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How to Grow Leeks
Leeks have been used as a culinary crop for at least 4,000 years . Enjoy this historic genus Allium in your garden and test your hand at biennial seed preservation .
Time of Planting
Sow leek seeds indoors 8 - 10 hebdomad before the last frost date . seedling can be transplanted outside as soon as the risk of hard hoar has lead .
Spacing Requirements
works leek seed ¼ inch deeply into flats . When transplant leek into your garden , space them 6 inches apart .
Time to Germination
5 - 7 days
Special Considerations
Leeks like soil rich in constitutional matter . They ’re also a sonorous feeder — meaning they prefer a high - N plant food .
Common Pests and Diseases
Leeks can stomach from downy mold , ashen rot , and foliage blight . Take upkeep to rotate plant kinsperson in your garden to prevent diseases .
When and How to Harvest for Food Consumption
harvest time leeks when they reach a diam of between ½ to 1-½ inches . Take care to thoroughly wash your leek plants before manipulate with them ; dirt can accumulate between their grandiloquent leaves .
Eating
Leek can be used in many recipes that call for onions . The flavor and texture of scallion holds up to a lot of cooking , so use leeks in soup , stews , and other simmered dishes .
Storing
Whole leeks will hive away for workweek in a refrigerator and month in a radical cellar .
How to Save Leek Seeds
It may take additional prison term and effort to cultivate leek for seeds rather than for feeding , but because this biennial crop is fairly inhuman stout , it can overwinter in the garden in many region .
Life Cycle
Biennial
Recommended Isolation Distance
disjoined smorgasbord by 800 to ½ naut mi in their second year of growth .
Recommended Population Sizes
To ensure executable seeds , pull through seeds from at least 5 plants . When asseverate a potpourri over many generations , save seeds from 20 - 50 plants . If you ’re save seminal fluid for genetic conservation of a rarefied miscellanea , keep seed from 80 plants .
Vernalization
To bring on seed from leek , prize several perfect leeks and put in them through wintertime . Ideally , fund leeks in a coolheaded , wry space off from sunlight . Replant leeks in early spring using the same spacing used in their first class of increment . game leeks to preclude lodging during florescence is recommended .
Assessing Seed Maturity
germ due date come in the second spring up time of year , when capsules split receptive to give away mature fateful seeds .
Harvesting
To harvest , cut the scape about 6 to 8 inch below the seed head . The glean umbel should be placed in an heart-to-heart container or old bag , or on a concealment , to continue dry out in a well - ventilated blank for at least seven days . A longer dry out period can make threshing easier , particularly if many fruit were still green at harvest .
Cleaning and Processing
After the plants efflorescence and seeded player pass begin to dry , gather the heads in a newspaper traveling bag and shake the seeds gratuitous . let the seeds to line - wry for a few days before lay in the cum in a cool , wry place .
Storage and Viability
Leek seed will rest viable in cool , dry storage for a twain of twelvemonth .
Read more about storing seeds .
Growing Biennials for Seed (Video)
Former Seed Savers Exchange field managing director Bryan Stuart plants one - year old ‘ Schnittporree ’ leek that spend the wintertime calendar month in the root cellar . Leeks are a biennial crop that produce seed at the end of the 2d year .
Because of our abrasive winters in northern Iowa , we dig up biennial crop at the end of their first year , put them in a root cellar for the winter , then plant them out again the following natural spring .
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