Shallot Seed Pods
Forum Archives
cjmiller
Location: Oregon, Willamette Valley
Topic: Shallots
Posted: May-13-2004 at 1:51pm
I have grown shallots only once before, several years ago, I planted them in October, they did well all winter, Looking good today, but I noted that there are lots of seed pod heads forming--I am surprised. What should I do with these seed heads? pull them off ? leave them alone? Is this normal?
Carol
gary
Location: Washington, Puget Sound Corridor
Posted: May-14-2004 at 1:37am
CJ,
First, it is not normal. You can try pulling them but I think that what you have will be just like onions that have bolted. You will not get a crop that will store for any amount of time.
Do you know what the variety is? Where did you get the sets? Or were you using shallot seed instead of bulbs?
Trav has answer to a letter up on his site that describes Walla Walla's in this condition. You can read it at:
My Onions are flowering
I am speculating now but it is possible that the very cold weather in early November 2003 may have got both sets of plants to think that they had already seen two winters when May came around.
I do know that my garlics have never been larger than this year so another possibility is that your shallots and Trav's correspondent onions may have gotten too large by early spring and decided to bolt.
Gary
Olympia, Sunset Zone 5, USDA Zone 8
cjmiller
Location: Oregon, Willamette Valley
Posted: May-17-2004 at 3:20pm
Thanks for your answer. Part of the shallots I used were from the nursery, but I dont remember the variety--kind of pink skinned. Then I finished out the row with shallots from the grocery store. It didnt make a diffrence, both rows are having seed pods formed. I pulled out a part of one plant, and the seed pod stem was thickened from top to bottom, just like the second years growth on a leek. Bummer. Now I am jealous of my daughter, who didnt plant her shallots until February! The garlic, which I planted at the same time, are doing just fine. Go figure--I think one learns that Mother Nature does her own thing without consulting the books written by experts!
Have you grown shallots from seed? Might be worth a try.
Thanks again,
Carol
Carolyn
Location: Oregon, Willamette Valley
Posted: May-21-2004 at 5:39pm
I know I'm jumping in late here, but a friend gave me shallots earlier this year and I have not planted them yet.
Could I still put them in? And get a crop later? And what month do they mature?
Go forth and grow well!
Carolyn
gary
Location: Washington, Puget Sound Corridor
Posted: May-21-2004 at 5:49pm
They mature in July and August. As in almost all alluims, size is based upon the size of "spring greens" so you may not get much size.
Gary
Olympia, Sunset Zone 5, USDA Zone 8
Carolyn
Location: Oregon, Willamette Valley
Posted: May-25-2004 at 11:44am Thanks, Gary. What the hey, I'll plant them after the garden tour and see what happens. They were free, so . . .
Go forth and grow well!
Carolyn
John
Location: Puget Sound corridor
Posted: May-28-2004 at 12:36pm
I would not recommend pulling them out. Cut them off and use them in salads and stir fry or just let the bloom. Each bulb that you planted had multiple meristematic growing points from which you will get new shallot bulbs. I’m almost positive that all the new bulbs have not bolted and will develop. If you pull them, however, I am positive they will not continue to develop. After harvest and during the curing process you will see which bulb bolted use that one right away. Select a few for next years crop and enjoy the rest.
By the way, bulbing is initiated with lengthening days. When fall-planted, shallots do not immediately initiate bulbing since the days are becoming shorter. If you plant small bulbs of shallots (which would have few meristematic growing points), you tend to get larger bulbs in the subsequent crop. Conversely, if you plant larger bulbs, which will have more growing points, you get more but smaller bulbs.
All else being equal, when you plant shallots where day lengths are rapidly increasing (as in extreme northern latitudes), bulbing begins before the plants have had time to develop the normal number of leaf initials, so the bulbs produced will be smaller than normal. If you plant shallots in the fall and experience a long, mild winter, you may have a long period in which growth starts and stops, resulting in many growing points and smaller bulbs than if the shallots were planted in spring when growth would tend to be more continuous and uniform. Shallots produced from true seed also behave as just described for shallots produced from bulbs.
gary
Location: Washington, Puget Sound Corridor
John,
A good technical explanation of an unusual occurance. I also think that our two deep frosts in Nov and Jan (see above) combined with the 'otherwise warm winter' created the outcomes described.
You speak like you may have done the research? Do you have a link to it?
And thanks for the help because I could not find anyone or any research that came to this conclusion.
Gary
Olympia, Sunset Zone 5, USDA Zone 8
John
Location: Puget Sound corridor
Posted: Jun-02-2004 at 8:31am
Gary
I believe your right about the weather.
Unfortunately, I do not have a specific site to go to about growing shallots. The first year I grew some shallots, garlic and onions, the harvest exceeded all expectations, the following year the harvest did not meet minimal standards. So after the miserable harvest I started doing a little research on edible alliums, which include Allium cepa (Onion, Shallot, Tree Onions), Allium schoenoprasum (Chives), Allium tuberosum (Garlic Chives, Chinese Chives), Allium fistulosum (Welsh and Japanese Bunching Onions), Allium chinense (Rakkyo), Allium sativum (Garlic) and Allium ampeloprasum (Leek, Kurrat, Great Headed Garlic, Pearl Onion). Over time, I have gathered a lot of info on each but since I did not collect my sources and for the most part its plagiarized, I just share when I can.
John
cjmiller
Location: Oregon, Willamette Valley
Posted: Jun-13-2004 at 12:43pm
I have been using the shallots now--they have not formed a "head", and the stem that bares the flower is thick all the way up the shaft, and I am guessing that the bulb I planted is the supplier of food for the "flower, as time passes, the layers of the shallot bulb are becoming thinner and more separated from one another. Interesting experience. However the garlic that I planted at the same time has no seed pod forming and is beginning to form nice fat heads. Yes, I pulled one out for "scientific investigative purposes."
Carol
Gardening for the Homebrewer: Grow and Process Plants for Making Beer, Wine, Gruit, Cider, Perry, and More
By co-authors Debbie Teashon (Rainy Side Gardeners) and Wendy Tweton