Pigletwillies Banana Shallot Seed update

[bramble]

Great shallots PW, you should be very pleased. Hope to try them myself next year.

[Mrs Dobby]

Piccies

Finally got round to taking some piccies of the best of our banana shallots, we harvested about 40, but these are by far the best ones!

[smallblueplanet]

Wow they're big ones Mrs Dobby!

[Alice]

Brilliant shallots Mrs D. I would think a serious contender for Piglets £10. Anybody manage any better ones ?

[pigletwillie]

If nobody posts bigger ones than these within the next week or so then the £10 has a home.

[Mrs Dobby]

Really?????? Wow!! I thought you'd deffo have some bigger banana shallots than us PW!

[Alice]

Really?????? Wow!! I thought you'd deffo have some bigger banana shallots than us PW!

Why did you think that MrsD ? Reading the posts I think everybody struggled a bit. Yours look really great. But as said before, if anybody has better ones - now is the time to let us see them. Still think that £10 will be yours Mrs D.

[Mrs Dobby]

To be honest Alice I thought lots of folks would get bigger Banana Shallots than us, especially after seeing PW's harvest piccies on his blog, and as we only got about 40 or 50 to grow, but they've been a bit neglected in terms of weeding and looking after this year, what with Mr D being ill after his hospital stay and my being manic at work we've not kept on top of things as well as we'd like, I even had to weed the shallot bed before I could even see where they were, so I didnt think ours would be all that impressive! Mind you, we've about 10 or so that are decent sized, about 10 that are pickling size and the rest are a useable medium size, so I guess we havent done too badly, especially seeing as they've basically been left to get on with it!

[Dobby]

And when are you not manic at work Mrs D
with my rota chainging at work now i get 2 full days down the plot and 2 days till about 3pm I used to get every outher day down there
so will hopefully keep ontop of the weeds

when do I plant 2 for the seeds

[pigletwillie]

I think that I have an explanation for some peoples poor germination of the seed. Whilst at the Malvern show last weekend I asked the main honcho of Robinsons seeds (as of Robinsons mamoth onions) what could be the issue and it appears that onion seed should be germinated at a temperature between 10-13 degrees, any more and it can damage the seed.

Those people that started them of in propogators seemed to have the worse problems and slightly too much heat may have been the issue. Mine were sown in a cool greenhouse and germinated well, as did subsequent test sowings so I am certain the seed was viable.

[bramble]

Glad of that explanation PW. Mine were started in the propogator and only 4 germinated and subsequently went on to die. Perhaps someone will give me some seed to try again next year.

[Alice]

Thanks for the explanation Piglet. I germinated mine in the house and the results were poor. Will keep them cooler next year.

[pigletwillie]

Pm me your address again Gabrielle and I will post you a smidgin chuck.

[Protea]

I'm quite pleased with my banana shallots, considering they looked like chives for so long at the beginning of the year!

I managed to harvest 22 bulbs, half of which are a very good size, some are smaller as they got shaded out by the potato foliage (i'd run out of room by the time they were ready for planting out!).

I will definately save a few bulbs to grow for seed next year - is it best to keep the biggest, the smallest or the inbetween size for producing seed???

Many thanks for the seed Pigletwillie!

pics attached.

[pigletwillie]

I save a few fat ones Protea and a few medium ones (about 10 all told) to replant. As they run straight to seed its not really an issue in that regard but overall size may well be, hence I never plant any runts for seed production.

At least my aim is starting to come to fruition with a few of us about the country having plants to produce more seed. Give it 5 years and hopefully the seed will be in many more peoples hands.

This years "must have" seed is Rose de Roscoff onion seed. I am just drying the seed now and it comes from genuine Rose de Roscoff onion stock, complete with AOC accreditation, bought by my fair hands near Roscoff this spring. A bit of seed may well be going out in an attempt to make it available also.