How to grow them
Plant single sets 18cm apart with the tips showing, from late February if the soil is workable. Each one divides into a clump.
Onion family
Shallots
Plant one, lift a cluster of eight. Milder than onions, and they keep longer.
- Buy as
- Sets
- Space
- 18cm between plants, 30cm between rows
- Position
- Full sun
- Rotation
- Roots and onions
- Difficulty
- Easy
The year
Plant
Harvest
When to pick
Lift when the leaves yellow in July, separate the clump and dry the bulbs in the sun.
What goes wrong
Problems, and what to do
Birds pulling them up
Net for a few weeks, or trim off the dead tips before planting.
White rot
Rotate, as for onions.
Good neighbours: Carrots, Beetroot.
Same family
More from onion family
OnionsPush small bulbs into the soil in spring and they do the rest.
GarlicIt needs a cold spell to form a bulb, so it goes in when everything else is coming out.
LeeksThey take over the bed when the early potatoes come out, and stand all winter.
Spring onionsA pinch of seed every few weeks keeps you in salad onions all summer.