Shallot
Allium cepa var. aggregatum
Amaryllidaceae · onion family
Origin · Central Asia · Western Asia
- Matures
- 3–4 months
- Harvest
- Once · Annual
- Sun
- 6–8+ hrs
- Spacing
- 2–4 in
Planting window
When to sow, by microclimate — foggier blocks run a different calendar than sunnier ones.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foggy | ● | ● | ||||
| Sunny | ● |
| Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foggy | ● | ● | ● | |||
| Sunny | ● | ● |
Sunlight
How well it does at each level of direct sun per day.
Soil depth
Root room it needs — useful for sizing raised beds and containers.
Soil pH
The soil acidity it grows best in — most crops sit just below neutral, so this mostly matters for heavily amended or long-reused beds.
- Preferred range
- pH 6.2–6.8
Spacing
Room each plant needs — along the row and between rows — for sizing beds.
- In-row
- 2–4 in
- Between rows
- 12–18 in
Growth habit
The shape it makes in the bed and how tall it gets — what tells you whether to give it a trellis, a stake, or just room.
- Habit
- Upright
- Mature height
- 12–18 in
Stands on its own; the tallest types appreciate a stake in wind.
Growing in containers
Whether it does well in a pot, planter, or window box — the SF balcony-and-deck question, weighing its footprint, form, and staying power, not just root depth.
Happy in a pot, planter, or window box — no garden bed required.
How to start it
Sow it where it grows, or raise it under cover and set it out — and how far ahead to start the seedlings if it's the latter.
- Usually
- Direct-sow
Sown straight into the bed it will grow in.
Getting started
How it goes in the ground — how deep to sow or set it, and the soil temperature it needs to wake up. The cold-soil floor is the real limiter for direct-sowing in a foggy SF spring.
- Started from
- From bulbs / sets
- Ideal soil temp
- 65–85°F
- Set depth
- 1–2 in
Sprouts between 32–95°F; happiest around 65–85°F.
Watering & feeding
How thirsty and how hungry it is — the water it wants and how much feeding the bed needs to keep it producing. In the fog belt even a thirsty crop drinks less than it would inland.
- Water need
- Moderate
- Feeding
- Moderate feeder
Wants steady, even moisture — roughly an inch a week, a little more in a heat spell.
A balanced feed worked into the bed at planting usually carries it through the season.
Shallow-rooted — keep evenly moist while bulbing, then stop as the tops die back so the bulbs cure. A moderate feeder, lighter than bulb onions.
Pests & diseases
What tends to trouble this crop — what it is, what you'll see, and what to do about it, least-toxic first.
Pests3
Aphids
- What it is
- Aphids have soft pear-shaped bodies with long legs and antennae and may be green, yellow, brown, red, or black depending on the species and the plants they feed on. A few species appear waxy or woolly due to the secretion of a waxy white or gray substance over their body surface.
- What you'll see
- Low to moderate numbers of leaf-feeding aphids aren't usually damaging in gardens or on trees. However, large populations can turn leaves yellow and stunt shoots; aphids can also produce large quantities of a sticky exudate known as honeydew, which often turns black with the growth of a sooty mold fungus.
- What to do
- Before planting vegetables, check surrounding areas for sources of aphids and remove these sources. On the other hand, these aphid-infested weeds can sometimes provide an early source of aphid natural enemies.
Onion Maggot
- What you'll see
- White worm that feeds on seedlings, roots or bulbs.
- What to do
- Use crop rotation, avoid excessive amounts of organic matter, and apply insecticides at planting if maggots have been a problem in the past. Destroy infected plants.
Thrips
- What it is
- Most adult thrips are elongate, slender, minute (less than 1/20 inch long), and have long fringes on the margins of both pairs of their long, narrow wings. Immatures (called larvae or nymphs) are oblong or slender and elongate and lack wings.
- What you'll see
- Thrips feeding on plants can damage fruit, leaves, and shoots and very noticeably affect plants’ cosmetic appearance. However, thrips rarely kill or threaten the survival of trees and shrubs.
- What to do
- Thrips species that feed on many different plant species often move into gardens and landscapes when plants in weedy areas or grasslands begin to dry in spring or summer. Avoid planting susceptible plants next to these areas, and control nearby weeds that are alternate hosts of pest thrips.
Diseases2
Botrytis
- What you'll see
- Gray mold appears on leaves, stems, and buds. Small brown or grey sunken lesions appear on the side or near the base of the bulb.
- What to do
- Avoid overwatering, watering at night, and avoid getting water on the plant when watering. Remove any affected plant parts.
Downy mildew
- What you'll see
- Whitish-grey growth appears on older leaves, turning into yellow discoloration.
- What to do
- Avoid overwatering and overhead watering. Don’t crowd plants to provide proper air circulation. Practice crop rotation.
Harvest & storage
How to tell it's ready to pick, and how to keep it once it's in.
- Keeps
- MonthsA long keeper — stores for months.
- Ready to harvest
- Harvest bulbs after the tops fall over; you can also pull a few early when tops are 6-8 in for green shallots.
- Storing
- Lift, split the clusters, and cure a week or two until the skins are papery; then store in mesh bags somewhere cool (32-40F) and dry for months.
Culinary use & nutrition
What it's for in the kitchen, and the nutrients a 100 g raw serving is a notable source of.
In the kitchen
- Roasted
- Pickled / preserved
- Seasoning
Nutrition highlights
- Excellent source
- Vitamin B6
- Good source
- Manganese, Fiber
Share of the Daily Value in a 100 g raw serving (USDA FoodData Central).
Pollinators & wildlife
What this crop offers the garden's wildlife once it flowers — often the payoff for letting a bolting plant stand.
- Bees
- Honeybees and natives — bumble, mason, and sweat bees — working the flowers for pollen and nectar.
- Beneficial insects
- Hoverflies, lady beetles, and parasitoid wasps that keep aphids and caterpillars down.
Shallots seldom get the chance, yet a clump left to flower opens the same umbel of small pale flowers, and sweat bees and hoverflies find it as readily as they do an onion's.
Sources
Growing data on this page is drawn from Utah State University Extension, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, and the other references on our sources page.