Advice needed on growing shallots

[Iron Cauldron Gardens]

I decided to try shallots and perennial onions last fall.
They had died about 2/3 of the way down so I started pulling up today.
Hardly any bulb formation and most produced seed heads. I'm letting them dry out then I'll take stock of exactly what I have but I can already tell it's not much.
I've read a ton of conflicting information on seed heads, some say cut off early , others say leave them. And on the size to replant, some say largest bulbs others say smallest.
Honestly completely confused.
Any advice? Really want to have more onions so I can start eliminating the need to buy so much. I'm a whiz with egyptian walking onions but was hoping to have more diversity here!

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

I've never grown any. I always felt like it was too hot here; but perhaps I'm wrong.
All I grow is spring onion, and I regrow those at any size; though I find that the medium to large ones tend to take root better and aren't as "fragile" to the weather. The small ones, if rooted, do grow large in time.

 

[Iron Cauldron Gardens]

Walking onions do very well in warm areas.
Once the bulbs are planted you leave them alone. When they start producing the aerial bulb or topset, just snap off and plant. Leave the patch alone other than planting the topsets for a year or 2 then after aerial bulbs form again on the first batch, snap off the top set, plant, then pull up the base as needed for fresh onions. The bulbs are around a golf ball size at this stage.
Alway plant the topsets! You'll get a decent amount of onions through the summer this way.
Right now these are our go to onions for pizza, salads and fried rice. My patch stays about the same size as we use so many!

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Yum! Do you pickle any?

 

[Iron Cauldron Gardens]

Sure do. They are added to all pickles, all sauerkraut, I've done a few small batches alone and I'll make onion jam and garlic scape relish with them.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Yumm!
Here in tropical Australia you NEVER hear anyone talk about sauerkraut. Sometimes I wonder if they even know what it is. It is sold in most major supermarkets, though usually in small jars only. I remember my parents always getting a large jar to mash into potatoes (I'm Dutch).

 

[Grandmother Goose]

Seed heads might have been what caused the lack of bulbing. I'm not sure about every variety, but generally with alums if you don't remove the flower stalks as they come up, the plant will put all its energy into producing flowers and seeds instead of bulbs, and will also draw energy from any bulb it has grown, leaving you without a bulb. On the flip side, allowing the seed heads to form gives you a massive amount to plant next season.

As for largest vs smallest, that's a matter of opinion not fact. Larger ones will generally create larger bulbs all other things being equal, but all other things being equal with gardening almost never happens, a little bit more or less of anything from water to sunlight, nutrients to temperature, and everything else that happens in a garden will determine bulb size far more than the size of what you planted. Some people prefer to eat the larger ones and use the smaller ones for replanting, others want to try to maximise the potential size of each plant in their next crop, there's a lot of reasons people have their preferences for these things.

 

[Grandmother Goose]

Yumm!
Here in tropical Australia you NEVER hear anyone talk about sauerkraut. Sometimes I wonder if they even know what it is. It is sold in most major supermarkets, though usually in small jars only. I remember my parents always getting a large jar to mash into potatoes (I'm Dutch).

I know what it is! A friend of mine loves the stuff. Not too long ago talking about gardening he made me promise to grow cabbage and make it for him once I get my veggie gardens growing, so I told him he has to get me a proper fermenting urn thingy to do it with. He sad faced and said that might take some time to save up for, I told him that'll be how long it'll take before I can grow enough cabbage anyway. I don't know if he's really saving up for it, I guess we'll find out when I finally grow some cabbage.

 

[Iron Cauldron Gardens]

Thanks for the information!!! I'm going to try again this fall. After going through the bulbs I see that french shallots look like the walking onions and put up a separate flower stalk. The Dutch shallots are more like onions. And the perennial onions are just plain confusing.
I ferment in Mason jars, quart and half gallon. I never could get the crocks to work for me for some reason. Wasn't for lack of trying, might have been lack of instruction as no one in my family does any of this!

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

As a Dutch person I didn't even know Dutch shallots were a thing
Probably as they resemble normal onions so much.

I think crocks have quite the learning curve, but can be amazing if you can get them to work. There is a YouTuber I like to watch who sometimes uses them; Dianxi Xiaoge. She is from Yunnan (China), so I greatly enjoy seeing how different things are done over there. It's much different to what I am used to, and it's actually taught me quite a bit.