Kitchen Garden Forum

In the past few days my leeks have suddenly become absolutely smothered with blackfly. This has never ever happened before. What's the best way of getting rid of them? The plants which have developed rust seem to be even worse affected than the others. Will a strong blast with the hose kill them off or will that make the rust even worse?

Hi Primrose

I have never even heard of blackfly on leeks. What next, a plague of locusts?

If you want to stick to non-chemical methods, try a soap spray Primrose. You can spray it on quite thickly, so it runs down the inside of the leaves and gets as many as possible.

You probably already know this, but just in case...prep the leeks by splitting them lengthways down 1 side and soaking upside down in a sink of cold water for an hour or so. It softens and floats out a lot of the debris and you can open the leek up to wash any remaining dirt or livestock out under the tap before it ends up in your dinner.

Sue

Dear Primrose, i don't know how many leeks you have, but you could just put your finger and thumb round the the leek and squish them.
I have tried my hardest not to leave this open to rude comments, as that would never do.

I got the hose out this morning and gave them a thorough blast, as well as stripping off some of the outer leaves which were covered with rust. They all look a little more healthy now, except those which are already going to seed, so it look like leek & potato soup will be on the menu again this week.

I have them on the odd sweetcorn cob, never had that before either.