Kitchen Garden Forum

Sure I've written this somewhere before.
I grow Musselburgh like most people but last year had even better results with Oarsman. Trouble is with a 12 month crop you don't have your results at seed order time so I'm growing Musselburgh again plus one with a French name (includes bleue) that we got from The Real Seed Catalogue but I'm at work so can't look it up properly.
I sow them in April in heated greenhouse in deep pots and move them to cold greenhouse when they are nicely germinated. Harden them off (outside for a week now) then plant them out in little trenches so they look like slightly wide spaced Spring Onions. When I clear the First Early Potatoes I fork over and add a bit of growmore then create a trench about 1' wide and 6" deep, make a double row of 9" deep holes 8" apart with a broken four candle, sorry fork handle, and transplant into them with a bit of the traditional trimming of roots and tops. Water them in by filling the holes and repeat a couple of times in the next two weeks to settle them in. I only transplant the biggest ones from my little trenches and use the rest as mini-leeks (I think that is what the original thread was about). When they are growing well in the Autumn I weed them and earth them up by filling the trench in. I regard Leeks as a Winter vegetable and don't try for any sort of Autumn or earlier crop.

We must be the only gardeners who don't grow Musselburgh. No reason either, except we like to try newer varieties. Then we end up so pleased with the results we don't go re-visit the earlier ones. We grow two varieties to give us a six month season -Albana (autumn) and Toledo (winter). All grown as Tigger does, using the 'watering in' method and not earthing up.

Re recipes, we have loads but often incorporating other veg. A favourite of ours is Leek, Potato & Roasted Garlic soup though, which I will post under 'Recipes' for you Mr PH.

To blanch leeks enough for normal culinary use, make a nice deep planting hole with a dibber, drop the leeks in , and water them to bed the roots in.
I don't bother faffing with collars etc, life is too short.

I grow my leeks on in a plug tray, and drop the complete plug into the hole - a good tip from KG of a number of years ago.

whoops, just returned from transplanting all my leeks to discover – in my books – that I should have merely watered them in, not backfilled the hole with soil around them. Yes I know I should have checked first, but sometimes life's just too busy. Have I done something unforgivable? Will the leeks survive?

Hi Biggerplant,
The short answer is no they will be just fine but they may not grow to the size you are expecting. The idea of simply watering is to allow the roots to take and let the plant grow to fit the hole in an unencumbered fashion. I feel that you are likely to have soil in the inner part of the plants when you harvest. This really depends on the size and state of the plants when they are planted out. If there was a good stem, making the plants look like mini Leeks when you have planted then I think everything will be fine. If they are very young and still only have leaves I feel it is then that you will run into problems later on.

Snap tigger, but this year I'm also experimenting with planting in furrows with Yates Empire. Mussleburgh leeklets going in this weekend in similar fashion. PH, don't you lurve the green bits? We do!

It's strange to me that Andrew Tokeley advocates King Richard. Last year when I worked out my seed order various lists said that King Richard had been replaced with Jolant.
Allan

thanks johnboy. Yes some were pencil thick, others pretty feeble so these might not get to a good size I guess. Still, it's my first year of growing leeks so frankly anything is a bonus!

I've read the article but could not find reference to "Rami" these were in the KG "Special Readers Offers" (got 100 planted out and felt they should have at least got a mention !

Gigante d'Inverno (should that be inferno? )went in this morning, they are wearing a fleece sun bonnet to help them keep their cool

Hi Trevor,
'Rami' used to be Autumn Mammoth 'Rami' but disappeared from the commercial catalogues and has come back this year as plain old 'Rami' and has gone organic. The price is absolutely sky high at £12.15. for 2500 seeds. By comparison other Organic seeds are expensive at £6.60 for 2500 seeds whereas Musselburgh conventional seeds are £2.40 for 10 grams which is approx 3500 seeds. The strange thing is that you can get equally good results from Musselburgh so why pay more.
Tornado Pelleted seeds are £9.65 for 2500 seeds and conventional seeds are £5.50. for 2500.
Tornado took over from Goliath as it is a reselected seed from Goliath and has good anti rust properties.
I grow Musselburgh and Tornado and shall never leave Musselburg which I must have grown for at least 50 years and it as good now as it always was.
I use the same trench method as Geoff and I manage to get a blanched stems of at least 10 inches long even from a Musselburgh.

I thought around £7 for 100 plants inc delivery was pretty good value !

Are these going to end up HUGE or normal or thin ?
What size can they be first harvested (assuming they dont cook in the ground first) ?
I'm hoping we can have some fresh dug ones for Xmas lunch.

Hi Trevor,
I have checked in Moles Catalogue and Rami is usable from mid August until the last week in April so think you'll be OK for Christmas! Of course it depends when they were sown or planted out but you will easily see if they are at a size acceptable to the cook.
It was last in Moles Catalogue in 2003 as Autumn Mammoth 3 'Rami.' Igrew them that year and they were very good medium to long and they are listed the same this year. I reckon that it is the same Leek just relaunched as Organic.
£7.00 for 100 plants was a very good offer and one to take if you have not grown your own.
I'm sure you will be pleased with the outcome.