shallots are a member of the onion family they're not only delicious but
are very easy to grow in your garden
now let's look at the planting method the soil that we are using is very well
draining as you can see here this is the same soil that we used to grow our
potatoes in a tub if you remember that video
this is the same tub and this is the same soil so your soil should be nice
and well draining
this is a combination of peat moss perlite and worm castings and compost
so this kind of a medium works very well for shallots so we're growing our
shallots from sets that you can buy at your garden center
these are available very cheap around the late winter or early spring you can
buy these from your garden center and just place them around this container
since we're using this rope bucket container we can plant about around
eight or so in this container as you can see here we've laid them out around the
container and what you need to do is just push them in a little bit
you don't have to overdo this if you plant them too deep
you're going to get a lot of leaves but very less of the bulb so just put them
in a little bit so that the tops are barely visible and then these will form
shoots from the top part
also make sure that you're not growing shallots in an an area where onions or
shallots were grown in the previous season and in about fifteen days you
will see that the shallots sets have sent out shoots and at this time if you
haven't added any fertilizers
it's a good time to do so and as you can see here 27 days since planting the
green tops have grown quite long and if you are noticed we started with about 8
sets and only five of them actually grew very well so we have placed our set
around the container so that they are evenly distributed around the container
so you can transplant them after they sprout and about 55 days into the growing
season in April
you can see that the plant is now looking very strong
and
and at this stage at about 131 days since planting the tops have grown to
their full potential now they're looking very nice and the plant will now devote
its energy into developing good strong bulbs as you can see here
so at this stage you can still water them very well till about 150 days as you
can see here
they're still growing very well the tops are green and during this time doing hot
summers is make sure the plants get good water because shallots are very shallow
rooted so in order for them to thrive during the hot summers you need to water
them well and you will see that they're forming these nice shoots
now you can side dress with a fertilizer at this stage when they're forming their
bulbs
this will help them produce bigger bulbs and if you're wondering which fertilizer
to use you can use any vegetable fertilizer
you can use an organic vegetable fertilizer just side dress around the
base of the plant and water them i'm not using any side dressing here because i
use liquid fertilizers and if you haven't seen my videos on making liquid
fertilizers like compost tea
or there are some other liquid fertilizers as well like fish and
seaweed
those are all good choices for growing shallots and for those of you who do not
like using animal products are vegans you can use a salt based fertilizer like
a fertilizer meant for tomatoes and vegetables they are called synthetic
fertilizers
so at about 150 days into the growing season the tops that started becoming
yellow and at this stage about one week before this stage you can stop watering
the plants or at least reduce watering the plants and this is now time to
harvest the bulbs as you can see here
so these shallots or bunching onions will grow about five to seven bulbs or
plant which is the best thing about shallots now the number one reason why
people grow shallots is because of its price
the shallots are pretty expensive in your grocery store and they're so easy
to grow at home
i highly recommend that you do try growing shallots at home
they also taste amazing they are of the onion family but they taste slightly
different when you eat them they are you caramelize them or if you just a grill
them they have a very unique taste
so this is the dutch yellow variety of shallots
there's also a red variety that you can grow and the method is the same
now we growing our shallots from early spring for a late summer harvest
so in most places you can follow this planting schedule in the southern part
of the United States
it's a better to grow them in fall when you're planting in august or September
and then harvest them in late spring
so it really depends on which growing cycle you want to grow your shallots
both are great growing cycles and will give you excellent shallots
and shallots as you can see here from these small bulbs are very different from the large
bulbing onions
now curing is very important for onions if you harvest them and just use them
directly
it's ok but if you want to store them even for a few days
you need to cure them so what we have done here is we've layed this out on
our vertical shelving unit for about a week and as you can see here after about
a week
these onion tops have dried off and as you can see here you can just tie them
together and then keep them in a well-ventilated area and they should
store for at least a few weeks if not a few months
so there we have it folks that was our episode on growing shallots and i hope
this video inspires you to grow your own shallots at home
I'm sure you'll be very happy with the results and do let us know if you
have tried to grow shallots before if not are you planning to try growing them
in your garden
if you like this video please give us a thumbs up and let's see you again soon
happy gardening