soil pH: can grow in acidic soil down to 5.0 pH (but prefers 6.0-6.8)
“very tolerant” (to what?) per Peaceful Valley Farm
Notes:
indispensable staple in French cuisine
plant in fertile, well-drained soil
Sources: (where to buy)
Peaceful Valley: $4.99 for 1 lb (~5 heads; 3-4 cloves per head)
Results from My Garden:
2011: 1 lb of seed stock from Peaceful Valley
harvested 60 cloves/heads (1.75 lbs); 1/2 oz each
2012: 1 lb of seed stock from Peaceful Valley
planted 36 individual cloves in late November (11/25/11)
harvested 87 cloves/heads (1.25 lbs); .2 oz each
175-190 days
2013: 1 lb of seed stock from Peaceful Valley
23 cloves planted (~0.7oz each) in late February (2/21/13)
Biointensive Spacing: 4″
Bolting started in early May or late April
Harvested 6/22/13 (122 days) – still green
92 cloves harvested = 2 lb 15 oz total = .5 oz each on average
2014: 1 lb seed stock from Peaceful Valley
21 cloves (~0.75oz each) some were a little moldy
Planted 11/2/13
Biointensive Spacing: 4″
bolting started in early April…not sure why: temps hit 78 the week before, but that wasn’t really that hight. Started harvesting the bolting ones, even though they hadn’t bulbed out. Still tasted great.
Harvested 6/13/14 (224 days) – still green (needed room for the summer crop of corn)
Total harvest: 20 bolted shallots + 97 cloves harvested = 117 total
97 cloves: 2 lbs 11 oz, 0.44 oz per clove
Smaller cloves than last year, even though they were in the ground 100 more. Maybe last year’s were bigger because they had 10 more days in the spring to bulb out. Or water might have been more last year…
