At this point, I've rather tired of staring at the leeks in my garden. Having never grown them before, I'm particularly stuck by how slow-growing they are. Also, they are no where near the size of the monster leaks you see at the farmers market. I probably should have spaced them farther apart and applied more compost midway through the growing season. Oh well, that won't stop me from digging up a few of them to sample this weekend.
On the other hand, the winter scallions and leeks that I transplanted back in August are doing really well. The scallions are practically ready to harvest. For some reason, I had it in my head that they wouldn't be ready until at least November. Not that I'm complaining as the onions we picked earlier in the year are long gone.
I have yet to grow leeks succesfully as well. I have a few that look about the size of yours and I am encouraged. I love leeks. I understand that they will hold in the field all winter long, but you will need to hill them up quite a bit to blanch those stalks or your leeks will be tough.
ReplyDeleteLeeks take a long time to get big. They will overwinter just fine. So, stop starring at them and one day in the winter, you will walk out to the garden and harvest some nice big leeks and make a wonderful heart warming winter soup!
ReplyDeleteIs the first picture of the leeks from your spring planting?
ReplyDeleteI still have mine in the garden and they are finally getting to a decent size. I'll pull one up this weekend to see where they stand and also to see if there is any insect damage. We pulled some earlier in the year when they were still quite small and I was not happy with the flavor, or I should say, the lack of flavor!
I grow mine all winter, they take a long time. I plant them in Oct, then pulling the last of them when the spring peas go in.
ReplyDeleteLeeks do take forever to grow! but they are one sure thing in the midst of Winter when everything else has deserted you. Leeks taste best early in the season!
ReplyDeleteMine are smaller than I had expected as well, but I have difficult time getting ;big' alliums anyway. I need to work on more consistent watering, and improving soil nutrients I guess.....winter leeks sure sound tasty though don't they?
ReplyDeleteI've gotten OK crops of leeks, but never really good ones. At least enough for a good leek and potato soup. No leeks this year though.
ReplyDeleteLeek takes a long time to grow don't they. I just realised it myself when I am growing them early this year. We don't have much space, so planted them in containers. The ground grown one, I need to start clearing the patch now for summer vegie, so harvested them as baby leeks. We let leeks growing in containers to grow bigger like the one in the market.
ReplyDeleteLeeks are a long term crop that really do not get to maximum size potential unless they are in beautiful humousy soil that is never allowed to get dried out and in fact needs to be soaked regularly, given all the time in the world to grow, AND must be fertilized rather heavily during the warm part of the growing season. Celery requires almost the exact same conditions and neither grows well without all of those components. I am usually guilty of not fertilizing them enough or frequently enough. It has been two years now since I had leeks in the garden and I think I need to get them back in the rotation again because I am missing them.
ReplyDeleteGrew leeks for the first time this year, so, am really appreciating the photos, and the conversation on your blog. So I can leave them in over the winter...so pleased to read that, and consistent watering...didn't know that.
ReplyDeleteWe are zone 6 Nova Scotia, Canada.
Your leeks look really fine Thomas.