Traditionally shallots (latin name - Allium ascalonicum) are grown from sets, but vegetable gardeners have started to grow shallots from seed, instead. One of the advantages of growing shallots from seed is that the viral, bacterial and fungal diseases, that are usually carried over to the next crop on the bulbs, cannot survive in the seed. So shallots grown from seed should be healthier.

Shallot seed is similar to onion seed & can be grown using the same techniques. The seed can be started off in modules in the spring & transplanted, or sown directly into the garden.

• seed depth - 1 cm
• germination time - 21 days
• distance between rows - 20 cm
• distance within the row 1 cm

They are ready for harvesting at the same time as the onions- June to September. Each seed produces a single shallot bulb.

To produce the best yield of well shaped bulbs it is important to sow seed at one cm spacing. Seed sown too thinly can result in the bulbs becoming coarse and splitting.

Information on growing shallots from sets can be found here.

Shallots are stored in the same way as onions.