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Leeks

Hi everyone, has any gardeners grown leeks through weed control fabric and what was it successful? 

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  • nick615nick615 Posts: 1,487
    Yes and no.  Last year, as an experiment, I grew mine through a length of roofing felt in which I'd made 35mm holes.  That's the 'yes' bit, but they grew very tall and, when we tried a few for lunch, they were definitely woody and almost inedible, so that's the  'no'.  I grew our onion sets the same way to begin with, but lifted the felt off once they were established.  We had a great crop.  Weed control fabric is woven so, unless you make holes that melt the surrounds, it'll almost certainly fray, hence my use of roofing felt.
  • Hi nick ,thanks for comment. I grow onions through fabric with great success, I burn holes with blow torch 👍. Curious to now how it works with leeks with them being deep in the ground. Wouldn’t roofing felt block air and water to plant ? . 
  • nick615nick615 Posts: 1,487
    cono1967  I genuinely don't know.  I'm not a scientific gardener.  I try things and await the outcome, but never know why.  Someone locally suggested the felt could increase the soil temperature by a degree or two to give my sets a good start, because they certainly did grow quickly before I took the felt off.  I attach two pics of the felt and last year's crop from just one €2 bag of sets.
  • WOW . That’s a good crop of onions thanks for your feedback 👍. I’m trying to create a weed free allotment 😁
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