I bought a large leek at last years local show with a view to growing it on and getting pips. I have done this and now have the stalk and head with lots if little grass like tufts on it, but I have tried pulling them off and there are no roots or anything , its starting to go to seed now, could someone advise me what to do next please?
Mandy
Leek pips
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strawberry tart
- KG Regular
- Posts: 130
- Joined: Sat May 26, 2007 10:37 pm
hi Mandy, its a bit early yet to be rooting leek "grass" or "pips"(as these havent formed yet.)
What you can do is patiently remove all the seed heads as these are not what you are after, but leaving the "grass" in place., then continue to grow on the leek. In an ideal world you would hope to have still fresh grass to root in mid to late November. These will have the startings of small root nodules and should be teased off of the mother plant and rooted a bit like a cutting, either in a covered propagator with some gentle bottom heat or in a pot covered with a polythene bag.They should root quite readily and must then be pricked out into cells or small pots grown on with potting up done as req.Ideally with bottom heat and as much light as is possible. If in November however the grass is too far advanced as sometimes happens it will have dried off to a brown leaf but it will have formed a small bulbil or "pip" this can be rooted exactly as above.
Hope all this helps best of luck Srawberry Tart.
What you can do is patiently remove all the seed heads as these are not what you are after, but leaving the "grass" in place., then continue to grow on the leek. In an ideal world you would hope to have still fresh grass to root in mid to late November. These will have the startings of small root nodules and should be teased off of the mother plant and rooted a bit like a cutting, either in a covered propagator with some gentle bottom heat or in a pot covered with a polythene bag.They should root quite readily and must then be pricked out into cells or small pots grown on with potting up done as req.Ideally with bottom heat and as much light as is possible. If in November however the grass is too far advanced as sometimes happens it will have dried off to a brown leaf but it will have formed a small bulbil or "pip" this can be rooted exactly as above.
Hope all this helps best of luck Srawberry Tart.
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strawberry tart
- KG Regular
- Posts: 130
- Joined: Sat May 26, 2007 10:37 pm
Ive grown decent leeks for show without artificial light but they do respond to growlights or was this going to be for heat? They respond better to bottom heat like soil warming cable or just a parrafin heater under the bench at night.If you dont have the facilities to grow them on at this time of year and you do have them at the "pip" stage just keep them cool and dry then root them later say early to mid January this would be the latest time really for decent show leeks any time before this is a bonus. Ive probably made it sound more convoluted than it actually is. all the best S.T.