Topic: Leeks - Thickest & fattest varieties please

[davyw1]

I think for any gardener it is much easier just to throw a few seeds into a plant pot than it is to take grass/offsets as with these you have to take off every bit of leaf to the main stem which is time consuming,

Davy

Hi Davy - your method doesn't sound like mine - the offsets that can be encouraged to form on the leek's flower head actually detach themselves - or the bigger ones do if you let them.

When they do this (or you can knock them off by shaking the stem) then most of them will have 10 to 50mm of leaf and also roots between 1mm and 5mm long already, sometimes just one, sometimes three or four.

I pull the others off too but only to stop them scattering themselves when I'm not looking.

In short they look like perfect little seedlings, in all respects just like what you might prick out of a seed tray to transplant - I don't know, maybe a month or so after emergence?

Can you explain why we have such different-sounding experiences?

Cheers

 ( Can you explain why we have such different-sounding experiences?)
For a start a lot of my freinds reckon i live on the moon, deck chair on the Sea of Tranquility
I think we are talking about the same thing, the leak head  in the jar, with the grass growing of it

[davyw1]

KT,      If you want to take a short drive along the A19 you can have some leeks 164s (so called cos thats what size they were 164cm if you get a couple to go to seed then you will have them every year

Davy

[Vinlander]

I think we are talking about the same thing, the leak head  in the jar, with the grass growing of it

Jar??

I leave my leek flower heads on the plant - the biggest 'pips' seem to grow and separate themselves while the stem is still green and healthy, I have noticed that the ones that grow after it dries out can be a bit hard to separate.

Do you cut off all the tiny individual flowers as soon as they appear? I don't get these big early 'pips' unless I stop the leek head producing any flowers at all.

Cheers.

[davyw1]

We call removeing the the tiny flower (seed Flower) heads as shaving the head and normaly i don,t cut the head off but that one was brought in by a mate, through lack of room it was beheaded and stood in a jar of water, as the grass was going to be taken off straight away it stays quite fresh for long enough.
That leak we stopped watering and let it dry out then watered it again to force it into seed the idea being to find out if they go to seed erlier by using this method this method.

[Vinlander]

With the flower head offsets/pips I get a few big ones appearing first, and they are the ones that are worth growing (for me) because they are so much stronger than a new seedling.

I get about 12-20 of these good ones from each decent flower head. These are much less effort than fiddling with seeds for me, and I seldom need more than 40 big leeks a year.

The ones that appear later get smaller and smaller, and I soon give up with them - also because they get harder to separate too.

It's a lazy route to a reasonable crop for me. It's also a bit of a change of routine - I can only do so much regimented seed sowing, pricking and coddling before I want to scream!

Cheers.

PS. If you are forcing leeks to flower early how can you avoid the ones that want to flower early? The naturally early ones are a nuisance surely?

[davyw1]

QUOTE{PS. If you are forcing leeks to flower early how can you avoid the ones that want to flower early? The naturally early ones are a nuisance surely?}

Its not a case of forcing them to go to seed early, they are forced so they go to seed and ready to get the grass and pip from in November. this gives maximum growing time so they hit their peak in September.
If i want a leak for the bench it takes 2 years, so you choose two leeks  that are good but wont make the bench dig them out and re pot into tubs let them dry out then then water them so you get the seed head the same year.

With ordinary pot leak i dont prick them out they are just set away in a plant pot and left to grow on till ready to plant out. This way i can set away small amounts at intervals ensuring i have leaks all year round.

[Vinlander]

Wow.

That's a real speciality you've got there...

I'm cutting corners, you're doing a masterclass!

Cheers.