Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi Johnboy
With the banana shallots I purchased at the French market, we ate the small ones and I planted the largest ones, some in pots in the greenhouse and some direct onto my 'onion patch', hoping they would perform in the same way as ordinary shallots or if not then go to seed so I could harvest the seed. None grew BUT they didn't deteriorate in any way and a couple of weeks ago I threw them away and they were in the same firm condition as when planted. That's what made me think they had been heat treated to make them keep. Or perhaps it was some other treatment.
I know that some varieties of onion sets used to be heat treated so that they will produce a 'bulb' and not go straight to seed (when red onion sets first became available about 25 years ago there was a problem with them going to seed, until the suppliers found that if they heat treated them before being sold the 'running to seed' problem was greatly reduced - but if they were heat treated too much then they didn't grow)

Hi Jea,
Thank you for coming back to me so promptly.
The treatment you were talking is the opposite to the heat treatment of Onion Sets and I take it was simply a thought on your behalf.
I cannot explain why yours didn't grow but the ones I bought last week certainly put roots out within 48 hours. They were suspended into very shallow water just to prove that they would do just that.
I made the enquiry with you because in order to be successful next year we must know every mortal thing there is to know about them.

JB, all of mine grew bar about 4 which just sat there and did nothing else. The rest are all in flower and hopefully I will get plenty of seed which was the idea.

At what stage do I put little bags on them JB?

Last january i bought 30 Banana Shallots from Waitrose.28 grew giving me 71 big shallots to use. some did'nt split at all,the best split into 6.I'm going to try and save the seed from one thats flowered.

Hi Piglet,
The bags want to go on ASAP after the bloom has finished flowering. There are a number of insects that get into the seed and render them sterile and the bags are an attempt to ward these off. It is not just Allium seeds. I was producing some Lettuce seeds in the tunnels and they were almost ready to take all had been covered and they all of a sudden were crawling with minute larvae and none of those seeds germinated. The seeds produced the previous year had grown the Lettuces I am talking about. I viewed the seed under a microscope and they all had a minute puncture in them but to the naked eye they were perfect. So even thought you are protecting them keep a good eye on how they are progressing.
Oh the joys of gardening!!

well, I have just gathered in the first half of the Banana shallot seed crop. I have about 40 heads all packed with seed. I have opened a couple of the little seed heads and each seems to hold 2 or three lovely black seeds with dozens on each head.

I have spread them out in the window sill of my south facing workshop to dry out.

If anybody wants some seeds, (at this moment I dont know how many there will be) Pm me with your address and I will put them in order and service as many requests as I can depending upon the amount of seeds collected.

Thats the second half harvested. All you guys wanting seed, I have saved all your details and as soon as the seed is dry and seperated from the husks and rubbish I will post them out.

Thank you very much piglet, you must let us know what you'd like in return

Ok, I know that we're pinning our hopes on seed for next year's attenmpt. In the meantime, I thought you might like to see the results of ones I grew from shop shallots this year.

I bought them as banana shallots from our local Indian grocers. They (or ones like them) seem to be increasingly available in lots of places - I've no idea which country they came from.

I planted mine in late'ish April - well after my normal shallots were sprouted and growing well. This is the result of the three shallots I planted:


I know this isn't an amazing return, but all bar one of them produced 3 new ones from the initial bulb. All bulbs grew to the same size as the ones I initially bought (3-4 inches long and 1-1.75 inch wide).

I hope that, if planted at the proper time earlier in the year, I would have got more. Over the last couple of months, they first produced a seed head (which I foolishly didn't keep) then a huge hollow stalk over an inch wide. The bulbs themselves seem ok (currently drying).