French Grey Shallot Yield

This is my first year succeeding in growing shallots. Today I harvested three of the five shallot plants I started last October in my hugel bed. To my surprise, there were a lot more shallots per starter plant than expected. One of them had 28 bulbs, some small but most of a reasonable size. It looked like the original bulb split into 3 then those grew several bulbs each. Is this normal?

I'd like to hear about what other people get from their shallots and the conditions for success.

My French gray shallots look just like yours, and I generally get similar yields for each bulb planted. I will say that, although I normally plant in the fall, this year I forgot to put them in until spring. They had already sprouted and had green stems when they went in (I think it was in March) but they caught up and were ready to harvest at the normal time of year. I'm sure our very long, cool, wet spring helped. I did not water them this year at all because of the rain and I do think that lack of water in the summer decreased the size of each bulb a bit.

I've also been growing the Dutch Red shallots from bulb because my partner prefers their bigger size when cooking. I lose more of those to rot when planted in the fall though, so I'm planning to do half in the fall and half in the spring to hedge my bets.

The French grays are so pungent you almost have to wear goggles when cutting them. They are delicious!

Good to know that they can do well planted in spring too. Mine did get regular water but I may start experimenting with moving to some of the outer beds that don't get regular watering. Trying to find plants that do well with our hot dry summers is becoming more important.

My red shallots didn't rot over winter but they were in raised beds. Sounds like they are good candidates for outer beds too.

Thanks for your input. I like comparing notes with others.