Leeks

[Robert_Brenchley]

Had you thought of getting a long dibber you can use standing up? It might make it easier. They're always turning up on eBay, and I have seen the odd one with a sidebar so you can use foot pressure.

[Robert_Brenchley]

[Mrs Ava]

Or you could use a spade, slide it in, move it to make a slit and drop your leeks down the hole.  Not perfect, nor ideal, but it works for me when I am in a hurry!

[kt.]

Pringle tubes? How deep do you put them in the ground &  with how much sticking out the top? Also do the leeks come out ok or do many get stuck?

[Rosyred]

I've starting using my leeks now didn't get much white really but as a first timer not bad I don't think really, (at least they grew). I know for next year to plant deeper this year I was a bit afraid they would dissappear.

Is there a leek variety that you can sow now for next year or early next year?

[calendula]

leeks generally come in early, maincrop and late varieties and you wouldn't normally be sowing until next spring - some of the earliest varieties include hannibal, prizetaker, tropita - if you like a lot of white then avoid the stumpy varieties

[supersprout]

Or you could use a spade, slide it in, move it to make a slit and drop your leeks down the hole.  Not perfect, nor ideal, but it works for me when I am in a hurry!

yep, tried the dib-a-hole method against the throw-in-furrow method this year - can't tell the differerce now! ::)

[telboy]

Olive oil,
You need help from that pipe sucking thingie bloke!

Just push the bl**dy jobbie in the ground a bit deeper forchriesake!!

[deboydoyd]

Sorry to go slightly off topic here, but do lift all your leeks before the bad winter weather, or do they just sit there like parsnips? If you harvest them all, how do you store them ?

[Merry Tiller]

Leave them in place, they're as hard as nails

[jennym]

They're that hardy, sometimes they're the only thing left to eat when the weather's really rough.

[LILACSPLASH]

Did the loo + kitchen rolls earlier on this year, just when it was really wet down here. They lasted 8 days before they unraveled and blew all over the plot, so I got some plastic piping and stuck over some. I had dibbed them in to start with, so am monitoring the differences between the piped and non-piped for rot etc and the end white length. Will let you know the results. Pringle pots sound a good one, esp. since the kids go through soooo many at Christmas, only I would worry that the leeks might not fill them and light would come in to have a negative effect. ???

[Merry Tiller]

I found tubes to make an excellent home for the local slug population
What's wrong with green leeks anyway?

[Robert_Brenchley]

Nothing once you take the outer leaf off. If you just eat the white bit you waste half the leek. My father had an allotment when I was a kid, and he never dibbed them in at all, so there was only about half an inch of white. They were perfectly good to eat.

[Merry Tiller]

Nothing once you take the outer leaf off. If you just eat the white bit you waste half the leek.

Exactly

[LILACSPLASH]

I chop, chop, chop, take a leaf off then start again until there's no more left but would like to take home the big one :o I plant sooo many anyway a few with slug hotels are worth it to see. Anyway I have the Wychwood's brewery's flagship in the slug pubs, Hobgoblin. Gleaned when he falls asleep with it on his lap ;D

[redimp]

You give Hobgoblin to your slugs :o Best mine get are Batemans slops.  If I forget to take my pin to the pub, they have to put up with Tesco's finest four for 99p ;D

[saddad]

I find they actually prefer the cheaper beers... they put more aromatics in them so you don't mind drinking it... a cheap polypin like Trent bitter is getting harder to find...
8)

[OliveOil]

HELPPPPPPPPPP

I cant get my leeks out the ground... was gonna have some for dinner today but they are stuck.

Any tips?

[supersprout]

are you using a fork or tugging?

if it's cos of the frosty ground, maybe time to make that trench thing a la barnsdale ;)
hope you get em up in time for tea OO ;D

[tim]

Hardiness? SOME leeks are hardy - some are not.

Lifting? If they are deep in - as they should be - only a fork, as said, will get them out. Think carrots - any decent sized one has to be lifted rather than pulled?