[MyAchingBack]

Can anyone recommend a good onion or shallot that I can grow for pickling? I would rather not grow from seed.

[Yorkie]

Have you tried a forum search?  There's a few threads that might provide some answers.

[grinling]

Silverskin very nice, but fussy about soil, made a raised bed.
Can't remember what shallot as I keep the smaller ones for planting the following year.
Pickling vinegar more mportant as you can buy the basic or add to this to improve spicyness.
Do not keep as long as the shop bought, so make in batches.

[DD.]

I find silverskin good, but OP said they'd prefer not to grow from seed.

[MyAchingBack]

I was going to try Silverskin from seed but I read somewhere on the forum that people weren’t having much success.

[DD.]

Mine have always done OK.

From a couple of years OK, (the lighter green ones, left of centre).

[MyAchingBack]

You’re just showing off now  . I have just looked them up on the Marshalls website and I didn’t realize that they could be sown directly into their harvest location.  I only have a small 3-shelf plastic greenhouse so I don’t have a lot of space to grow things in modules.

[DD.]

If you do go ahead with them, consider getting them from here:

http://www.molesseeds.co.uk/flower_and_vegetable_seed_store_uk/Products_Paris_Silverskin_3914.html

For 5p more than Marshalls charge for a small packet,  you get 5g of seed - and that's a lot more than a 15' row.  They'll last you a few years!

[MyAchingBack]

Many thanks DD.

[biguns]

A great pic DD, are these good for showing or would the judges prefer the brown types,

[DD.]

I'll pass on that.

My stuff's for eating!

As a footnote, not everything always works. The sparse onions, very left, were grown from seed. I must have planted about 200 of them.

I made one jar of pickled onions out of the lot!