Kitchen Garden Forum

Only just having posted off to secure some elusive banana shallot seeds, with not enough time to BLINK, they've arrived, and I'm now unsure what to do with them.........
Being a 'fairly intelligent person' I'm guessing that I should sow them kind of now-ish, to produce some little baby set-type shallots this year, which I should 'harvest' then 'dry' then 'store' and replant next year to produce useable shallots ??

Since the seeds arrived with no propagation guidance, would any of you more experienced bods out there be able to steer me in the right direction please ?!

Grateful, as ever for your wisdom,
Wellie

Well, Wellie

You need a nice cultivated bed, not too recently manured, dib a hole to allow the shallot to be buried half to two thirds in the soil (don't wait as some people including me have had shallots in for a month or two, they like a drop of frost). Make sure they are the right way up, if you look carefully you will see the bottom has little dried roots coming from it. They need little water apart from the rain) in a week or two you will have little green shoots from the top. Each shoot will in turn become a shallot. When the clump has split into edible size bulbs, pick em and cook em. For longer lasting stocks dry them on a patio or a dry bed, and you can prepare em to be stored. My knowledge stops there, because my storage method is not proven, so I guess someone else will take over from here.

Hi Wellie,
Have I got it right? It is seed that you have and not and not Shallot Bulbs?
If it's seed then sow in modules in the little girls greenhouse and they will thrive. They are however a might bit late so what your crop will be like now I wouldn't care to even hazard a guess.
Would it be sensible to sow just a token amount this year and do it in style next year.
Nice to see a posting from you as I am always wondering about you!

Wellie, did you buy these seeds in England? There's an piece in the June 06 KG (page 30) anout Baker's Farm who sell seeds and althought their website seems to consist mainly of links to news paper articles, there is an email address so it would be possible to ask for advice. http://www.bananashallot.com/

If this is where you bought them from, sorry, I'm no help.

I've tried to get some seed this year and failed. there's a guy in the South who's often referred to in cookery programmes and he has a website. I've e-mailed him several times, but to no avail - he just doesn't reply.

Hi All !

Yes, JB it's SEED I've got. I saw the article in the June issue about Barrington Banana Shallots and got it from there.

So, as I said, should I sow the seed NOW in order to produce some small shallot 'sets' to plant as sets next year ? or shall I keep the seed till next year and sow Jan/Feb like I do my onions ?

All suggestions welcome !
Wellie

Hi Wellie

I'd leave it till next year and then go for it in style. It will also give you a chance to get the bed right for them.

Great to hear from you on here. Always thinking and wondering about you.

I've been looking for these and have been very jealous of others who have nipped over to France and bought sets back.

Then I realised that several local greengrocers sell banana shallots and wondered if I could try planting them.

By then (April), my own ordinary shallot sets had been in the ground for a few months and were sprouting. I didn't hold out much hope hope for the latecomers.

However as at the beginning of May, the new bananas all have 3-4" of shoots on them. It'll be interesting to see what they actually produce.