🧄 Shallot

Allium cepa var. aggregatum
A garlic–onion hybrid that decided to be fancy — and charges accordingly at the store, so grow your own.
Sun
Full sun (6+ hours)
Days to harvest
90–120 days from sets; 60–90 from transplants
Spacing
6 inches apart, rows 12 inches apart; plant 1 inch deep, pointy end up
Soil pH
6.0–6.8

How to grow

Shallots are the aristocrats of the onion family: milder and sweeter than onions, easier to peel in quantity than garlic, and absurdly expensive at the grocery store for what they are. Each planted shallot divides underground into a cluster of 5–10 new bulbs, like a botanical buy-one-get-ten-free deal.

Plant sets (small bulbs) in fall in mild climates or very early spring where winters are harsh — they need a cold period to trigger bulbing, but hard freezes can heave them out of the ground, so mulch after planting. Push each set an inch into loose soil, pointy end up, and walk away. They want the same treatment as garlic: full sun, decent drainage, and no coddling.

Stop watering once the tops start yellowing and falling over — this is the plant telling you it's done, not asking for help. Like onions and garlic, shallots cure in the field: the necks need to dry and tighten or they rot in storage.

Water & feeding

Steady moisture while actively growing (about an inch a week), then taper off completely as tops yellow. A 1/4-inch worm casting top-dress at planting time feeds the early root growth that determines how big the cluster gets.

Common problems

  • Onion maggots: rotate alliums on a 3–4 year cycle; row cover blocks the egg-laying flies.
  • White rot (fluffy white fungus at the base): no cure — remove and destroy affected plants, don't compost them, and don't plant alliums there for 8+ years. Yes, really.
  • Bolting (flower stalk): usually from sets stored too cold; snap the stalk off and use that bulb first.
  • Small bulbs: planted too late, too shallow, or harvested before tops fully died back.

Harvest

When tops yellow and flop over, lift the whole cluster, let it cure in a dry airy spot for 2–3 weeks, then separate bulbs and store in a cool, dark, ventilated place. Properly cured shallots keep 6+ months.

Nerdy fact: Each shallot bulb contains multiple growing points, which is why one planted shallot becomes a cluster — it's essentially a colony of conjoined siblings sharing one papery jacket. Botanists call this 'aggregation,' which is also what happens at family reunions.

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