A friend and I ordered a yellow shallot from William Dam this year - I planted mine later so mine are not as far along. But I was in her garden yesterday and hers are all gone to seed. I was amazed to see that, and I sure hope the seeds are viable because a much easier way to increase your stock..
I have read, about 'multipliers' in general I think (or maybe it was just for potato onions) , that if you plant a small bulb you will get one large one, but if you plant a large bulb you will get many small ones. Sooo... the idea would be to plant the large to get small ones for planting, and plant the small to get large ones for eating.
Maybe true shallots don't follow the same pattern.
