leeks

[lillylottie]

my leeks are about 3ins hight in the seed box.would it be ok to put them into some kitchen rolls these are longer than the toilet roll one ??? ??? ???

[lillylottie]

[Eristic]

Why waste so much time and effort? Just transplant to a deep seed tray and grow on till big enough to plant outside.

Leeks will take any punishment you give them and still grow up to be big leeks.

[Mr Smith]

I'm growing leeks for the first time can't be hard because most folk on our allotments grow them, but from what I understand you don't plant them out untill they are eight inches, :)

[Robert_Brenchley]

You don't need to plant them in anything long as they don't have taproots.

[Eristic]

I hate those rubbish shallow plastic seed trays. By deep trays I mean something like these shown below. While leeks do not have tap roots, they do make a substantial root mass and if given a decent amount of compost to grow in they can sit in the box much longer without a growth check.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Those are more like it!

[little pud]

eristic, where did you get them boxes from? your leeks look great.

[Eristic]

The boxes I use most are obtained from the greengrocers. They have some of the expensive veg delivered in these polystyrene boxes packed with ice. Boxes have to be cut down a bit and abused with a fork to create drainage holes but are robust and last for several seasons. similar boxes can also be obtained from wet fish stores or fish & chip shops but these tend to be thinner and break easily.