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2007 Banana Shallots
Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 9:45 am
by Colin_M
For those of you that have tried to grow these this year (either from the seeds or planting bulbs) how are they doing?
I have two batches:
1) Seedlings grown from seeds. These are like very thin spring onions now and slowly getting established out in the allotment
2) Quite large plants, grown from bulbs planted in the autumn. These separated out this spring, just like normal shallot sets do. I was hopeful that I might get multiple bulbs from these.
However many of these now have a seed head on them. This is what JB predicted, but I also noticed another posting on the forum where someone was getting seedhead on their onions & shallots. People responding suggested the recent dry spell may have triggered early flowering.
Colin
Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 12:20 pm
by Johnboy
Hi Colin,
I managed to cock-up my sowing on Boxing Day and had to resow. The resown plants are only now ready to go out but now that we have had some decent rainfall and I have had the stitches out of my hand I probably will put them in next week sometime.
The trouble is that I have never seen them growing as a crop but I suspect although they will split out like Shallot, commercially they must have the flowering problem that everybody experiences and are generally sown from seed and then planted out.
This is pure surmise on my behalf but seeing the way the animal behaves speaks volumes.
JB.
Posted: Sat May 12, 2007 9:08 pm
by Colin_M
Hi JB. sorry to hear about the stitches and the problems with your Boxing Day batch.
As mentioned above, here are the young seed heads forming on the bulbs planted last autumn.
Here are 2 of the babies from the seeds we were given. This one has a bulb the size of a normal spring onion and a promising pink colour too. Shame I only managed to plant 20 in the end.
It's interesting about the seedheads. Can you explain why we get away with just removing them with garlic, yet may have problems with these bananas? I'm almost tempted to try removing the heads from a couple of clumps (leaving enough for the 2008 crop!).
How about the rest of you. Any luck with yours?
Colin
Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 2:26 am
by Johnboy
Hi Colin,
If you look at a Garlic the usable cloves are formed around the flower stem and the stem doesn't affect the cloves at all but with an Onion it is an integral part of the Onion. When green, Onions can be used as Scallions when they have gone up to flower but they do not mature and therefore would not store.
Looking good and mine are a little way behind but no doubt will produce something! Fingers crossed.
JB.
Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 8:54 am
by Tigger
I sowed mine on Boxing Day too, but germination was poor from that batch, so I did a second sowing some weeks later, which was better but not brilliant. I've got about 70 planted out now and they're at about the same stage as yours.
I'm hoping for more next year!
Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 11:13 am
by Colin_M
Tigger wrote:I've got about 70 planted out now and they're at about the same stage as yours.
I'm hoping for more next year!
That sounds more like it Tigger! It will be interesting to collate our findings in the Autumn as it seems all of us had a false start with our Xmas sowings.
Colin
Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 4:27 pm
by mandylew
my seed sown ones from here seem to be doing well I sowed them in little modules and planted ot 2 weeks ago, I also planted some bulbs from morrisons (finest range!)and these seem to have more than one set of leaves so it looks like they are dividing at least in two, no seed heads as yet, in face all my seed sown autumn planted onions are doing well too, no seed heads at all. I bought a ptize leek at the autumn flower show, cut that down and planted it and that has 2 seed heads forming so I am pleased with that too, not sure how that progresses it is the first time I have tried leek propagating by this method.
mandy
Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 9:37 pm
by Colin_M
mandylew wrote:my seed sown ones from here seem to be doing well I sowed them in little modules and planted ot 2 weeks ago
Thanks for this Mandy. Can you tell us when you sowed your banana seeds, and what proportion of them germinated ok?
mandylew wrote:I also planted some bulbs from morrisons (finest range!)and these seem to have more than one set of leaves so it looks like they are dividing
Out of interest, when did you plant the banana bulbs? Ones planted last year could be 6 months old & quite large by now. If they went in over the last 2-3 months, they may still be "gathering speed".
Colin
Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 9:45 pm
by peter
I managed just under 100 successful germinations from Pigletwillies seeds.
I've give six to an "old boy" up the allotments to hedge my bets and lost one seedling.
So far I have planted out about one third of these and the rest are in 2" or 3" pots.
Posted: Mon May 14, 2007 12:01 pm
by Tigger
Just for the record, I sowed mine into modules and then put them out when the tops were about 4 inches.
Posted: Mon May 14, 2007 10:16 pm
by mandylew
Thanks for this Mandy. Can you tell us when you sowed your banana seeds, and what proportion of them germinated ok?
Out of interest, when did you plant the banana bulbs? Ones planted last year could be 6 months old & quite large by now. If they went in over the last 2-3 months, they may still be "gathering speed".
Colin
I sowed them the week after new year, I would say90% germination, I sowed about 5 seed to a module and every one had at least 3 or 4, although some died back after germination, probably it was a bit cold/damp.
As for the morrisons bulbs, I just planted them in march when i planted my onion sets out, although i bought them before christmas, they hadn't started to sprout but i thought i would give it a try.
Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 12:15 pm
by Colin_M
mandylew wrote:As for the morrisons bulbs, I just planted them in march
You might be ok with these. I planted some banana bulbs in the middle of last year. Nearly all of them divided into 2-4 bulbs.
However, whilst they didn't form a seedhead, several of them did produce a central "leaf" that had thick walls and ran right down into the bulb itself. Thus, whilst I could use the shallot, I had to remove some bits during chopping.
As JB says, maybe this variety of shallot is just less trouble when grown from seed. I'm pleased that they're more widely available in the shops though, as I could never grow enough to feed us!
Colin
Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 8:21 pm
by Tigger
I found them in Netto last week at 25p per half Kilo! Bought all they had.
Posted: Thu May 17, 2007 5:50 pm
by Deb P
Got half an 8' x 4' raised bed full of them now, really starting to put some weight on now!
Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 11:59 am
by alan refail
Deb and Colin
Thanks for posting the pictures of your plants. They really do look just like Long Red Florence onions, which I have grown for quite a few years. They do not look anything like my long shallots (Jermor). I was interested in the numbers going to seed from replanted bulbs. This would certainly suggest they are onions and not shallots. I have often replanted onions (including Long Red Florence) - they have always split to make a useful crop of "green onions", but have always gone to seed quickly if left any length of time in the ground.
Alan