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applestar
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Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Planted shallots today

I've casually planted store bought shallots in spring before, but this is my first time intentionally buying planting stock shallot bulbs. I got the French Red from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.

Even though my impression is that French Grey shallots are the kind most often mentioned in recipes and such, French Red is described as more winter hardy according to SESE, and the recommendation in the instructions was to plant the bigger cloves in the fall and save and plant smaller cloves in spring just in case the fall planted ones don't make it. (It said the fall planted shallots grow much bigger bulb than spring planted ones.)

...well, I planted them all in the newly expanded Patio Side Garden Border. It's located on the SE side of the house, so maybe it will be somewhat more protected, but the area doesn't get any direct sun at all during the winter month due to the lower sun angle. I guess I'll find out how suitable this area is for shallots. I also fall sowed Walla Walla onion seeds here earlier. The seedlings are about 3-4 inches at this point. I intend to put up a border fence and fill with fall leaf mulch. The fence should help keep the leaves stay put.

I did find a lot of earthworms still hanging around in the hand trowel depth. One giant night crawler, too. I put them all in my vermicomposter. I put a big chunk of clay subsoil in there in case the nightcrawler needs it (Usually, I find night crawlers embedded in gobs of clay when I'm digging deep holes)

pepperhead212
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Posts: 2851
Joined: Wed Oct 15, 2014 1:52 pm
Location: Woodbury NJ Zone 7a/7b

I have been planting Holland red shallots for many years, with really good results, but last season I planted some shallots I bought at the Asian market, just to fill up the rest of the rows. Well, those little things produced the largest shallots I have ever seen, probably because they were a cross of onion and shallot (just guessing, from the flowering). Here is a photo of the largest ones:
Image

A word on those French grays - I grew those many years ago, and they developed an underground infestation of some sort of beetle (at least it looked like one, about 1/16" in dia.). It happened again the next season, so I stopped growing that variety, yet I have never seen those on any other Allium I have ever grown, including several other shallots. Really strange!

Good luck with the shallots! I will be planting mine in a little over a week - I took a week off...something I do every year, to plant the garlic and shallots, as well as clean up some of the mess out there!



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