Harvesting Shallots

Are you growing shallots at the allotment or in the kitchen garden? You will want to know the best time for harvesting shallots is. Find out here.

It can be great fun growing shallots but knowing the best time for harvesting shallots is important. People often get confused between onions and shallots they are two completely different type of onion. Shallots grow in clusters of onions and onions are one onion on there own.

Shallots can be eaten raw or they can be roasted they have a combination of flavour between a onion and garlic.

Here you will find out the best time for harvesting Shallots from your garden or allotment.

Allotment and Kitchen Garden Book

Are you starting an allotment or planning on growing your own fruit, vegetables, herbs, and flowers in a kitchen garden? If so we highly recommend the book Allotment Month By Month. This does exactly what it does on the cover to help you with what you should be doing in the allotment and kitchen garden each month. Below you can see the link for Amazon where you can purchase the book directly. This book is extremely popular with all allotment holders as you will read in the reviews:-

You can check out all the allotment and kitchen garden books we recommend here.

When do I harvest Shallots?

Knowing the right time to harvest shallots can be down to your preference. This reason is because the tops of the shallots can be eaten as well as the bulb. If you are growing the shallots for the tops these can be ready in around 30 days – these are often used in stir frys, salads or even in soups.

The shallots usually take around 90 days to produce the bulb cluster. You can usually tell when the shallots are ready when the tops of the onions start to die back and flop over. This is usually the end of summer.

How to Harvest Shallots

The shallots will be ready when the tops have died back and gone yellow now is the time which you have been waiting for harvesting the shallots.

You can dig the shallots up with a small hand fork, carefully not damaging the bulb in the process. Knock off all the dirt and mud from the shallot. If you know how to french plat you can plat the bulbs together.

Hang the bulbs up in a dry shed for around 2 weeks the rest of the dirt and mud should fall of the bulbs. If you are not using them straight away continue to store the bulbs in a dry place.

We hope you have found these tips useful on harvesting shallots.

Click to purchase shallot bulbs

You can find out more information on growing fruit and vegetables here.