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  • From: "logrock" <logrock AT bellsouth.net>
  • To: "'Market Farming'" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Shallots
  • Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 07:27:51 -0400

Title: Message
Thanks--very informative as usual!
 
I do not remember where, but I read that (right the opposite of garlic) to get bigger shallots, plant the smallest set, but apparently that is not the case. Supposedly this was because a larger set would start dividing quicker, and you would end up with smaller shallots.  Mine seem to divide too much regardless of the size of the set.  We are in zone 7 (NW Georgia) and I do planted in the fall, within days of planting the garlic.  I have already harvested most of the garlic, but the shallot tops are still mostly green.  The ones I have pulled had a good flavor and color, but what I hope will be one large shallot ends up being two or three when I peel it.  I can't figure out if I am waiting too late to harvest, not waiting long enough or maybe as you mentioned, I just have a strain not suitable for this area.  (I ordered them from Tesch in CA two years ago.)  Oh, and I will save the largest for the next crop instead of the smallest!
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of road's end farm
Sent: Monday, June 26, 2006 7:05 PM
To: Market Farming
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Shallots


On Jun 26, 2006, at 8:02 AM, logrock wrote:

So Rivka, how do you grow those excellent shallots?


Well, to start with I was given some by a friend who lives in the area. The sets she gave me were tiny; I've been working with them for some years (ten? fifteen? don't remember) and they come a nice size now. You may need a strain that does well in your climate and soil.

In this climate, I spring plant them; I tried them both spring and fall planted for the first few years, but the spring planted ones always did at least as well and most years better; some years winter survival was poor (winter lows here generally in the single digits below zero, sometimes in the teens below zero FÂș ; snow cover erratic; straw mulch.) If you're someplace warmer, I'd fall plant them, whenever garlic gets planted in your area; if colder, definitely spring plant. Sets go in whenever in April I can get on the field (they don't mind some frost), 6" spacing in row, rows spaced 36" so I can get the Troybuilt through the rows easily to cultivate; handweed once or twice depending on weed pressure; harvest generally in August, save some of the nicest and largest for the next year's seed. Get/keep the organic matter up in the field if possible; I like to put alliums after strawberries in the rotation as that puts them after two years of straw mulch applications. If I can manage it, a round of buckwheat between the strawberries and the fall plant garlic is nice. Fertilizer/soil amendments go on this field the fall before planting, according to soil test; usually rock phosphate and/or Fertrell 4-2-4; but your soil needs may vary. If there was a lot of N in the previous crop, and rock phosphate in a previous rotation, they sometimes don't need much. If they look pale in the spring they get some fish emulsion/seaweed mix as a foliar feed; some years they don't need this. Most years here I don't irrigate, some years they get drip irrigation.

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale


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