more on leeks

[david71]

any advice on sowing leeks (for next year) would be welcome. i had very poor results this year.

[Monika]

I am not sure about giving advice but I have grown leeks successfully for many years and this is what I do: I usually grow Musselburgh, sow them in a large pot (say, 6 or 7 inches diameter) about end of January on the windowsill in the house. They move out into the slightly heated greenhouse about March. I then plant the whole potful (having tipped it out of the pot) into a well-fertilised spot (which has usually been manured for the previous crop) and in about early June, I dig up this bunch of small leeks, split them up and plant them individually into holes made with a dibber. I plant them 6 inches apart and as they grow, I "thin" them out by using the largest ones when I need some, so eventually I hope to end up with every other plant (i.e. about 1 foot apart) to stand over winter.
I like Musselburgh because it's not an F1 hybrid and matures at different times so that you can harvest them from mid-summer (as now) till the next spring.

[Granny]

Again, I'm not an expert but I just sow mine straight into the ground in March and plant them out in June. They don't seem to mind being crowded - some get bigger than others, and I start havesting late autumn. I don't pull them as early as Monika does but then I'm still eating summer things until then. Years ago I was given some by an old fen boy who did just that. The problems this year could have been the weather.
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Granny

[Primrose]

I sow mine very thinly in February/March in trays and leave them there until mid May when the leaves are starting to thicken up a bit, at which point I plant them out into manured ground about 8 inches apart using a dibber. At this stage they are only about 6 inches high and easily lost to view in the veggie patch, but as I suffer from back problems, this method avoids the extra bending involved by planting out in bulk and then having to thin them later. It usually seems to work and my leeks this year are thickening up nicely and seem to be the only veggies (apart from Swiss Chard) which haven't suffered from the poor weather.

[david71]

thanks to Primrose, Granny and Monika. Could you give me some idea of how you keep the seeds, for example, i have been advised to keep them in the fridge until they are ready for sowing, this sounds a bit extreme but i would try if it works.

[Primrose]

David, the seeds I sowed this year were Musselburgh and were two years old. I keep all my seed packets in a lidded plastic box in the garage for most of the year and only bring them out in Spring when it's more convenient to have them handy during the sowing season. I find that if I immediately squeeze out all the air from the little foil packets after removing the seed I need, and fold the top over a couple of times it seems to keep most seed fairly fresh. (Although I definitely wouldn't risk this with parsnips).

[Johnboy]

Hi David,
I grow some splendid Leeks every year and I use Musselburgh, Lyon 2 "Prizetaker" and I also grow, from pelleted seed, Tornado which is the leek that took over from the old variety Goliath. Tornado has quite good anti-rust properties and can be well recommended.
I grow in individual cells in modular trays (commercial) 126 per tray. I am waiting to plant out the Tornado until the ground has had a chance to dry out a bit. This is the good thing of growing in module trays as the plants can grow quite large before they can be planted out. The advantage is that I can wait up to another month before planting out without damaging any roots.
JB.

[david71]

thanks to primrose and johnboy for you advice