Bob Flowerdews advice for Leeks...query.

[bobbin]

Hi all. MOH heard someone on the radio,remarking on how successful Bob Flowerdew's idea of placing protective sections cut from plastic drinks bottles around newly planted leek plants. (They apparently grow thicker stronger etc.) Whilst I'd quite like to emulate this I'm a bit puzzled as to how it works. I doubt he was referring to the small drinks bottles as they are an expensive way of buying anything,but the large ones would require a whopping big hole to drop the new leek plant into.doesnt there have to be some soil around the leek eventually or does the plant just fill the cut bottle. :
I've grown leeks fairly successfully ( though not last year as they were squishy not firm) but never put bottles or pipe around them. Can any one advise please? Ta.

[Kirk]

Have tried nothing, toilet roll tubes and clear plastic, overall not a bean of difference.
They have all produced about equally poor crops.

[solway cropper]

I've always found leeks to be hard as nails and able to withstand just about anything. Never had a problem growing them so, as usual, I'll be ignoring what comes from the mouths of 'celebrity' gardeners.

[Bigmallly]

The old kid on the next plot to me blanched his leeks with 12" lengths of drainpipe. One grew so thick, it split the pipe. I use tin cans with both the top & bottom cut off.

[heirloomsquash]

have you try soaking the seed before planting.
you may also be planting the seed to deeply or planting in soil that is to dry or damp.

[Greenleaves]

I dont use any blanching method as I dont see the need. If you grow good strong seedlings that are as close to pencil thickness as you can get (never achieved it in all my growing years) just dib the holes deeper. Just as a point of interest I dont trim them either

[Bill HH]

Last year I asked why people (Including me) puddle in leeks.The concensus seemed to be that it was to stop soil getting into the leeks, a sub concensus was that it was a stupid question. So I planted half of mine in holes and puddled them in and half in holes and filled them in like any other plant.

I had no grit in any of the leeks so my conclusions is that we are all victims of yet another garden myth.

[fishpond]

Never seen the point of trimming leeks, I am sure it does more harm than good.
But I do drop them into deep holes made with an old fork handle (no, not four candles) & have always puddled them in to settle the roots.
p.s
Sowed the seed 2 days ago in a propagator.

[Bigmallly]

Everything I have read says puddling in is to allow enough moisture during transplantation & naturally allowing soil to fall around the leek.

[Bill HH]

Everything I have read says puddling in is to allow enough moisture during transplantation & naturally allowing soil to fall around the leek.

Well we dont puddle in lots of other transplants. Consider the commercial growers, they dont puddle in. "Wheres TOM, haven't seen him for two weeks!" "Oh he's puddling in his 10000 leeks"

[Bigmallly]

Well we dont puddle in lots of other transplants. Consider the commercial growers, they dont puddle in. "Wheres TOM, haven't seen him for two weeks!" "Oh he's puddling in his 10000 leeks"

Apparently they do..................

[Bill HH]

Apparently they do..................

You know Mr Mally, sometimes I hate you

[bobbin]

Thanks for the input folks. No one seems to have heard Mr Flowerdews comments thence plastic bottles.
I've puddled (oh god my predictive txt dropped in piddled there instead of puddled!) and been quite succccessful in the past. I have a leek bed to bring the plants on from seed and successfully have pencil sized plants to plant on. Think I'll give the plastic bottles a miss then.

[Kristen]

Well we dont puddle in lots of other transplants.

I do! sorry about that

Well ... sort of. I sow indoors and grow-on to 9cm and plant out with bulb planter (holes are similar size). I pre-water the planting holes, idea being that there is plenty of water "under" the then-planted rootball, so roots encouraged to grow down (my understanding being that surface roots, the sort encouraged by little-and-often watering, are subject to huge stress on hot days when surface dries out between waterings).

I figure that puddling-in Leeks just saves me time having to "plant" them, whilst also providing water at-the-roots to encourage the plant to grow away.

I've seen mention that scientific side-by-side trials of trimmed / untrimmed transplants showed no discernible difference. I don't trim mine, as I think all roots / leaves are beneficial, but I have seen advice, which makes sense to me , that if the roots are so numerous / long that you can't easily get the plant down the hole then trim them; if the leaves are long / floppy such that they might touch the ground (and pick up soil-born pathogens from rain splash) then trim them. I do manage to get my transplants to pencil-thickness, but I've never had the too-much-root or too-long-a-leaf problems

[Bigmallly]

You know Mr Mally, sometimes I hate you