Leeks are grown for their thick, juicy, long stalks. They are a mild-flavored option to the onion. Leeks require a longer emerging season—up to 170 days. They expand very best in cool, delicate local weather.
Leeks belong to the Allium family which contains onions, shallots, scallions, and garlic. Leeks don’t expand from bulbs like other Alliums, they expand thick, cylindrical white stalks. Above the stalks are lovers of flat, blue-green leaves. Each and every the stalks and leaves are suitable for eating.
Leeks will also be eaten raw in salads, added to soups or stews, or sautéed as a vegetable side dish. Leeks are most specifically used in potato and leek soup, which when chilled is known as vichyssoise. The stalks are the main crop, on the other hand the leaves can be used in soups and stews.
Proper right here’s the entire data to emerging leeks!
Temporary-Season and Long-Season Leeks
- Long-season leeks have thick, cylindrical stems. They take about 120 to 170 days to reach harvest. Long-season leeks are most often planted in spring and are harvested from late summer season right through the winter. Mature leeks are frost-tolerant. They can be stored throughout the garden right through the winter beneath heavy mulch. As well as they store well in a root cellar. Long-season varieties include ‘Bandit’, ‘Comanche’, ‘Carentan’, ‘Giant American Flag’, ‘Giant Musselburgh’, and ‘Runner’.
- Temporary-season leeks–sometimes called “early season” leeks–have thin stems and are maximum continuously smaller than long-season varieties. They mature in 50 to 120 days. Temporary-season leeks are incessantly planted in spring and are harvested all the way through the summer season or early autumn. They are much much less hardy than long-season leeks. Temporary-season varieties include ‘King Richard’, ‘Lancelot’, ‘Rally’, and ‘Varna’. Plant short-season leeks where the emerging season is short.
- Every so often short- or long-season leek varieties that mature in 90 to 120 days are referred to as “mid-season” leeks.
- Make a choice a variety in step with the time of year you wish to have to harvest leeks.
Where to Plant Leeks
- Expand leeks in whole sun. Leeks will tolerate partial color.
- Leeks expand very best in well-drained soil rich in herbal topic. Add a couple of inches of aged compost or industry herbal planting mix to the planting bed in spring ahead of planting. Turn the soil to 12 inches deep.
- A soil pH of 6.0 to 6.8 is very best for leeks.
- Expand leeks where legumes have in recent times grown. They will have the good thing about nitrogen throughout the soil.
- Leeks are often sown or transplanted into trenches. Trench-planting is a way to blanch the stems making them additional comfy and flavorful.
- Get able trenches 6 to 8 inches (15-20cm) deep and 4 to 6 inches (10-15cm) large. Seedlings will probably be transplanted to the bottom of the trench. As plants expand backfill soil in around the plants until the trench is in spite of everything filled.
- Leeks will also be planted in soil-level beds. Mound up surrounding soil or mulch to blanch leeks in soil-level beds.
- The stems of leeks moreover will also be blanched by means of wrapping paper or plastic tubes around the stems.
Leeks Planting Time
- Leeks require 120 to 170 days to reach harvest depending on the variety.
- Leeks expand very best in temperatures between 55° and 75°F (13-24°C). Enlargement will probably be slowed by means of scorching local weather. Get started sowing leek seeds throughout the garden not later than mid-spring.
- Leek seeds germinate in soil that is 65°F, on the other hand the optimal germination temperature is between 70° and 75°F.
- Expand leeks from transplants started indoors or from seeds sown immediately throughout the garden.
- In delicate winter climates, get began leeks indoors or direct sow seeds throughout the garden 12 weeks forward of the main frost in autumn for harvest in autumn or late winter.
- Leeks can tolerate warmth temperatures on the other hand enlargement will probably be slowed.
- Mature leeks can tolerate cold and will live to tell the tale beneath an insulating blanket of snow.
- Plant 12 to 15 leeks in keeping with circle of relatives member.
Starting Leeks from Seed Indoors
- Starting leeks indoors: Sow leek seeds indoors in early spring; get began seed indoors 10 to 6 weeks forward of the rest expected spring frost.
- Get began leeks indoors in a sterile, seed-starting mix; use a cellular tray of 6-packs. Plant a few seeds in keeping with cellular. Sow seeds ¼ to ½ inch (12mm) deep.
- Seeds will germinate in 10 to 14 days at 70°F (21°C).
- Keep seedlings beneath expand lighting for 12 to 16 hours a day until they are transplant size, about 6 inches tall. Gently separate clusters or clumps of seedlings forward of transplanting.
- Transplant leek seedlings into the garden as early as 4 to 5 weeks forward of the rest expected spring frost when they are about 4 to 6 inches (10cm) tall. Transplants must be throughout the garden no later than early summer season for autumn harvest.
- To encourage stocky stem enlargement, keep the tops of seedlings started indoors to 4 inches (10cm) tall until they are transplanted into the garden.
Planting and Spacing Leeks
- Sow leek seeds ¼ to ½ inch (12mm) deep. Quilt seed lightly with soil.
- Seeds germinate in 10 to 14 days at 70°F (21°C).
- Thin or transplant leeks to 4 to 6 inches (10-15cm) apart. House rows 12 to 16 inches (30-40cm) apart.
- Stagger-plant leeks in double rows; this will likely an increasing number of give fanning leaves more room to expand.
- Leeks will also be sown or transplanted into trenches 5 to 6 inches (12-15cm) deep. Trench planting shall we in for back-filling soil around the stems as they expand; this is one way of blanching the stems. (Blanched stems will probably be white and comfy.)
- If you transplant a seedling proper right into a trench, often backfill the soil to cover all on the other hand the most productive 1 or 2 inches (2.5-5cm) of leaves. Do not backfill soil more than 1 inch at a time; filling in soil too in short may just motive stems to rot. Use a trowel or your fingers to gently backfill soil around the stalks.
- Trenches are incessantly filled in over the method the emerging season.
- Do not backfill or mound soil over the aim where leaves start to division out from the stems; stay underneath branching.
- An alternative to backfilling soil is to blanch leek stalks by means of wrapping brown paper or cardboard around the stalks and tying the material in place loosely; the program may additionally artwork to blanch the stalks. You are able to moreover place plastic or cardboard tubes around the stalks. Slip 6-inch tubes of cardboard (paper towel or toilet paper tubes) or plastic (similar to thin-walled, 2-inch, PVC pipe) over the stalks when they are just about an inch thick.
- You are able to moreover allow watering to naturally cave within the soil spherical plants filling throughout the trenches.
Container Emerging Leeks
- Leeks will also be grown in a 6- to 8-inches deep container. House plants 4 inches apart.
- Leeks emerging in containers will more than likely not reach whole size.
- Expand leeks in a potting mix rich in garden compost. Ask at the garden center for in point of fact useful potting soil.
- Reasonably than hilling soil up spherical every leek plant to blanch the stems, set cardboard or plastic tube spherical every stalk to exclude sunlight.
- Use your finger or a dibber to create holes for transplants.
- You are able to moreover wrap newspaper or cardboard around the stalks so that you could blanch them.
- As more youthful plants expand and the stalks elongate it is important to increase the scale of the tube or material surrounding the stalks.
Higher part Vegetation for Leeks
- Plant leeks with carrots, celery, garlic, and onions.
- Leeks are often planted on the subject of carrots because of they repel carrot flies.
Watering Leeks
- Keep the soil spherical leeks flippantly rainy; water when the outside becomes merely dry.
- Leeks need about an inch of water every week. Throughout dry spells, monitor the soil prerequisites and moisture slightly. Stick your index finger into the soil, if it comes away dry, water the plants.
- It is best to water leeks at the base of the plant with a purpose to no longer splash soil into the crevices between the overlapping leaves. Overhead watering can also go away leek vulnerable to fungal sickness.
Feeding Leeks
- Get able planting beds with well-aged manure and aged compost prematurely of planting.
- Leeks desire a protected supply of nitrogen as they expand so that you could reach whole size.
- Get started feeding leeks about 4 weeks after sowing seeds and continue feeding every month until harvest.
- Fertilize leeks with compost tea, dilute fish emulsion, dilute seaweed extract, cottonseed meal, and other nitrogen fertilizers. An herbal balanced fertilizer of 10-5-5 can be used.
- Feed plants with compost tea every 4 weeks all the way through the emerging season.
Caring for Leeks
- To expand massive, white, succulent leeks, blanch the lower part of the stem by means of hilling up soil or mulch spherical stalks to exclude the light as they build up. You are able to moreover allow trenches to simply collapse around the stems. Blanching will make the stalks longer and comfy.
- Hill up spherical stalks to just underneath the leaf junction. Do not add soil higher than the leaf junction; this will likely an increasing number of be in agreement prevent soil and grit from lodging between leaves and stems.
- Add 12 inches or additional of straw above plants when the weather nears freezing. Leeks must be secure from freezing temperatures.
- Mulch between rows and weed eternally, specifically early throughout the season. Weeds compete with leeks for moisture and nutrients.
- Leeks can bolt if there could also be too little soil moisture or quite a lot of phosphorus throughout the soil. Prolonged temperature underneath 45°F may just motive leeks to bolt.
Leeks Pests
- Onion thrips are tiny yellow-brown insects that suck juices from plants. They’re going to attack leeks in dry local weather. Hose thrips off of plants. Onion thrips suck juices from leaves causing the leaves to be silvery or rusty-streaked. Spray plants with water to clean off thrips or spray with neem oil. Advisable insects similar to lacewing larvae and predatory thrips will ear onion thrips.
- Onion maggots (the larvae of a fly) can attack leek shanks and roots. Onion maggots are small white larvae that feed at the base of the plant, tunneling into the stalk. Quilt plants with floating row quilt to forestall flies from laying eggs. Advisable nematodes will kill onion maggots.
- Allium leaf miners are fly-like pests that feed on plant sap and lay eggs on the leaves. They can be controlled with neem oil or by means of really helpful insects.
Leeks Sicknesses
- Leeks have will also be attacked by means of fungal illnesses rust and downy mould.
- Do not overhead water leaks.
- Spray-mist plants with compost tea which is an anti-fungal or get an herbal fungicide at the garden center.
Harvesting Leeks
- Harvest leeks as soon as they are large enough to use or wait until they reach mature size. Leeks will also be harvested when they are scallion or shallot-size.
- Leeks will probably be on the subject of their mature size when stems reach 1 to 2 inches (2.5-5cm) in diameter and leaves are 12 to 18 inches (30-45cm) tall.
- To encourage whole stalk enlargement, bring to an end the very best a part of the leaves about midsummer.
- The flavor of leeks is stepped forward after plants are hit by means of a gentle frost.
- Elevate leeks as you wish to have them via winter on the other hand complete the harvest forward of the ground freezes.
- Do not wash leeks until you’re ready to use them.
Storing Leeks
- Keep leeks throughout the garden until you’re ready to use them.
- Rinse between leaves and stems to remove soil and grit.
- Leeks will keep throughout the refrigerator in a plastic bag for up to one week or in a cold, rainy place for 2 to a few months.
- You are able to keep leeks in rainy sand or soil in a cool place–32 to 40–for six to eight weeks.
- When freezing local weather arrives, leeks will also be dug from the garden and stored in cool–32°F to 40°F–and rainy place.
- Leeks will also be stored upright in a box with the roots set in moistened sand or soil and then stored in a cool cellar.
- Leeks will also be saved throughout the garden over winter and live to tell the tale a troublesome freeze if carefully mulched. Leeks are biennials; if leeks are left throughout the garden until spring they are much more likely to extend seed heads which is in a position to compromise the flavor.
Leeks throughout the Kitchen
- Leeks will also be served raw or cooked. Recent leeks are milder flavored than onions and shallots.
- The topmost leaves are most often tough; discard the tops or add them to a stockpot or something that will probably be boiling for a long time.
- Wash leeks slightly forward of using to get rid of any filth that got into the tops; you can reduce the leek partially from root to easiest and then hang it beneath working water or swish it in a pan of water, pulling the layers apart and rinsing as you go. Then shake dry.
- Raw, finely chopped leeks are often added to salads–use in combination or as an alternative choice to onions, shallots, or chives.
- More youthful leeks will also be served like scallions or spring onions.
- Leek greens are often used to style quiche, broth, stews, and purees.
- Steam of braise leeks and ser chilled in a salad.
- Sautée thinly slice leeks by means of cooking them over low heat with thinly sliced mushrooms.
- Leeds will also be boiled until comfy; serve them with melted butter.
- Decrease the white part of the leek into thin slices and precook by means of frying forward of together with it to a soup.
- Leeks are rich in vitamins–vitamins Ok, B6, and C–and minerals along side manganese and iron. Leeks moreover come with flavonoid antioxidants.
How you can Lengthen the Harvest
- Mulch spring-planted, slow-growing leeks with a thick layer of straw in late autumn for harvest right through the winter.
- Sow slower-growing varieties in summer season for an early spring harvest.
- Sow fast-growing varieties in winter in a plastic tunnel or cold frame for spring harvest.
Saving Leek Seeds
- Leeks are biennial.
- Overwinter leeks throughout the garden; in the second year they are going to elevate a seed stalk that bees can pollinate.
- Leeks are very best isolated from other alliums if you happen to occur to mean to save some seed and want them to breed true.
- Leek seeds are viable for about 3 years.
Leeks Ceaselessly Asked Questions
Q: Are leeks hare to expand?
A: Leeks require a longer size to reach maturity, on the other hand they are simple to expand. Their custom takes additional attention than talent.
Q: Should I am getting began leeks indoors?
A: If when you have a short lived emerging season, get began leeks indoors. Sow seed indoors 12 weeks forward of the rest frost in spring. Thin sprouts to at least one inch apart. When leeks are pencil thin, transplant them into the garden 4 to 6 inches apart.
Q: Can I expand leeks in a steady winter house?
A: Positive, get began leeks outside in mid-winter in delicate winter spaces or plant seeds from late summer season to late autumn for harvest the next spring.
Q: How can I blanch leeks?
A: The traditional way to blanch leeks is to set them in a 6-inch furrow and then incessantly fill them in to blanch the stalks for the reason that plants expand. This system requires a lot of artwork and grit and soil can get into the folds throughout the stalks. Every other is to wrap the leeks with brown paper or slip 6-inch tubes of cardboard or plastic (similar to thin-walled, 2-inch, PVC pipe) over the stalks when they are just about an inch thick.
Q: Do I have to blanch leeks?
A: No. Leeks will probably be totally useable if you do not blanch the stalks. Blanching makes the stalks whiter and perhaps additional succulent.
Q: When must I harvest leeks?
A: Leek varieties vary in maturity dates from 70 to 140 days. Leeks are suitable for eating at pencil-thin size or you can wait until they reach maturity when the stalks will probably be 1 to 2 inches in diameter. Don’t let them flower in the second year; they are going to be too tough to use throughout the kitchen.
Leek Types to Expand
- ‘American Flag’ (90-120 days): antique, area garden variety; sweet style; 8 to 9 inches long, 1 inch in diameter.
- ‘Bandit’ (100 days): thick, heavy, winter leeks for late harvest and overwintering.
- ‘Carentan’ (90 days): green leaves and white shanks.
- ‘Comanche’ (75 days): long, white shanks; dark-blue leaves; early fall harvest.
- ‘De Carentan (110 days); long stems; sweet flavor; fine texture; grows rapidly; French variety.
- ‘Elephant Leek’ (85 days): massive stems; full of life grower; widely grown.
- ‘French Summer Kilma (75 days): dark blue-green leaves; long slender stems; European variety.
- ‘Giant Musselburgh (105 days): Scottish heirloom, best winter hardy.
- ‘King Richard’ (75 days): grows to finish size in summer season; not winter hardy.
- ‘Lancelot’ (70 days): bolt resistant, virus tolerant.
- ‘Large American Flag’ (130 days): thick stems; sweet style; widely grown.
- ‘Lincoln’ (50-100 days): early variety with long, white shanks.
- ‘Rally’ (85 days): heavy, uniform shanks; rust tolerant.
- ‘Runner’ (100 days): thick, heavy shanks; blue-green leaves; winter leek.
- ‘Tardorna’ (100 days): open-pollinated; medium-length shanks; fall-winter harvest.
- ‘Tivi’ (75 days): long at once shaft; green tops; sweet style; Danish variety.
- ‘Varna’ (60 days): quick-growing summer season leek; superb for kid leek.
About Leeks
- The leek is a hardy biennial grown as an annual. It is a mild-flavored member of the onion family.
- Leeks have thick white stalks topped with fanning, deed-green, strap-like leaves.
- Left throughout the garden for a 2nd season, leeks will flower and will not be flavorful.
- Botanical determine: Allium ampeloprasum Porrum Workforce
- Family: Amaryllidaceae (onion family) — other alliums include onions, shallots, and scallions
- Starting: Mediterranean, Egypt
Further pointers: How you can Harvest and Store Leeks.
Expand 80 vegetables: KITCHEN GARDEN GROWERS’ GUIDE
