Larry, you can do the same as if it were garlic or overwintered onions. I have some shallots that I forgot to harvest a year or 2 ago and they just keep multiplying in a pile, even without any soil covering them. They lasted thru Buffalo winters so no hardiness problems. What started out as about 8 shallots just inside the edge of a section of raised bed about 3ft now must be at least a hundred. Some are even putting out seed heads.

Mark

Might I ask how to get large (ie decent sized) bulbs with shallots? Although I always get multiple bulbs, they are never nearly as big as store bought. And, they are still 'green' partly up the stem unlike the bulbs you buy at the grocer's.

Perhaps I am harvesting them too soon? Perhaps there are soil requirements I am not aware of?

Good to know when to plant them though, I never knew that. Thanks for starting the thread.

-Patty

Check with your state's Extension Service. Each county should have it's own Cooperative Extension Office which provides free publications and information for the asking. They will have valuable vegetable/gardening tables available specifically for your area determined by universities and horticultural research scientists who have collected data from growing those crops in your state. Your tax dollars are already paying for this service so you may as well get some use out of it.

Vegetable Planting and Planning Calendar for Missouri (download the pdf) complete with spring and fall planting dates (underneath the spring planting dates for appropriate crops), how much to plant per person, etc. They can also tell you the average last frost date for your area and ideal planting times for specific crops and varieties in your area.

See how detailed this example is:

{{gwi:4005}}

Thanks to all for the replies. By golly, if they will handle
Buffalo winters they sure ought to make it here!

In regards to growing shallots in Southern California, I would think there would be absolutely no risk in fall planting except that they might just choose to grow all winter. I have fall planted my garlic, yellow potato onions, and catawissa walking onions for many years. There have been several occasions of a very mild early winter in which they grew up to 6" tall before a hard freeze killed off the tops. Then, in the spring, they regrow and make a nice plump crop. Rarely does spring planting ever yield much of a crop. My greenhouse sprouted shallots didn't get over 3/4" in size and only a very few multiplied in the ground. But if all goes well, I'll bet I get a great crop
next year with a fall planting, as Mark has suggested.

Here's some shallots from a couple years ago, one I peeled & divided for detail, plus some topsets from walking onions and other alliums:

{{gwi:83307}}

I think there's a really blurred fine line between shallots and potato/multiplier onions--I had some from a very old local nursery marketed as Golden Shallots or Dutch Golden Shallots I think, plus some called Red Shallots. And I also had some from Gurney's--I don't think they bother naming them.

Pinetree Garden Seeds sells shallots too, and they kinda lump them all together as pretty much the same thing. I grew their shallots about 5-6 years ago and they were smaller and more elongated like the "frogleg" style, with almost copper colored wrappers.

Are shallots like onions that if you grow from seed, you'll get bigger "bulbs" vs. buying sets?