That's Shallot!

Jean - Plot 4:

Our shallots were fabulous last year and it all happened by accident.   We put our order in with Marshall's for a couple of packs of Roderique Shallots, thinking that they were shallot sets, but in fact they were shallot plants.  We were pretty surprised when they arrived to see that they looked more like lots of spring onions rather than shallot sets but we decided to give them a go.  We are so pleased that we did as they turned out to be the best shallots we have ever grown.  They are banana shallots, so called because they are long rather than round.  I prefer these as they are very easy to peel, unlike their round cousins.  Unlike their cousins, you don't plant them singly and then harvest a bunch; you plant them as a bunch and harvest that bunch.  Anyhow, we were so please with the results that we decided to grow them again and I thought I would share their progress with you.

We got the delivery a couple of days ago and the photo on the left shows how they look when they arrive.  The first thing is to separate them up into clumps of 4 - 6, which isn't difficult as they are more or less delivered like that.  I try to get clumps of 5 as I think that it is a good number to grow.  

The next step is to pot the bunches up into 3 - 4" pots as you can see in the right hand picture.  I did that today and I will let them settle in the greenhouse for a week before hardening them off and planting them on the allotment.  I really hope that we get the same result as last year as they were fabulous.  I plaited them up and they lasted right through the winter.  I will let you know how we go on with them in a later blog.  Wish me luck:-)