Allotments 4 All

I use the "Bore hole. Drop leek in. Water in. Forget" method for leeks - in practice I use the handle of one of my hoes to make the hole. This year I used my Dutch hoe  and, in doing so, roughed up the end of the handle enough to take a lump of skin off the palm of my hand. This is obviously a Bad Thing.

So... what do others use? I'm curious as to whether I can get something that saves me buggering up my hoe  handles and hands!

I use a dibber (though not this year, as not growing leeks), which is made from a fork / spade handle. Then drop and water.

I don't trim the roots or the leaves, but hold firmly so the smaller ones aren't buried.

Good point - I have a fork handle that I didn't chuck when I broke the fork off the end!

It's a bulb planter for me. It makes a wide deep hole which suits my light soil.  Too narrow and it soon falls in restricting growth.  I water regularly until well established, then forget them.

Mine are ok so far although I fear a week of temperatures in the high 20s or low 30s may be very bad for them.

Well very bad for everything really! 

Like Beersmith, I use a bulb planter for the simple reason I grow my seedlings in 3" pots initially, and it is easier to plant them this way!

Years ago I did the hole drilling method, but sometimes at planting out time up here in the wild & woolly North  the weather/soil conditions did not always suit this method.

So I found that growing them on initially  in a coldframe worked better for me!

There are a few pictures here on how I did this; https://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Content/L/Leeks/Leeks.htm

Excellent advice as always Tee Gee... we dibber them in with an old spade handle which we have shaped like a dibber..

Me too, my over enthusiastic son managed to wreck a perfectly good staining steel fork digging post holes, but OH turned the handle end to make a great long dibber! Silver lining and all that....

Hi, I use the same method. Upended hanle of an old hoe, drop in leek,water leave. Half get top and tiled, half don't- I like to see which does best. Currently, topping and tailing when moving on from seed tray seems to work best. Very nearly got "pencils" this year :blob7

I ended up having to use a trowel last week to plant mine....using the dibber the hole just collapsed as the soil was just too dry! 😬

I used an old hoe this year which is no longer used for its proper job.  It did OK.  Ive used a long handled bulb planter too which worked weel, but forgot to take it to the plot this time.  Ive used "top & tail" method and not topping & tailing.  Bother seem to do as well.  My leeks look a bit dry this season in spite of watering well to get them going and trying to give more after hot days.  We'll have to wait and see how things go.  I think theyve got the only bit of free ground that has no white rot.