This is now the busiest time of year for show growers and for the first time I'm starting to feel as if i'm getting behind on the tasks that need doing. I likened this last season to the plate spinners that used to appear on the Generation Game and it's certainly starting to feel like that now.
One essential task I managed to get done yesterday was to split my large shallots, having already done my pickling shallots last weekend. It's an easy task but you do need to be quite delicate. Firmly but gently grasp the leaves in one hand to stop the clump from coming out of the ground....
......then strip away the outer skins and any bits of loose flesh and scales within.
Finally remove all but four of the bulblets by bending the ones you want to discard downwards until they snap away from the root plate. Sometimes you have to sacrifice some larger ones because you want to leave the four that are going to be best positioned to grow nice and round, which means leaving those in the four 'corners' of the clump.
I gave each clump a sprinkling of dried blood as i'm not happy there are enough leaves to make really large shallots so a nitrogen boost was called for. And as for the thinnings? I cut back the foliage to stop transpiration and potted several to 8" pots, placing them in a shady spot for now. These should grow on and make half reasonable pickling shallots.
3 comments:
Thanks for that, Simon. It's something of a relief to see that I split mine correctly. The only difference being that I haven't given mine a nitrogen boost as yet, and I re-planted the thinnings straight into a shady bit of the plot.
I've not split my clumps of shallots before. Is that something you do if you want to enter them in a show?
Correct it's just something we do to improve the shape and form.....If growing for table only leave them alone.
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