'Splitting' shallots

You have to be very dedicated (or indeed a sad pr*ck like me) to want to grow shallots to show standard. They will of course split naturally of their own devices but to get the very best shaped bulbs I believe you have to help them along a little bit and thin them out. I do this as soon as the outer skin casing on the parent bulb starts to split, and for me this was last weekend. Here is one of my large exhibition shallots prior to thinning.

Here is the same bulb looking from above....you can see there are actually 6 or 7 bulblets.

I carefully peel the old flesh from around these small bulbs and snap out the surplus bulblets to leave 4 that are growing in opposite directions in order to maximise their potential size. I try to get as much flesh stripped from the clump as this will only rot otherwise. Here is the thinned clump from above. In the past I have thinned down to 2 or 3 but Dave Thornton (who gave me the original stock) is adamant I should leave 4.

I'm left with many small, flat-sided thinnings that you can use in omelettes. I prefer to replant these in a shady spot and I do find that they root and grow away and can become reasonable pickling shallots with a bit of luck.

Here is my bed with all the shallots thinned down. They sulk for a day or two but soon prick up and grow away strongly with a top dressing of dried blood. I think this is the earliest I have ever done this, despite the late start my shallots had getting green tops. The remaining bulblets are now all strong looking so I'm hopeful of getting some good quality exhibits this season.