re: two allium questions (and that's shallot... :-) )

A friend said not to bother with sets and that if I just went down to the greengrocers and bought some shallots and planted them in a tub then more shallots would grow from that. Do people think this would work?

My second question is: am I too late for this year? I'm in TW, Kent and the sun is shining so I think we've hit spring for good now...

PS Many apologies for the awful pun in the subject title - I just couldn't resist!! 

Thanks for the advice, I might play it safe and get some sets then. It's only my first time growing them and I don't want to put myself off   

I'll plant them this weekend 

Leaving aside the possibility of introducing infection to your plot, I'm intrigued as to how much you paid for your "greengrocer" shallots (I always thought that shop-bought were (relatively) large and expensive, shallots for planting are smaller and quite cheap!)

........... I put some Golden Gourmet in 2-3 weeks ago and they haven't pushed up any green shoots yet. I'm going to plant some more soon.

Mine went in 4¹/₂ months ago and most have only shown in the last few days and some still aren't up. The bulbs are still firm so I haven't given up hope. Only one or two out of over 60 have gone soft and been pulled out.

I had a load of small shallots left from last season. I thought they were too small as seed shallots and I couldn't be bothered peeling them for pickles. For fun I put them in modules and now have 70 rooted and shooted plants which look as good as those sown last Autumn. I've planted them along my row of new apple trees. Don't think the new trees will take too much from them and vice versa. Don't think I'll bother with Autumn planting this year.