Topic: Leeks

[OliveOil]

I tried the fork this morning... i think i may need a better fork!

[Robert_Brenchley]

I stick the fork in next to the leek, lever gently, and pull. That way I get the leek out without unduly disturbing the soil.

[chappers]

or give them a good water first and they should just pull out.

with regards to planting i dib them in about 6-8" run a bit of water down the dibber before pulling it out to stop the hole caving in and drop the trimmed leeklet in take off half the root and a third the top before planting, then water in. when they have grown about 8 " usually give them a bit of nitrate feed in powder form and earth them up a bit usually get a good 8" of white on musselburgh, the ones that last that long, usually pick them pretty small nowadays.

[tim]

Just by the way - how do they do it commercially?

[supersprout]

and beauties they are too growmore :D

[moonbells]

I third the deep hole method!

This year I took a broom handle, marked it at 12" and did loads of holes. Filled each one with water first.
You couldn't see the seedlings when they were in (I used a thin bamboo cane to push them into the mud) and then didn't water them again. I thought I'd overdone the depth, and yes I do have to be very careful with the fork, but it's worth it for these:



The tape measure's a metric one with a red dot every 10cm. The variety is Autumn Mammoth Verina (a good one for organic growing).  And they were drying upside down to stop dirty water going down the leaves!!!
I've had one bolt out of about 30 and haven't really watered them at all. Once at the start and once after a couple of weeks and that was it.

moonbells

[Kea]

I've grown some giant leeks (musselburgh) but they've got rust. Anybody else have rust? They're still edible they just don't look as nice :'(
Anyone know to to prevent it?

[manicscousers]

we've got rust , the amount of rain we've had, i feel a bit rusty myself, we were told just to take the worst leaves off and earth them up again  :)

[calendula]

crop rotation is the best advice and don't grow leeks in that same spot for quite some time  :)

[Kea]

Actually that was the first time they'd been grown there and it had been under grass for years before so i was a bit surprised.

[Barnowl]

We had the same leeks with a bit of rust problem as Kea - also grown where there had only been grass for some years. The ones in the raised bed nearby were fine. so Growmore's nitrogen/potash answer looks good (or is that bad) :)

[redimp]

I dib my holes with a five foot solid iron temporary fence spike - I also use it for breaking up large rocks in the soil when digging.  I then wiggle it around a bit to make the hole wider and then put the leeks in using a short section of cane.  I then water with a  rose as I cannot be bothered to accurately water 100's of holes individually.

Having said that, mine were a disaster this year as I tried to to it no dig with carboard and that just curled up and starved them of light ::)