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Spindly leeks
alice42
Posts: 18
in Fruit & veg
How do people grow nice fat leeks? For the third year running mine are really skinny. Am I missing something? I make a hole and drop them in the ground and water them.... would it help to add compost around them now?
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I too have grown many a spindly leek, and envied everyone else's. Usually I bought plants from a garden centre, having failed to get any to germinate in my greenhouse. Although I did all the right things (|including Growmore round their roots) they never grew fat. This year I was given some leek plants by a neighbour and they are really good. I think the answer lies in the plants you put in - the bigger and better they are the less spindly. I think it is probably too late to do anything much now - but others may know. I think I would try a bit of 24:10:10, just in case they decide to perk up.
Could you find out what variety the neighbour gave you? Maybe that is part of it!
Sowing direct into soil and leaving them till they're a good pencil thickness, and I mean good, works for me. I leave them till they're like a good spring onion then they go in. They do like well cultivated soil, usually they follow potatoes so a good spade depth of deep digging is always good. I usually manure the bed in autumn prior to the new pots going in and I add some chicken manure after the pots. They do seem to like a good watering in the first few weeks as well.