[Jimmy Splash]

i sowed leek seeds in little trays about 1.5 months ago. They are now about 4 inches tall and really thin. Someone of them have little bits on the tops of the shoots. They look like the seed itself!
Do they sound like they're growing normally? Shall i plant them into soil now?

[Kristen]

Sounds fine. The old seed case often remains attached to the "leaf" for a while.

So long as they are in a reasonable depth of compost (couple of inches, say), and are 1/2 / CM apart (or perhaps ideally an inch / 2cm, but I've done them much more crowded than that some years ...) they'll be fine.  Grow them on to Pencil thickness before planting out (but usually mine only get to biro-refill thickness - they need to be 6" tall, or more though)

[Jimmy Splash]

thank you kristen. i'm a born worrier when it comes to growing veg. the leek shoots look like tall cress at the moment! but if they sound fine then i'll keep the faith!

[Kristen]

Yup, don't worry about the "cress lookalikes", but if they are as crowded as lawn-grass then you need to prick them out into a polystyrene Fish tray, or similar, about an inch apart - otherwise the will be too crowded as they grow.  But if they've got some space then leave them be

[Swing Swang]

Quite normal - leeks often come up like soldiers wearing helmets!

[Kleftiwallah]

There ya go Jimmy, no worries.    Cheers,   Tony.

[theakston_uk]

Kleftiwallah, loving your recycling of the food packaging and your leeks are looking good too

[Growster...]

Those are fine!

Agree about the Jacob's box too, I use one for all the seeds as well!

[JohnB47]

Jimmy - I'm a real leek novice but I believe that leeks are one of those plants that benefit from a little food at the stage yours are at. (Perhaps they all do at that stage).

I found it worked a treat for some brussel sprout seedlings that had seemed to stick at a certain size and someone (can't remember who - DD?) agreed with me and said leeks like this too.

Perhaps it would be worth giving them a bit of some general purpose dilutable feed? Not too strong a dose if you're worried. They do seem, to my inexperienced eye, to be a bit stunted for 1.5 month old plants.

[cooperman]

hmmm Leeks are easy peesy.....
I NEVER bother setting them in trays I just sow the seed directly into a seed bed at the lottie  at the end of Feb - it all comes up like grass, leave alone until pencil thickness dig 'em up (wash off the root dont trip - Medwyn never does) and drop in the hole at final spacing! Its that simples

[Kristen]

May work for you, but I'd never be able to make a seed bed on my heavy clay in February ...

[Jimmy Splash]

thanks very much for all your advice
i'm going to my allotment in abit on this fine day and will be moving my leeks to bigger pots as they're only in tiny ones at the moment
willl go past homebase and buy some leek food too

watch this space as no doubt i'll have another question to ask about rhubarb or beetroot later.....

 

[Kleftiwallah]

I dought you will find "Leek food"  specifically but a very good slow release food is Blood, fish and bonemeal.  Or for a 'quick fix' you could use something like   
   miracle grow   .  I try to be as organic as I can.    Cheers,   Tony.

[Scribbler]

When they're as thick as pencils, dib holes 6" apart, 12" between rows. Stick one leek in each hole and then fill each hole with water from a watering can. It's called puddling them in. Doesn't matter if the hole collapses.

Mine are just coming up, and will probably still be in the ground this time next year.