Kitchen Garden Forum

I decided to pick some of the younger looking leeks to use as a side vegetable and to my surprise they have a bulb at the bottom like garlic but haven’t thickened up above it. What could cause this?

The only think I can think of is the dogs do occasionally walk through the raised beds and possibly filled the holes in after planting. Could that have caused it? Do leeks need the holes to remain open for a good long time?

They were Musselburgh leeks. I’ve plucked all the younger looking ones and they’re all the same which is the majority of my leek planting. gutted.

Leeks are really heavy feeders and also like plenty of moisture, Myrrk, so was wondering if that might be the cause….

It could be OH. I watered them daily but the beds are an unknown and full of bark mulch. I should get that resolved over winter though and am going to put the, rather lovely looking, contents of the compost pile that was left behind on them.

It does sound as if they were going hungry.

Are they Musselburgh from your own sowing or bought / given plants? If they could be mislabelled they sound a bit like pot leeks.

Your thoughts are a lot kinder than mine, Geoff, as mine seemed to say, Myyrk hadn’t grown them very well….

OY!

I probably didn’t grow them very well to be fair. , they were my own sowing albeit from an open pack that someone had gifted me. I started them in root trainers and they had a great root system when I planted them out.