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Almost every vegetable you grow rewards generous feeding. This one punishes it. A pickling shallot grown in rich ground or fed with a nitrogen-heavy fertilizer produces tall lush tops, a fat bulb with a loose watery texture, and a skin that will not dry down properly at lifting. The bulbs go soft within days and turn limp in the pickling jar instead of staying crisp.
In ground of reasonable fertility, give nothing at all for the whole season. On genuinely poor sand, a single light dressing of a balanced low-nitrogen fertilizer, raked in along the row partway through the growing season while the tops are still lengthening, is all that is justified. Stop entirely once the bulbs begin to swell, and never feed after the first hint of yellowing in the tops.
| Situation | What to give | When |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary garden soil | Nothing | Never through the season |
| Poor pure sand, tops thin and pale | One light balanced low-nitrogen dressing | Mid growing season, while tops still lengthening |
| Tops tall, dark and floppy | Nothing; reduce water as well | Immediately |
| Bulbs visibly swelling | Nothing | Feeding now spoils texture and keeping |
| In containers | Half-strength balanced feed once a month | Only while tops are actively growing |
| Any yellowing of the tops | Nothing at all | Stop feeding permanently for that season |
If you inherit a bed that has been manured, plant something hungry there instead and put this crop somewhere leaner. It is easier to move the crop than to un-enrich the ground.
Water sparingly, and stop before the plant asks you to
The root system is fine and shallow, sitting mostly in the top four inches (10 cm), so the plant dries out quickly but also needs very little to recover. Through the cool growing months, ordinary rainfall usually covers it entirely. Water only if the top two inches (5 cm) are dry and dusty and the tops have lost their stiffness, and then water thoroughly enough to wet the top four inches (10 cm) rather than sprinkling daily.
The critical judgement comes at the end. As the bulbs finish swelling and the tops begin to yellow in early summer, the plant wants dry soil so the skins can set and the necks can seal. Watering through that period gives you soft bulbs with split skins that rot in the bag. Turn the water off at the first yellowing, and take that row off any automatic system.
Overwatering shows before the bulbs are lifted. Look for tops that are unusually dark, soft to the touch and inclined to flop over rather than stand, and for any smell of sourness at the base of a clump. Both mean cut the water back at once.
- Test at finger depth, not by looking Push a finger two inches (5 cm) into the ridge beside a clump. Damp soil clinging to your finger means do nothing. Sandy ground looks bone dry on top while still holding moisture below.
- Water in the morning, at the base Direct water at the soil rather than over the tops, and water early so any splashes on the necks dry before evening. Water sitting in a crowded clump overnight is how neck rot begins.
- Water heavily and rarely, never little and often One thorough soaking every ten days in a genuinely dry spell beats a daily sprinkle, which keeps the surface damp and encourages roots to stay in the top inch where they scorch.
- Cut water off at the first yellow leaf tips When a quarter of the tops in a clump have yellowed, the crop is finishing. Stop watering that row entirely and let it dry down.
Weeds are the one thing that genuinely competes
The tops are narrow and upright and cast almost no shade, so weeds have an open run at a bed of pickling shallot right through the season. On the light, sandy ground this crop prefers, annual weeds germinate fast and grow quickly, and a bed left for a month becomes a mat that has to be untangled by hand from between the clumps.
Weed little and often, by hand within four inches (10 cm) of the clumps and with a hoe only in the middle of the alleys. The shallow root system runs further out than the plant appears to, and a hoe blade drawn in close cuts feeding roots that will not be replaced. A shallow mulch of coarse grit or fine gravel along the row suppresses weeds without holding moisture against the necks the way an organic mulch would.
Do not mulch with grass clippings, straw or compost right against the clumps. Those hold moisture at the neck through the very weeks the bulbs are trying to dry down, and they feed a crop that does not want feeding.
Containers and a lean growing mix
This crop grows well in pots because it is small, shallow-rooted and content with poor conditions. A container eight inches (20 cm) deep and twelve inches (30 cm) across takes three bulbs and will be full of clump by early summer. Use a free-draining mix cut with a third of coarse grit or sharp sand, and avoid rich general-purpose composts, which give the same soft bulbs as rich ground.
Leave three inches (8 cm) of clear space below the rim when you plant, so there is room to top up with more mix as the clumps rise. Check that every drainage hole is genuinely open before planting, and stand the pot on feet or bricks so water leaves quickly. Move the pot under cover once the tops begin to yellow, and let it dry out completely from that point.
What to record while the crop is growing
Note the date the first green tips broke the surface and the date the tops reached six inches (15 cm), because those two intervals tell you whether your autumn planting date is well judged in your own soil. Add the dates of both hillings and any watering you gave in a dry spell.
Most usefully, record the position of each row and the state the ground was in when you planted, including whether it had been manured recently and how freely it drained. When one row gives firm bulbs and another gives soft ones from the same stock, the answer is almost always in those two notes, and without them you will be guessing again next season.