shallot harvest

[yardfarmer]

Hello fellow gardeners, been a while since I last posted...good to see this forum has grown!!!

hopefully someone can let me know when shallots are ready. these were planted last fall, over wintered, and now they have grown into 4-6 individual bulbs, still connected at the roots. they haven't turned brown yet, and i cut off the flower before it developed. i would post a picture, but having computer issues (recent hard drive crash).

I'm in zone 8 pacific nw...wet spring like last year so the shallots haven't really dried out, some green still showing.

 

[digitS']

Hi Yardfarmer!

I harvested my smaller, French Grey shallots last week. Some of them were flat against the ground. With other veggies intermixed within the bed, it just seemed like a good time to pull them and move them to a shady dry place in the backyard for curing.

The larger, red shallots are still out there and might have another week, or so.

Steve

 

[yardfarmer]

Thanks for the reply Steve, you are the one with the shallot experience i believe. these are sante shallots from territorial seed, planted sets not seeds. wet weather still coming...i may pull them and dry in the shed.

I started bonilla from seed this year, this is a first for me. they are doing great, but i don't think they will develop more bulbs. should they overwinter or shall i harvest when they dry out?

John

 

[digitS']

You might be able to go either way, John.

I have never left shallots in the garden thru the winter. I like to practice clean cultivation at the end of the season. There might be 1 or 2 beds of late greens where I have already turned the soil that I end up leaving thru the winter but the shallots hang out in the garage during those months and they go back into the ground as the very earliest things in the spring. It seems to work fine but this approach to things is one reason that I don't grow garlic.

Garlic & shallots are likely to be fine grown in exactly the same way - set out in the fall. I just haven't done it myself.

With shallots grown from seed, I have always wanted them to reach the fullest size possible and those 2 red shallot varieties that I have grown seem to require a longer season than the smaller French Greys, anyway.

Steve

 

[hoodat]

Hello fellow gardeners, been a while since I last posted...good to see this forum has grown!!!

hopefully someone can let me know when shallots are ready. these were planted last fall, over wintered, and now they have grown into 4-6 individual bulbs, still connected at the roots. they haven't turned brown yet, and i cut off the flower before it developed. i would post a picture, but having computer issues (recent hard drive crash).

I'm in zone 8 pacific nw...wet spring like last year so the shallots haven't really dried out, some green still showing.

I'd wait till the leaves are flat on the ground. If the weather is dry you can wait till the entire top turns brown but if you get a rainy spell you may want to pull them with a little green still showing. The onery things are liable to start growing again and then they wouldn't store.

 

[HunkieDorie23]

So they are like onions. Good, I know about them. I know I had some onion maggots eat one of my shallots. I pulled it out and threw it away, should I be worries about the rest? They look OK right now.

 

[digitS']

They are very similar to onions. I have the bunching onions every year - they don't make bulbs. They do, however, form clumps of onions like the shallots.

Actually, the only variety that did that in my garden was 4 Seasons but the story I got was that if you leave them in the ground thru the winter . . . they will divide on their own during their 2nd year.

As admitted above, I don't leave plants in the ground thru the winter so I've missed that. Poor onions never have a chance to divide - except for those 4 Seasons which did it the 1st year. Very similar to shallots but didn't die down in late summer.

Onion maggots? Yes, a few show up on onions every year and I've seen them on shallots once in awhile. They are the larvae of a fly so I don't think there is anything to worry about infested soil or anything, 'Dorie.

Steve