Ever grown shallots from seed?

[bhpigeon2]

Originally Posted by Little Minnie

This is what Fedco says about their seed.

It claims clusters happen when the plants are placed more closely.

In a mixed row of just over 50 of the 3 hybrids in Jung's mix, there is one single plant which split into two bulbs. Everything else is singles. Therefore I can not 100% claim that I never have had them divide. Of the trio of hybrids, it's the red one. All others are quite large bulbs and still alive and growing. They are spaced about 6" apart to allow a hoe to get between them. Soil is almost pure silt and quite rich after having received a lot of horse manure the past several years as well as side dressing with 5-2-0 Milorganite. The echalions, of course, are all singles as they will always be.

bhp2

[Gemini Jim]

Originally Posted by bhpigeon2

www.google.com is your friend and has all of your answers if you really wish to find them. If you have anything against Google, www.bing.com is equally helpful.

bhp2

If google has all my answers, then either a) I'm not asking (good) enough questions, or b) I'm too accepting of easy answers. I'm more interested in understanding the possibilities than in being right.

(I usually use google out of habit. bing is a Micro$oft product, which is a strike against them in my book. duckduckgo.com is nice alternative with a pretty strict privacy policy.)

Good day,
Jim

[bhpigeon2]

My point is this. This thread and its topic were going nowhere on its own. The only thing remaining is to leave the discussion and turn it over to sources which will back up every claim that anyone has given here and also refute every claim. It's a fact that one may make any claim about anything, regardless of how right ot wrong it is, and an Internet search will find a site to back it up. Facts have been presented here and there is no need for either of us to waste each other's time getting nowhere. I have grown shallots for many years. I have grown many varieties of shallots. I am still growing shallots. That suffices.

bhp2

[Little Minnie]

Checked yesterday. Some of mine are splitting finally.

[bhpigeon2]

Here's some interesting reading about growing shallots.

www.growyourown.info/page122.html

http://growingtaste.com/vegetables/shallot.shtml

bhp2

[Gemini Jim]

Originally Posted by bhpigeon2

My point is this. This thread and its topic were going nowhere on its own. The only thing remaining is to leave the discussion and turn it over to sources which will back up every claim that anyone has given here and also refute every claim. It's a fact that one may make any claim about anything, regardless of how right ot wrong it is, and an Internet search will find a site to back it up. Facts have been presented here and there is no need for either of us to waste each other's time getting nowhere. I have grown shallots for many years. I have grown many varieties of shallots. I am still growing shallots. That suffices.

bhp2

Don't know if you're referring to our exchange, or the overall topic here. On the former I agree it was going nowhere. But at the risk of flogging a long-dead horse, I just want to make one final point:

I don't question your knowledge or experience in growing shallots. I do question your understanding of plant taxonomy and physiology. And when you make blanket statements about what plants can or can't do, in apparent contradiction to what others have experienced, I feel it appropriate to point that out.

I'm not the one making absolute claims about what's right or wrong, so you're point won't stick on me.

Ok, bowing out of this thread now...

[bhpigeon2]

Originally Posted by Gemini Jim

Don't know if you're referring to our exchange, or the overall topic here. On the former I agree it was going nowhere. But at the risk of flogging a long-dead horse, I just want to make one final point:

I don't question your knowledge or experience in growing shallots. I do question your understanding of plant taxonomy and physiology. And when you make blanket statements about what plants can or can't do, in apparent contradiction to what others have experienced, I feel it appropriate to point that out.

I'm not the one making absolute claims about what's right or wrong, so you're point won't stick on me.

Ok, bowing out of this thread now...

It's primarily that that family of alliums always has been a mixed up one with no particular answer applying to all questions. There is a very thin genetic line where one form ends and the other begins. I linked to a list of most known alliums. There one can see how wide it is and what is called a shallot and what is called an onion. Great example is echalion which I'm growing this year. Then the Dutch came along and made a shallot act like an onion but may be neither.

Now hearing from others in Europe who have grown them for a few years. They all say don't plant them back. They were created to grow into a single large bulb from one seed since that's what the consumers want. They were not created as a shortcut to produce a lot of large bulbs. When planted back, they will divide or go to seed. The resultant small bulbs will again divide or go to seed. They will never get to the size that is expected when growing from F1 seed. And, I did mention that one of my F1s did divide but the 2 bulbs combined are not nearly the size of any one undivided one. Now I know that I can plant them back next spring and get either 4 or 5 small bulbs or seeds. Due to the limited time that they have been in existence, I would suspect that that would go on forever without returning to the original intended state, a single large bulb.

bhp2

[GunnarSK]

I thnk I may have misunderstood this whole thing. What I sowed in the ground, which sprouted and subsequently overwintered without problems, was obviously Welsh onions (allium fistulosum). I'll try shallots again and reread this thread, though.

[Little Minnie]

Well I pulled mine today that I had started from seed. No they are not true shallots. Some were shaped right and some were more like cippolini onions. The guy next to me at market had a great harvest this year so I asked if I could buy my seed stock from him. I only ended up with maybe 20.

[bhpigeon2]

At a local supermarket several days ago, had chance to chat with one of the managers of the produce section. Last year they had 3 or 4 types of shallots including the big ones. The only ones now were a red type of which every one were obviously from a cluster. I asked if the store would be getting those larger ones again as I said that I liked the taste of them. His reply made sense. Said that they looked too much like an onion and few wanted to pay shallot price for something that wasn't a shallot. Turnover was too slow to warrant their space. Apparently going to be a few years before the American consumer is educated about those new types.

bhp2