Eureka!! leeks -do I have them cracked!!

Hi, I have tried to grow leeks for the last five years with no real success by this I mean the end result looks like salad onions!  This year quite by chance I planted the seedlings ( looking like grass) North South where previously they were planted East West.  The first sowings are now 1" across and look good.  Soil preparation exactly the same as previous years.  Have I discovered something?  or is it just primitive justice for the rotten potato crop so far.

Its nice to have some success on the plot this year.

I think it must be due to soil condition and feeding.

For example, I've been growing great leaks for several years in a well-established garden plot that's had loads of manure over the last thirty years. This year I opened up an adjoining piece of pasture land to extend the veggie growing area, I planted 100 leak seedlings in there at the same time as planting some from the same batch in the well-established area.

The ones in the well-established area are growing like the clappers and are over an inch in diameter. The ones in the newly cultivated area are just, like you say yours were, less than pencil thickness despite copious amounts of Growmore

My message from this to myself is to barrow in tons of old stable manure this autumn for the new bit

Mine still look like spring onions

I have really noticed the difference this year between varieties.
Last year the leeks were huge Bulgarian Giant, but they were badly rusted by spring.
This year I sowed the rest of them, plus Porbello(sp) which are supposed to be rust resistant, and they are chive size like yours..................

I'll have to see if I can sort out a big one that is rust resistant   

I'm growing a variety called Porbello, for no better reason than they were free

RHS recommends varieties Carlton, Pancho, Apollo and Toledo, but I have to say I've never heard of any of those. I'd normally do Musselburgh, but I keep meaning to try Blue Solaise simply because it's a lovely name.

I planted out about 100 Blue Solaise today; they looked like small spring onions as did the long French ones I also planted out. In favourable growing conditions will these turn into Leeks or just larger spring onions? In previous years, I've planted te seedlings much earlier and they hadn't "bulbed" at all.

You really like leeks, don't you???

My have gone the other way, the first year was good, nice size and all grew well. After that very little success and seemed to get worse and this year I didn't bother.