Leeks the Lazy Way
Nature's Order - Man's Order
Self-propagation tends to be messy and unorganized – go figure, but it doesn’t require a lot of effort on my part. It will yield a crop of unequal sized leeks since the plant just doesn’t space its seeds well, as seen on the left. Planting in beds not rows works well for me since I sow seeds thickly and eat the thinnings. If you want uniform and optimum sized mature plants follow the commercial spacing instructions, as seen on the right.
If you are transplanting – trim off 1/3 of the roots and 1/3 of the tops to reduce transplant shock and stimulate root growth. I use a pencil to make a hole deep enough to take the transplant up to the first leaf – do not transplant them deeper than that.
To make transplanting fast and easy seed them in cell packs – four seed to a cell and transplanting each cluster of four as one plant – just increase the spacing between clusters to allow more root room. You can also handle them 2-up or 3-up if preferred and adjust spacing accordingly.
More about Leeks
till next time,
Darrol - The Food Gardener
Las Cruces, NM