Jolant Leek (organic)

Like most alliums, they can be sown both indoors and out during the spring – early spring for indoor sown, and mid to late spring when the soil’s warmed up for outdoor sown.  I sow mine outdoors, sprinkling the seed fairly sparingly over a prepared and watered ‘nursery’ seed bed.  Cover with a fine layer of compost and maybe add a layer of fleece if your site is quite exposed, or there’s going to be a cold snap.  We screw together old windows to create a micro-climate round our beds, protecting them from the spring weather.  Once they’ve germinated, leave them until they’re ready to be transplanted, when they’re about 8” tall and pencil thick, probably late June / early July.  Prepare their final bed by digging in plenty of organic matter, then make a row or two of 6” deep holes, spaced 8” apart.  A broom handle or wrecking bar is ideal.  Lift the baby leeks from their nursery bed and trim the roots and leaves.  This may seem a little harsh, but prevents the roots getting tangled up round the plant when you put it in  its hole, and reduced the stress on the plant as it can then concentrate on growing new, stronger roots without having to maintain lots of leaf matter.  Pop a leek into each hole and fill with water to settle any loose soil around the roots.  The hole itself will be much bigger than the leek at this stage, but don’t be tempted to fill it in with soil – the gap is there to encourage a nice, fat, white shank.  Any leeks that are left in the nursery bed can simply be eaten.  Water regularly throughout the season.