Over-wintering shallots

[ken]

I planted out two varieties of over-wintering shallots last autumn, and am not too thrilled with the results. One lot (banana type) has made lots of bulbs, but they are very small (although still usable). The other variety all sprouted leaves early and looked very good in the autumn, but I lost some of these through the winter and most of the remainder are now bolting. I've dug up all the banana type as they were dying down; I haven't harvested the others yet. As I've mentioned before, I have to grow pretty much everything in containers here. The shallots have had plenty of depth for their roots, and in fact the ones I have dug up had great root systems. However, they are in a bought compost. As this drains well, I'm wondering if the problem has been insufficient watering?

[Flanjamin]

I seem to recall my grandad saying onions like a firm bed - compost can be quite airy and soft. Plus watering will always be an issue, and don't forget the rubbish spring we had. Maybe next year try a loam based compost for the shallots? This will be firmer and potentially less prone to drying out.

[ken]

Many thanks, Flanjamin. You may well be right about the compost. Elsewhere, it has been a bit frustrating to see how well the compost drains when, in this weather, we want it to hold the moisture a bit better...Meanwhile, I've dug up the shallots that have divided too much. They may be small, but the consolation is that they have plenty of flavour.

[Ricard with an H]

Can we assume that onions, shallot and garlic require similar conditions although I just read that garlic needs a cold period ?

I lost some autumn-sown onion and garlic to rot, I did mix sand and compost into my sticky soil and though it could be better I don't know if the soil was responsible for the rot or was the over-wintering ?

I put some red onion into the ground in the spring, to be honest it quickly caught up with the autumn sown so i'm now considering just sowing garlic to over-winter and leave the onions until spring. I read that soil that is too rich will cause rot, I don't think in this case it was too rich because this was the same bed I prepared for carrot that also doesn't like rich soil and this years carrots have been fantastic. No carrot fly or whatever it was that feasted on them last year, maybe it was the onion and garlic in the next row.

Any advise and experiences to share with me will be gratefully received.

[Tony Hague]

A lot of my overwintered shallots bolted. Not convinced it is an advantage over spring planting on my heavy clay.