Shallot

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Shallots (Latin Allium ascalonicum) - vegetable culture; perennial plant of the Onion family. Another name is Ashkelon Onion. The plant is also known under the names of shrike, shrub and family. The homeland of the plant is Asia Minor. In nature, the plant is found in Moldova, Transcaucasia, Western Europe and Ukraine. Shallots are widely cultivated in Russia as well. In appearance, shallots are similar to onions, although they have minor differences.

Characteristics of culture

Shallots are a herbaceous plant that forms a nest of bulbs (4-5 bulbs) in the first year of life, and in the second year, newly planted bulbs form nests with 8-25 (sometimes even 40) bulbs weighing 25-50 g each. Shallot bulbs are multi-pronged, of which up to 20 arrows are formed without swelling 40-70 cm high. Depending on the variety, the bulbs can be round, oval or round-flat in shape. They are attached to the bottom (heel) of the mother's bulb, and very often have an irregular shape.

The color of the scales of the bulbs is white, light yellow, brown, purple or pink. The mother bulb planted in the ground forms a bunch of fragrant, compactly located, juicy, subulate, fistulous, green or dark green leaves up to 30 cm long, covered with a light waxy bloom. Unlike onions, shallot leaves are more tender, they retain their qualities much longer, so this type of onion is suitable for forcing green feathers.

Growing conditions

The cultivation of shallots does not pose any particular problems, and is very similar to the agrotechnology of onions. The plant prefers sunny areas with moderately moist, loose and highly fertile soils with a pH of 6, 0-6, 5. The best predecessors are beans, beans and peas. It is important to follow the rules of crop rotation when growing shallots; you can plant a crop in the old place no earlier than 3-4 years later. It is useful to plant shallots in close proximity to carrots. The smell of each vegetable repels the pests of the neighboring plant.

Growing shallots on a feather

Many gardeners grow shallots for green feathers. And this is understandable, because its leaves practically do not shoot and do not coarse with regular cutting, retaining their nutritional and taste qualities. To obtain a good harvest of greens, a minimum amount of planting material is required, therefore shallots are recognized as the most profitable in this regard.

Shallot leaves are cut when they reach a height of 20-25 cm, as a rule, this occurs 30-35 days after planting. And this is another advantage of shallots over onions. Shallots become the winner in terms of frost resistance, they can be planted already at the end of April and before winter in October. In the latter case, the harvest of green leaves can be obtained at the end of May.

To obtain a green feather, shallots are grown not only in unprotected soil, but also in containers on a windowsill, balcony or greenhouse. Since the plant has a rather long dormant period, it is planted in room conditions at the end of February, not earlier. Reuse of bulbs is not prohibited. After harvesting the greens, the bulbs are dug out of the soil, pruned and planted again.

Growing shallots for a turnip

Growing shallots for turnips also has its advantages. The culture gives early yields of turnip, usually it ripens in 2-2, 5 months after planting, in onions the growing season lasts up to 3, 5-4 months. Shallot bulbs are better stored, sometimes up to 6-7 months, even in room conditions. Shallots are denser, although not large in size. If we talk about productivity, then there is no exact answer. Under equally favorable growing conditions, the yield of onions is much higher than that of shallots. But when growing shallots on compost beds, its yield increases, so from 1 square meter you can get up to 4-5 kg of green feathers and up to 3-4 kg of bulbs, which indicates a 300% increase in relation to the planted material.

Care

Shallot care consists in systematic watering, loosening the soil and weeding. Watering is important in the early stages of the growing season. Watering is stopped 30 days before the expected onion harvest. Shallots also need feeding, experienced agronomists advise using slurry and urea after each cut of green feathers, and potash fertilizers and wood ash at the beginning of bulb formation. To obtain larger bulbs in the first decade of July, some of the small bulbs are removed from the nest. Small bulbs are torn off along with the feather, but very carefully.