An Allium adventure

Shallot seeds have germinated!!!

This year’s Experiment in Seeding^® is the Alliums. I have always opted for sets or starts for my onions, shallots and leeks. But this year, while in the blissful fog of catalog browsing, I decided to try my hand at seeding my Alliums.

My personal farming guru (PFG) has assured me that this is easy. Out of deference to said guru’s revered status as a consummate farmer I refrained from saying out loud that it might be easy for you, but what about me? But really, where’s the fun in any garden season that does not include some new experiment?

And I did my homework. Wading through much confusion in Allium nomenclature and lengthy explanations of the relationship between latitude and onion bulbing, I was able to determine the cultivars I wanted to try. I asked my PFG many questions, dropping in a reference to ‘day neutral’ to demonstrate my commitment. He was full of good advice so I went for it and ordered seed:

Onions
Allium cepa ‘Candy’ -
A. cepa 'Borrettana Cipollini'

Leeks
A. porrum ‘Bleu de Solaize’
A. porrum ‘King Sieg’

Shallots
A. ascalonicum ‘Prisma’
A.ascalonicum ‘Olympus’


I selected ‘Candy’ as a sweet hybrid, touted as an onion that will develop a bulb at any latitude. 'Borrettana Cipollini' made the cut because cipollini onions are, well, cute. Flat button shaped and described as superior in flavor. Fedco plans on offering a red cipollini next year. ‘Bleu de Solaize’ is a French heirloom from the 19th century. If it’s been around for that long then I surely must try it. ‘King Sieg’ is a cross of two well regarded varieties, King Richard with Siegfried Frost. It is supposed to take less time to mature. As for the shallots, few varieties were readily available, making me wonder if they are really that easy to grow from seed.

Playwright Alan Plater described a zealot as one ‘who redoubles his effort when he has forgotten the point’. An apt description. I don’t recall the reason I decided to try Alliums from seed. It seemed like a good idea at the time. But in the fashion of a zealot, I will redouble my efforts: watch for more germination, prep the bed, plant the seedlings and cross my fingers.