This year I planted some Calliope Aubergines (seeds from T&M). These should have fruit which are white and purple stripes - very decorative. However one of the fruits has turned out to be yellow - all the other fruit on the same plant are "normal". How weird is that?? Best wishes, Mike T

Dear all, Am I missing something? I got home this lunchtime to find my May edition of KG awaiting me. What joy. In the editorial it says "Don't miss out on your 20 free plug plants...- fill in the order form on the inside back of our cover flap today." But I can't find a cover flap or any ...

The "Jobs for" article on page 14 has the wrong month in the title. I think it should be February and not January.

Incidentally why does the February Issue appear in December? I can understand mid January, but not December!

Happy New Year,

Mike T

I would agree with the opinion of Johnboy as far as the banana shallots I grew last year. I suspect that they were actually red torpedo onions, which is one reason that I am not repeating the experiment. I originally bought them from Lidl (incidentally I noticed them again in Lidl yesterday). They o...

Dear all, I grew some last year from shallots I obtained from Lidl. I started them of in pots in January and planted them out in March. They did split, but only into two or three shallots, which looked more like Red Torpedo onions than shallots. Very tasty, but not very productive. I also tried some...

As soon as I received the cloves from Marshall's I put them in a fridge for a week, just to make them think there had been a winter. Then I planted them out. I am now wondering whether to plant the undivided garlic, or to start again. Its a bit annoying having to buy garlic, as the main reason for g...

Hi Johnboy, I planted the sets in individual pots in a cold greenhouse in late January and then planted them out in March. By that time they had a healthy green shoot and a good root system. I sowed the seed directly outside in March, but that has not been a success. If I had found the seed in time,...

In previous recent years I have been growing Solent Wight garlic, but was not happy with its keeping properties. So this year I decided to change to Marshall's Longkeeping. All year they looked pathetic and when I harvested them this week all I got was one round clove per plant, the size of a small ...

I started this correspondence about shalots at the beginning of the year. As i reported, I managed to buy some banana shallots from our local farm shop and my daughter bought me some from Lidl supermarket. In addition I bought some seeds from Simpsons Seeds. The sets from the farm shop never sproute...

Mmm. There is a reply to this by Sue Stickland in the letters section of the March issue of KG. She seems to imply that Banana Shallots are onions rather than shallots. She also says that they have to be grown from seed rather than planted as sets. I have already planted the shallots that I bought f...

Does anybody know what has happened to Braveheart brussels sprouts?? They seem to have vanished from the seed catalogues I order from. They were in the Maturity Chart of the first edition of the Marshall's catalogue, but no seeds were listed. But in the second edition they have vanished from even th...

So do they have to be sown from seeds, or can I grow them from the "sets" that I bought, just like normal shallots?

I already grow Jermor shallots, but was looking for something longer.

I have searched the old forum for banana shallots but can't find any postings.

Happy New Year,

Mike T

Having tried unsuccessfully to buy in the UK sets or seeds of banana shallots, I found some on sale in our local farm shop. I bought a few (roughly 10p each)and intend to plant them when the weather gets a little warmer. Has anybody tried this? Am I just wasting my time and would be better just eati...

You might also like to think about saving them for eating, rather than buying them from the health food shop. They are delicious in a salad after frying them slightly in olive oil!

Best wishes,

Mike T

PS I wash them before drying as they are rather sticky.