The Crafty Cultivator

This post has been sitting in my draft folder since 2020, so I figured it was time to put some polish on it and get it posted once and for all. Luckily I found 2 photos still in my camera roll from 2020 so this post actually gets a tiny bit of visual interest.

I first saw these on Allotment Diary on YouTube, many many years ago and it took me until the winter of 2019 before I finally found seeds to try them out myself. I found those first seeds from MI Gardener back when they still had $1 seed packs, but have since got seeds from West Coast Seeds here in Canada.

That first year, in 2020, I started them early, in January or early February…In small little cells (much too small in hindsight), and I kept them in there FAR TOO long. Like, until the middle of May when I finally stuck the little cells into a 7 gallon pot. I should have tried to get them potted up into something bigger before then, but the world became a weird place at that time and finding potting soil was difficult… everyone was trying to find toilet paper and I was just trying to get some potting soil…. also, I had no room left for more plants in the house.

Because I was such a bad caretaker of them, I didn’t have high hopes. I had a mental list of all the things I would do different when I tried them again the next year… But oh man… They surpassed all my expectations.

Unlike a large majority of my inside-started plants that year, I did manage to get these hardened off gradually before kicking them outside full time.

I had them way too close together in the 7 gallon pot I planted them in, because I didn’t thin out the seedlings in the little cells… I just pulled them out and planted each clump in the big pot. I let them fight it out and ended up with a much better harvest than I expected. My thought process was that it is better to get them in the pot and have a little harvest than have nothing to show for it all… which is what was going to happen if I didn’t plant them. I worked at a garden center during the pandemic and people were CRAZY that year.

I pulled half of them around the end of July, to give the other half a little more space to keep growing. They were laid out on a make-shift “drying rack” (which is just a bit of a roll of chicken wire that I have set on a stool in the garage). In mid August, the temperatures started to dip at night, so I pulled the remaining shallots to give them enough time to cure in the garage before I needed my “snazzy” drying rack for the garlic.

So even though I was successful growing a few shallots that year, I still had a list of things I would do differently next time.

• I will sow 1-2 seeds in bigger cells. rather than a few in tiny cells.
• I was pretty impressed with how these did in that 7 gallon pot, so I may just use a few pots to expand my shallot harvest. When in-ground space is at a premium so I think keeping them in containers is the way to go. Plus then I can keep the soil nice and loose for them, and very nutrient rich, as Alliums are heavy feeders.
• I will take care of them the same as I did this year. If I was successful with my mostly negligent care that year, then I will keep that up. If I have them set up and ready then they seem to be happy to just plug along until its time to pull them out.

I had intentions to grow these again in 2021, but I think I got so busy with work that I just grew sets of French shallots instead. In 2022 I was pregnant, and in 2023 I had a baby. This year (2024) My gardening situation is a bit in transition, so I am not growing them again this time around. As soon as we have some more stability in life again, ‘Zebrune’ Shallots are near the top of my list on things to grow. They kept most of winter and I was using them in recipes until around March.

Have you grown these? Have suggestions of other things I can try once I have a reliable garden space again? Share any tips and tricks in the comments.