I'm with you Jerry. I planted about 20 shallots in November, and I picked up six more the other day, may plant them tomorrow.

I heard to plant them with your garlic in the fall ... AND I heard to plant them like an onion, late Winter. So, I'm doing both.

My November shallots look ok so far. Healthy 4" leaves, a little lighter green than I would like, but green nonetheless.

J

Jerry,

The shallots from the store should work fine and they will want pretty much the same conditions as your garlic. Shallots are a bit different than garlic though - with shallots, large bulbs normally produce a bunch of small bulbs and vice versa so this year's results will probably be lots of planting stock for next year / a bunch of tough to peel small bulbs.

I've planted in the fall as well as the spring and haven't seen a great difference in plant / bulb size though I'm a couple of zones north of you and the overwintered shallots just don't get going as fast as the garlic in the spring. I've also had good luck with starting them inside in 3" pots a month or so before outside planting to give the roots a head start.

Thanks, J & Makalu,
That's the beauty of gardening - everything is an experiment: sometimes we get great results, other times we get compost pile ingredients. :^)

I picked mostly big bulbs at the grocery store, so it looks like I'm going to end up with lots of seed bulbs for next year.

From further research, I've also heard anecdotal evidence of some grocery suppliers treating the shallots with some sort of chemical that may keep them from sprouting.

Let's all remember to post later this spring and summer with details of our results for 2008.

Cheers!
- Jerry

We have a garlic farm in piedmont area of NC and plant shallots in the fall. They start growing in the winter and ours are up now. Last year I found a few shallots we had not fall planted and planted them in spring they never did well but with the drought not much did. Our summers come quick and hot and don't give garlic & shallots much chance to develop before the heat tells them they are finished so they do better being fall planted so they can grow some in the winter. Right now my shallots are 1-3" tall and some of our garlic is 8-12" tall. March is the month where the garlic can grow a foot quickly because the garlic has well established roots from our warm fall and winter temps.
Hope your shallots do well and this fall try fall planting
The garliclady

After 3 weeks from my previous posting, I'm glad to report that (out of ~15 planted) 10 of my shallots have sprouted, and I'm cautiously optimistic about the rest.

So I guess it can be said:

Grocery store* Shallots can be used as starters in your garden!

New question: so they get harvested about the same time as Garlic (~July, here in NC)?

Cheers!
- Jerry

* At least that which can be bought at Harris Teeter and/or Trader Joe's. :^)

We harvest garlic from late May till about July 1st. Shallots are usually one of the last things harvested.

Do you cut the scapes like with Garlic? Anyone know a good book on this topic?

Hello all - after 4 months, it appears my shallots are about ready to harvest. They all look hefty, with multiple stems on each.

Any advice on the best method for doing so?

Happy Summer!
- Jerry

Jerry,

I harvest them like onions ... just wait until the tops turn brown and then give them a little tug and the whole clump comes up, much easier than having to dig / lift garlic. Once they're out of the ground, hang them or put them on a window screen in a shaded area to dry / cure like onions and they should be ready for a final cleaning in 2-3 weeks depending on the weather. Hope you have a great harvest and that you get a nice mix of large ones to eat and small ones to replant.

Thanks much - pulled them up last night. I guess I better get them outta the sun though. I'm happily surprised with the production at this point!

Cheers!
- Jerry (who also harvested multiplier onions for the first time, in addition to a couple lbs of garlic)