I am about to start year three of my adventure with shallots from true seeds. Did you ever think of selecting your own shallot from a patch that are all different? Well if so, and if you didn't get seeds from me already, send me a pm and I'll happily share.
I received the original seeds several seasons ago in Nicky's swap, from a Canadian gardener whose shallots had bolted. We are not exactly shallot country here, with short season and fickle weather, but I also made every mistake possible, to keep me from getting bulbs. The starts I grew from seed were very small, I didn't do what is necessary to grow them big before transplant. Then when I transplanted, I spaced them too far apart. This caused them to put their energy into dividing instead of forming bulbs in the first season. Mother nature had a hand in killing the non-hardy starts by providing a couple weeks of winter in June. The others divided instead of bulbing, and were left in the ground. I thought they would die, but not at all! They all survived and were up early ready to surprise me with season 2. To add to the spacing errors, I thinned the rows and transplanted those into extra rows, so there was more room to multiply again. This is when I began to notice that the plants were all different. The color at the base of the stem varied from shades of red, brownish, pink, yellow or no color, and the shoots were different shades of green. And then as they reacted to yet another horrible spring of frosts, the flower buds began to emerge in all different colors as well. I thought I would have all plants quite similar to the parent, but instead I had 72 unique individuals.

I know you're supposed to pinch off the buds if they form, in order to get bulbs. But I was so entranced by the variety of buds coming forth, I couldn't help myself... I just had to see those flowers. In the end I allowed them all to flower and provide some nourishment for the bumblebees which are hungry for flowers here at that time of year - soon after midsummer they began to open. Some flowers were really stunning especially as they shed their pods.

In the end I saved a stupid amount of seeds. Yes, a boatload of seeds from the crazy patch. The bees were pleased.

Whats there not to like about these things.
I would take them over a grass lawn any day of the week.

Chief Brody is into boatloads of seed. Will PM address shortly.

That is awesome guys! [mention]worth1[/mention] you might even make a deer repellent lawn!
My biggest problem right now is deciding which seeds to start and how many. Most of them were saved separately, and my data is all over the place as to what traits, still pulling that together. Some I know right off the bat, others but a few clues. Plant height is something I did right and measured every plant. So I have some 'fairy shallots' 30 cm or shorter - they are cute! Then medium size 35-40, and lots of tall ones 45-50 cm (one at 55 cm!).
I have some I labeled right away for their awesome or unusual flowers.
Oh and I estimated the clump size based on the number of flowers although they all had way more shoots than flowers. The plant with the biggest clump was also a tall plant, 34 flowers on it, and good sized shoots. So for anyone that is aiming to use the unbulbed shoots Louisiana style, these would be great.
I have another group saved together that were the latest to flower. That might be important for bolt resistance, IDK. Everything flowered here in the awful summers we had.
And I am looking at a few that were noted as the earliest to "spread", as I understand it this is what shallots do when they are ready to start bulbing - they curve away from the middle.
For example: So if there is a special trait that anyone is interested in, I can probably dig out the relevant seeds, at least you'll know the mother.

My brothers place up north of here was covered in wild onions and infested with wild rabbits.
I used to go out with my sister in laws 38 revolver and shoot a couple or three young cottontails, gather wild onions and make a stew.

Are any of these plants looking like they could be an ornamental?

I have pretty much scoured the net for information about growing shallots from true seed. The upshot is that they should be planted fairly densely, aiming to produce a single bulb in the first year. Spacing just one inch apart (2.5 cm) in the row, with rows as tight as six inches (15 cm) apart, maybe 8-10 inches between rows depending on the weeding plan.
One study on true seed shallot production in Indonesia found the optimum density varied depending on variety, but 100-175 per meter square. That is quite a lot of plants for the area, and if you're going to select and replant, you should see quite a lot of variation in that many plants. This gives me hope I will somehow find a square meter or two that I can prep for my seedlings come spring.
Don't forget, I still have the original shallot patch to deal with. I assume they are living on under the snow. So I want to try using some of their shoots as starts as well. I'm thinking the wee 'fairy shallots' will be transplanted to a border somewhere and let them be pretty. And then there are others that I would like to keep as perennials to make seed for sowing every year... could I deprive my bees of that? The first ol queen that comes around complaining, you know, I'm a sucker for bees. And seeds.
Another possibility for true seeds is to grow sets the first year. This is done by planting even more densely, no more than 1/2 inch space all around, or 2-3 seeds per square inch. In the field, the machine makes five drills an inch apart and densely sow into those. You can plant at midsummer for sets, roll down the foliage to encourage bulbing two months later, then lift and cure when they are about 2 cm diameter. They don't want to be bigger than a nickel or else they will be prone to bolt. Store like onions and plant next spring.
OTOH if anyone wants perennial clumps of shallots that might?? or might not? flower in year two, then space em 5 inches apart.

I have no idea at this point, which strategy is going to work best for me, to get the shallots to actually bulb here in the frozen north, and be a crop I can count on.

Nan6b wrote: ↑Sat Feb 22, 2020 11:31 am Are any of these plants looking like they could be an ornamental?

To me they are very ornamental, whether short or tall. Some of the shortest ones are cute for a front border, while the tallest ones are majestic. The flower buds are really pretty, and there are contrasting colors in every size, depending on the height preferred. Once they have fully bloomed they look a lot like chives with only subtle shades of variation in color. And some of them change color differently as they set their pods - turning white or rosy around the pods.
I could easily pack you up a variety of the most ornamental ones. Will post some pics of my favorites too. I grouped them by height because that is how you would use them in a flower garden.
I can't say for certain whether they will positively flower (year two) because that depends in part on the environment. In a hot climate maybe not? Or maybe? I think in Pittsburgh you get enough of a winter that there's a good chance of flowers.
I have the data as to which ones flowered early - that may be a sign that they flower more readily than those who bloomed late. There is a genetic component to that, where some are "freely flowering" and some are much more resistant.

worth1 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 22, 2020 11:18 am My brothers place up north of here was covered in wild onions and infested with wild rabbits.
I used to go out with my sister in laws 38 revolver and shoot a couple or three young cottontails, gather wild onions and make a stew.

Yeah I was reading about wild onions last night, because there were two really wierd plants among these shallots, which afaict might be a cross with a wild onion, such as Allium canadense or similar. The leaves are flat and pale green. One of the plants just looked sickly but it is basically very dwarfed - it produced a few little flowers no seeds. The other one was likewise in the leaf but much more vigorous - all the same just a very very dense bunch of slender flattish leaves lime green, and the flowers were odd and much paler color than the rest - see pic, a lot of the florets were just missing the functional parts. The plant only produced 8 seeds so I will be checking them out to see if they are viable or not. Truly wierd! But should be edible nonetheless. Or just fun to have around.

They look a little like the garlic I keep perennially (I don't dig it up and it just grows small bulbs.) Flat light colored stems.

Is that a wild garlic Nan? These are tiny compared to the garlic I grow. And flat leaf is not typical for garlic.

Here are a couple of pics of H-row - these were all smaller plants that got moved to the back of the bus. There is a play of colors which are shades of mauve from pinkish to purplish. The color differences seem to be gone when they all have fully open flowers, and then begin to look different again as the pods form. H1 in the back corner was the most "freely flowering" of all. It put out a bud before any others, and it also had a late wave of flowers in the fall. These are all about 30 cm or less in height ( a foot-ish). I'll be dividing these to share with my mom, since she needs something near the front of the border.

This group G-5,6,7 have nice big buds and sturdy clumps, although they are also only 30-35 cm tall. I like these three together, and I saved their seeds together too. I think these are sturdy enough to produce some kind of bulbs, even though they're not a tall plant. Anyway... pretty.

You know how much I like onions and garlic this is driving me nuts.
I used to eat wild onions when I was in grade school on the play ground.
The wild onions are more kin to garlic hence the flat leaves.

There is a third group that I think of as maybe strictly ornamental- A5 group. These are smallish to medium height plants 35 cm+ with unusual bud colors, which flowered on the later side. The stems I think are fairly slender and the buds are not the largest of all, but the colors are outstanding. I saved these separately and some others that have in between shades of bud and flower. IDK if these would ever produce a large bulb (just guessing by the stem diameter) but anyway I will try and find out. Never know when you might find a favorite... For flowers, they are definitely keepers. I'll find a place for them somewhere...

worth1 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 22, 2020 2:13 pm You know how much I like onions and garlic this is driving me nuts.
I used to eat wild onions when I was in grade school on the play ground.
The wild onions are more kin to garlic hence the flat leaves.

Yeah what a crazy adventure it was to plant these seeds. Fellow allium fiend.
You know these are all freely pollinated by the bees and such, so although I know the mothers I can't say what the seed will be... Possibly those wierd tufty things have pollinated the flowers next to them? just a little...

I've been told that the spring shoots on these are delicious, btw, and I don't doubt it... I did taste a few and they are garlicky near the bulb end and more oniony further up the leaf. But I tried to eat them late in the fall, and they were definitely tough. I'm told that in spring they are perfectly tender, we shall see...

Another variable that is interesting is the size of the clump (number of shoots). I only estimated that from the number of flowers - way too hard to count shoots. I gave the biggest clump prize to C1, which is the mauvey-pink pod here behind A1 (plummy pods) and B1 (small darker purple - this is one of the slender ornamental A5 group). C1 had 34 flowers on it, and a lot more shoots. So if multiplying is the gene you're looking for, we got it. C1 is 45-50 cm tall, in the largest group of plants. One of the small plants in H row (H6 with rosy pods) actually had 36 flowers! So there are a few really big clump makers, although they all divided and flowered (11-12 flowers was at the lower end).

Here is C1 just opening, and some others in the "tall" category 45-50 cm+ - A6&7, B6 and 7 behind. Some are early flowering, some are late, some have large flowers, some small, some purple buds, some brown buds, etc, etc....