, planted another 40 in a seed module, but only 4 have germinated so far, and we tried another 30 seeds direct into the soil, but nothing showing as yet!

Ah well, at least we'll hopefully have some to harvest and some to grow on for seed next year!

[muckdiva]

I have six healthy looking plants ready to go out into the onion bed next week, and three more which came up from a second sowing which I will transplant into modules tomorrow.

[Protea]

I have about 40 or so plants - they're getting quite thick stems and they're in small modules so i guess i should be planting them out now (God knows where - i've gone a little OTT on alliums this year!)

When will they be ready to harvest and how big are they supposed to get?