[AlaninCarlisle]

A couple of random muses that maybe someone on here can answer:

Is there a relationship between the size of onion sets or garlic cloves and the final fully-grown product?

I notice that whilst my crop of leeks is healthier and more vigorous than ever, there are still a few plants that struggle to reach an inch in diameter, despite the neighbouring plants being up to three times that size. Is this likely to be down to uneven spread of fertilizer or is it just natural?

[mumofstig]

Small sets for onion growing as they're less prone to bolting, but large cloves for garlic growing - is the way I understand it.

wrt the leeks, you invariably get a few plants that do less well from any sowing, so I don't really think it's something you can avoid.

[AlaninCarlisle]

There's a market garden not far from here. I noticed that their leeks were a lot more uniform in size than mine last time I looked

[mumofstig]

Perhaps they grow F1 hybrid seed or are more selective when they transplant 

[AlaninCarlisle]

Would F1 make for more uniform plants?

[mumofstig]

F1s are bred to produce identical plants, unlike open pollinated ones, but different conditions in their planting place can still cause them to grow at different rates.

[JayG]

Agree with Mum - differences in growth rates are much more likely to be due to small variations in light levels, soil fertility and possibly slight pest attacks or disease than variations in the seed.

Mine are rather modest in size this year, probably because I'm growing them under enviromesh to keep the allium leaf miner at bay, so they are closer together than usual, and some have rust developing (can't win sometimes!  )

[Goosegirl]

My leeks have always varied in thickness despite being planted with equal distances and having the same treatment.

[AlaninCarlisle]

After reading the above, I'm convinced that a large part of the variation in girth is due to slight variations in soil and fertility. This next year I plan to really work the fertiliser and muck into the top few inches of soil with the petrol tiller to try and get it as homogeneous as possible before transplanting