Details

• Allium cepa
• Color: dark pink
• Maturity: ?
• Size: mid-sized
• Yield:
  • approximately 5 heads per pound
  • 3-4 cloves per head
• Taste: “very tasty shallot”, “excellent mild, rich onion flavor”
• Disease Resistance/Environmental Tolerance:
  • soil pH: can grow in acidic soil down to 5.0 pH (but prefers 6.0-6.8)
  • “very tolerant” (to what?) per Peaceful Valley Farm

Notes:

• indispensable staple in French cuisine
• plant in fertile, well-drained soil

Sources: (where to buy)

• Peaceful Valley: $4.99 for 1 lb (~5 heads; 3-4 cloves per head)

Results from My Garden:

• 2011: 1 lb of seed stock from Peaceful Valley
  • harvested 60 cloves/heads (1.75 lbs); 1/2 oz each
•  2012: 1 lb of seed stock from Peaceful Valley
  • planted 36 individual cloves in late November (11/25/11)
  • harvested 87 cloves/heads (1.25 lbs); .2 oz each
  • 175-190 days
• 2013: 1 lb of seed stock from Peaceful Valley
  • 23 cloves planted (~0.7oz each) in late February (2/21/13)
  • Biointensive Spacing: 4″
  • Bolting started in early May or late April
  • Harvested 6/22/13 (122 days) – still green
  • 92 cloves harvested = 2 lb 15 oz total = .5 oz each on average
• 2014: 1 lb seed stock from Peaceful Valley
  • 21 cloves (~0.75oz each) some were a little moldy
  • Planted 11/2/13
  • Biointensive Spacing: 4″
  • bolting started in early April…not sure why: temps hit 78 the week before, but that wasn’t really that hight. Started harvesting the bolting ones, even though they hadn’t bulbed out. Still tasted great.
  • Harvested 6/13/14 (224 days) – still green (needed room for the summer crop of corn)
  • Total harvest: 20 bolted shallots + 97 cloves harvested = 117 total
  • 97 cloves: 2 lbs 11 oz, 0.44 oz per clove
  • Smaller cloves than last year, even though they were in the ground 100 more. Maybe last year’s were bigger because they had 10 more days in the spring to bulb out. Or water might have been more last year…