Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi All,

I am growing some leeks from pips. Will these leeks be bigger and better than last year, or will they be just the same as leeks grown from seeds?, is there any advantage from growing from pips??.

Thanks for your help,

regards

Tracie

Tracie, I have not tried growing from pips, but I wondered if this link might be helpful ?

http://www.nvsuk.org.uk/medwyn-williams ... w-393.html

Hi Tracie,
I am growing not Leeks from pips but experimenting with Garlic pips this year.
I have grown Leeks from pips several times and the results have be very good every time. I think that if I were to get pips every year I would use them in preference to seed.
Best of luck in your endeavour.
JB.

The advantage of growing from pips is that they will all be genetically identical to their parent. If the parent was a particular whopper, then pips from this plant have the potential to be just as spectacular, which is why exhibition growers favour this propagation method. I must emphasise that you gain only the potential by propagating from pips: your mileage may vary depending on how they are grown.

Excuse my ignorance but what are leek pips
Regards Brenjon

Hi Brenjon,
Leek Pips are produced in the flower head but not always. I have had several go into bloom in the same row and some produce seeds and some pips. I'm afraid I do not know the reason why. These are little leek plants, like small bulbs, produced in the flower head which if planted will eventually give you probably better leeks than from seed.
JB.

Hi All,

thanks for your reply's. I will watch these leeks with interest and see how they progress through the year.

Thanks for the link, I will read with interest.

Regards

Tracie

You can encourage leeks to produce pips by snipping off the individual flowers from off of the flower heads with scissors just before they open.

Now that's interesting!

One of my garlic produced a swelling on the stem just above ground level I pulled it to investigate the cause and found six garlic pips which I potted up.
funny but no flowers yet! Johnboy I understand you have been growing garlic from pips, any advice please? I haven't tried this before and thought pips came from the top of the plant.

Hi NB,
I am afraid that I have not had the time I would have liked to look after these Garlic Pips. However they have only grown about 15" and a bit of tickling into the soil I can see that there may not be a division and a single bubil is possible.
I will of course let you know the result when the right time comes.
When that is I am far from sure but I am playing it by sight and I may get it wrong. However I promise to tell you the result. (for good or bad)
JB.

Thank you Johnboy, I have planted my six little garlic pips in modules once they shoot I will plant them in a raised bed to overwinter, then we can compare notes next year.