Kitchen Garden Forum

Plan is to do leeks this year, tried a couple of years ago, friend gave me some plants . . . they never made anything more than the thickness of my pinkie!!!

Any advise on how to do it from scratch (seed)?

CJS

likewise, never done them before and I'm going to give them a go from seed in modules then plant them on. I've been googling the most highly rated type of leek and bleu de solaise seems to be very popular. Good luck.

Hi CJS, there are early and late varieties and some more suited for baby leeks, so first consider which you prefer and what time of year you want them to crop. Like other things you need good fertile soil and keep them watered if there is drought.

Most leeks are pretty hardy. This winter my favourite leek, Jaune de Poitou, which is supposed to be a more tender, early variety has survived all the horrible weather and I've hardly lost any. There are still about a dozen good plants left and I've used half a dozen this week in pies and soup. In fact they have survived better than the Bleu Solaise which is supposed to be hardier. These two both do well and look lovely in adjacent rows with the yellowish leaves of the first one and the blue of the second.

I've found in the past that the taller varieties are more susceptible to frost damage than the shorter ones.

A good all rounder is Musselborough and the seeds are easy to get.

I sow them into pots with a bit of depth in them, not too close together, and when the roots are growing out of the bottom, carefully tip them out and tease them apart and plant them out in the garden.

Another thing I've found is that when I've given them special treatment by putting them in separate modules etc., they haven't done as well and I've lost more at the seedling stage than when I just grow them all together in one pot.

You don't need to mess about making little holes with a dibber, which compacts the soil, and can easily just make a hole with a trowel and drop them in when I plant them out. I do water them in like it recommends - letting the water wash soil in to cover the roots up.

You don't need to mess about cutting bits off before you plant them either.

I've always found leeks easy to grow from seed and generally stick with Musselburgh which work well for me and survived the winter's sub zero temperatures.

I sow in trays which are slightly deeper than the shallow one/one & a half inch deep trays. Deeper supermarket containers for tomatoes, grapes etc are good. This allows them more root development room so they can be left in there for a little longer if necessary if it's not good planting out weather when they're ready.

I use a steel leek-dibber to make individual holes in a row for my leeks. When they're ready to plant out, I pour water into each hole first, drop each seedling into the hole, and when they're all in position, water the hole again so that some soil slips down to cover the roots. No further infilling of the hole is necessary as the rain will do this gradually.

It's a bit of a back breaking job if you've got lots of leeks to plant but I find once this is done they need very little attention thereafter. Some people suggest trimming the roots of the seedlings before planting out but I never bother.

Thats great, thanks, I'm getting quite excited about my leeks I have a bed that will do perfect I think, its where I have grown runner beans for the past three years. I always dig a trench, fill with compost and manure for my beans, a friend tells me beans ad to the soil as well? Beside this is a bed that is poor by comparison, although lightly top dressed with well rotted manure previous years. This year the top dressing has been sieved soil from an 18 month old turf heap, again, friend tells me, the parsnips I intend to sow here prefer the poorer soil?

Going to be a year of interest. I have created a courgette bed, basically, alternate layers of rotted compost and upside down turfs, and the beans are moving to the newly dug 12'x3' patch, recovered from the lawn

Just placed my order with Dobbies for 'Musselburgh' leek seeds, thank you all once again.

CJS

I endorse the choice of Musselburgh, Last year is the first year that I did NOT use Musselburgh and lots of our leeks went mushy and horrid in the cold weather which had never happened before, so this year it's Musselburgh again and also Lyon Prizetaker which I grow as an early. Both are now in pots, about 2 inches high, in the cold greenhouse. They will go outside under fleece later (when I plant out the seed raised onions and shallots) until the pots are full of seedlings, each plant about thin pencil thickness. I then divide them and plant them the usual leek-fashion by just dropping them into a hole and watering them in.

Good luck with yours, CJS!

has anybody tried bleu de solaise and if so how do they rate them?

Yes, they are excellent. Still standing up strong now after all the Winter has thrown at them and they have a good flavour.

Hi Monika,
Your choice of Leeks is impeccable. Two varieties that have stood the trials and tribulations of time and to me have never ever failed.
I also grow Tornado which is a very good mammoth variety and has very good anti rust properties. Tornado replaced the old variety Goliath but Goliath seed is still available and is still worth growing.
Where would we all be without Leeks!
JB.

Hi Monika. Musselburgh, is one of those varieties that have stood the test of time. In fact use my own seed, collected each year.

thanks Geoff

Hi Monika

When you sow the seeds in the pots, how far apart do you sow them? I've always sown in trays (at about 1" apart - 50 or so in a tray) before "dibbing them in" in the normal way. I've always had success with them but am interested in letting the roots have a better run.

Regards

Ian

Ian - I wish I had the patience to do this but I find that sowing tiny dark coloured seeds on a dark coloured compost is not an easy thing to do although I do agree with you that leek seedlings probably need to be spaced further apart for a good root run if they sometimes need to be left in their trays for a while to become sufficiently big to plant out.

I've already sown mine rather randomly this year but going forward I'm going to experiment with putting a wet separated layer of thin toilet tissue onto the damp compost in the tray and sow tiny seeds onto that so that I can see them clearly and they don't roll around so much, and then cover with compost. If it works for the tomato seeds I save, stuck onto tissue paper, I don't see why it won't work for leeks. On the other hand, it probably will depend on whether I've got the patience at the time to mess around like this handling seeds when my hands are already dirty !

As you don't seem to be able to buy seed dressing any more I find a light dusting of rooting powder makes them more visible and I don't see as how it can do any harm.