# My Shallots are going to seed!



## bowdonkey (Oct 6, 2007)

What should I do? Leave'em or remove them?


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

True shallots aren't supposed to do that. I'll bet that you planted them from seed last year expecting to get a whole bunch of them this year? Won't happen. They're merely a biennial just like any other onion and most are hybrids to boot. 

Martin


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## Belfrybat (Feb 21, 2003)

If by going to seed you mean putting up bloom stalks, mine does that every year. I keep a couple of dozen of bulbs and plant them each fall.

Martin - if they are not shallots, what would they be? The bulb divides like shallots and they are pretty mild. They are white rather than the red I find in stores.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

White is not a normal color for a shallot. There is a white multiplier which grows like a shallot and produces blossoms. However, they do not develop seeds.

White Multiplier Onion | HeirloomOnions.com

Martin


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## bowdonkey (Oct 6, 2007)

Thanks all, and thanks for the link Martin. You're right, I have a white multiplier. I was in Wally World and they had "shallot" bulbs. It was too good to be true as I've been wanting to experiment with shallots for quite some time. I was afraid they might be hybrids, they were quite large. I purchased 3 bulbs or bags and got 20 some seperate bulbs and everything grew. I did some experimenting with onions and potatoes which I will write about sometime. Job, fishing, hockey and of course drinking, keeps me way to busy so most of the experimentation has had to do with less weeding.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

If the shallots were bought in a produce section, good chance that they are the recent hybrids and not true shallots. Our local WalMart had shallots for sale in the gardening section and they were true ones from Dutch Valley Growers in Illinois. 

Martin


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## bowdonkey (Oct 6, 2007)

I got'em in the gardening section. They also had "purple passion" asperagus, but I didn't have a place prepped for it.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

The ones that our WalMart have are true red shallots from Dutch Valley and should not be blooming. Best advice that I can give without personally seeing them is to break off the seed stalks. I'm doing that with the white multipliers. 

Walmart.com: Dutch Valley Shallots, 5-Count/30: Plants & Artificial Flowers

The size of the bulbs are such that one should get at least 8 to 10 bulbs from each. Rule of thumb is that one plants small bulbs to get large bulbs and plants large bulbs to get small bulbs. Very true!

Martin


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## gobug (Dec 10, 2003)

I got shallots from Johnny's Seed. They were sets. Comments here led me check their catalog and see what their shallots were. Most were seed!!

I have used Johnny's for a long long time. I found their quality to be much better than the other seed companies, and their product line to be more compatible with me than the others. Why would they call it shallot seeds if it wasn't a shallot?

Is this just semantics?
Gary


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## Belfrybat (Feb 21, 2003)

This thread has been very informative. Thank you! These bulbs were given to me and I was told they were white shallots. This fall I'll buy a package of "real" shallots as these are not as mild as I'd like (but milder than Egyptian onions). BTW, I cut off the flowering head just as I do elephant garlic -- figured it would help the bulb grow larger.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

Until the 1990s, all shallots were propagated only by bulb division. It was then that the Dutch introduced shallots which were propagated by seed and thus opened up a whole new potential for creating all sorts of crosses since they are taxonomically identical to a common onion. The French were the traditional growers of shallots and refused to consider the new ones the same as the old. They settled on Ãchalotes de Tradition and Ãchalotes de Semis to differentiate between the two. Hence my usual referral to true shallots when the shallot topic comes up. In that light, I am growing Ãchalions which are more commonly known as banana shallots. It is neither an onion nor a shallot but generally accepted as a cross between the two and propagated by seed. 

Martin


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## unclejae (Nov 22, 2004)

I am also growing shallots for the first time this year. No seed heads, but when do you harvest them? I was going to let the tops die off like the onions and garlic.


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## Belfrybat (Feb 21, 2003)

Paquebot said:


> Until the 1990s, all shallots were propagated only by bulb division. It was then that the Dutch introduced shallots which were propagated by seed and thus opened up a whole new potential for creating all sorts of crosses since they are taxonomically identical to a common onion. The French were the traditional growers of shallots and refused to consider the new ones the same as the old. They settled on Ãchalotes de Tradition and Ãchalotes de Semis to differentiate between the two. Hence my usual referral to true shallots when the shallot topic comes up. In that light, I am growing Ãchalions which are more commonly known as banana shallots. It is neither an onion nor a shallot but generally accepted as a cross between the two and propagated by seed.
> 
> Martin


Thank you for the shallot lesson. Will you have any seed to share later this year (or bulbets)?


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

unclejae said:


> I am also growing shallots for the first time this year. No seed heads, but when do you harvest them? I was going to let the tops die off like the onions and garlic.


Your plan is quite correct. Let the tops die down and begin curing right in the soil. They'll be fine in the soil for some time unless they are flooded. Don't let your garlic go that long or the bulbs will fall apart.



Belfrybat said:


> Thank you for the shallot lesson. Will you have any seed to share later this year (or bulbets)?


Nothing to share this year from shallots since all were planted from seed. I may save some Ãchalions to plant back for seed next year for planting in 2014. I still have enough seed to last me through that year. Besides, Thompson & Morgan offers them commercially.

Martin


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## bowdonkey (Oct 6, 2007)

Thank you all for responding. Between bouts of drinking and saving the world I haven't had much time for anything. Anyway the shallots turned out wonderful. Most were good sized but I was surprised in that they were much stronger in taste than I expected. They had a beautiful golden skin and white interior. I'll be planting back most of them next spring which will hopefully be the start of a large bed. These are very good cooked in stews, soups and chili. I'll keep you all posted on what happens with the replants.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

Stronger taste is normal. When asked about what shallots are, I tell them that they are "onions with an attitude". 

Martin


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## Sparkie (Aug 16, 2012)

Are the so called "potato onions" shallots? Do they make seed?


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

Taxonomically, shallots and potato onions are the same. One is just another form of the other and v.v. Neither normally produce seeds. White multipliers are somewhere close to them and will produce large flower clusters but no seeds. Some claim that they have gotten potato onions to flower and produce viable seed but there are no set instructions as to how to do it. When more and more gardeners start growing the hybrid shallots from seeds, information is going to become even more confusing. 

Martin


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## bowdonkey (Oct 6, 2007)

I planted about all those shallots back this spring and they are growing like crazy. Two of them have kind of flattened out and you can see a nest of bulbs. All are green. They again got "seed heads". Gotem cut off. They went into real enriched soil. Mainly compost, rabbit droppings and grass clippings. All of this was mixed in a couple weeks in advance. I did mulch with dry grass clippings when they got 6-8" tall. We've been getting weekly rains so moisture has been no problem. Everyone should try these. Easy to grow and outstanding in soups and stews. And long keepers from what I read. I also read to clip back the tops 3-4" to promote bigger bulbs. I'll try that on a few of them and see how it works.


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## salmonslayer91 (Oct 10, 2010)

Martin, any recommendation s on a variety of ``true`` shallot?


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

salmonslayer91 said:


> Martin, any recommendation s on a variety of ``true`` shallot?


I've grown 5 or 6 of the true ones and only 2 would be grown if my life depended upon them. They'd be Holland Red/Dutch Red or French Grey. That red one is sort of the standard for everything that a shallot is named for and I've got some growing right now. French Grey were fairly dependable but never worked up to decent size here. Frog Legs and Pikants had problems with our winters. Golden could double as either a shallot of potato onion due to the size. However, got to where any fall planting was certain to die in the spring. Settled on just going with spring planting until this year. Just wasn't worth trying to keep them all winter so we ate the entire Golden stock and just going with the Dutch Red.

Martin


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## salmonslayer91 (Oct 10, 2010)

Dutch red it is then  might you include some in a future trade ?


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

salmonslayer91 said:


> Dutch red it is then  might you include some in a future trade ?


No trade on those in the foreseeable future. It would take awhile to work up big supply. After all, we do grow things for eating! I've only distributed Goldens and Pikants in the past. From a garden standpoint, they take up 3 or 4 times the space of a regular onion so there's that factor. Last time that I planted a lot of Goldens was 72 in a 36' double row and spaced a foot apart. Despite all that space, they overlapped each other for the entire row.

Martin


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## a'ightthen (Mar 17, 2012)

Golden Shallots from Jungs sent up bloom stalks for me .... I snipped them off and thought nothing of it until reading this. Is this typical?

Shallots were another new to me thing this year ... and as I do in my stupid ways, I planted a lb of Golden and some 4 lbs of Dutch Red.

If planting small = large, I should be set for next year  They, like garlic and onions, do not seem to like wet feet nor weed pressure.

It has been wet here for what seems like forever .... and I lost control of the weeds as well.

Somewhere amongst all of the weeds there exists 150-200 ft of Dutch Red that I might be able to share - only time will tell. Pulled one cluster this evening to see what was going on ...




















I am so burnt out from dealing with mud and weeds.


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## salmonslayer91 (Oct 10, 2010)

Hahaha weeds! You gotta see my garden  if enough of them make . It I'd be interested in sending off for some of your Dutch


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

No particular reason why the Goldens will produce a flower stalk. Some that do that will produce viable pollen but can't accept pollen. They will go through all of the motions of flowering like an onion but produce no viable seed. 

The cluster of Reds show one reason why they are so expensive. 8 in a cluster mean all small bulbs. Small bulbs are planted back to get large bulbs and thus it takes 2 years to have bulbs big enough to market. Even then, a number of large bulbs must be saved back to make a lot of small ones. In time, there will not be any true shallots in supermarkets for the above reason. The hybrids produce a full-sized bulb from seed in one season and those growing the true shallots will never be able to come close to matching the same productions costs. 

Martin


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## salmonslayer91 (Oct 10, 2010)

it will go the way of the potato onion  how many here have even heard of those let alone grow it in their gardens? I do


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## K.B. (Sep 7, 2012)

multiplier onions will stick around in home gardens, I think, even if they disappear from most supermarkets. I have my first potato onions this year. They make a lot of sense for permaculture style plantings.


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## salmonslayer91 (Oct 10, 2010)

I really have a thing for them I have white multiplyers, potato onions, tree onions, and a lot of garlic


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

Not certain about the South but potato onions were in stores here probably to around 1950 or so. There were few actual slicers available. Most were round bulbs but when the outer skin was removed it revealed two separate halves divided by a thin brown skin. That's all that was available until farms changed over from whatever they had previously grown for the war effort. But, potato onions were never grown on the North during that time. Since they were almost the same as golden shallots, that explains why.

Martin


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

salmonslayer91 said:


> I really have a thing for them I have white multiplyers, potato onions, tree onions, and a lot of garlic


Then there are the white multipliers which are in the same boat. Let them winter over and every bulb will rush to produce a big flower cluster loaded with pollen. Just about every pollinating insect will rush to them. When all is done, 50 plants may produce a half-bushel of seed heads and not one single seed among them. I know!! 

Martin


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## bowdonkey (Oct 6, 2007)

Ttt, to further confuse everyone.


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