leek dramas

[carolineholding]

ok so this is no biggie but I hope you guys can come up with some helpful suggestions all the same.

this year (after last years rainy spring) my new years resolution was to carefully label all of my seedling trays/pots/jiffys/etc with indelible ink and I nearly managed it! except i didn't quite.

when I was sowing my two varieties of leeks I couldn't locate the indelible marker pen, so i used a normal felt pen and by the time i found my indelible marker and went out to label the pots the leek labels had washed off and I had no idea which was which <sob>

so one pot contains Hannibal leek -which is apparently an early variety, and one contains Musselburgh which is main crop, my problem is I was assuming Hannibal wasn't going to manage to survive the winter too well and there for i'd need to eat that crop first, but now I don't know how I'm going to tell the difference.

I can always just throw them out and start again, they haven't even germinated but I was wondering if there was any way of easily telling the difference, like do early varieties grow quicker.

long shot but there it is

thanks in advance

Caroline

[Jamesy_uk]

To be fair it would have to be a fairly extreme winter to kill off any of the Leeks once they are established, I had an autumn variety planted and they are still in the ground and fine after a 2 week covering of snow earlier in the year and numerous freezes..

[rustylady]

No way that I know of to tell the difference, except perhaps the rate of growth. I think you'll find that most leeks are hardy so the Winter weather shouldn't harm them.

[Hazel at the Hill]

I've had a google, and if you plant both sorts of seedlings out per normal, when it gets towards harvest time, the hannibal (should be!) longer and thinner - so you can start eating those first - the musselburgh will be fatter and shorter.

Both should withstand the winter weather.

[zazen999]

Don't throw them away. Just grow them and eat when ready.

And buy a chalk pen and write directly on the tray or pot

[carolineholding]

thanks guys for sane responses, won't be discarding any leek seed then!

[Two_Sheds]

I can always just throw them out

They def. won't survive the winter then