Planting Shallots in Spring


We love to share what we love... and we love garlic and shallots! You'll find gorgeous seed garlic & shallots listed here every late Summer/early Fall. And don't forget the fertility... our Organic Garlic and Shallot Fertilizer has specially blended diverse amendments to feed both our soil and our alliums, and in turn, us!

Though shallots are most prolific (often 25-30 shallots from 1) planted in fall, spring-sown shallots still produce 15-20 from 1 which is AMAZING! You’ll find them here 🙂

Transcript: It’s the middle of March, the snow has melted, the red winged blackbirds are back. And if you haven’t planted shallots yet, you in fact have plenty of time. But now is the time. So here’s the story. Shallots, you plant ideally in the fall just like you do garlic, same exact fertility, soil prep spacing, all of the above. For garlic, if you missed it in the fall, don’t plant garlic in the spring, it really won’t size well. Shallots on the other hand, you’ve totally got options.

So of course, there’s lots of different kinds of shallots. some shallots are propagated by seed, which are very small, and in fact are delicious. I like to toast them myself, but you want to plant them indoors right now to get them going for the season ahead. There are also some different kinds of shallots that are vegetatively propagated, and these we plant in the fall again, ideally, but you can totally plant them now and here’s the story. You want to find them again at the same spacing as garlic So like six inches between plants on a grid, and they’re really hungry. So put in some delicious fertilizer, we have some awesome slow release organic fertilizer, By the way.

And, you want to break them apart. So for example, take a look at this one. It’s nice and big, and kind of has those two bulbs in it, I would they will just break apart and I will plant those two, so they easily break apart. Awesome. And here’s the thing, if you planted them in the fall, they will easily this particular variety, the Dutch reds are insane. And they will literally divide into easily 20 often 30 volts per one that you plant when they’re fall planted. If you plant them in the spring, they won’t have quite as much time to divide and so that you might only get 15 to 20 per one that you plant, which is kind of awesome and totally worth it. I’ll say it again for each one. Have these individual shallots that you planted these dutch red variety, even in spring, here it is mid March, you can totally harvest 15 to 20, fully expectedly.

And they’re so much fun. I can’t wait to show you another video of me actually harvesting them because they literally turn into crowds of shallots. They are just so incredibly stacked on top of each other. They’re so abundant, so prolific. These are rock solid, and when you cure them, well they last well over a year. And I mentioned that they’re just delicious. They’re like the sweetest onions. So anyhow, I love shallots, and plant them in the fall certainly for the most abundance. But if you find yourself with Bluebird singing on a bluebird day, and the snow is melting, you can tuck them in the ground. Do it. You’ll be so glad you did and I’m here to help friends.