Grow Leeks
Do you plan on growing leeks this year in your allotment or garden? Here in this article we will be explaining the best way to grow leeks to get amazing results from your crops. You could be eating some delicious leek soup from your great harvests.
Allotment and Kitchen Garden Book
Are you starting an allotment or planning on growing your own fruit, vegetables, herbs, and flowers in a kitchen garden? If so we highly recommend the book Allotment Month By Month. This does exactly what it does on the cover to help you with what you should be doing in the allotment and kitchen garden each month. Below you can see the link for Amazon where you can purchase the book directly. This book is extremely popular with all allotment holders as you will read in the reviews:-
You can check out all the allotment and kitchen garden books we recommend here.
When to sow, plant and harvest leek
| Sow | February to May |
| Plant | April to July |
| Harvest | August to March |
Purchase Leek Seeds
If you are wanting to purchase Leek seeds you can purchase them from the link below where you can purchase safe and securely from Amazon.
How to sow leeks from seed
Sowing leeks is the easy task of growing leeks but looking after them will take some patience and effort. If you are wanting to grow leeks there are many varieties to try and grow.
To sow leeks you can start them off in modules. Don’t start them off in seed trays as you could damage them transplanting them. To sow leek seeds in modules you need to put one seed per module. This can be tricky as leek seeds are only small so if you are doing it with a child the adult is best doing it. You can sow these seeds around late March or April. This will give them long enough to grow big.
The other way to sow leek seeds is to sow them in prepared seed beds. These seed beds need to ideally be prepared in Autumn. To do this you can add compost and organic matter to the soil. Leave it to mix in through the winter months, then come April you can sow your seeds in these beds.
When sowing outdoors make sure you sow them in lines which have been marked out so you know where they will grow. Leave spacing between the seeds do not sow them clumped together as you will be transplanting them later.
Transplanting your leeks
Transplanting leeks is a very delicate task as you do not want to snap the the young plant or damage it. When the leek plant is about the thickness of a pencil and around 15-20cm tall they can be transplanted to there final growing position. The best day to do this is if it has rained recently. If not make sure the soil has been watered the day before.
To transplant your leeks you will need a dibber. Make the holes for your leeks these need to be around 15cm deep and around 10 inch apart. Trim the roots on the leeks to around 3cm long also trim the leaves back slightly.
Drop the leeks into the holes you have made with the dibbers but do not back fill them as they will snap the plants. Fill the holes with water and this will wash the soil back down gently. Don’t worry if it does not fill the holes completely as you hoe on a regular basis they will fill up.
Looking after your Leek plants
Leeks do need a lot of care and attention when growing them to great great results. They will need watering often especially if it has been dry. Make sure you keep the leeks hoed on a regular basis as they don’t like fighting with the weeds for the water and nutrients in the ground. Leaves which grow too long on the leeks can be trimmed back slightly this will stop them from drooping on the ground.
The next main step to looking after your leeks is to get that lovely white stem which is the bit you eat. This method is called blanching. To do this you need to scoop the soil up the sides of the plants gently, only go to where the leaves are you don’t want the soil getting in the leaves and rotting the plant. This can be done twice while they are growing. It’s a bit like the method you use for growing potatoes. Obviously this does need doing as the longer the white stem the more you get to each off each plant.
Keep feeding leeks as they are growing this will help the leek fatten up. You should not feed past August though.
How to harvest leeks
The best bit about growing leeks is harvesting them. Obviously you want to harvest them at the correct time of year.
You can harvest leeks from Autumn onwards. Do not just pull leeks out though as you might end up snapping them they can be quite brittle. You are best using a fork to ease out the leeks. When harvesting choose the biggest ones first. You are best harvesting the leeks as and when they are actually needed as they don’t store well. If some of the leeks are quite small leave them in the ground and they may fatten up towards Springtime.
How to store leeks
Leeks do not store well at all hence why we said further up that it is best to pick them as and when you actually need them. If you are wanting to store some wrap them up in a plastic bag and put them in the fridge.
Now you have found all our tips on how to grow leeks. You can find more tips on freezing leeks here.
