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31 Jul 17 Michelle (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

I planted a number of shooting French Shallot bulbs earlier this year. I now have rows of beautiful plants. Today after checking if any bulbs were below the soil I have discovered that there are no bulbs only lots of plants that look like shallots or green onions. Could you please give me some advice on what may have happened. Also are the stems of the planrs able to be eaten like green onions? Thank you so much.

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01 Aug 17 Mike (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

I have looked up French shallots and they look a bit different to mine. My shallots are a cluster (when mature) of 6-12 segments, lightly attached together. As I pointed out below, if I grow them into the winter (planted Feb March April) they take a bit longer to form bulbs - they stay like a spring onion for longer - straight with no bulb. Left long enough they will bulb up. If I plant say now (August), when they mature in the hotter weather in Oct/Nov they go to bulb very quickly. I don't eat much of the green top but some do eat it. My suggestion is give them time to bulb. I eat them before they really bulb up - we eat them in salads, sandwiches or straight as they are raw.

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