Leeks?

I just got the hankerin' to have leeks. I have no idea when to plant them! Can I plant them in the fall, like garlic?

I have no idea but my guess would be to plant them in the spring like onions. I'd like to see what the experts have to say.

I know down here we plant them in the fall. If I were you I would check with the master gardeners through the county extesion office.

Just looked it up & in my area I can plant in Sept & Feb.

Cool! arent they a great source?

There is a previous thread, from a month or two ago, with a video on how to plant leeks.

I read somewhere that you can slip card board tubes over leeks to blanch them instead of hilling and that it makes them much easier to clean after harvesting. I am going to try this. In fact I saved heavy duty tubes from wraping paper just for that reason. We will see how well they hold up to moisture.

Aub wrote:I just got the hankerin' to have leeks. I have no idea when to plant them! Can I plant them in the fall, like garlic?

I don't know for sure, but I'm pretty sure in our zone they wont overwinter. I started mine indoors from seed in March. Here is a previous thread about Planting leeks out in the garden. Mine are coming along ok, I need to move the box to an area of more sun.

Aub, In my nearby area they do not winter over with any dependability, usually just foul mush is left in the spring here. We don't get gentle winters with early and deep snow for protection very often here. Mine get started indoors about 12 weeks before last frost date. I made boxes about 2 ft long and 4"w x4" h. I plant two rows with seeds about 1/4" apart in each row in the boxes, same for onions. This does well until time to set them outside. Grow lamps are very helpful in getting nice healthy plants and gradually increasing time outside before actual planting seems best too. There are newer varieties but I have mostly grown the standby American Flag kind which are 100 day. I have a hard time getting thick leeks probably a result of zone and growing days available. The growing boxes like camprn has pictured sure appeal to me add MM to them and possibly I could get the thick leeks like the store sells. I dice, bag and freeze mine mostly for soups. How do others start and use their leeks ?

shannon1 wrote

I read somewhere that you can slip card board tubes over leeks to blanch
them instead of hilling and that it makes them much easier to clean
after harvesting.

I wonder if that would work for the Japanese Long Onions (Naga Negi) that I planted. Maybe I'll stick a tube over one and see. That's assuming they get big enough to do anything. I got them in really late, so I'm not even sure if they'll make anything.

If it works, maybe consider investing in some PVC tubes cut to length. No worry about them disintegrating that way.

It wasn't too difficult planting the transplants. I had an 8" deep box, filled it with MM, then used a graduated dibble to poke holes 6" deep into the mix, plunked the leek seedling in, water and forget...

So... I'm going to have to wait to plant them I guess it will be something to look forward to next year.