QUESTION: What happens if you plant a shallot? Can I plant the ones from the grocery store?
ANSWER: You can start your own shallot crop just by planting a few shallots that you picked up at the grocery store or grew in your garden. It’s actually quite easy to do. Just follow these steps to plant, grow, and harvest shallots from simply burying a shallot in the soil.
First, when picking out shallots at the grocery store for planting, select only heavy, firm shallots with dry skins. Avoid shallots with sunken spots or soft spots. Double check to make sure you are buying true French shallots and not multiplier onions, which look similar to shallots, but taste nothing like them. Once you get your shallots home from the store, if the clusters were not already separated for you, pull them apart so that you have nothing but individual bulbs.
Then, prepare the soil by spreading three inches of compost over the garden beds, digging it around eight inches deep into the soil using a shovel. In the early spring, as soon as the soil becomes soft enough to work, plant your shallots 2 inches deep with the pointed end facing upwards. Space your shallots out six inches apart and water frequently, keeping the soil moist but not waterlogged. Keep an eye out for weeds and pull up any that you see by hand. Shallots won’t compete with weeds for nutrients and water very well and shallot plants that have to square off against weeds, will have a significant reduction in overall yield.
When the leaves have died back in the fall, harvest your shallots. Dig them up, and brush the soil off of them by hand. Avoid the urge to wash the shallots, as your main objective after harvesting them is to allow them to dry out, or cure. After they have dried out for a couple of days, store them in mesh bags or baskets with good air circulation, preferably in a cool, dry, dark location. Alternatively, you can refrigerate them to extend their shelf life, or for long term storage, you can freeze them. There is no need to blanch before freezing. Just peel them, chop them, and put them in freezer bags or airtight containers and they are ready for the freezer.
there is 2 types of shallot. One is grown by replanting the set either in the spring or fall and harvesting when the tops die back. The other type is started from seed each time. I bought some of the ones started from seed and replanted them , they did increase in size but not in number. those were bought from the grocery. I bought some off e-bay called yellow dutch and planted them in fall. They died over winter.
I had another I bought off e-bay and planted in the spring. they multiplied so i had 8 times the sets i planted. L harvested in the late summer and tryed to store some to plant the following spriing but the rotted in my spare room. I gave up trying to grow shallots after that. I would if i ever want to try again buy some sets that are meant for growing from my local garden center or green house so maybe they could give me some idea what I’m doing.
Plant organic (regular ones may have been treated to prevent sprouting), store bought shallot bulbs in April or May. After harvest in Sept/Oct, try storing in a mesh bag in a cool garage or shed with some air circulation, after drying them on a piece of chicken wire or an old window screen for a week. I then hang my onions, garlic and shallots from bicycle hooks in the garage ceiling, in mesh onion bags. They sometimes last 6 months.