Shallot Varieties And Peculiarities Of Their Cultivation

Magpie, Kvochka, Old Believers, White Queen and others …

The homeland of onions is considered the Middle East, from where it penetrated into Ancient Egypt. The pyramid of Cheops was built by tens of thousands of slaves. To prevent epidemics, they were given onions every day, according to surviving sources. Moreover, it constituted a considerable part of the diet, because huge funds were spent on its purchase at that time.

Onions in ancient Rome were necessarily introduced into the ration of legionnaires in order to protect them from various diseases. The Romans believed that the bow gives not only strength but also courage.

It was not only eaten, but also worn as a talisman. Just as numerous dry scales of an onion keep a delicate green sprout, the legend said, so an onion protects a warrior from adversity in war. Onion beliefs spread throughout Europe, it was believed that the bow protects warriors from arrows, swords and halberds. Clad in steel armor, medieval knights hung an ordinary onion instead of a talisman on their chest.

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Onions are very popular these days too, especially shallots. This onion is very similar in character to onions. The only difference is that shallots have stronger branching, smaller bulbs and are stored much longer. Its bulbs are multi-primordial, medium-sized, 25-75 g, dense, depending on the type of spicy or semi-sharp taste. From one planting bulb, 6-12 bulbs can be obtained in the fall, and sometimes the number of bulbs in a nest can reach 20-25.

Shallots are juicier and more aromatic than onions; when used, they do not drown out the taste of other products. Shallots are suitable for drying and canning, and some craftswomen use red shallots to dye woolen yarn a beautiful red color.

Plants of shallots are smaller than onions. The leaves are fistulous, narrow, bright green in color with a slight waxy bloom. The rosettes are low up to 30 cm, compact. The bulbs, depending on the variety, are oval, round or flat-rounded, there are elongated up to 10 cm.The color of dry scales is both white and creamy white, as well as from light yellow to violet-red, juicy scales - white, greenish to purple. Shallot is an early ripening culture. The bulbs ripen 70-80 days after planting, and the greens can be used 25-30 days after planting.

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Shallots are cold-resistant, light-loving culture. Prefers fertile soil. The best predecessors for it are legumes, pumpkin and green. In the fall, 5-6 kg of humus per 1 m2, 40-50 g of superphosphate, 200 g of wood ash are introduced into the garden before digging. Didn't have time to prepare the beds in the fall? In the spring, before planting the bulbs, apply humus, ash and complex mineral fertilizer directly to the grooves.

Shallots are planted in autumn and spring, as it is a very cold-resistant crop. In the spring they are planted as soon as the soil warms up. For planting, it is recommended to use bulbs with a diameter of about 3 cm. In order to prevent diseases, the bulbs can be warmed up at a temperature of about 40 ° C for 8 hours before planting. The bulbs are planted to a depth of 5-6 cm, so that there is a 2-3 cm layer of soil above them. Too shallow planting often leads to bulbs bulging out of the ground, and too deep gives small bulbs.

The distance between the rows is 20-30 cm, between the plants in a row - 8-10 cm. After planting, the plants must be watered, and the ridges must be mulched. If the shallot bulbs are completely frozen in autumn, they thaw almost without damage. Care consists in regular loosening and weeding.

Shallots are propagated more often in a vegetative way. To do this, in the fall, after harvesting, the bulbs weighing 25-40 g are selected. The seeds of the shallot are small, their germination rate is low (50-70%). However, it should be remembered that prolonged vegetative reproduction (within 5-7 years) leads to the accumulation of diseases, aging, and hence to degeneration. Therefore, they resort to growing renewed planting material from seeds or from air bulbs formed on peduncles.

To scare off an onion fly, which often attacks onions, carrots are planted along the edge of the garden, and plants with a strong smell are laid out in the aisles - tansy, wormwood, yarrow. Some gardeners water the plantings with saline (1 tbsp. Salt per 10 liters of water) once a week from the beginning of the growth of the leaves until the beginning of July. The ridges need to be mulched and constantly loosened the soil near the plants. Shallots are harvested from late July to mid-August, after the leaves have lodged. It is undesirable to delay harvesting, the bulbs may begin to germinate, especially if the soil is wet.

During storage, shallots are much less susceptible to disease than onions. The most common disease is bacterial bulb rot. Shallots are also good for getting greens in winter. When forcing the shallot on the windowsill, the bulbs can be reused. They are taken out of the container, cut across just below the middle, and again planted in the ground. This gives a double harvest.

There are not many varieties of shallots yet, but the best of them are: White asterisk - an unsurpassed variety in keeping quality; Kushchevka Kharkiv - early ripening with large bulbs, multi-primordial variety; Belozerets-94 is an early-ripening bottle-shaped bedding variety; Uralsky-40 - early elongated red variety; White Queen - ivory, large-fruited, productive, medicinal variety; Kuban is a dense, large-fruited, elongated, long-stored variety; Kubansky Kvochka - multi-primordial, lying, with beautiful pink-red bulbs; The shrike is an ultra-early maturing, drought-resistant variety with long purple bulbs; Starorusskiy is a sedimentary variety with large red-violet bulbs of a rather large size; Old Believers - long-stored, high-yielding with beautiful, rounded, large bulbs.

Shallots are a valuable medicinal plant with a wide spectrum of activity. The ancient Russian herbalists describe the beneficial effect of shallots in a number of diseases. An expert on medicinal plants V.N. Nikolsky wrote many years ago: “In Russia, ordinary people eat raw onions with bread, salt and kvass; it gives health, gives a fresh complexion and preserves teeth."

A special taste, a pungent pungent smell gives the onion essential oil, which makes us cry. Onion contains a whole complex of vitamins: C, B ₁, provitamin A (carotene). Physiologists believe that for normal health, each person should eat at least 10 kg of the most common onion per year. Shallot phytoncides are deadly enemies of many bacteria. The volatile substances of this plant, its juices and extracts are detrimental to many types of microorganisms.

So grow shallots in your plots and be healthy